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[Maximum Spin]

Because it's Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

That's why I said yes, it is an incompetent acronym.

[Madman198237]

Ah, misunderstood. I thought you were going to be logical for a change.

Well, to each his (ridiculous) own, I suppose.

[Maximum Spin]

Ah, misunderstood. I thought you were going to be logical for a change.

Well, to each his (ridiculous) own, I suppose.

What you've got to understand is that I hate acronyms.

[Madman198237]

I don't have to understand you to despise you, though.

You un-Merethan scum.

[Chiefwaffles]

B.E.A.R.C.A.T Composite Plating

Mono-metallic armors have been the mainstay for centuries, but the recent developments in the war with Aratam have shown that a change in design doctrine is needed. We don't simply need a new material, we need a new way of thinking about armor. Instead of using a singular material and demanding every increasing results from our metallurgists, the B.E.A.R.C.A.T (Bronze Eddy-current Armor Reinforced with Crystalline Anisotropic Tungsten) composite plating system uses a series of disparate materials in order to create a meta-structure with far more integrity than the sum of its parts.

The skin of the armor is a thinner version of the same manganese steel employed in our standard infantry armors, as it as shown excellent success in stopping conventional arms up to this point. Beneath that is a mixed layer of alternating sandwiched tungsten-bronze (sodium type, Na_(0-1)WO₃) and molybdenum-bronze (Lithium type, Li_0.9Mo₆O₁₇), interlocking via their shared perovskite structure. The perovskite structure makes the twinned material piezoelectric, while the different charge carrying potentials of the materials and the anisotropic properties of molybdenum-bronze cause their piezolectric properties to result in strong magnetic eddy-currents when impacted or breached. When the subject of the breach is physical, such as from a Aratam coilgun, the effect of the eddy-currents acts as a braking system on the projectile, stopping or dramatically slowing the projectile in exchange for heating the armor. When the subject of the disturbance is electrical, the same asymmetric conductive structure of the molybdenum-bronze and tungsten-bronze twinned layer results in higher resistance than either material would natively be capable of, dispersing the charge as more heat.

The backing layer of the armor uses ceramic plating, primarily to provide heat resistance and additional non-conductive spacing for the primary composite armor layers.

While we recognize the increased costs likely demanded by the materials used, we believe that the increased protection generated by applying this composite material to our bear armor will be well worth the expense.

Design: C.O.M.B.A.T Plating [Composite Ordered Molybdenum Bronze and Anisotropic Tungsten]
(Hard) (3+4)-1 = 6: Above Average

C.O.M.B.A.T. Plating is, according to the engineers that made the prototype, the armor of the future.

Via a number of various materials (the exact materials covered in the design proposal) arranged in a precise fashion, we can create a layer of armor that can stop a very large number of things. Now, most of the things employed by Aratam's military tend to, well, melt the armor layer due to the fact that the kinetic/electric forces are very suddenly converted to large amounts of heat. The ceramic plating behind the Tungsten-Bronze/Molybdenum-Bronze layer (usually) prevents this melting from doing any lasting harm to whatever's the armor protecting (usually), but it means that the armor easily degrades with damage.
A coilgun-propelled bullet from one of Aratam's infantry rifles, for instance, would notably degrade a small section of Bear Armor. If another bullet hit the same place again, then it'd likely pierce through (but with lesser penetrating power). A Level-3 Tesla Rifle blast would likely melt large swaths of armor and maybe inflict light injuries on the armored-thing, rendering the armor effectively useless. But, our engineers make sure to point out, this is surely a vast improvement over "dying awfully inside a melted metal prison" that the current iteration of Bear Armor provides when hit by the same Tesla blast.

COMBAT Plating adds a +1 Ore to anything fitting it, and we've already equipped all Bear Armor suits with it. Combat survival rates should go way up, but our troops shouldn't get too cocky as they still aren't immortal.
Yet.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 3/3 (2/2 Oil, 1/1 Ore Imported)
Resources: 5 Ore, 3 Oil

Weapons

• "Stalwart" Rifle: A semi-automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Long range and good accuracy at Medium (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Heartstopper" Pistol: A 2-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Has enormous stopping power. Pride of the Merethan army.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• UF-AC-41 Velociraptor: This autocannon is a revision of AC18, with several improvements. The gun is a little more tolerant of different ammo weights and the shells have been modified so that mixed ammo belts are possible. The use of more advanced materials has allowed some parts to become lighter, while a heavier bolt and stronger spring allows a rate of fire of 750 RPM, with a final gun weight of 48kg. In infantry use, it has noticeably more recoil, but this is less of a concern on vehicles.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
  
  • AS-AC18: An advanced primer ignition autocannon, which ignites cartridge primers before the round is fully chambered. It fires the new, large, 20x100mm round, fed from a top-mounted 25 round C-shaped magazine with a powerful spring, usually armor piercing, about 600 times per minute. The weapon is quite large with a simple action but heavy barrel, weighing over 40 kilograms, and it requires being mounted to a carriage, foundation, or vehicle to fire with accuracy, although recoil is reduced by the nature of its action. It is dependent on a careful balance between the force of the shell and the force of the action, which means that different ammo types cannot be interchanged without recalibrating the gun. It has a terrifying ability to punch through armor and emplacements. Lighter materials have slightly decreased the weight from the previous 40kg.
    [Cheap] 3 Ore
• UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
  
  • ICE Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead. Instant lethalities within 5m, very high fatalities within 10m, serious injuries (and occasional fatality) along with (usually temporary) vehicle non-operation to 50m. The cold dissipates quickly outdoors.
• ICE Thrower: A 20m-ranged pressurized ICE thrower that can rapidly cool an area in front of the operator to (eventually) lethal levels or outright kill/severely harm those directly hit by ICE. The ICE doesn't naturally react until roughly 10m out from the barrel, though it can hit other things in its way and react with whatever it hits. Prolonged use is discouraged, due to close proximity with ICE and ICE-affected areas being very dangerous even with the extensive insulation operators wear.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 3 Oil
• AS-RPG28 A: A rocket-propelled grenade, fired out of a launch tube. The grenade itself consists of a conical shape with a narrow tube of propellent out the back, and twisted fins in the middle of the tube. The launch tube is 3cm wide, a meter long and the rocket fits in up to the fins, and is just a metal tube with a handle. To ignite the propellant, soldiers remove a pin, on the rocket, which is first clipped by a short chain to a trigger on the handle. The tube itself and each grenade each weigh 3kg. It is accurate enough to hit a tank out to almost 100 meters, after which it drops quickly. Rockets are available with warheads based on each type of grenade, including a HEAT conical shaped charge.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 1 Oil
• ME-GVM-61 "Penguin": A 500 kg 33cm diameter 3.5m long black and white missile with long and stubby wings. Controlled remotely via an embedded television camera, and contains basic onboard transistor-based guidance allowing for a relatively straight course when jammed. Two missiles are carried in basic launcher trucks. Has a range of 50 km and a lethal radius of 50m; it can fit an ICE warhead or a HE warhead.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• M3 Sorraia GPMG: A 7.62mm machine gun fed from a belt. 50-round belts can be strung together for extended fire or stored in a belt box attached to the Sorraia, which for practical purposes is similar to a magazine. It uses a recoil action, and is configured to fire around 800 rounds per minute, achieved with the help of a muzzle booster (which looks like a flared end on the barrel). Weighs 22 pounds. Comes with a bipod, or tripod for emplacements. It uses copper heat sinks, which are now shrouded. It has a changeable barrel, which is necessary for emplacement use. It is effective to about 800 yards when mounted.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore

Armor

• Standard Uniform: A plain blue featureless uniform. The blue's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• Tiger Infantry Armor: Infantry armor made of a forged manganese steel alloy. All of the armor plates are relatively thick for infantry, and the full suit weighs in at 36 pounds. The helmet is particularly thick, and fits round and close around the head, low over the eyes and down to the neck. It can be attached with a face mask, which allows a wide but very narrow viewing slit, while covering the neck. The breastplate is curved outwards for optimal armor angle. The backplate is thick, but flat. At the waist these plates end and there are flat curved single-piece taces to protect upper legs, below the knee the armor has no coverage. Pauldrons allow comfortable shoulder motion, and upper arms are covered by round fitted plates to the outside of the arm. While lower arms and legs, and sometimes gaps around the shoulders are exposed, most parts of the armor will stop a pistol bullet at point blank. The breastplate and taces will stop rifle bullets at all but very close range. The armor is tiring and cumbersome, troops cannot effectively crawl and kneeling is difficult, as is aiming down rifle sights while using the mask.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
• ME-PA-59 'Bear Armour: "Infantry" armor based off of the Tiger suit. Boasts full body coverage, albeit with fairly frequent gaps in the joints; armor toughness is identical to Tiger Armor, with insulating fur inner lining. Armor plating is semi-manually removed from the outside through a series of switches to enter/exit/perform maintenance, and the suit must have its Electrogel very routinely replaced to maintain full charge. Lasts 16 hours of consistent high-power use, but use is carefully rationed due to no tracking of the charge. Embarking/disembarking from the outside takes about 30 seconds, and disembarking without assistance takes a few minutes. It stands at [~7 ft/~2m] tall, and uses a smallish bulletproof glass visor for limited visibility. Pilots boast slightly increased speed and slightly decreased agility (but same strength) over regular unarmored individuals while in the Armour, twice the strength of average soldiers, and have their skin dyed blue from the Electrogel. Has mounts for a WALK-TALK and larger ICE Thrower tank, and a velcro strip in the helmet for maximum pilot comfort. Contains advanced shock/recoil-dampening capabilities in gauntlets.
  Equipped with COMBAT Plating, adding a +1 Ore cost.
  [Cheap] 5 Ore, 2 Oil
• Bear Armour Shield: A slab of metal shield roughly the size of a riot shield, made completely out of fairly thick metal, for wielding in one hand of a Bear trooper. Limits visibility and two-hand operations' effectiveness (such as reloading), but doesn't significantly restrict mobility and can be used with weapons such as the Stalwart easily.

Underground Vehicles

• UT-60 Excavator: A tracked medium-sized heavily-modified tunnel boring machine, most notably using GOFAST-fuel. Can go down to Moderate and Shallow depths, moves at Very Slow speeds while underground and at Moderate speeds aboveground. Possesses limited (but notable) agility underground. Contains space for 6 soldiers and small amounts of equipment of the equivalent amount of cargo in the back, in addition to the 2 crew in its cockpit. Light armor. Equipped with the ME-SM-57 'Earth Ear' for basic subterranean navigation.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil; Provides 1 Ore.
  
  • ME-CM-56 'Instant Roads': A very fast-acting sprayable concrete mixture very useful for reinforcing tunnels when sprayed by trailers hooked to a Burrower. Has to be re-applied occasionally to maintain integrity. Allows for use of Burrower tunnels for force movement and logistics.
    Provides 1 TC.

Air Vehicles

• ME-LRMA-60 "Blizzard": A two-engine jet "Long-Range Multi-Role-Aircraft" based off of the Lightning Streak that uses a 4 "X"-shaped wing configuration via the "Tereshkova Effect" for slightly increased aerodynamics, improved redundancy, and greatly improved coolness. Its two aT-J60gi ICE "freezing stovepipe" ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak. Has one large GOFAST tank and a small STABIL-ICE tank allowing for Long range. Equipped with 4x Velociraptor autocannons, 4 ICE missiles, and 1 tonne of bombs.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• UFN-CA-41 Catraphract: The Cataphract is a cruiser built to rival Cannala's ships. It is armed with 3x3 150mm gun turrets, each using a fully electrified loading system based on the moderately-performing Overcompensator, except that the 60kg shells are moved in one piece. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt as well. The deck is also heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. There is a central director in the con tower which controls all the electrically-driven turrets, though there is no advanced firing calculator. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships, and miscellaneous autocannons wherever there is room. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines, and there are a lot of them though with its considerable armor it only musters moderate speed.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
  
  • ME-MV-61 "Makeshift": A modification of the Cataphract with shooty-bits and unnecessary "crew livability" components removed.
    Provides 2 TC
• ME-DDG-61 "Chillwind": A Guided Missile Destroyer equipped with a 2x-Bumblebee turret, eight Velociraptors divided amongst both sides of the hulls, all slaved to a 150km aircraft/30km ships radar system. Uses a Mostly Vertical Launch system to house 40 Penguin missile launch tubes - 20 each side - angled 30 degrees down vertically. Crew and equipment requirements mean that only four missiles can be launched and guided at a time. Has a very thin metal hull covered by Pykrete and crisscrossing pipes of STABIL-ICE to keep the Pykrete layer cool and supposedly repair any damage, though it proves ineffective at damage repair and the STABIL-ICE often runs out quickly enough such that a Chillwind's first engagement is usually without any Pykrete armor still intact.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil

Other

• GOFAST-Fuel: A special type of more energy-dense and stable fuel. Greatly increases fuel efficiency of anything it's in, doesn't require an oxidizer, and can rarely leak out of compromised containers.
  Adds 1 Oil to cost.
• MXETE: Discrete transistor digital mainframe computer - 2 MHz CPU, 4 Mb of magnetic drum long-term memory, and an operating memory of 1200*32 bits. Takes up an entire (very big) floor on the Design Division and creating another one is immensely impractical. Punch card input, with a tightly-packed light matrix called a "screen" for output.
• WALK-TALK: The Wireless Audio Local Kommunicator-Transistor Assistance Lowers Kost Radio. A small hand-held two-way transistor radio. Production is hampered by the ever-persistant Union of Electronics Workers, making it Complex.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, Complex
• Electrogel: A very thick blue gel that creates and transmits electrical current corresponding to the amount of pressure applied to it. Comes with the "Electrogel Motor" - a very small motor with embedded Electrogel that works with power corresponding to Electrogel pressure. A patch of Electrogel can last roughly 8 hours when powering its corresponding motor nonstop at max power.
• UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear': A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. Vibration pings allow it to present a map of "where stuff is" and "where stuff isn't" via a very basic 3D projection in a small gas-filled glass cube. Only useful at recognizing the terrain and notable landmarks, and has a range of 10km in every direction from the device. An increased resolution and the ability to detect movement between scans allows it to detect the movement of reasonably large forces (allied or hostile) and flash relevant sectors red in the display.
  
  • GASOLINE: The Great Acoustic/Seismic Oil Location Initiative and Extraction device, which fits onto an Earth Ear systems allowing for relative easy surveying of underground oil deposits. Merethan regulation forbids surveying underneath Mereth for alleged safety reasons, meaning oil found as a result of GASOLINE has to be imported using our transport capacity.
    Provides 1 Oil (Import)
• ICE (Intense Chemical Endotherm): A chemical that very quickly reacts with the air to massively reduce heat in the surrounding area, often to the point where nearby things are frozen (ones in the epicenter frozen brittle), vehicles disabled or destroyed, and people killed.
  
  • STABIL-ICE: A variant of ICE that relies on an added catalyst to only react when it's above a target temperature, specified during synthesization of the STABIL-ICE. Useful for ice cream and also maybe cooling of machinery and the like. Tends to slowly decay over time in storage, making it unsuitable for anything that can't expect routine maintenance.
• C.O.M.B.A.T. Plating: Composite armor plating using a thin manganese layer and a ceramic layer sandwiching a Tungsten-Bronze/Molybdenum-Bronze layer arranged to, in layman's terms, convert kinetic and electric energy into heat. The outer layers easily melt when tanking particularly impactful hits such as coilgun shots and Lvl3 Tesla blasts, but prevent death or (usually) injury in the process.
  Adds +1 Ore to cost.

Infrastructure

• Division of Unusual Chemistry: A fully funded department & lab under the Design Division specializing in more unusual chemistry.
• M.A.G.M.A.: A giant borehole made and maintained using Excavators, Bear Armour, Earth Ears, and many more instances of our tech. Uses ad-hoc STABIL-ICE cooling systems fitted onto Bear Armour and excavators to maintain suitable temperatures. The deepest borehole in the world, and brings up notable amounts of ore from existing land.
  Provides +1 Ore

• Embassy "Vast Underground Forenian Embassy": An extensive and mildly luxurious underground Forenian embassy dug underneath around the center of Mereth using improvements in excavation technology designed 100% solely for civilian use and definitely nothing else.

The Revision Phase of Spring 1962 has begun.

[FallacyofUrist]

Alright then!

Rechargeable Electrogel:
We've finally gotten around to making rechargeable electro gel. Electrogel as it was before generated electricity via chemical reactions, slowly depleting the gel. The new electrogel still does generate electricity via chemical reactions, but it can replenish itself to a degree when given a strong electric current. We've gone ahead and implemented our new rechargeable electro gel in the Bear Armor, and threw in a socket so it can be recharged in the field. The electrogel will slowly lose its charge capacity over time, but that time is a lot longer than 16 hours.

Shock-Absorbing Electrogel:
What if, our engineers thought... we could harness the electricity Aratam is so graciously giving to us? Thus was born the Shock-Absorbing Electrogel, a modified Electrogel that absorbs heat. What, not electricity? Yes, not electricity. The Shock-Absorbing Electrogel absorbs heat, for example, the heat generated by our COMBAT plating upon impact. This absorbed heat replenishes the Electrogel and allows it to generate power for longer.

Oh, and, just in case we aren't sticking to the plan:

MIST: Our Molecularized Ice for Surrounding Terrain is a gaseous variant of our ICE, deployed via Sarukh rocket(and Penguin if we have the extra time). Basically, it's a freezing gas that reacts to heat, including body heat. The mist itself is just "bloody cold", but when breathed in, or when it comes into contact with a hot engine, et cetera, et cetera, it becomes "rather lethal" in temperature temporarily. What's neat about MIST is that its compressed form is much denser than plain ICE. Or in short, when deployed it'll cover a much larger area.

[NUKE9.13]

Right. Rechargeable Electrogel, let's go.

Rechargeable Electrogel: (1) NUKE9.13

[andrea]

why does it have to lose charge capacity over time? the revision text makes it sound we have to throw away the electrogel after a day or so.

Rechargeable Electrogel: (2) NUKE9.13, Andrea

Anyway, it is late and I can't post a different version now, so I shall just park my vote here for the time being, in case waffles comes knocking

[Madman198237]

Rechargeable Electrogel: (3) NUKE9.13, Andrea, Madman

[Happerry]

Rechargeable Electrogel: (4) NUKE9.13, Andrea, Madman, Happerry

[FallacyofUrist]

why does it have to lose charge capacity over time? the revision text makes it sound we have to throw away the electrogel after a day or so.

I was thinking more like weeks. Never-decaying electrogel seemed a bit beyond our capabilities, but making it last a lot longer seemed reasonable to me.
~~~

Rechargeable Electrogel: (5) NUKE9.13, Andrea, Madman, Happerry, FallacyofUrist

[Chiefwaffles]

((Minor change: Bear Armor now lasts 8 hours, down from 16. Should be fairly inconsequential in terms of effectiveness, but this is just to keep consistency with Electrogel.))

Rechargeable Electrogel:
We've finally gotten around to making rechargeable electro gel. Electrogel as it was before generated electricity via chemical reactions, slowly depleting the gel. The new electrogel still does generate electricity via chemical reactions, but it can replenish itself to a degree when given a strong electric current. We've gone ahead and implemented our new rechargeable electro gel in the Bear Armor, and threw in a socket so it can be recharged in the field. The electrogel will slowly lose its charge capacity over time, but that time is a lot longer than 16 hours.

Revision: Rechargeable Electrogel
(Easy) (1+2)+1 = 4: Below Average

By adding some very specific catalysts and devising some very precise methods of applying exact amounts of pressure in the right places, we can force Electrogel to accept electrical currents, effectively recharging it. This is of course great news, as it means we don't have to keep replacing Electrogel completely where it's used, and can use Electrogel in places that aren't easy to frequently maintain.

Unfortunately, the charging is a surprisingly involved process. On the surface, it's easier to do. For Bear Armor, occupants have to exit the suit, flick it into "recharge mode", and plug in a cable in the new inlet. But the suit cannot be used at all while charged thanks to the very picky requirements to charge the Electrogel; if we don't keep an exact pressure on precise spots in the gel, then it won't accept charge. This normally wouldn't be a huge problem, but as we're basically brute forcing electricity into Electrogel, it takes a while to charge; roughly 3x as long as it takes to deplete. For instance, after 8 hours of usage it'd take a day of nonstop charging to recharge Bear Armor.

Bear Armor is still using non-rechargeable Electrogel as it's been deemed more effective for current uses. But with that being said, rechargeable Electrogel should still be very useful, even with its flaws, where the regular variant just isn't practical. Just a bit less practical than it could be ideally.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 3/3 (2/2 Oil, 1/1 Ore Imported)
Resources: 5 Ore, 3 Oil

Weapons

• "Stalwart" Rifle: A semi-automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Long range and good accuracy at Medium (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Heartstopper" Pistol: A 2-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Has enormous stopping power. Pride of the Merethan army.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• UF-AC-41 Velociraptor: This autocannon is a revision of AC18, with several improvements. The gun is a little more tolerant of different ammo weights and the shells have been modified so that mixed ammo belts are possible. The use of more advanced materials has allowed some parts to become lighter, while a heavier bolt and stronger spring allows a rate of fire of 750 RPM, with a final gun weight of 48kg. In infantry use, it has noticeably more recoil, but this is less of a concern on vehicles.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
  
  • AS-AC18: An advanced primer ignition autocannon, which ignites cartridge primers before the round is fully chambered. It fires the new, large, 20x100mm round, fed from a top-mounted 25 round C-shaped magazine with a powerful spring, usually armor piercing, about 600 times per minute. The weapon is quite large with a simple action but heavy barrel, weighing over 40 kilograms, and it requires being mounted to a carriage, foundation, or vehicle to fire with accuracy, although recoil is reduced by the nature of its action. It is dependent on a careful balance between the force of the shell and the force of the action, which means that different ammo types cannot be interchanged without recalibrating the gun. It has a terrifying ability to punch through armor and emplacements. Lighter materials have slightly decreased the weight from the previous 40kg.
    [Cheap] 3 Ore
• UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
  
  • ICE Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead. Instant lethalities within 5m, very high fatalities within 10m, serious injuries (and occasional fatality) along with (usually temporary) vehicle non-operation to 50m. The cold dissipates quickly outdoors.
• ICE Thrower: A 20m-ranged pressurized ICE thrower that can rapidly cool an area in front of the operator to (eventually) lethal levels or outright kill/severely harm those directly hit by ICE. The ICE doesn't naturally react until roughly 10m out from the barrel, though it can hit other things in its way and react with whatever it hits. Prolonged use is discouraged, due to close proximity with ICE and ICE-affected areas being very dangerous even with the extensive insulation operators wear.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 3 Oil
• AS-RPG28 A: A rocket-propelled grenade, fired out of a launch tube. The grenade itself consists of a conical shape with a narrow tube of propellent out the back, and twisted fins in the middle of the tube. The launch tube is 3cm wide, a meter long and the rocket fits in up to the fins, and is just a metal tube with a handle. To ignite the propellant, soldiers remove a pin, on the rocket, which is first clipped by a short chain to a trigger on the handle. The tube itself and each grenade each weigh 3kg. It is accurate enough to hit a tank out to almost 100 meters, after which it drops quickly. Rockets are available with warheads based on each type of grenade, including a HEAT conical shaped charge.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 1 Oil
• ME-GVM-61 "Penguin": A 500 kg 33cm diameter 3.5m long black and white missile with long and stubby wings. Controlled remotely via an embedded television camera, and contains basic onboard transistor-based guidance allowing for a relatively straight course when jammed. Two missiles are carried in basic launcher trucks. Has a range of 50 km and a lethal radius of 50m; it can fit an ICE warhead or a HE warhead.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• M3 Sorraia GPMG: A 7.62mm machine gun fed from a belt. 50-round belts can be strung together for extended fire or stored in a belt box attached to the Sorraia, which for practical purposes is similar to a magazine. It uses a recoil action, and is configured to fire around 800 rounds per minute, achieved with the help of a muzzle booster (which looks like a flared end on the barrel). Weighs 22 pounds. Comes with a bipod, or tripod for emplacements. It uses copper heat sinks, which are now shrouded. It has a changeable barrel, which is necessary for emplacement use. It is effective to about 800 yards when mounted.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore

Armor

• Standard Uniform: A plain blue featureless uniform. The blue's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• ME-PA-59 'Bear Armour': "Infantry" armor based off of the now-obsolete Tiger suit. Boasts full body coverage, albeit with fairly frequent gaps in the joints; the breastplate/taces can block rifle bullets at nearly all ranges and most of the armor can stop pistol bullets at point black. It has insulating fur inner lining. Armor plating is semi-manually removed from the outside through a series of switches to enter/exit/perform maintenance, and the suit must have its Electrogel very routinely replaced to maintain full charge. Lasts 8 hours of consistent high-power use, but use is carefully rationed due to no tracking of the charge. Embarking/disembarking from the outside takes about 30 seconds, and disembarking without assistance takes a few minutes. It stands at [~7 ft/~2m] tall, and uses a smallish bulletproof glass visor for limited visibility. Pilots boast slightly increased speed and slightly decreased agility (but same strength) over regular unarmored individuals while in the Armour, twice the strength of average soldiers, and have their skin dyed blue from the Electrogel. Has mounts for a WALK-TALK and larger ICE Thrower tank, and a velcro strip in the helmet for maximum pilot comfort. Contains advanced shock/recoil-dampening capabilities in gauntlets.
  Equipped with COMBAT Plating, adding a +1 Ore cost.
  [Cheap] 5 Ore, 2 Oil
• Bear Armour Shield: A slab of metal shield roughly the size of a riot shield, made completely out of fairly thick metal, for wielding in one hand of a Bear trooper. Limits visibility and two-hand operations' effectiveness (such as reloading), but doesn't significantly restrict mobility and can be used with weapons such as the Stalwart easily.

Underground Vehicles

• UT-60 Excavator: A tracked medium-sized heavily-modified tunnel boring machine, most notably using GOFAST-fuel. Can go down to Moderate and Shallow depths, moves at Very Slow speeds while underground and at Moderate speeds aboveground. Possesses limited (but notable) agility underground. Contains space for 6 soldiers and small amounts of equipment of the equivalent amount of cargo in the back, in addition to the 2 crew in its cockpit. Light armor. Equipped with the ME-SM-57 'Earth Ear' for basic subterranean navigation.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil; Provides 1 Ore.
  
  • ME-CM-56 'Instant Roads': A very fast-acting sprayable concrete mixture very useful for reinforcing tunnels when sprayed by trailers hooked to a Burrower. Has to be re-applied occasionally to maintain integrity. Allows for use of Burrower tunnels for force movement and logistics.
    Provides 1 TC.

Air Vehicles

• ME-LRMA-60 "Blizzard": A two-engine jet "Long-Range Multi-Role-Aircraft" based off of the Lightning Streak that uses a 4 "X"-shaped wing configuration via the "Tereshkova Effect" for slightly increased aerodynamics, improved redundancy, and greatly improved coolness. Its two aT-J60gi ICE "freezing stovepipe" ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak. Has one large GOFAST tank and a small STABIL-ICE tank allowing for Long range. Equipped with 4x Velociraptor autocannons, 4 ICE missiles, and 1 tonne of bombs.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• UFN-CA-41 Catraphract: The Cataphract is a cruiser built to rival Cannala's ships. It is armed with 3x3 150mm gun turrets, each using a fully electrified loading system based on the moderately-performing Overcompensator, except that the 60kg shells are moved in one piece. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt as well. The deck is also heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. There is a central director in the con tower which controls all the electrically-driven turrets, though there is no advanced firing calculator. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships, and miscellaneous autocannons wherever there is room. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines, and there are a lot of them though with its considerable armor it only musters moderate speed.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
  
  • ME-MV-61 "Makeshift": A modification of the Cataphract with shooty-bits and unnecessary "crew livability" components removed.
    Provides 2 TC
• ME-DDG-61 "Chillwind": A Guided Missile Destroyer equipped with a 2x-Bumblebee turret, eight Velociraptors divided amongst both sides of the hulls, all slaved to a 150km aircraft/30km ships radar system. Uses a Mostly Vertical Launch system to house 40 Penguin missile launch tubes - 20 each side - angled 30 degrees down vertically. Crew and equipment requirements mean that only four missiles can be launched and guided at a time. Has a very thin metal hull covered by Pykrete and crisscrossing pipes of STABIL-ICE to keep the Pykrete layer cool and supposedly repair any damage, though it proves ineffective at damage repair and the STABIL-ICE often runs out quickly enough such that a Chillwind's first engagement is usually without any Pykrete armor still intact.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil

Other

• GOFAST-Fuel: A special type of more energy-dense and stable fuel. Greatly increases fuel efficiency of anything it's in, doesn't require an oxidizer, and can rarely leak out of compromised containers.
  Adds 1 Oil to cost.
• MXETE: Discrete transistor digital mainframe computer - 2 MHz CPU, 4 Mb of magnetic drum long-term memory, and an operating memory of 1200*32 bits. Takes up an entire (very big) floor on the Design Division and creating another one is immensely impractical. Punch card input, with a tightly-packed light matrix called a "screen" for output.
• WALK-TALK: The Wireless Audio Local Kommunicator-Transistor Assistance Lowers Kost Radio. A small hand-held two-way transistor radio. Production is hampered by the ever-persistant Union of Electronics Workers, making it Complex.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, Complex
• Electrogel: A very thick blue gel that creates and transmits electrical current corresponding to the amount of pressure applied to it. Comes with the "Electrogel Motor" - a very small motor with embedded Electrogel that works with power corresponding to Electrogel pressure. A patch of Electrogel can last roughly 8 hours when powering its corresponding motor nonstop at max power.
  
  • Rechargeable Electrogel: A variant of Electrogel that can be charged with very precise pressure applied. As a general rule, the time needed to charge is 3x of how long it was used at max power usage.
• UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear': A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. Vibration pings allow it to present a map of "where stuff is" and "where stuff isn't" via a very basic 3D projection in a small gas-filled glass cube. Only useful at recognizing the terrain and notable landmarks, and has a range of 10km in every direction from the device. An increased resolution and the ability to detect movement between scans allows it to detect the movement of reasonably large forces (allied or hostile) and flash relevant sectors red in the display.
  
  • GASOLINE: The Great Acoustic/Seismic Oil Location Initiative and Extraction device, which fits onto an Earth Ear systems allowing for relative easy surveying of underground oil deposits. Merethan regulation forbids surveying underneath Mereth for alleged safety reasons, meaning oil found as a result of GASOLINE has to be imported using our transport capacity.
    Provides 1 Oil (Import)
• ICE (Intense Chemical Endotherm): A chemical that very quickly reacts with the air to massively reduce heat in the surrounding area, often to the point where nearby things are frozen (ones in the epicenter frozen brittle), vehicles disabled or destroyed, and people killed.
  
  • STABIL-ICE: A variant of ICE that relies on an added catalyst to only react when it's above a target temperature, specified during synthesization of the STABIL-ICE. Useful for ice cream and also maybe cooling of machinery and the like. Tends to slowly decay over time in storage, making it unsuitable for anything that can't expect routine maintenance.
• C.O.M.B.A.T. Plating: Composite armor plating using a thin manganese layer and a ceramic layer sandwiching a Tungsten-Bronze/Molybdenum-Bronze layer arranged to, in layman's terms, convert kinetic and electric energy into heat. The outer layers easily melt when tanking particularly impactful hits such as coilgun shots and Lvl3 Tesla blasts, but prevent death or (usually) injury in the process.
  Adds +1 Ore to cost.

Infrastructure

• Division of Unusual Chemistry: A fully funded department & lab under the Design Division specializing in more unusual chemistry.
• M.A.G.M.A.: A giant borehole made and maintained using Excavators, Bear Armour, Earth Ears, and many more instances of our tech. Uses ad-hoc STABIL-ICE cooling systems fitted onto Bear Armour and excavators to maintain suitable temperatures. The deepest borehole in the world, and brings up notable amounts of ore from existing land.
  Provides +1 Ore

• Embassy "Vast Underground Forenian Embassy": An extensive and mildly luxurious underground Forenian embassy dug underneath around the center of Mereth using improvements in excavation technology designed 100% solely for civilian use and definitely nothing else.

The Combat Phase of Spring 1962 has begun.

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Report Summer 1962

The Military continues to push for an armored design viable for deployment at the front line. COMBAT Plating is legitimately amazing, they ensure us, but its potential is wasted when it's only deployed on the infantry scale.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 3/3 (2/2 Oil, 1/1 Ore Imported)
Resources: 5 Ore, 3 Oil

Weapons

• "Stalwart" Rifle: A semi-automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Long range and good accuracy at Medium (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Heartstopper" Pistol: A 2-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Has enormous stopping power. Pride of the Merethan army.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• UF-AC-41 Velociraptor: This autocannon is a revision of AC18, with several improvements. The gun is a little more tolerant of different ammo weights and the shells have been modified so that mixed ammo belts are possible. The use of more advanced materials has allowed some parts to become lighter, while a heavier bolt and stronger spring allows a rate of fire of 750 RPM, with a final gun weight of 48kg. In infantry use, it has noticeably more recoil, but this is less of a concern on vehicles.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
  
  • AS-AC18: An advanced primer ignition autocannon, which ignites cartridge primers before the round is fully chambered. It fires the new, large, 20x100mm round, fed from a top-mounted 25 round C-shaped magazine with a powerful spring, usually armor piercing, about 600 times per minute. The weapon is quite large with a simple action but heavy barrel, weighing over 40 kilograms, and it requires being mounted to a carriage, foundation, or vehicle to fire with accuracy, although recoil is reduced by the nature of its action. It is dependent on a careful balance between the force of the shell and the force of the action, which means that different ammo types cannot be interchanged without recalibrating the gun. It has a terrifying ability to punch through armor and emplacements. Lighter materials have slightly decreased the weight from the previous 40kg.
    [Cheap] 3 Ore
• UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
  
  • ICE Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead. Instant lethalities within 5m, very high fatalities within 10m, serious injuries (and occasional fatality) along with (usually temporary) vehicle non-operation to 50m. The cold dissipates quickly outdoors.
• ICE Thrower: A 20m-ranged pressurized ICE thrower that can rapidly cool an area in front of the operator to (eventually) lethal levels or outright kill/severely harm those directly hit by ICE. The ICE doesn't naturally react until roughly 10m out from the barrel, though it can hit other things in its way and react with whatever it hits. Prolonged use is discouraged, due to close proximity with ICE and ICE-affected areas being very dangerous even with the extensive insulation operators wear.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 3 Oil
• AS-RPG28 A: A rocket-propelled grenade, fired out of a launch tube. The grenade itself consists of a conical shape with a narrow tube of propellent out the back, and twisted fins in the middle of the tube. The launch tube is 3cm wide, a meter long and the rocket fits in up to the fins, and is just a metal tube with a handle. To ignite the propellant, soldiers remove a pin, on the rocket, which is first clipped by a short chain to a trigger on the handle. The tube itself and each grenade each weigh 3kg. It is accurate enough to hit a tank out to almost 100 meters, after which it drops quickly. Rockets are available with warheads based on each type of grenade, including a HEAT conical shaped charge.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 1 Oil
• ME-GVM-61 "Penguin": A 500 kg 33cm diameter 3.5m long black and white missile with long and stubby wings. Controlled remotely via an embedded television camera, and contains basic onboard transistor-based guidance allowing for a relatively straight course when jammed. Two missiles are carried in basic launcher trucks. Has a range of 50 km and a lethal radius of 50m; it can fit an ICE warhead or a HE warhead.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• M3 Sorraia GPMG: A 7.62mm machine gun fed from a belt. 50-round belts can be strung together for extended fire or stored in a belt box attached to the Sorraia, which for practical purposes is similar to a magazine. It uses a recoil action, and is configured to fire around 800 rounds per minute, achieved with the help of a muzzle booster (which looks like a flared end on the barrel). Weighs 22 pounds. Comes with a bipod, or tripod for emplacements. It uses copper heat sinks, which are now shrouded. It has a changeable barrel, which is necessary for emplacement use. It is effective to about 800 yards when mounted.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore

Armor

• Standard Uniform: A plain blue featureless uniform. The blue's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• ME-PA-59 'Bear Armour': "Infantry" armor based off of the now-obsolete Tiger suit. Boasts full body coverage, albeit with fairly frequent gaps in the joints; the breastplate/taces can block rifle bullets at nearly all ranges and most of the armor can stop pistol bullets at point black. It has insulating fur inner lining. Armor plating is semi-manually removed from the outside through a series of switches to enter/exit/perform maintenance, and the suit must have its Electrogel very routinely replaced to maintain full charge. Lasts 8 hours of consistent high-power use, but use is carefully rationed due to no tracking of the charge. Embarking/disembarking from the outside takes about 30 seconds, and disembarking without assistance takes a few minutes. It stands at [~7 ft/~2m] tall, and uses a smallish bulletproof glass visor for limited visibility. Pilots boast slightly increased speed and slightly decreased agility (but same strength) over regular unarmored individuals while in the Armour, twice the strength of average soldiers, and have their skin dyed blue from the Electrogel. Has mounts for a WALK-TALK and larger ICE Thrower tank, and a velcro strip in the helmet for maximum pilot comfort. Contains advanced shock/recoil-dampening capabilities in gauntlets.
  Equipped with COMBAT Plating, adding a +1 Ore cost.
  [Cheap] 5 Ore, 2 Oil
• Bear Armour Shield: A slab of metal shield roughly the size of a riot shield, made completely out of fairly thick metal, for wielding in one hand of a Bear trooper. Limits visibility and two-hand operations' effectiveness (such as reloading), but doesn't significantly restrict mobility and can be used with weapons such as the Stalwart easily.

Underground Vehicles

• UT-60 Excavator: A tracked medium-sized heavily-modified tunnel boring machine, most notably using GOFAST-fuel. Can go down to Moderate and Shallow depths, moves at Very Slow speeds while underground and at Moderate speeds aboveground. Possesses limited (but notable) agility underground. Contains space for 6 soldiers and small amounts of equipment of the equivalent amount of cargo in the back, in addition to the 2 crew in its cockpit. Light armor. Equipped with the ME-SM-57 'Earth Ear' for basic subterranean navigation.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil; Provides 1 Ore.
  
  • ME-CM-56 'Instant Roads': A very fast-acting sprayable concrete mixture very useful for reinforcing tunnels when sprayed by trailers hooked to a Burrower. Has to be re-applied occasionally to maintain integrity. Allows for use of Burrower tunnels for force movement and logistics.
    Provides 1 TC.

Air Vehicles

• ME-LRMA-60 "Blizzard": A two-engine jet "Long-Range Multi-Role-Aircraft" based off of the Lightning Streak that uses a 4 "X"-shaped wing configuration via the "Tereshkova Effect" for slightly increased aerodynamics, improved redundancy, and greatly improved coolness. Its two aT-J60gi ICE "freezing stovepipe" ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak. Has one large GOFAST tank and a small STABIL-ICE tank allowing for Long range. Equipped with 4x Velociraptor autocannons, 4 ICE missiles, and 1 tonne of bombs.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• UFN-CA-41 Catraphract: The Cataphract is a cruiser built to rival Cannala's ships. It is armed with 3x3 150mm gun turrets, each using a fully electrified loading system based on the moderately-performing Overcompensator, except that the 60kg shells are moved in one piece. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt as well. The deck is also heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. There is a central director in the con tower which controls all the electrically-driven turrets, though there is no advanced firing calculator. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships, and miscellaneous autocannons wherever there is room. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines, and there are a lot of them though with its considerable armor it only musters moderate speed.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
  
  • ME-MV-61 "Makeshift": A modification of the Cataphract with shooty-bits and unnecessary "crew livability" components removed.
    Provides 2 TC
• ME-DDG-61 "Chillwind": A Guided Missile Destroyer equipped with a 2x-Bumblebee turret, eight Velociraptors divided amongst both sides of the hulls, all slaved to a 150km aircraft/30km ships radar system. Uses a Mostly Vertical Launch system to house 40 Penguin missile launch tubes - 20 each side - angled 30 degrees down vertically. Crew and equipment requirements mean that only four missiles can be launched and guided at a time. Has a very thin metal hull covered by Pykrete and crisscrossing pipes of STABIL-ICE to keep the Pykrete layer cool and supposedly repair any damage, though it proves ineffective at damage repair and the STABIL-ICE often runs out quickly enough such that a Chillwind's first engagement is usually without any Pykrete armor still intact.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil

Other

• GOFAST-Fuel: A special type of more energy-dense and stable fuel. Greatly increases fuel efficiency of anything it's in, doesn't require an oxidizer, and can rarely leak out of compromised containers.
  Adds 1 Oil to cost.
• MXETE: Discrete transistor digital mainframe computer - 2 MHz CPU, 4 Mb of magnetic drum long-term memory, and an operating memory of 1200*32 bits. Takes up an entire (very big) floor on the Design Division and creating another one is immensely impractical. Punch card input, with a tightly-packed light matrix called a "screen" for output.
• WALK-TALK: The Wireless Audio Local Kommunicator-Transistor Assistance Lowers Kost Radio. A small hand-held two-way transistor radio. Production is hampered by the ever-persistant Union of Electronics Workers, making it Complex.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, Complex
• Electrogel: A very thick blue gel that creates and transmits electrical current corresponding to the amount of pressure applied to it. Comes with the "Electrogel Motor" - a very small motor with embedded Electrogel that works with power corresponding to Electrogel pressure. A patch of Electrogel can last roughly 8 hours when powering its corresponding motor nonstop at max power.
  
  • Rechargeable Electrogel: A variant of Electrogel that can be charged with very precise pressure applied. As a general rule, the time needed to charge is 3x of how long it was used at max power usage.
• UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear': A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. Vibration pings allow it to present a map of "where stuff is" and "where stuff isn't" via a very basic 3D projection in a small gas-filled glass cube. Only useful at recognizing the terrain and notable landmarks, and has a range of 10km in every direction from the device. An increased resolution and the ability to detect movement between scans allows it to detect the movement of reasonably large forces (allied or hostile) and flash relevant sectors red in the display.
  
  • GASOLINE: The Great Acoustic/Seismic Oil Location Initiative and Extraction device, which fits onto an Earth Ear systems allowing for relative easy surveying of underground oil deposits. Merethan regulation forbids surveying underneath Mereth for alleged safety reasons, meaning oil found as a result of GASOLINE has to be imported using our transport capacity.
    Provides 1 Oil (Import)
• ICE (Intense Chemical Endotherm): A chemical that very quickly reacts with the air to massively reduce heat in the surrounding area, often to the point where nearby things are frozen (ones in the epicenter frozen brittle), vehicles disabled or destroyed, and people killed.
  
  • STABIL-ICE: A variant of ICE that relies on an added catalyst to only react when it's above a target temperature, specified during synthesization of the STABIL-ICE. Useful for ice cream and also maybe cooling of machinery and the like. Tends to slowly decay over time in storage, making it unsuitable for anything that can't expect routine maintenance.
• C.O.M.B.A.T. Plating: Composite armor plating using a thin manganese layer and a ceramic layer sandwiching a Tungsten-Bronze/Molybdenum-Bronze layer arranged to, in layman's terms, convert kinetic and electric energy into heat. The outer layers easily melt when tanking particularly impactful hits such as coilgun shots and Lvl3 Tesla blasts, but prevent death or (usually) injury in the process.
  Adds +1 Ore to cost.

Infrastructure

• Division of Unusual Chemistry: A fully funded department & lab under the Design Division specializing in more unusual chemistry.
• M.A.G.M.A.: A giant borehole made and maintained using Excavators, Bear Armour, Earth Ears, and many more instances of our tech. Uses ad-hoc STABIL-ICE cooling systems fitted onto Bear Armour and excavators to maintain suitable temperatures. The deepest borehole in the world, and brings up notable amounts of ore from existing land.
  Provides +1 Ore

• Embassy "Vast Underground Forenian Embassy": An extensive and mildly luxurious underground Forenian embassy dug underneath around the center of Mereth using improvements in excavation technology designed 100% solely for civilian use and definitely nothing else.

The Design Phase of Summer 1962 has begun.

[FallacyofUrist]

Dire Bear Armor:

It's about time we put everything we've learned to use. The Dire Bear Armor, is, as we've termed it, a mech. The creator of the term is as of yet unknown, but it fits. The Dire Bear Armor is the heavy armored support we've been waiting for...

Dire Bear Armor is an evolution of Bear Armor. It's four times as large, for one thing. The armor plating is scaled up similarly. We're using our advanced COMBAT plating as the outer layers, but the inner layers are our new Absorbogel, a variant of Electrogel based on our rechargeable formula. Absorbogel can't be recharged directly, but it can absorb large quantities of heat to recharge. This also has the effect of cooling down the pilot, snug in what would otherwise be a very hot torso unit. We expect that this might also be useful in our Bear Armor as well.

Absorbogel provides electric power, but that isn't enough to move something as large as the Dire Bear for more than a short period, so we're using pneumatic systems triggered by the Absorbogel's discharge to accomplish that. The primary power system for the pneumatics is a large GOFAST engine within the suit's core, but in the event of Absorbogel overcharge or engine failure it can also temporarily utilize the power provided by the Absorbogel as more than just a trigger.

We're using a modular weapons system for the Dire Bear. Each arm can be installed with one of three heavy weapons systems. System one is a new hyperpressurized ICE cannon, capable of firing great streams of concentrated ICE at moderate distances. Second is the good old AS-AC18... but with a vastly increased magazine size. The final one, the "mistake" according to the more sane of our engineers, is the Cataphract's 150 mm cannon. The recoil, we suspect, will be immense, but we've created a bracing system that should help deal with that by shifting the mech's center of mass and anchoring it to the ground. In addition to that, we've thrown on a pair of shoulder mounted rocket launchers, each with four ICE(well, HE is an option as well, but do we even use those anymore?) rockets ready to fire.

There's always the risk of running out of ammunition. The proper response to that is to note that the Dire Bear Armor, is, in fact, capable of lifting a tank. Or crushing a tank cockpit with a punch. Really, while it's so large it's much less agile and fast than Bear Armor, its strength increases proportionately.

Vision is provided with a camera feed to several cameras in the head.

In the event we get the basics done, we do have some stretch goals! Now bear with us...

Stretch Goal 1: Bear Radio! Basically, we dissolve the Union of Electronics Workers by bribing their leadership with free tickets to Hell Bear Pit Duels, and integrate a Bear Radio(the rebranded version of the WALK-TALK) into the cockpit of the Dire Bear, and allow it to be operated by chin control. Furthermore, we implement a callsigns system to improve morale among our Dire Bear pilots.

Stretch Goal 2: Dire Bear Shield! It's an additional module for the Dire Bear's arms. Basically, it's an angled steel shield meant to deflect powerful attacks... and function as a decent bashing weapon.
~~~
If that goes as planned:

Revision: Homing Penguin: We finally work on developing further from the MXETE. Our experience with computer systems allows us to create a programmable version of the Penguin that can more easily hit enemy targets when combined with intel from an underground Excavator.
~~~
Edit: For the less sane among us:

C.A.T. Gas: Our Character Affecting Terror Gas is the latest chemical creation our Division of Unusual Chemistry has come up with, on a recommendation from "engineer" FallacyofUrist. This colorful purple gas, deployed via Sarukh/Blizzard rocket, has x stages. The first stage is extreme panic. The gas, when inhaled, influences the amygdala, immediately causing immense panic that can lead to everything from shooting one's own comrades to immediately fleeing the battle. This tendency to flee ensures enough of those that ingest CAT gas survive to make the second stage very insidious. Basically, several days after going through and attacking the amygdala, the chemicals go on to attack the frontal lobe(responsible for reasoning) and the occipital lobe(responsible for vision). The attacks to the occipital lobe cause vivid hallucinations, tuned to make the recipient of CAT gas see themselves as a mutated person with many physical attributes of a cat. The attack on the frontal lobe causes the "victim" to be unable to reason correctly, causing them to be unable to accept the apparent changes as hallucinations. In the third stage, these hallucinations and delusions grow intense enough, that combined with the damaging to the amygdala causing irrational fear, that the victim will be unable to trust most other humans. The victim will come to believe that only cat people(those who have been hit by the CAT gas) are trustworthy, and will move to ensure that the unaffected among his allies will either breathe the CAT gas or die. The victims all possess a distinctive smell, very faint but detectable by other victims, caused by the CAT gas getting into their sweat.

In short, it causes intense fear and creates conspiracies of cat people.
~~~

(0): Dire Bear Armor: By reading this text you acknowledge and affirm the fact that you have agreed to become a C.A.T. Gas test subject.
(1): C.A.T. Gas: FallacyofUrist

[andrea]

The dire bear has in my opinion a few problems.

1) it is stated to be 4 times a bear armour. That is either 8 m (linear scaling), which is way too much and makes the proposed weapons way too little or it is 4 times the volume, which makes it too small to actually house a person inside.

2) I am not a fan of shoulder rocket launcher, especially if it is not marked as being enclosed and protected. An open rail is an invitation for a stray shot to incapacitate our mech

3) Absorbogel seems its own action, revision or design as it may be. Plus, as it is I am not sure if it has any advantage compared to a small reservoir of stabil-ICE

4) why is radio a stretch goal on a vehicle?

5) it doesn't use or build on our advances on electrogel.

6) It is not named grizzly.


I will henceforth repropose grizzly, updated to modern specs.


ME-MAS-62 'Grizzly Armor'

Our lack of proper vehicular armor has been a detriment to our forces for far too long, and now we will address this with the Grizzly Armor. The Grizzly Armor can be more or less summed up as a vastly upscaled Bear Armor, to the point where we can no longer classify it as power armor, but as a vehicle instead; a Mechanized Assault Suit. The Grizzly is large, and its pilot resides in the control pod in the Suit's chest; it's large enough where it'll likely have to crouch to work its way through excavator tunnels, with an estimated height a bit higher than 4 meters. The pilot wears a special suit hooked up to the Suit's control system, translating the pilots movement to the Suit in a manner similar to the Bear Armor (although with 100% less worry of accidentally mulching the pilot's limbs!).

The arms are modular for their armament, although the 'off hand' arms usually have a hand on them; Arm modules include a Bumblebee with recoil dampeners; a massive Shield much like our Bear Troopers wield for the 'off hand'; and a smaller buckler to allow the arm to still perform semi-intricate tasks easily. All modules other than the Shield and Cannon possess a pair of Velociraptor Autocannon or a vehicle ICE Thrower as well for anti-infantry use. Said weapons modules come with an autoloader, meant to load shells in from frankly quite massive clips which themselves can be reloaded by the 'off hand'. There's also a rocket arm loaded with SARUKH compatible rockets as well. Modularity allows new weapon systems to be mounted easily on older grizzlys.

Armor wise, the Grizzly features a heavy duty 120mm on the frontal chest plate with 75mm on the sides and rear of it, protecting the pilot well; and the rest of the Suit features 75mm. The armour and the shield likewise are made of COMBAT plating to offer greater resistance. On top of the COMBAT armour there is an additional 30 mm mangalloy plate to absorb smaller weapon fire without degrading the underlying COMBAT

Due to recent experiences with heat and long term experience with handling cold stuff, the interior of the suit has a climatization system. Heating is provided by electrical resistances, while cooling is provided by a small reservoir of STABIL-ICE. This should give limited surviveability to minor ICE spills and allow to soak up the heat generated by COMBAT, by the environment and by enemy weapons.

Following previous experience on the grizzly project, hydraulic motors are swapped for electrogel powered electric engines. Besides the "control" electrogel around the pilot, the rest power storage is concentrated mostly in a large reservoir in the back. Efforts are made to simplify recharge and to increase storage.

Finally, their are no direct viewports, instead the 'head' of the Suit possesses the end of a fiberscope, the output of which is displayed towards a helmet the pilot wears; granting them vision while not having a glaring weakspot in the chest pod's defenses.

(0): Dire Bear Armor: By reading this text you acknowledge and affirm the fact that you have agreed to become a C.A.T. Gas test subject.
(1): C.A.T. Gas: FallacyofUrist
(1): Grizzly: Andrea