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[ConscriptFive]

Design: Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola'

Ah, the follies of hormonal simians.  "Biggest ship is best ship," so much so that they have abandoned any concept of a picket screen.  With all their proverbial eggs in one impossible-to-miss basket, sure would be a shame if a key system or two got hit by some crippling ionic disruption.  (It doesn't matter how many guns a ship has it the central fire control has be forced into a system reboot after every blow.)

The FADS Bola is the sister ship to the recently fielded FASS Endeixi.  They share similar exterior architecture, a 45 meter length hull, armored in ceramic Thermal Defence Citadel to defeat our simian adversaries' thermal lasers.  Its standardized form-factor mates as easily with the Hephaestus Support Vessel for field repairs as legacy FASS Logos.

At it's core however, it is vastly different.  The FADS Bola is powered by the latest iteration of the SparkY fusion reactor.  Taking lessons learned from the Peitho SparkY, a directed fusion drive system attains the fabled "speed three."  While the Peitho SparkY was something of a hatchet job that compromised the integrity of the Peitho hull, the FADS Bola hull was built from scratch to accomodate the SparkY in a combat-capable hull.

The other main feature of the FADS Bola is the casemate style forward S-40 Plasma Caster.  Well-fed by the SparkY reactor, the S-40 serves as the FADS primary weapon system.  By hitting large capital ships and ITC's in "boom and zoom" gun-runs, the FADS Bola disrupts key systems long enough that more lethal vessels of the fleet can finish the job.  The FADS Bola will likely never 'kill' whatever over-armored giants our ape-brained adversaries field, but it can easily set up a kill by a Peitho or squadron of Endeixi.

(The casement is a studier and more cost-effective option to a turret.  A fast ship chasing larger ships, it should have no problem tracking and engaging with a more narrow field of fire.) 

Secondary armament is a dual purpose R-5 Shrapnel Cannon, mounted in ventral ball turret.  Has a great field of fire both fore and aft, but leads to a dorsal blindspot in terms of gunnery.  With appropriate tactics and engineering, this is a feature, not a bug.

A FADS Bola Captain should directly charge large vessels at flank speed, but pitch their hull several degrees upward when not burning the main thrusters.  This keeps a narrow target cross section, but presents the armored ventral belly and its R-5 turret.  From this posture, the R-5 can provide shrapnel point-defense and additional firepower.  After delivery of ionic payload, evasive manuevers should then protect the dorsal side from exposure to the capital ship's batteries.  Furthermore, the underbelly of the FADS certainly isn't "soft," and is more armored than the dorsal side.  Likewise, many vulnerable systems, such the bridge, are mounted dorsally as well.  (Of course, the FADS features additional attitudinal thrusters to facilitate this combat manuever.)

Of course, "speed is life" as well.  While Speed Three is desirable for its strategic and logistic capability, on a tactical level the FADS should be out accelerate its larger adversaries: striking fast, then breaking contact before taking too much effective fire from its heavily armed adversaries.

Naturally, the FADS features the various systems of the FASS Endeixi as well.  Art3mis has been programmed for S-40 gun run physics.  Dead Space Lockers and an armored spinal corridor keeps the vessel functional despite extensive battle damage.

[Carefulrogue]

'Hawk' Air superiority fighter (1): Carefulrogue,
Delta Lofstrom Inquisition (0):
Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola' (1): Carefulrogue,

[Kashyyk]

We have a lot of experience with the spontaneous disassembly of plasma containment fields. Time to put that to good use.

Basically just a SparkY drive in a can, each of the 12 missiles in the array has the kind of thrust our warships could only dream of, expected to out accelerate literally any ship we or our opponents could conceivably field in this war.

This is naturally indicative of a powerful fusion generator, such that when containment fails, it should be able to vaporise large portions of a Peitho. This controlled detonation is triggered by a set of multi-redundent proximity sensors in the nose of the missile, protected by a thick cap of carbon composites and ceramics to endure against thermal attacks.

Each missile is thus fairly large, and it's unlikely for the array to be reloaded within the space of an engagement, however all 12 missiles can be launched within seconds, and with each carrying a miniaturised targeting computer based on the Art3mis plus a set of attitude and rotational thrusters, these missiles should unerringly hone in on their targets and annihilate them.

[ConscriptFive]

Okay, first things first, I like all four of these proposals...

HOWEVER, our situation focuses our priority like a laser beam on getting a capital ship killer out there.

To recap, our adversaries apparently rebuilt their entire warfleet into three cruisers, probably with Speed Three and a crapton of lasers.   In response, we've got 1 Peitho, 2 Endeixi, and a Heph one jump away from that.  First wave of ground reinforcements for F are two jumps out.  As is, that's probably barely enough firepower to skirmish, but definitely not enough to win a real fight.

While we have only 1 SP and 1GP free, our last two Logos are one jump out from recycling which is +6 SP.  In addition, there's also backup ITC with LIFT, that could be immediately recycled for another 3 SP.  So 7 to 10 SP available at the end of this turn.  While we did just scrap 6 GP of Emergents in the field, we don't know when those GP will come back.  So, still only 1 GP at the end of this turn.

With that being said, I love the Hawk but we literally won't have the GP to build it this turn.  Doing that or just about any other ground design this turn is a waste of time.

On the other hand, the FADS Bola is absolutely essential.  (Do I need to explain this vote further?)

The missile is a good idea, but it'll be a few turns until we can mount it on a ship and field it.  Not a bad pick for getting a head start on the FASS Mk3, but...

The Delta Loop is immediate turnaround on some SPP.

Therefore...

'Hawk' Air superiority fighter (1): Carefulrogue,
Delta Lofstrom Inquisition (1): ConscriptFive
Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola' (2): Carefulrogue, ConscriptFive
Long-Range Fusion Missile Array "Vlasfimía" (0):

[Carefulrogue]

I don't have confidence with the Inquisition angle of making a new attempt on Delta.  I meant to save this for revision phase, but as a competing do-over design, here it is.  Hopefully it'll work, or provide  us a framework to make it work. 

The repeated failures on the development of spaceport infrastructure is one that has begun to grate on our nerves, especially as the enemy begins to field more competent warships.  While (some) designs of the engineering department ensure we may continue to field generally superior warships, the problem that comes as part of that is being able to field enough of them to continue to claim superiority.  And right now our ship supremacy is a tenuous hold. 

The intent then is on top of our failures is to learn everything we can in trying to fix that which has and will go wrong in previous and future designs.  The attachment of sensors to every crucial part in order to create better models of the structure, and piece together the causes of failure for our engineers and the models to improve upon.  New attempts will begin at erecting the structure, with the additional data collection informing us in minute detail of what does and does not work.

Slackers will still be terminated.

[Madman198237]

Turn 10 Strategy Phase: The Network

The enemy's new fleet is, of course, pretty interesting. The fact that their entire fleet now appears to be moving at Speed 3 is very concerning, the effort invested undoubtedly accounting for their relative lack of new toys. The captain of the "Big Stick" is, naturally, somewhat hesitant to risk his expensive and valuable ship in such an unpleasantly unequal fight, or at least what can be fairly assumed would be unequal, given the comparative size of the ships.

The surface combat is going well but it's going to be somewhat difficult to maintain momentum if the new ITC-like ship is bringing reinforcements.

----
OK so update speed has obviously gotten worse and worse; I'm probably going to make surface combat progress much faster and space combat result in more damage in order to accelerate this.
----

Spoiler: The Network Control (click to show/hide)

The Hub: 10/0/0 (YOURS/UNCLAIMED/ENEMY)
  -  ITC-01-LIFT "Cargo Cult"
A: 10/0/0
  -  ITC-05 "Prime Mover"
    -  BMU-8
    -  1x Hammer
  -  Logos-06-TDC-ART "No More Mr Nice Guy", Logos-08-TDC-ART "Of Course I Still Love You"
B: 10/0/0
C: 10/0/0
  -  Endeixi-01 "So Much For Subtlety"
  -  Endeixi-02 "Blunt Object"
D: 10/0/0
  -  BMU-4, BMU-5
E: 10/0/0
  -  BMU-6, BMU-7
F: 6/0/4
  -  BMU-1, BMU-3, BMU-2
  -  Peitho-01 'Big Stick'
G: 0/0/10
H:
I:
Planet 2: 0/0/10

Spoiler: The Network Logistics (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 34
  4 points: 2x ITC
  1 points: 1x LIFT
  6 points: 2x Logos with TDC and Artemis
  10 points: 2x Endeixi
  8 points: 1x Peitho
  4 points: 1x Hephaestus RV
  1 points: Unassigned

Ground Production Points: 35
  16 points: 8x BMU
  8 points: 8x Trephine
  4 points: 4x Hammer
  4 points: 4x Dozer
  1 points: Unassigned
  6 points: Returning turn 12

Units
BMU-1
  -  Trephine, Hammer, Dozer
  -  Location: Foxtrot
BMU-2
  -  Trephine, Dozer
  -  Location: Foxtrot
BMU-3
  -  Trephine, Hammer, Dozer
  -  Location: Foxtrot
BMU-4
  -  Trephine
  -  Location: Delta
BMU-5
  -  Trephine
  -  Location: Delta
BMU-6
  -  Trephine
  -  Location: Echo
BMU-7
  -  Trephine
  -  Location: Echo
BMU-8
  -  Trephine, Hammer, Dozer
  -  Location: Alpha (in ITC-5)


Ships
ITC-01-LIFT "Cargo Cult"
  -  Location: Hub
  -  Contents: Empty
  -  Condition: Undamaged
ITC-5 "Prime Mover"
  -  Location: Alpha
  -  Contents: BMU-8, 1x Hammer
  -  Condition: Undamaged

Logos-06-TDC-ART "No More Mr Nice Guy"
  -  Location: Alpha
  -  Condition: Badly Damaged
Logos-08-TDC-ART "Of Course I Still Love You"
  -  Location: Alpha
  -  Condition: Badly Damaged

Peitho-01 "Big Stick"
  -  Location: Foxtrot
  -  Condition: Undamaged

Endeixi-01 "So Much For Subtlety"
  -  Location: Charlie
  -  Condition: Undamaged
Endeixi-02 "Blunt Object"
  -  Location: Charlie
  -  Condition: Undamaged

Hephaestus-01 "Never Give You Up"
  -  Location: Charlie
  -  Condition: Undamaged

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

Planetary Contents:
1 & 2: Earthlike planets just as you’d expect. Take your opponent’s homeworld to win, lose yours and you die.
A: Riddled with caves and with a mineral-rich crust, this airless world is ideal for the production of spacecraft components. 1 GPP, 3 SPP.
B: A volcanic world with a caustic atmosphere and lava flows on the surface, B is full of minerals that can be easily acquired…if you can deal with the, quite literal, heat. 3 GPP, 1 SPP.
C: Icy, barren, rather flat in most regions. It has rather a lot of those things humans need to live sitting on and under its airless surface. 3 GPP, 3 SPP.
D: A surface-wide ocean is the defining trait of this planet, providing an interesting combat environment and also plenty of interesting life forms that can be studied….if you can build a big enough boat to catch one, anyway. 4 GPP, 2 SPP.
E: Another Earthlike planet, ideal for habitation….or, y’know, fighting a good old fashioned war over! 4 GPP, 4 SPP.
F: A world of highlands and mountains, the lower parts of the planet are filled with most of the planet's already scarce water. However, the mountainous regions have high mineral contents and plenty of good spacecraft launch sites above the majority of the atmosphere. 2 GPP, 4 SPP.
G: Deserts cover the surface of this planet. Deserts made, in fact, of a curious sand with abnormally high metal and mineral contents. It has an atmosphere that serves to stir up the sands into occasional sandstorms. 3 GPP, 3 SPP.
H: An airless, small rock in space, H is heavily cratered and not a great place to live. Good place to build spacecraft, though. 1 GPP, 3 SPP.
I: A world covered in wide stretches of windswept terrain covered in something that we’re going to call grass, I is ideal for large-scale industrial activity. Nobody cares if you do irreparable damage to a huge tract of grasslands here, after all, there are a hundred more huge tracts of pristine grasslands you haven’t ruined yet. 3 GPP, 1 SPP.

Spoiler: The Network Tech (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): A less-than-stellar spacecraft, the ITC is a version of the ships landed on your planet when you first colonized it. It is prone to malfunction, slow, and generally unpleasant. The rocket shuttles used to get equipment from the ITC to the ground have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops and things that can be broken into much smaller parts, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC capacity in total and uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armor or armaments.
Cost: 2 SPP

FASS Mk1. Logos: A reasonably quick, reasonably agile, fairly effective light ship of about 45 meters long with Light armor and three R-4 railguns for weapons complement.
Cost: 2 SPP

Logos Thermal Defense Citadel upgrade: An internal ceramic armor layer on the Logos which is actively cooled to reduce damage from thermal weapons. Raises Logos armor to Medium, cost increases by 1 SPP, agility and speed decreased.
Applied To: FASS Mk.1 Logos
Cost: Increase Logos cost by 1 SPP

'Hephaestus' class Support Vessel: A giant cylinder with extra bits on it, the Hephaestus is capable of small updates to ships or ground equipment and serious repairs to Logos-sized vessels due to its enclosed hangar. It is not armored and its only defense is being large. Uses a lot of Bitforms, two reactors, and plenty of materials and is generally a fairly large ship, so it's expensive. However, it provides a huge capability for our fleet to stay functional on long deployments.
Cost: 4 SPP
Provides: 3 Repair Points per turn for Logos-sized vessels, 1 Repair Point for larger vessels that will not fit within its hangar.

Space Superiority Ship, Mk1, 'Peitho': Six R-4 railguns in twin turrets. Six R-5 shrapnel cannons in single mounts scattered over the hull. Heavy thermal armor concentrated in citadels and barbettes over vital spaces. Massive twin Tokamak powerplant and plasma drive assembly. High speed, decent enough maneuverability for its size. Basic sensors. Integrated Artemis fire control. Robo-coffee dispensers in three different places on the bridge.
Cost: 8 SPP

FASS Mk. 2 'Endeixi': A comprehensive upgrade to the Logos style of warship that has one overpowered 100mm version of the R-4 in the limited forwards arc, two more in standard large arc positions, and a Gen 2 TPPD that provides it with good speed, though thoroughly slower and less maneuverable than a standard Logos. More maneuverable than a Peitho, however, and equipped with Heavy thermal armor around the essential systems. Not very strong against kinetic damage, however.
Cost: 5 SPP

Hephaestus SV "REPAIR": An improved Hephaestus capable of more repairs, sharing the cylindrical shape and general attributes of the original. It uses additional Bitforms and more focused repair algorithms, rendering it slightly more expensive but far more capable. It would be less efficient if faced with radically different damage or ships not based on present ones, but not by much.
Cost: 5 SPP
Provides: 4 Repair Points per turn for Logos-sized vessels, 2 Repair Points for larger vessels that will not fit within its hangar.

Peitho SparkY Assembled with the new SparkY 2.0 functional direct fusion drive and with some cost overruns and maybe a hint of lacking protection, the Peitho SparkY is Speed 3 and retains the firepower and maneuverability of the original.
Cost: 10 SPPs

Units
Basic Military Unit: (you may rename this if you so wish) A capable group of soldiers trained to operate any equipment you can give them. Field training allows them to keep up to date on the best way to operate the newest deathtraps and self-destructing gizmos you send them even after they’re deployed.
Cost: 2GPP

Ground Weapons
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards on the colony ships, the only real weapon both colonies have. They are 3D-printed out of plastic, a process which is not entirely reliable, meaning the gun has a tendency to break after prolonged use... or any use, really.
Cost: Cheap

Trephine Magnetic Sabot Rifle: A very effective weapon for Medium- to Long-ranged engagements, the Trephine is a 12mm APFSDS weapon with a 10mm projectile, capable of firing with damage roughly equivalent to a high-caliber rifle or, at maximum power, a light cannon. The projectile tends to fragment on piercing Light armor, doing even more damage than usual to the underlying target. Fireworks displays included with every order of 1000 or more. Now includes 4-round magazine and semiautomatic function.
Cost: 1 GPP

'Hammer' Magnetic Flechette Rifle: A carbine version of the Trephine, the Hammer fires exclusively lighter-weight discarding-sabot flechette rounds which are very accurate and deadly. The rifle is lighter, shorter, and faster than the Trephine, and has a four-round internal magazine and a bolt-action style chambering (being a railgun there is not really a semiautomatic function). It is accurate and deadly out to Medium range, and can lay down suppressive fire at Long range with minimal chances to hit. Now includes 4-round magazine and semiautomatic function.
Cost: 1 GPP

'Dozer' Magnetic Cannon: A functional combination of 40mm grenade launcher and mortar. Sights are basic but it has a Medium-Long range in mortar configuration with higher launching powers and Short-Medium range when shoulder-fired. Shells are basic explosives with a moderate payload. Functions as an auxiliary weapon. Now includes 4-round magazine and semiautomatic function.
Cost: 1 GPP

Ground Equipment
Basic Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmored and cumbersome to walk in. At least it works well enough, and has a self-sealing lining meaning a single shot isn't an immediate death sentence... most of the time. Necessary for deployment to worlds without breathable atmospheres.
Cost: Cheap OBSOLETE

MultiEnvironment Tactical Armored Suit: A slight improvement to the Basic Space Suit in every way, METAS is a hair less cumbersome, has magnetic boots and some armor so it won't (usually) explode the minute somebody looks at the oxygen tank funny. That usually happens the second minute that somebody remains looking at the tank funny.
Cost: Cheap

Ground Vehicles
"Emergent" AAIFAK 1.1: Still not a great aircraft, this new version of the Emergent suffers from unbalanced engine thrust which is quite effective at hamstringing maneuverability, but it is capable of something that resembles proper flying. It is still more expensive than it needs to be due to the engine problems. It can carry two Trephines (in a single turret), a pilot, a gunner, and six combat units around at reasonably fast speeds.
Cost: 3 GPP
Weight: 2 TC (requires 1 shuttle TC)

Command Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets, ships, and/or other planets. Currently only useful for taunting your enemy. The transmitter dish comes in a single piece and cannot fit in an ITC shuttle.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 1TC (requires 2 shuttle TC)

Spacecraft Components
Gen. 2 Tokamak-Powered Plasma Drive: A slightly more efficient, powerful, and compact set of reactors and plasma drives for a warship. It works just a little better than the previous one, and is far better than the original TPPD. Not that that's much of an achievement. Provides a lot of power both in terms of electrical and maneuvering ability.

R-4 Railgun Turret: An amazing weapons system, the R-4 is an externally mounted 50mm railgun loaded with 20 round drums capable of firing a three-round burst on a single capacitor charge, while a loading arm loads the drums into the weapon from the storage bay in the ship proper. The turret is lightly armored for protection. Requires a ship to mount it on.

LIFT Intraplanetary Plasma Engine (IPE): An upgrade to the LIFT shuttles, capable of moving 4 TC objects to and from orbit. Faster and more maneuverable even than basic shuttles, and come with some amount of reinforcement and protection against attack. Raise the cost of an ITC when attached.
Cost: 1 SPP (equips an ITC with a full set of LIFT shuttles)

Art3mis Precision Targeting System: An upgraded targeting suite that allows a Logos substantially more information and hitting capability against targets as compared to the baseline. Very effective against unknowing targets and capable of a limited degree of predictive firing and precision-coordinated shots amongst multiple weapons. Requires a refit.
Cost: None.

R-5 Shrapnel Cannon: A bigger but lower-velocity railgun capable of firing chaff rounds, shrapnel or canister shot, and of course solid shot. Fires faster than the R-4 with less armor piercing capability due to its lower velocity, but lower energy requirements. Can lay down a laser- and radar-reflecting chaff barrage to interfere with weapons and sensors both, capable of shooting down missiles with great precision when paired with Artemis tracking. Same cost as the R-4.

Plasma Laser Deflection System: Generates a bowl-shaped shield of plasma in front of an accelerating warship. Effectively reduces reactor power output by a moderate amount and is lost when hit by too much laser fire or when the ship changes direction or if you'd like to use your direct plasma drive or weapons at full speed and power.
Cost: +2 SPP to a Logos' or Endeixi's base cost to add PLDS
+4 SPP to a Peitho's base cost to add (more powerful but mostly larger) PLDS
+3 SPP to add a sufficiently huge system to an ITC (um....why would you even bother?)

"Deadspace" Damage Control Locker: Adds additional repair capabilities to Logos, mostly able to keep the crew alive and maybe, just maybe, keep the ship functional longer in combat. Best used to preserve a ship from total destruction.
Cost: Free!

'SparkY' 2: Fusion Bogaloo: A new direct fusion drive capable of extremely high thrust, but requiring a very large fusion reactor (duh) and complex magnetic nozzle assembly. No (additional) laboratories were harmed in the making of this (specific pattern of) advanced fusion drive.

S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner': A new breed of shipboard weapon that weaponizes the plasma from our starships' main fusion reactors. It fires a beam of ions and electrons towards targets, that does minor physical damage on impact almost equal to the original Oculus laser's damage, but arrives much faster than a standard kinetic round and can scramble electronic components or blind nearby sensor nodes even without a direct hit.

'SparkY' Tetris Another direct fusion drive capable of extremely high thrust, but requiring a very large fusion reactor (duh) and complex magnetic nozzle assembly. Now slightly more modular, theoretically. Several laboratories were harmed in the making of this modular fusion drive. Harmed quite spectacularly, in fact.

Infrastructure
Colony Defense Grid: The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to defense the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery now, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.

Semi-Autonomous Industrial Facilities: A network of interlinked incredibly well-connected modern factories capable of production of unparalleled efficiency and scale.
Provides: 2 GPP

Orbital Reclamation Centers: Satellites in orbit around the Hub that reprocess damaged and destroyed units and other bits of metal and plastic into spacecraft parts.
Provides: 2 SPP

Tokamak: Nuclear Boogaloo: A functioning nuclear fusion reactor, producing on our first attempt, no prior attempts being on record. It requires much less expensive fuel than nuclear fission plants and so its more complicated construction does not increase its cost beyond that of a fission plant, and therefore is automatically retrofitted into any ships that are refitted or any new builds. Provides a substantial increase in power generation to any ship and removes any issues with power generation.
Provides: 2 SPP and 2 GPP

Autonomous Nanoscale Terrestrial Scavengers: Despite their initial failings, ANTS units have been substantially refitted and are now capable of extracting 1 SPP from Planet Alpha. This is far from the total value available there, or elsewhere in the system. Further improvements to support structures in an ANTS "colony" or other useful adaptations would greatly improve the yields.
Provides: 1 SPP

Delta Lofstrum Loop: Several huge pieces of broken metal from a scale model, some crushed hopes and torn dreams.
Provides: Disappointment.

Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)

Array

[Carefulrogue]

'Hawk' Air superiority fighter (0):
Delta Lofstrom Inquisition (1): ConscriptFive
Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola' (2): Carefulrogue, ConscriptFive
Long-Range Fusion Missile Array "Vlasfimía" (0):
Loop Incidence Query Utilizing Infrastructure Data (LIQUID) (1): Carefulrogue,

[Kashyyk]

'Hawk' Air superiority fighter (0):
Delta Lofstrom Inquisition (2): ConscriptFive, Kashyyk
Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola' (3): Carefulrogue, ConscriptFive, Kashyyk
Long-Range Fusion Missile Array "Vlasfimía" (0):
Loop Incidence Query Utilizing Infrastructure Data (LIQUID) (1): Carefulrogue,

[Carefulrogue]

'Hawk' Air superiority fighter (0):
Delta Lofstrom Inquisition (3): ConscriptFive, Kashyyk, Carefulrogue
Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola' (3): Carefulrogue, ConscriptFive, Kashyyk
Long-Range Fusion Missile Array "Vlasfimía" (0):
Loop Incidence Query Utilizing Infrastructure Data (LIQUID) (0):

[Rockeater]

'Hawk' Air superiority fighter (0):
Delta Lofstrom Inquisition (4): ConscriptFive, Kashyyk, Carefulrogue, Rockeater
Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola' (4): Carefulrogue, ConscriptFive, Kashyyk, Rockeater
Long-Range Fusion Missile Array "Vlasfimía" (0):
Loop Incidence Query Utilizing Infrastructure Data (LIQUID) (0):

[Madman198237]

Turn 11 Design Phase: The Network

Delta Lofstrom Inquisition
We have given the Delta Lofstrom team plenty of time and funding to achieve their results, and all they have offered is abject failure. The odds of this happening naturally is 1.5%, and so command has mandated a full audit of activities. All personnel will be reviewed, decisions analysed and results scrutinised. We're not saying some of them have been compomised, just heavily implying it.

Once any negative assets have been removed, the team will no doubt complete this task with ease.

((Mechanically, this is another go at the Delta Lofstrom Loop, I just wanted something more interesting than "do it again but better"))

Delta Lofstrom Inquisition
Difficulty: Hard
Roll: 2 + 2 - 1 = 3 Buggy Mess (what did this project do to my dice?)

The new Lofstrum Loop is a great success! The car-sized scale model is capable of punching a hole through both sides of a fully armored MBT and demolishing an entire office block with its spontaneous self-disassembly firing molten metal at incredible speeds.

Oh, did we say great success? We meant "extremely destructive failure".

The attempt to purge the clearly malfunctioning engineering units running this project was, obviously, a total failure. We're not sure how, but our best guess says that the clearly malevolent units bent on choosing terrible ideas and alternative means of solving straightforwards problems altered records...somehow...to hide themselves and implicate the best units sent to work on the project.

Their "tinkering" with this Lofstrum Loop project has resulted in total devastation again! The models of the loop itself are dangerous, building the real thing would be an act of complete disregard for safety, or an attempt at making a doomsday weapon, we can't decide. The good thing is, however, that building this loop was always going to require the production of components on-site, and the mines and factories to do that are being built at a steady rate, since they didn't need any input from our "top" engineering team. A bit more effort should see them capable of producing a small amount of materiel for the war effort despite the lack of a Lofstrum Loop to launch it from.

Delta Lofstrum Loop: Several huge pieces of broken metal from a scale model, some crushed hopes and torn dreams. Now comes with demolished office block and a hole punched clean through two pieces of replacement armor plate for a capital warship. Also some factories and mines that could be useful on their own but who cares about those?
Provides: Disappointment, edged with hope and the smell of molten armor.

Design: Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola'
Ah, the follies of hormonal simians.  "Biggest ship is best ship," so much so that they have abandoned any concept of a picket screen.  With all their proverbial eggs in one impossible-to-miss basket, sure would be a shame if a key system or two got hit by some crippling ionic disruption.  (It doesn't matter how many guns a ship has it the central fire control has be forced into a system reboot after every blow.)

The FADS Bola is the sister ship to the recently fielded FASS Endeixi.  They share similar exterior architecture, a 45 meter length hull, armored in ceramic Thermal Defence Citadel to defeat our simian adversaries' thermal lasers.  Its standardized form-factor mates as easily with the Hephaestus Support Vessel for field repairs as legacy FASS Logos.

At it's core however, it is vastly different.  The FADS Bola is powered by the latest iteration of the SparkY fusion reactor.  Taking lessons learned from the Peitho SparkY, a directed fusion drive system attains the fabled "speed three."  While the Peitho SparkY was something of a hatchet job that compromised the integrity of the Peitho hull, the FADS Bola hull was built from scratch to accomodate the SparkY in a combat-capable hull.

The other main feature of the FADS Bola is the casemate style forward S-40 Plasma Caster.  Well-fed by the SparkY reactor, the S-40 serves as the FADS primary weapon system.  By hitting large capital ships and ITC's in "boom and zoom" gun-runs, the FADS Bola disrupts key systems long enough that more lethal vessels of the fleet can finish the job.  The FADS Bola will likely never 'kill' whatever over-armored giants our ape-brained adversaries field, but it can easily set up a kill by a Peitho or squadron of Endeixi.

(The casement is a studier and more cost-effective option to a turret.  A fast ship chasing larger ships, it should have no problem tracking and engaging with a more narrow field of fire.) 

Secondary armament is a dual purpose R-5 Shrapnel Cannon, mounted in ventral ball turret.  Has a great field of fire both fore and aft, but leads to a dorsal blindspot in terms of gunnery.  With appropriate tactics and engineering, this is a feature, not a bug.

A FADS Bola Captain should directly charge large vessels at flank speed, but pitch their hull several degrees upward when not burning the main thrusters.  This keeps a narrow target cross section, but presents the armored ventral belly and its R-5 turret.  From this posture, the R-5 can provide shrapnel point-defense and additional firepower.  After delivery of ionic payload, evasive manuevers should then protect the dorsal side from exposure to the capital ship's batteries.  Furthermore, the underbelly of the FADS certainly isn't "soft," and is more armored than the dorsal side.  Likewise, many vulnerable systems, such the bridge, are mounted dorsally as well.  (Of course, the FADS features additional attitudinal thrusters to facilitate this combat manuever.)

Of course, "speed is life" as well.  While Speed Three is desirable for its strategic and logistic capability, on a tactical level the FADS should be out accelerate its larger adversaries: striking fast, then breaking contact before taking too much effective fire from its heavily armed adversaries.

Naturally, the FADS features the various systems of the FASS Endeixi as well.  Art3mis has been programmed for S-40 gun run physics.  Dead Space Lockers and an armored spinal corridor keeps the vessel functional despite extensive battle damage.

Design: Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola'
Difficulty: Hard
Roll: 4 + 3 - 1 = 6 Above Average

The new 'Bola'-class FADS constitutes what is, to the political leadership of the Grid, a disappointing failure to invest in bigger and clearly better warships with which to crush the enemy. Strategic Units are happy to point out the flaws in this thinking and Engineering Units are happy to point out the costs involved but it never seems to compute properly with the politically-minded Units. Ah well.

The 'Bola' has a very weird shape, with an S-40 set into the hull at the nose to save the mass of a turret armature, also simplifying the supplying of reactor plasma it should be noted, giving it a distinctive clamshell appearance, having limited elevation and depression but good enough traverse, as is typical of casemate style weapons. Or, rather, it would have those if we had to deal with gravity. We don't, and so the casemate has been rotated 90* so as to allow the S-40 to aim far enough down to allow the ship to rotate up to expose the more heavily-armored belly and its accompanying R-5 point-defense mount. The center of the ship is built around a cylinder that houses the reactor, allowing its products to be fed directly forwards into the S-40. It is surrounded by the various combat areas and crew quarters of the ship, also in a roughly cylindrical shape and moves into a bulbous stern housing oversized thrusters pointing in all directions, also fed directly from the reactor. The aft section extends past the rest of the ship in the horizontal directions so that forwards-facing main and maneuvering thrusters can be placed there, again so they can be fueled direct from the main reactor.

Its armor is not all that impressive, given its focus on speed and maneuverability, but it is still capable enough given the relative lack of power in the enemy's laser weaponry. The operational areas are well shielded by the crew quarters (empty during battle) and other noncritical areas. Its "spinal corridor" is really more of a citadel given that the reactor must necessarily be in the center of the ship, but it works all the same. Its specialization has resulted in unusual accuracy and firepower on its S-40 main armament, giving it impressive abilities with regards to disabling enemy systems even at longer ranges.

Its small size and extremely limited armament and purpose have even allowed it to keep its cost down, though Speed 3 is never cheap.

Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola': Wielded a single oversized S-40 Plasma Caster and ventral R-5 cannon for point defense, this Speed 3 ship is specialized for long, high-speed attack runs against large enemy targets, where it can cripple them with the electromagnetic damage its S-40 inflicts, allowing friendlies to finish off the targets. Moderately well-protected particularly from its forwards (well, forwards-ventral) direction.
Cost: 3 SPP

----
Well it's better than the previous update's time...
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Spoiler: The Network Control (click to show/hide)

The Hub: 10/0/0 (YOURS/UNCLAIMED/ENEMY)
  -  ITC-01-LIFT "Cargo Cult"
A: 10/0/0
  -  ITC-05 "Prime Mover"
    -  BMU-8
    -  1x Hammer
  -  Logos-06-TDC-ART "No More Mr Nice Guy", Logos-08-TDC-ART "Of Course I Still Love You"
B: 10/0/0
C: 10/0/0
  -  Endeixi-01 "So Much For Subtlety"
  -  Endeixi-02 "Blunt Object"
D: 10/0/0
  -  BMU-4, BMU-5
E: 10/0/0
  -  BMU-6, BMU-7
F: 6/0/4
  -  BMU-1, BMU-3, BMU-2
  -  Peitho-01 'Big Stick'
G: 0/0/10
H:
I:
Planet 2: 0/0/10

Spoiler: The Network Logistics (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 34
  4 points: 2x ITC
  1 points: 1x LIFT
  6 points: 2x Logos with TDC and Artemis
  10 points: 2x Endeixi
  8 points: 1x Peitho
  4 points: 1x Hephaestus RV
  1 points: Unassigned

Ground Production Points: 35
  16 points: 8x BMU
  8 points: 8x Trephine
  4 points: 4x Hammer
  4 points: 4x Dozer
  1 points: Unassigned
  6 points: Returning turn 12

Units
BMU-1
  -  Trephine, Hammer, Dozer
  -  Location: Foxtrot
BMU-2
  -  Trephine, Dozer
  -  Location: Foxtrot
BMU-3
  -  Trephine, Hammer, Dozer
  -  Location: Foxtrot
BMU-4
  -  Trephine
  -  Location: Delta
BMU-5
  -  Trephine
  -  Location: Delta
BMU-6
  -  Trephine
  -  Location: Echo
BMU-7
  -  Trephine
  -  Location: Echo
BMU-8
  -  Trephine, Hammer, Dozer
  -  Location: Alpha (in ITC-5)


Ships
ITC-01-LIFT "Cargo Cult"
  -  Location: Hub
  -  Contents: Empty
  -  Condition: Undamaged
ITC-5 "Prime Mover"
  -  Location: Alpha
  -  Contents: BMU-8, 1x Hammer
  -  Condition: Undamaged

Logos-06-TDC-ART "No More Mr Nice Guy"
  -  Location: Alpha
  -  Condition: Badly Damaged
Logos-08-TDC-ART "Of Course I Still Love You"
  -  Location: Alpha
  -  Condition: Badly Damaged

Peitho-01 "Big Stick"
  -  Location: Foxtrot
  -  Condition: Undamaged

Endeixi-01 "So Much For Subtlety"
  -  Location: Charlie
  -  Condition: Undamaged
Endeixi-02 "Blunt Object"
  -  Location: Charlie
  -  Condition: Undamaged

Hephaestus-01 "Never Give You Up"
  -  Location: Charlie
  -  Condition: Undamaged

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

Planetary Contents:
1 & 2: Earthlike planets just as you’d expect. Take your opponent’s homeworld to win, lose yours and you die.
A: Riddled with caves and with a mineral-rich crust, this airless world is ideal for the production of spacecraft components. 1 GPP, 3 SPP.
B: A volcanic world with a caustic atmosphere and lava flows on the surface, B is full of minerals that can be easily acquired…if you can deal with the, quite literal, heat. 3 GPP, 1 SPP.
C: Icy, barren, rather flat in most regions. It has rather a lot of those things humans need to live sitting on and under its airless surface. 3 GPP, 3 SPP.
D: A surface-wide ocean is the defining trait of this planet, providing an interesting combat environment and also plenty of interesting life forms that can be studied….if you can build a big enough boat to catch one, anyway. 4 GPP, 2 SPP.
E: Another Earthlike planet, ideal for habitation….or, y’know, fighting a good old fashioned war over! 4 GPP, 4 SPP.
F: A world of highlands and mountains, the lower parts of the planet are filled with most of the planet's already scarce water. However, the mountainous regions have high mineral contents and plenty of good spacecraft launch sites above the majority of the atmosphere. 2 GPP, 4 SPP.
G: Deserts cover the surface of this planet. Deserts made, in fact, of a curious sand with abnormally high metal and mineral contents. It has an atmosphere that serves to stir up the sands into occasional sandstorms. 3 GPP, 3 SPP.
H: An airless, small rock in space, H is heavily cratered and not a great place to live. Good place to build spacecraft, though. 1 GPP, 3 SPP.
I: A world covered in wide stretches of windswept terrain covered in something that we’re going to call grass, I is ideal for large-scale industrial activity. Nobody cares if you do irreparable damage to a huge tract of grasslands here, after all, there are a hundred more huge tracts of pristine grasslands you haven’t ruined yet. 3 GPP, 1 SPP.

Spoiler: The Network Tech (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): A less-than-stellar spacecraft, the ITC is a version of the ships landed on your planet when you first colonized it. It is prone to malfunction, slow, and generally unpleasant. The rocket shuttles used to get equipment from the ITC to the ground have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops and things that can be broken into much smaller parts, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC capacity in total and uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armor or armaments.
Cost: 2 SPP

FASS Mk1. Logos: A reasonably quick, reasonably agile, fairly effective light ship of about 45 meters long with Light armor and three R-4 railguns for weapons complement.
Cost: 2 SPP

Logos Thermal Defense Citadel upgrade: An internal ceramic armor layer on the Logos which is actively cooled to reduce damage from thermal weapons. Raises Logos armor to Medium, cost increases by 1 SPP, agility and speed decreased.
Applied To: FASS Mk.1 Logos
Cost: Increase Logos cost by 1 SPP

'Hephaestus' class Support Vessel: A giant cylinder with extra bits on it, the Hephaestus is capable of small updates to ships or ground equipment and serious repairs to Logos-sized vessels due to its enclosed hangar. It is not armored and its only defense is being large. Uses a lot of Bitforms, two reactors, and plenty of materials and is generally a fairly large ship, so it's expensive. However, it provides a huge capability for our fleet to stay functional on long deployments.
Cost: 4 SPP
Provides: 3 Repair Points per turn for Logos-sized vessels, 1 Repair Point for larger vessels that will not fit within its hangar.

Space Superiority Ship, Mk1, 'Peitho': Six R-4 railguns in twin turrets. Six R-5 shrapnel cannons in single mounts scattered over the hull. Heavy thermal armor concentrated in citadels and barbettes over vital spaces. Massive twin Tokamak powerplant and plasma drive assembly. High speed, decent enough maneuverability for its size. Basic sensors. Integrated Artemis fire control. Robo-coffee dispensers in three different places on the bridge.
Cost: 8 SPP

FASS Mk. 2 'Endeixi': A comprehensive upgrade to the Logos style of warship that has one overpowered 100mm version of the R-4 in the limited forwards arc, two more in standard large arc positions, and a Gen 2 TPPD that provides it with good speed, though thoroughly slower and less maneuverable than a standard Logos. More maneuverable than a Peitho, however, and equipped with Heavy thermal armor around the essential systems. Not very strong against kinetic damage, however.
Cost: 5 SPP

Hephaestus SV "REPAIR": An improved Hephaestus capable of more repairs, sharing the cylindrical shape and general attributes of the original. It uses additional Bitforms and more focused repair algorithms, rendering it slightly more expensive but far more capable. It would be less efficient if faced with radically different damage or ships not based on present ones, but not by much.
Cost: 5 SPP
Provides: 4 Repair Points per turn for Logos-sized vessels, 2 Repair Points for larger vessels that will not fit within its hangar.

Peitho SparkY Assembled with the new SparkY 2.0 functional direct fusion drive and with some cost overruns and maybe a hint of lacking protection, the Peitho SparkY is Speed 3 and retains the firepower and maneuverability of the original.
Cost: 10 SPPs

Fast Attack Disruptor Ship (FADS) 'Bola': Wielded a single oversized S-40 Plasma Caster and ventral R-5 cannon for point defense, this Speed 3 ship is specialized for long, high-speed attack runs against large enemy targets, where it can cripple them with the electromagnetic damage its S-40 inflicts, allowing friendlies to finish off the targets. Moderately well-protected particularly from its forwards (well, forwards-ventral) direction.
Cost: 3 SPP

Units
Basic Military Unit: (you may rename this if you so wish) A capable group of soldiers trained to operate any equipment you can give them. Field training allows them to keep up to date on the best way to operate the newest deathtraps and self-destructing gizmos you send them even after they’re deployed.
Cost: 2GPP

Ground Weapons
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards on the colony ships, the only real weapon both colonies have. They are 3D-printed out of plastic, a process which is not entirely reliable, meaning the gun has a tendency to break after prolonged use... or any use, really.
Cost: Cheap

Trephine Magnetic Sabot Rifle: A very effective weapon for Medium- to Long-ranged engagements, the Trephine is a 12mm APFSDS weapon with a 10mm projectile, capable of firing with damage roughly equivalent to a high-caliber rifle or, at maximum power, a light cannon. The projectile tends to fragment on piercing Light armor, doing even more damage than usual to the underlying target. Fireworks displays included with every order of 1000 or more. Now includes 4-round magazine and semiautomatic function.
Cost: 1 GPP

'Hammer' Magnetic Flechette Rifle: A carbine version of the Trephine, the Hammer fires exclusively lighter-weight discarding-sabot flechette rounds which are very accurate and deadly. The rifle is lighter, shorter, and faster than the Trephine, and has a four-round internal magazine and a bolt-action style chambering (being a railgun there is not really a semiautomatic function). It is accurate and deadly out to Medium range, and can lay down suppressive fire at Long range with minimal chances to hit. Now includes 4-round magazine and semiautomatic function.
Cost: 1 GPP

'Dozer' Magnetic Cannon: A functional combination of 40mm grenade launcher and mortar. Sights are basic but it has a Medium-Long range in mortar configuration with higher launching powers and Short-Medium range when shoulder-fired. Shells are basic explosives with a moderate payload. Functions as an auxiliary weapon. Now includes 4-round magazine and semiautomatic function.
Cost: 1 GPP

Ground Equipment
Basic Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmored and cumbersome to walk in. At least it works well enough, and has a self-sealing lining meaning a single shot isn't an immediate death sentence... most of the time. Necessary for deployment to worlds without breathable atmospheres.
Cost: Cheap OBSOLETE

MultiEnvironment Tactical Armored Suit: A slight improvement to the Basic Space Suit in every way, METAS is a hair less cumbersome, has magnetic boots and some armor so it won't (usually) explode the minute somebody looks at the oxygen tank funny. That usually happens the second minute that somebody remains looking at the tank funny.
Cost: Cheap

Ground Vehicles
"Emergent" AAIFAK 1.1: Still not a great aircraft, this new version of the Emergent suffers from unbalanced engine thrust which is quite effective at hamstringing maneuverability, but it is capable of something that resembles proper flying. It is still more expensive than it needs to be due to the engine problems. It can carry two Trephines (in a single turret), a pilot, a gunner, and six combat units around at reasonably fast speeds.
Cost: 3 GPP
Weight: 2 TC (requires 1 shuttle TC)

Command Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets, ships, and/or other planets. Currently only useful for taunting your enemy. The transmitter dish comes in a single piece and cannot fit in an ITC shuttle.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 1TC (requires 2 shuttle TC)

Spacecraft Components
Gen. 2 Tokamak-Powered Plasma Drive: A slightly more efficient, powerful, and compact set of reactors and plasma drives for a warship. It works just a little better than the previous one, and is far better than the original TPPD. Not that that's much of an achievement. Provides a lot of power both in terms of electrical and maneuvering ability.

R-4 Railgun Turret: An amazing weapons system, the R-4 is an externally mounted 50mm railgun loaded with 20 round drums capable of firing a three-round burst on a single capacitor charge, while a loading arm loads the drums into the weapon from the storage bay in the ship proper. The turret is lightly armored for protection. Requires a ship to mount it on.

LIFT Intraplanetary Plasma Engine (IPE): An upgrade to the LIFT shuttles, capable of moving 4 TC objects to and from orbit. Faster and more maneuverable even than basic shuttles, and come with some amount of reinforcement and protection against attack. Raise the cost of an ITC when attached.
Cost: 1 SPP (equips an ITC with a full set of LIFT shuttles)

Art3mis Precision Targeting System: An upgraded targeting suite that allows a Logos substantially more information and hitting capability against targets as compared to the baseline. Very effective against unknowing targets and capable of a limited degree of predictive firing and precision-coordinated shots amongst multiple weapons. Requires a refit.
Cost: None.

R-5 Shrapnel Cannon: A bigger but lower-velocity railgun capable of firing chaff rounds, shrapnel or canister shot, and of course solid shot. Fires faster than the R-4 with less armor piercing capability due to its lower velocity, but lower energy requirements. Can lay down a laser- and radar-reflecting chaff barrage to interfere with weapons and sensors both, capable of shooting down missiles with great precision when paired with Artemis tracking. Same cost as the R-4.

Plasma Laser Deflection System: Generates a bowl-shaped shield of plasma in front of an accelerating warship. Effectively reduces reactor power output by a moderate amount and is lost when hit by too much laser fire or when the ship changes direction or if you'd like to use your direct plasma drive or weapons at full speed and power.
Cost: +2 SPP to a Logos' or Endeixi's base cost to add PLDS
+4 SPP to a Peitho's base cost to add (more powerful but mostly larger) PLDS
+3 SPP to add a sufficiently huge system to an ITC (um....why would you even bother?)

"Deadspace" Damage Control Locker: Adds additional repair capabilities to Logos, mostly able to keep the crew alive and maybe, just maybe, keep the ship functional longer in combat. Best used to preserve a ship from total destruction.
Cost: Free!

'SparkY' 2: Fusion Bogaloo: A new direct fusion drive capable of extremely high thrust, but requiring a very large fusion reactor (duh) and complex magnetic nozzle assembly. No (additional) laboratories were harmed in the making of this (specific pattern of) advanced fusion drive.

S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner': A new breed of shipboard weapon that weaponizes the plasma from our starships' main fusion reactors. It fires a beam of ions and electrons towards targets, that does minor physical damage on impact almost equal to the original Oculus laser's damage, but arrives much faster than a standard kinetic round and can scramble electronic components or blind nearby sensor nodes even without a direct hit.

'SparkY' Tetris Another direct fusion drive capable of extremely high thrust, but requiring a very large fusion reactor (duh) and complex magnetic nozzle assembly. Now slightly more modular, theoretically. Several laboratories were harmed in the making of this modular fusion drive. Harmed quite spectacularly, in fact.

Infrastructure
Colony Defense Grid: The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to defense the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery now, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.

Semi-Autonomous Industrial Facilities: A network of interlinked incredibly well-connected modern factories capable of production of unparalleled efficiency and scale.
Provides: 2 GPP

Orbital Reclamation Centers: Satellites in orbit around the Hub that reprocess damaged and destroyed units and other bits of metal and plastic into spacecraft parts.
Provides: 2 SPP

Tokamak: Nuclear Boogaloo: A functioning nuclear fusion reactor, producing on our first attempt, no prior attempts being on record. It requires much less expensive fuel than nuclear fission plants and so its more complicated construction does not increase its cost beyond that of a fission plant, and therefore is automatically retrofitted into any ships that are refitted or any new builds. Provides a substantial increase in power generation to any ship and removes any issues with power generation.
Provides: 2 SPP and 2 GPP

Autonomous Nanoscale Terrestrial Scavengers: Despite their initial failings, ANTS units have been substantially refitted and are now capable of extracting 1 SPP from Planet Alpha. This is far from the total value available there, or elsewhere in the system. Further improvements to support structures in an ANTS "colony" or other useful adaptations would greatly improve the yields.
Provides: 1 SPP

Delta Lofstrum Loop: Several huge pieces of broken metal from a scale model, some crushed hopes and torn dreams. Now comes with demolished office block and a hole punched clean through two pieces of replacement armor plate for a capital warship. Also some factories and mines that could be useful on their own but who cares about those?
Provides: Disappointment, edged with hope and the smell of molten armor.

Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)

Array

[ConscriptFive]

Revision: 'Steamroller' 120mm Magnetic Cannon Mortar

The 'Steamroller' is a 120mm heavy mortar system for ground combat with potential anti-air capabilities.

Our 40mm 'Dozer' cannon is great for squads on the move, but we still lack an option for true external fire support.  The answer is to upscale the Dozer into a dedicated heavy mortar system.  120mm is large enough to provide enough a boost in range and payload, enabling strikes on fortified positions.  (Obviously, the shoulder-fired option of the Dozer has been stripped from the Steamroller.)
The larger shells have some additional capabilities as well.  As established with the R-5 cannon, VT-type proximity fuzes can be fitted instead of contact fuzes for airburst capabilities.  The 120mm airburst shell can function in a dual-purpose role, converting the weapon system into anti-air artillery (AAA).

Revision: 'Pomegranate' Fragmentary Hand Grenade

The 'Pomegranate' is an inexpensive fragmentary hand grenade.

As effective as we have in projecting explosives at a distance, our ground forces currently lack a good CQB option.  The Pomegranate is an easy modification of a 40mm Dozer grenade into a hand grenade.  Once armed, and the spoon released, the hand grenade detonates four seconds later.  The grenade is light enough to be thrown by our ground forces, while maintaining enough payload to produce lethal blast and shrapnel effects.

[Carefulrogue]

Not sold on the Steamroller, I feel it'll be kinda niche and will need new construction to field.  If we're gonna do it, we might as well do it right.

A design from the last cycle, I had mentioned as using as a revision.

The repeated failures on the development of spaceport infrastructure is one that has begun to grate on our nerves, especially as the enemy begins to field more competent warships.  While (some) designs of the engineering department ensure we may continue to field generally superior warships, the problem that comes as part of that is being able to field enough of them to continue to claim superiority.  And right now our ship supremacy is a tenuous hold. 

The intent then is on top of our failures is to learn everything we can in trying to fix that which has and will go wrong in previous and future designs.  The attachment of sensors to every crucial part in order to create better models of the structure, and piece together the causes of failure for our engineers and the models to improve upon.  New attempts will begin at erecting the structure, with the additional data collection informing us in minute detail of what does and does not work.

Slackers will still be terminated.

[Kashyyk]

Our ANTS system at Alpha has always underperformed. First due to problematic coding, and later, due to the limits of being nanoscale.

However, that can be solved simply enough! We shall design a series of autonomous vehicles, ranging from shoebox size up to a HGV. Each will be able to carry a variety of payloads in their modular storage bay, such as ANTS containers, ANTS replication feedstock, the output of an ANTS colony or hanger bays for smaller MAT vehicles.

This will allow resources to be harvested by an ANT, and for it to then be passed up the chain to more and more efficient transportation vehicles, and once the ANTS are complete, they themselves can be moved to a new harvesting site more efficiently.

[Carefulrogue]

'Steamroller' 120mm Magnetic Cannon Mortar (0):
'Pomegranate' Fragmentary Hand Grenade (1): Carefulrogue,
Loop Incidence Query Utilizing Infrastructure Data (LIQUID) (1): Carefulrogue,
Modular ANTS Transporters (0):