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[Iris]

The war is over. The High Queen has won.

Not long ago, House Sorlaria was nothing. Now the House extends a whole fourteen planets - small by the standards of our race, no doubt, but proud.

Unfortunately, the war of independence from House Nitidid was devastating. The modest industry of the Core Worlds has been bombed heavily, and many of the Queen caste members have been killed. The defence fleet was virtually annihilated in the fighting and all that is left are small, hastily-armed civilian conversions.

This is where you come in. The High Queen has given permission to assemble a new Naval Design Bureau to begin the task of rebuilding, and eventually getting the fleet strong enough to challenge the humans - or perhaps, in time, even the other Houses.

Spoiler: Background (click to show/hide)

Xinderi are an insectoid race with a humanoid body plan, with an exoskeleton, two hands (with four fingers each) on two arms, and two legs. The two main castes, Queen and Worker, are biologically distinct - the most obvious differences on Queens are vestigial wings, an ovipositor, and a pheromone gland at the base of the spine. This gland allows Queens to influence the workers under their control, ensuring they remain compliant. Both Queens and Workers are intelligent individuals, but generally, Workers are held to be second-class citizens.

Currently, the Xinderi Confederation numbers 19 Houses - Sorlaria being the 19th and latest. Each Queen (and, by extension, their Workers) belongs to a House, which is comparable in concept to a tribe.

Machines have made the gap between High and Low even more prominent than ever before. The rich live in tall towers with an air-yacht mooring on every spire, and the poor live in concrete warrens underground or closely-spaced buildings on the city limits. Everything is large, from the factories spitting out choking fog to the opulent skyscrapers.

(Note: The setting is dieselpunk, but most ships have capabilities comparable to Cold War naval ships.)

Spoiler: Phlogiston and the Aether (click to show/hide)

Aether is known to be a fluid, and generally unreactive, but its exact provenance and chemistry are unknown. It is known to carry very high quantities of phlogiston - so much so that it is theorized to be weightless. This tends to leak into ferrous metals, corrupting them. It is generally clear, with the distance being a purple tint. It is known to conduct electricity and heat, better than air, but worse than most metals. Aether is evenly distributed throughout the universe and seems to be incompressible. Despite this, the aerodynamic effects in aether are mild compared to those in air.
The interplanetary medium contains other gasses, but these are trace compared to the aetherstuff itself. These generally manifest as clouds or fog. 
In its base state (without phlogiston), aetherstuff seems to be a liquid between water and mercury in density, which has very low surface tension and will disperse into many tiny droplets when provoked.
The aether has a universal up and a universal down, but no universal gravitation. This is because most things, such as planets, are arranged relatively close to a flat plane - one side of this is up and the other side is down. Masses the size of vessels tend to produce their own pull, and on larger vessels, this plane is dual-sided (with the pull operating one way above and the other way below).
The aether contains many currents between the stars, which are used by the humans to travel between them with sails. The Xinderi have constructed a network within their domain that allows the transport of ships without sails, but travel outside of this network still requires sails as no way to brute-force the massive speeds required for free interstellar travel has been found.

Phlogiston is the stuff of burning, contained in every flammable substance. It is a two-step process, phlogiston's release and its deflagration, that together make up combustion. Phlogiston can be isolated from the aether, and is commonly done so to render it into breathable air - Xinderi technology to do so is compact and quiet, while the equivalent human technology is loud, bulky, and slow. Phlogiston, in its pure state, is both extremely reactive and extremely flammable. At the Xinderi level of technology, phlogiston is often added to items that need to combust such as fuel and gunpowder to increase their burn rate and energy density.

Spoiler: Xinderi Technology (click to show/hide)

Sorlaria's tooling is not very capable - right now, they are barely above human baseline, which uses dirty steam engines for propulsion, primitive gunmetal for hulls, and high-calibre naval rifle for weapons. However, the House retains much of the knowledge of House Nitidid. The analysts suggest there will be a transitory period, as first the technology is gradually improved and secondly as more and more Xinderi-level technology will be put into practice, potentially creating some interesting designs. The rest of this section describes the base technology level in use by the other Houses.

Ships are generally constructed with steel, which is proofed against the aether via a process called phlogisticating - steel is heated and then exposed to phlogiston-bearing gasses in order to render it impenetrable. This has a side-effect of case-hardening the steel, making it useful as armour. An all-or-nothing armour scheme is usually applied, protecting the machinery spaces and missile magazines and leaving the rest of the ship vulnerable to breaches. Due to lances, as well as the heavy anti-ship missiles carried by most heavy combat ships, armour is generally light. Instead, active countermeasures are used, such as keeping range from the enemy and kinetic point-defence systems.

The primary weapon in use by most Xinderi ships is the self-propelled missile. They come in various sizes, from 2" to several feet in diametre, and the largest of these are typically multi-stage. Missiles are commonly fuelled by phlogiston-enhanced liquid or solid fuel and/or aetherjets. Most, but not all, are guided - becoming more powerful and more accurate with size. Secondary weapons are gunpowder shell-launchers, which vary from multi-barreled rapid-firing guns around .50 calibre to cannon firing rocket-assisted shells around 8" in calibre. Many of the gun propellants are also phlogiston-enriched. Another weapon, sparingly used, is the lance. This is a weapon that works by firing superheated aetherstuff - generally obtained from an aether-furnace (explained further below) - in a stream. They are short-ranged compared to other weapons but are devastating against armour. Many gun turrets are controlled remotely, receiving their targeting parametres from a fire control director.

There are various technologies used for propulsion. Turbines feature heavily in Xinderi design. For the smallest vessels, aetherjets are used. This is a complex turbojet that continually dephlogisticates part of the aether and combusts the resulting dephlogisticated air and phlogiston. This process requires an incredible amount of heat, making aetherjets require advanced materials to construct. Propulsion is generally done by ducted propeller for medium ships; a more efficient design than comparable human propellers. They are generally powered by aetherjet. Large vessels use the same propeller design, with an aether-furnace and steam turbines: an aether-furnace is a replication of the flux in the core of a star, essentially combusting large quantities of aether to produce prodigious amounts of heat and steam. Chemical thrusters are also used, primarily for boosts of speed and fine maneuvering at these scales. Xinderi also retain a thruster comparable to a human steamjet - at small sizes of thruster, they are used for maneuvering, and at large scales, they are integrated with an aether-furnace to massively increase their efficiency at large sizes. These thrusters, along with ducted propellers mounted on swivels, are used for steering.

Sensors generally use a combination of coherent light and radio waves to detect, range, and lay guns. Missiles use infrared and light designation, as well as radio guidance. There are no passive countermeasures against detection in use currently - active countermeasures include flares, chaff, and other light-emitting projectiles. The fire-control systems in use are large, bulky vacuum-tube pieces, though they are still superior to human designs. As a backup, coincidence rangefinders and other optical systems are retained, but they are not often used.

Most medium-sized and above vessels carry parasite vessels - vessels that are used to defend, scout, and attack other ships. They are typically much smaller than other vessels and do not retain enough range to travel independently. They are often propelled by aetherjet or very large propellers relative to the size of the ship. Dedicated carriers carry larger parasites in greater numbers than other ships. Some parasites are carried in hangers, which can be pressurized to allow working on the vessel, while others are integrated into the ship itself or attached by umbilicals. Additionally, almost all vessels - civilian and military - carry small parasite barges to be used in a similar manner to naval ships' boats.

Spoiler: Human Technology (click to show/hide)

The information in this section is obtained from intelligence analysis of human ships.

Steam Cannons: Steam-cannons are generally low-calibre compared to gunpowder cannons. They are longer range and have more armour piercing and stopping power than other options, due to their very fast speed, but are very slow to fire due to the need to build up steam pressure. Quick-firing steam-cannons are not very practical at this stage. Steam-cannons generally use roundshot and smoothbore barrels.
Naval Cannons: Powder weaponry is generally breech loading and rifled. Smaller calibres (6in and below) are quick-firing, while other calibres are not. The propellant used is typically brown powder, with limited use of smokeless powder. Guns are mounted in turrets, casemates, or (very occasionally) deck mounts, or else various clever mechanisms designed to shield the operator from the aether. The mechanisms of the turret are operated by steam engine. Naval guns fire either high explosive, armour-piercing, or canister shot (mostly used for point defence).
Torpedoes: Torpedoes are large, self-propelled weapons that are fired from torpedo tubes - either fixed, semi-aimable, or (rarely, exceedingly complex, and very low fire-rate) enclosed swivel torpedo mounts. They use a complex assortment of clockwork to guide and propel themselves and are charged with steam in the torpedo room before firing. They typically use steamjets, and have very poor range, generally necessitating a fast ship to carry them in order to close the distance.
Rockets: Rockets are smaller, self-propelled weapons. They contain no guidance whatsoever and are generally propelled by chemical reactions. They are quite fast and have a higher top range than torpedos, but they are not as accurate or damaging. Whether they are mounted in racks or turrets, they generally fire in volleys. Automatic turrets fire rockets sequentially and avoid the problems of reloading rocket racks, but they are quite expensive and mechanically unreliable.
Steamjet: Steamjets are the go-to for high-performance thruster technology, but they are not without their share of problems. Because they exhaust steam directly to the outside, they have a terrible fuel economy, consuming fuel and feedwater at an impressive rate. On top of this, they do not scale up well. Because of this, anything larger than a picket boat [medium-sized human vessel] uses almost always propellers regardless of its design speed.
Propeller: Propellers are very large and must be spun at high speeds to give useful amounts of thrust in the aether. Typically, the double- or triple-expansion steam engine is used to produce rotation, and then upgeared to the speed necessary. This works well enough, but it is far from ideal. (Incidentally, this means that propellers give thrust in the atmosphere as well, although various aerodynamic effects become a problem.)
Sails: Sails are generally canvas and rope rigging, whether they are fixed or on deployable masts. They are capable of propelling a vessel to prodigious speeds (as every aether-sailor knows) but without the drag of water, it is impossible to sail up a current. This means that sail propulsion is limited to the whim of the currents, so sailors generally log predictable ones obsessively.
Armour: Armour technology is not very advanced, mostly consisting of just extra red brass plating. Limited amounts of steel are used, sandwiched between layers of aether-safe metal, which generally does not end well when the armour is cracked and exposed.
Life Support: In one of the wonders of modern technology, breathable air can be extracted from the aether using a heating element (and a catalyst to bring the temperatures down to achievable levels). This effectively removes breathing as a need, although the far more pressing matters of fuel, feedwater, food, and potable water limit voyages. Food is generally kept salted or dehydrated - portable soup ("veal glue" among more colourful names) is a perennial favourite. Also used are processed foods like meat extract and malted milk. Potable water is carried in tanks, like feedwater.
Sensor Tech: The general technology used to detect and track other vessels is an optical scope. Military ones generally have better magnification and range. After it is identified, ships are tracked by using paper. These scopes are not very ideal, having difficulties with large distances.
Fire Control: Fire solutions are not very accurate. Eyeballing is the standard, with range and speed tables as a backup. Large, bulky, and slow steam-driven mechanical computers exist (think the Analytical Engine) but without accurate information to feed them, they are not useful.
Space Radio: Intra-system communication is done by wireless telegraph. With distances on the order of a system, messages may take some time to arrive, and while communication is clear between two points in an empty system, many receivers on the line tend to cause interference. Signalling is also used, but this is obviously only useful to ships in visual range.

Spoiler: Mechanics (click to show/hide)

This is a Design Bureau game. You will be designing the equipment used by the House Sorlaria Navy, which will be used as the High Queen sees fit. You may be asked to fulfill certain requirements in a design, be asked to create a design for a certain task, or be allowed to design whatever you see as necessary - depending on the current needs of the Admiralty.

There are two phases: the Design and Production phases. In the Design phase, you can design a refit to an existing ship, a new ship with modules in it, a new component or a new technology - such as a new missile, or a new form of engine. You can draft two such projects in each Design phase. In the Production phase, I will write a report stating the campaigns the ships were used in, news on the greater situation of the House, and feedback on the designs themselves.

For each design, 2d3+1d2-2 is rolled - which gives a result of 1-6 on a bell curve. Depending on how likely a design is to overrun its goals, it will be assigned a difficulty, which affects the table it is rolled on. The tables for each difficulty is as follows:

1: The design fails to meet requirements.
2-3: The design performs as expected.
4-5: The design performs better than expected.
6: The design performs better than expected, giving a breakthrough of some kind.

1: The design fails to meet requirements.
2: The design is suboptimal in some way.
3-4: The design performs as expected.
5: The design performs better than expected.
6: The design performs better than expected, giving a breakthrough of some kind.

2 or less: The design fails to meet requirements.
3-4: The design is suboptimal in some way.
5: The design performs as expected.
6: The design performs better than expected, giving a breakthrough of some kind.

1: The design yields theoretical results only.
2-3: The design fails to meet requirements.
4: The design is suboptimal in some way.
5: The design performs as expected.
6: The design performs as expected, giving a breakthrough of some kind.

As well as attributes such as armament and machinery, ships and components have three numbers associated with them: Expense Rating, Size Rating, and Complexity Rating. Expense Rating is a number representing how material-intensive something is to produce - each unit of Expense Rating represents ¤100,000 solars. For ships, the Expense Rating is the Rating of the hull (the "base rating") added to the Expense Ratings of every component. Size Rating is a number representing the maximum number of components that can be fit into a ship of that size - for components, the Size Rating determines how many of them will fit into a ship of a given size. Complexity Rating is a number representing the level of technical expertise required to produce something. For ships, the Complexity Rating is that of the highest-rated component. For each number that the Complexity Rating is over the Industry Level of the House, 25% will be added to the Expense Rating.

Industry Level is an abstraction of the tooling capabilities of House Sorlaria. Each Industry Level allows more complex components to be produced easily.

To aid in the gauging of difficulty, for the first few turns I will give free difficulty ratings for all proposals it is asked for.

Spoiler: Example ship design (click to show/hide)

Dawn-class auxillary combat ship
The Dawn-class is a conversion from a Xinderi civilian freighter. They are slow, under-armed, and ungainly, but are relatively easy to acquire; despite this, many of their components prove challenging for local industry to construct. Most examples of the type are armed with whatever weapons they can acquire, or backstock from the limited supply of pre-independence weapons. The class typically mounts 4 external missile pods on pylons firing unguided missiles, as well as two light cannons for point defence.

Statistics:
Size Rating: 500u
Expense Rating: 50(base) + 127(fittings) * 2.25(complexity) = ¤398
Complexity Rating: C-6

Fittings:
Cargo Space (100u, ¤5, C-1)
D1000 Diesel-Electric Engine (100u, ¤12, C-4)
Ducted Propeller, Medium, Electric x2 (100u, ¤10, C-2)
MSU-1 Swarm Missile Pod x4 (100u, ¤20, C-3)
Model 2044 Light Cannon x2 (20u, ¤20, C-2)
Scout Radar/Seeker II Fire Control (80u, ¤60, C-6)
   

For your first task, the High Queen would like a patrol vessel that can be produced in sufficient numbers to defend all of the House's systems, or at least scout out positions for some future vessel with more combat capability - cheaper is better, though She has generously not given a target number. She would like the design to be ready at the end of the year 0.4 ISC (four turns from now) and has graciously given this long deadline due to recognizing the need for equipment to be designed to replace the old stocks being used currently.

[Maxim_inc]

Are we restricted only to Xinderi Tech?

[Iris]

House Sorlaria is free to blaze its own trail. I merely include the Xinderi and human technology lists to give a good idea of what is state-of-the-art for both.

[Nirur Torir]

I think that's 8 design actions.
For a basic run, we could go radio+rocket, armor+engine, propeller+radar, gun+ship.

I think we only have complexity 1 industry. We might be able to squeeze in a basic long range radar and a fire control as separate entities to reduce complexity, but it'll probably still get expensive. We could cut costs by dropping FC in favor of radios, and laying down a wall of rockets, with crew-aimed guns for some attempt at PD or for finishing off ships crippled by rockets. We might want to leave the guns for last, in case we need to re-design a more important component.

We might be able to work out a scout carrier instead. Rocket+engine, propeller+steamjet, radar+parasite external bay, fighter/scout+carrier. The carrier would be nearly defenseless alone, and would need a radio conversion in the future. As a bonus, strike craft could be produced in large numbers for planetary defense.

[Iris]

Yes, you are allowed 8 design actions, and yes, your Industry Level is currently 1.

[Aseaheru]

 Well, currently at a complete lack of technology, we would probably be looking more at human-eque technology than Xinderi...

 So, what do we need for a picket ship? Engines(and perhaps boilers), drive system, communications, sensors, some form of weapon, small craft and/or spacesuits... personal weapons?


Components

Spoiler: Basics Powerplant Family (click to show/hide)

 This is a return to the dark ages of technology, a water-tube boiler using phlog-enhanced oils to produce steam, a bash-valve steam engine to convert that steam into rotational energy(with the steam of course being captured for reuse), and an electrical generator to convert that energy into usable form. Several different sizes of boilers, engines and generators exist for different size requirements, and can be used for anything from portable power generation to powering great skytowers.

Spoiler: Propellers (click to show/hide)

 These are, well, ducted propellers utilizing electric motors, designed to be capable of rotation in atleast one direction on a vessel, based on existent designs.

Spoiler: Rotational Motivators (click to show/hide)

 One method occasionally utilized by parasite craft is a device to change direction without applying external force, by applying internal force. Large spinning masses are mounted in sealed capsules containing nothing but the masses, and this capsule is mounted on motorized gimbals that when rotating the mass, changes the rotors angular momentum, producing torque to change the altitude of the craft it is mounted within. While these rotational motivators(or, as some like to call them, Control Moment Gyroscopes) are incapable of providing thrust, they would allow our vessels to change orientation far faster than relying only on external thrust.

Spoiler: Compressed-Aetherstuff Propulsion (click to show/hide)

 The Aether is a liquid, and if we can get the Phlog out of it its a compressible liquid. Well, separate out the phlog, compress the remaining aetherstuff, perhaps heat it up, and expel it with force out of the craft, you have a handy method of providing thrust without having to bring fuel along with you(except perhaps what goes into the powerplant powering all this). Useless, perhaps, for any form of serious propulsion, but for altitude control, well, quite useful.

Spoiler: Sails (click to show/hide)

 Aethersails are archaic, but still useful. By improving the materials used in construction of the sails, rigging, and masts, we can provide much the same thrust with a smaller profile, allowing us to equip our ships with auxiliary methods of propulsion or a handy backup system.

Spoiler: Mk0 Wireless Family (click to show/hide)

 This is a family in three parts: simple communications systems, wireless detection systems, and gun laying systems.
 The first element, the communications system, is a superheterodyne receiver(or set thereof) pared with transmitting circuits using vacuum tubes for amplification, with antennas of the whip-type for small sets, loop antennas for high-frequency transmission, and random-line antennas for general receiving, with radio sets using random-line antenna and whips being fitted with so-called T-R switches to allow receiving while transmitting.
 The second element of the set is the Wireless Detection system, using so-called slot antennas to send out their signal in the microwave range and being received by the same antenna, with displays showing the results aboard the vessel. Three of these sets(offset at 120° form eachother) allow for triangulation in the vertical, alwell as minimizing blindspots.
 The third and final element of these systems is the gun laying system, which is very similar to the wireless detection system, differing mainly in type of antenna and location; the gun laying system is slaved to a gun turret(or turrets) and automatically allows for adjustment of the weapon(s) as the target moves, with offsets capable of being selected by the gunnery officer.

Spoiler: Mk0 Cannon Family (click to show/hide)

 This is a family of three weapons and their ammunition, which are intended to allow our troops to protect themselves and the Queens with confidence.
 The first weapon is the Rapid Fire Weapon, a twin-barreled gas-operated weapon using the gasses of one barrel's chamber firing to allow the other to have its action worked. While this may not be as fast as some other methods(such as the externally driven systems present on some Xinderi vessels) this weapon does allow for instant readiness and reaction. The RFW is small in caliber (~25mm) and is very high rate of fire, with a belt feed being utilized to supply ammunition. This weapon may be mounted in the open on manual mounts, or in a powered turret. Projectiles are often of solid type, but may contain small quantities of explosive fillers should production suffice.
 Turrets for the RFW may be manned or remote, may be for single or two guns, and may have integrated sensors such as infared-focused Electronic Eyes(for use against missiles), Bio-Eye cameras, and/or gun laying wireless systems.
 The second weapon of this family is a fairly low-pressure launcher of utility ordinance known as the Light Automatic Cannon, with a bore of some (~80mm). This weapon is breach-loaded and feeds from a chute holding four rounds, and a large variety of rounds have been developed for it, including high-explosive, smoke, incendiary, and chemical-effect-penetrator. This weapon may be found in open mounts or in manned turrets(as the loading mechanism requires crew at the weapon). On-mount sensors are rare, but do sometimes exist, and are mentioned when used.
 The third weapon, known simply as the Medium Cannon, is a semi-automatic weapon with an externally powered autoloader designed to throw projectiles of some (~130mm), including solid shot, high-explosive, smoke, flare rounds to blind optical sensors, and Wireless; a type of high-explosive round using a small radio transmitter and receiver to detonate in proximity to the target. This weapon is designed exclusively for use in powered turrets mounting between one and two guns, and almost always with sensor systems integrated into the turret.
 The fourth and final weapon, the Heavy Cannon, lives up to its name and is of a concept nearly obsolete among the Xinderi, a large-bore gun firing massive shells. In this case, rounds some (~300mm) in diameter, and massing as much as a small runabout. Other than their immense size and weight, these weapons are most similar to the Medium Cannon, firing much the same type of shells and with similar reloading systems. One thing to note is that these cannon are not always mounted in a turret, with some uses instead involving fixed examples of this weapon. Indeed, turret-mounted versions are extremely rare.

Spoiler: Mk0 Fire Control System (click to show/hide)

 This is, simply put, an electronic computer using far toomany vacuum tubes to compute(in binary) the needed corrections to a guns aiming point to hit a target while accounting for dozens of factors, including shell velocity, aether density, speed of both the targeting platform and the one being targeted, angle of both, and so on.

Spoiler: Mk0 Rocket Family (click to show/hide)

 These are a family of rockets, typically solid fuel, in several sizes, with some being capable of being fitted with (extremely limited) guidance systems(mostly in the form of "after launch come to this bearing and if traveled for this long, self destruct"). Weapon sizes include ~50mm, ~300mm, ~500mm, and ~850mm, hence referred to as groups A-D, in order.
 Group A are small solid-fuel rockets, typically fired en-mass from box launchers or pods, and are currently never guided. Group A rockets may have one of a number of warhead types, including smoke, illumination, HE and chemical-effect-penetrator. Launching systems include: 16-round pods; 32 round pods.
 Group B are larger weapons, still single-stage, still solid fuel, fired from box launchers, and are guided about 1/4 of the time(with guidance systems typically being "fire and forget", such as electronic eyes(with or without a target-illuminating light on the target) or bio eyes). Warheads are almost always HE, although smoke, chemical-effect-penetrator, and proximity-kinetic(which are designed to explode when close to the target, creating a cloud of sharp, dense shrapnel) versions are developed. Launchers for this system include 2-round boxes(used almost always only in small craft), 7-round clusters(sometimes mounted two to a mount), 16 round boxes, or 32 round boxes(for particularly large mounts)
 Group C are single-stage liquid fuel weapons some (~6.5m) long, designed for medium range(but still line-of-sight) engagements. These weapons are universally guided(often with wireless guidance guidance sets), and carry large high-explosive warheads or proximity-kinetic warheads. These weapons are launched from tubes or from pylons, where the tubes may be embedded vertically or horizontally in a vessel(often with an adjacent magazine capable of containing eight additional missiles), or in open mounts on a deck, often in groups of rounds(2 or 5 tube "gangs" are most common). Pylon mounts are nearly always reserved for use with parasite craft, such as Toenails.
 Group D are massive weapons that weigh as much as some parasite craft, some (~10m) in length. These weapons are multi-stage, using solid boosters for the first stage, liquid fuel rockets for cruising, and a "boost" stage of further rockets for final run. These weapons have HE warheads that operate like a cannon's HE shell against armor(penetrating into the target and then exploding), and are guided by specialized wireless sets giving course corrections. These guidance sets can be mounted on parasite craft, and are what control the "boost" stage. These weapons also have a fail safe, in that if they receive no signal with the code they are expecting within 10 minutes of last contact they self-destruct, in addition to the standard "I have no fuel and (five minutes) has passed" present on all rockets of this family.
 Launchers for Group D missiles come in two forms; single-shot box launchers often aligned horizontally in the direction of the vessel's bow; or from internal tubes with adjacent magazines, akin to Group C instillations writ large.

Potential ship ideas

Spoiler: Toenail-Class Lighter (click to show/hide)

 Toenails are small craft, based on a design developed for more... technically minded Queens to shine their wingcovers on the basics of aetherflight. Using stored electricity for power and compressed aether-stuff jets for propulsion, these typically unarmed vessels are for utility work, with every long-range vessel playing host to atleast one. For the bloodyminded, weapons may be mounted, such as missiles(with a pod of Group A, a pair of Group B, or a single Group C) or a RFW pod being carried. Likewise, these vessels can also be configured for a number of roles other than direct combat, such as a SAR version equipped with bioeyes, an extra airlock, and a specialist stretcher-lock; wireless detection systems; wireless guidance systems(for directing Group C and D missiles), or any number of other, lesser sorts.

Spoiler: Eye-Class Picketship (click to show/hide)

 This is a orbital guard craft, with its main role acting as a tripwire and keeping the queens from killing themselves in accidents. To this end, these vessels are lightly armed(one LAC turret forward ventral, two RFW in open mounts with one aft ventral and one dorsal, and sometimes Group A rocket pods to lay smokescreens), with their main concern being their playing host for three parasite craft, with three docking pylons being equipped for fueling attached parasites linked directly to the sickbay in addition to another three for visitors. Armor is non-existent, power is provided by Basics systems, propulsion is ducted propellers and compressed-aetherstuff for changing orientation; and power is provided such to provide signifigant acceleration for an independent aethercraft, the better to respond to accidents. Sensors consist of optical wireless detection and a fairly large number of bio-eyes, but no gun laying systems or fire control are provided.

Spoiler: Foot-Class Patrolship (click to show/hide)

 These are the kitchen sink of vessel and the first to be able to be said to be true warships. Three Medium Cannon turrets are present, each holding two guns(ventral has one fore and one aft, dorsal has one forward), four LAC(one per broadside per deck), eight RFW turrets(two per broadside per deck), several mounting points for self-defense Group A rockets, and a Group C battery(ten tubes total, one set of five per broadside, aft, dorsal) round out its weapons, and there is support for two "organically attached"(i.e., treated as standard vessel equipment) of two parasites. Due to the long duration of the Foot's intended missions, the three docking ports are supplemented by a small internal wetdock for maintenance of these organic parasites. These vessels have every form of propulsion in the book, are lightly armored, and possess every electronic goodie and sensor we have, all to better suit their main roles of long-distance scouting and a light combatant.

Spoiler: Rock-Class Monitor (click to show/hide)

 Rock-Class Monitors is what one gets if they look at an aether-fortress and decides that it would be a good idea to have a smaller version. Nearly immobile, Rocks are heavily armed and armored(atleast, on one direction). Due to mass distribution, these vessels have a comparatively small dorsal section notable for its extremely heavy armor, three vertically-aligned heavy cannon in limited-traverse mounts, a large number of redundant sensor systems carefully arrayed so as to not be lost all at once, and no less than ten remotely-operated and retractable RFW turrets per broadside. Meanwhile, the much larger ventral section plays host to large quantities of wireless antennas for communicating with parasites or supporting units, two twin-gun medium cannon turrets per broadside, a quartet of Light Automatic Cannon turrets per broadside, a further selection of ten twin-gun RFW turrets per broadside, a pair of Group D missile launchers(with nine missiles each) in what on a more mobile vessel would be called fore and aft, four Type C missile launchers(nine missiles each) mounted with two flanking each Group D launcher, and two large wetdock "hangars", with each sized to hold atleast two hands(i.e., eight) of parasites. Provisions for docking a further four hands(16) externally are also present. Light armor covers the ventral section, in an effort to reduce damage from blast effects.
 Finally, propulsion. Being designed to keep the dorsal face of the vessel towards the enemy at all times, the Rocks have a large number of Rotational Motivators to align itself and track targets, while a compressed aetherstuff jet system works to provide some limited, minor, mobility, with its main use being to counteract the recoil of the heavy cannons mounted on the vessel.
 Initial deployment of these vessels is necessarily via tugs, often civilian vessels hired for the purpose.

[Rockeater]

Some form of telescope/binoculars or something to allow better visibility is pretty good for scouting ship.

[NUKE9.13]

So, to clarify- we currently have nothing, right? Everything has to be designed from scratch?

Also, what components does a ship need for bare minimum functionality?

[Iris]

So, to clarify- we currently have nothing, right? Everything has to be designed from scratch?

Also, what components does a ship need for bare minimum functionality?

Yes. All components need to be designed from scratch.

A ship, at the very minimum, needs a powerplant and propulsion system. Other components are not vital, but are generally important to the mission. Cannons and missiles without a fire control computer or radio set (depending on guidance - self-contained missiles do not have this restriction) respectively will suffer inaccuracy, sometimes quite heavily. Ditto for gun-laying systems. Radar is important for detection, especially at the ranges of the longer missiles, and radio sets are also generally important for operating parasites. None of these are strictly necessary, but performance will suffer without them. You will have to strike a balance between capability and complexity.

[NUKE9.13]

Next question, can we do anything to improve the Industry Level, or will it grow over time regardless of our input?

[Iris]

Later, you may gain the capacity to increase the Industry Level, but at this time it is under the control of the High Queen and Her bureaucracy.

[Aseaheru]

 Since I forgot about optics for some strange reason...

Spoiler: Electronic Eye Systems (click to show/hide)

 This system is a fairly simple system, using light-sensitive electronics(available in a number of spectrums, including infrared and visible light) and a large mask of light-conducting pipes that allows them to have a fairly tight view. This system is mainly used to direct systems to points of bright light(or conversely, the absence thereof), for uses such as missile guidance or alerting crew to the presence of "hot spots" or(again) "cold spots". Combined with a highly-focused light, this system may also be used for range finding, measuring the amount of time between a burst of light being sent out and an increase of luminosity being observed. Significant work is done to tune the frequency of the lights(and their receivers) to avoid false positives.

 TLDR:
>Awful fiber-optics connecting a fairly small space to an array of light-sensitive electronics, showing "hot spots" of high quantities of light(or "cold spots" of abnormally dark spaces), capable of being used for missile guidance
>Version tuned for IR, giving primitive heat tracking when combined with the right stuff
>Rangefinding version using focused lights in portions of the spectrum not likely to have false positives, AKA primitive(and I mean primitive) LIDAR

Spoiler: Bio Eye Guidance & Detection System (click to show/hide)

 There is a native species on our world, a small flying creature with exceptional eyesight, fairly decent brainpower, the ability to be trained, and the capacity of being easily kept(and bred) in captivity. When suitably trained, these creatures may be used as early warning systems or for missile guidance with the aid of a pressure-sensitive screen and a "video camera" providing an image to project on it, which the creature is trained to hit when they see an enemy vessel, on the enemy vessel
 Alternatively, for civil use, they can be trained to "attack" a particular color, allowing emergency equipment(such as emergency pressure suits or lifeboats) to be more easily recognized at range, with a repeater being provided for crew to see what the creature is looking at.
 Necessarily, this development project also requires the development of gimbaled cameras, for use outside of missile guidance systems

 TLDR: Pigeon Guided Missiles anyone?

Hey Íris, any word on what the difficulty of all this stuff is?

[Iris]

All of it, or just that post?

[Aseaheru]

all of it please, particularly the botes

[Iris]

Giving difficulty checks (and some messing about with Anydice) has shown me that a simple debuff will not work well. Because of this, I've decided to write new charts for each difficulty level instead. I have also decided to add another difficulty, Easy, and shift the harshest difficulty from Extremely Difficult to Very Difficult.

1: The design fails to meet requirements.
2-3: The design performs as expected.
4: The design performs better than expected.
5 or more: The design performs better than expected, giving a breakthrough of some kind.

1: The design fails to meet requirements.
2: The design is suboptimal in some way.
3-4: The design performs as expected.
5: The design performs better than expected.
6: The design performs better than expected, giving a breakthrough of some kind.

2 or less: The design fails to meet requirements.
3-4: The design is suboptimal in some way.
5: The design performs as expected.
6: The design performs better than expected, giving a breakthrough of some kind.

1: The design yields theoretical results only.
2-3: The design fails to meet requirements.
4: The design is suboptimal in some way.
5: The design performs as expected.
6: The design performs as expected, giving a breakthrough of some kind.

Difficulty checks will come soon when I'm used to the new system. I will also update the OP.