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[Man of Paper]

Core Thread

It's 3155 and those Weitraum fiends have decided their military dominance is more important than our border integrity. While we can't be certain who struck the first blow, we are determined to strike the last. You will be pivotal in this goal as you develop mechs for use in our glorious Imperial Defense Force. The IDF looks forward to utilizing the Hitman as well as whatever other metal beasts you make.

The first larger engagements we will be introducing our BattleMech forces in are predicted to take place on the planets of Keiko's Rest and Vordwelt. Both planets are temperate with low civilian populations. Keiko's Rest will be a largely defensive operation, with the protection of mech production facilities being the primary objective. Vordwelt is our first objective in the war and serves to provide the Republic with a wealth of resources we could utilize ourselves. Battles on this planet will often take place in wide open fields.

We're counting on you to provide us with mechs capable of securing dominance on the field. Good luck!

Remember, you have TWO DESIGNS to utilize. Also remember that you cannot make a wholly new Chassis without a credit!

Spoiler: Weapons/Components (click to show/hide)

Small Weapons
Small Lasers: Low-power energy weapons that draw from a mech's power source. Low power draw, but low range and low damage as a result. Cheap
"Akita" 12.5mm Machine Gun: A 12.5mm machine gun that fires 300 rounds a minute. Effective against infantry and light armor. Cheap

Components
WO.Mk4 Fusion Engine: A fusion engine designed by the Weitraum Republic and Okinasu Empire. Functional, but can catastrophically explode if it takes a significant blow. Efficacy of this engine drops precipitously as mass and energy weapons are added to a chassis. Cheap
Jump Jets: Jet boosters that allow a mech to subject itself to a loosely controlled launch in a parabolic arc and subsequent loosely controlled landing. A larger number of jump jets are needed for higher mass chassis. Cheap
Subpar Heat Sink Bank: A collection of heat sinks meant to release excess thermal energy produced by a mech in order to keep the meat inside from cooking beyond medium. Slightly more effective than putting a fan in the cockpit. Cheap
Standard Steel Armor: A basic, cheap form of protection. Can stop small arms and lighter vehicle-based weaponry, and can resist smaller mech-sized weapons with some regularity. Cheap

Spoiler: Chassis/Mechs (click to show/hide)

HTM-1 "Hitman": A 30 ton bipedal mech with a cubed torso and a fixed domed head holding the cockpit. The torso can rotate up to 90 degrees in either direction. The HTM-1 has a Small Mount in the center of the torso housing an "Akita" 12.5mm Machine Gun with its ammo and a Small Mount on each side of the torso for a pair of Small Lasers. The side mounts have limited horizontal traversal but can be adjusted vertically +/-60 degrees. The torso mount has a greater freedom of movement, allowing it to fire on close targets much smaller than itself. The HTM-1 utilizes a WO.Mk4 Fusion Engine to provide power throughout. Jump Jets in the upper legs provide some ability to get airborne and control descents. The HTM-1 runs fairly hot during prolonged combat tests due to an inefficient pair of Subpar Heat Sink Banks in the torso flanking the "spine". The HTM-1 uses Standard Steel Armor for protection against smaller weaponry and some defense against an equivalent mech. Cheap

[Rockeater]

Nothing in particular now

[m1895]

AC-25 "Raijin" Autocannon, 25mm
Our latest light mech weapon, the Raijin boasts a formidable rate of fire and respectable firepower, but most importantly can swap between 3 separate belts seamlessly. High Explosive Incendiary rounds to rip apart infantry and unarmored vics. Sabot rounds for penetrating modestly armored targets, and a shorter belt of "Hypervelocity" rounds that can penetrate somewhat heavy armor, but aside from their considerable cost, also rapidly degrade barrel life.

[Rockeater]

Closed loop/ Open loop cooling system
In standard workliquidthe Cl/Ol works similarly to standard AC system with cooling liquid passing through main channels, compressed, passed outside to disperse heat and returns to base, barley more powerful than our current heatsinks, but in the case a major cooling is needed, the open loop system goes active, the cooling liquid is diverted from the compressor straight to be damped outside, extra liquid is pumped from the reservoir in high pressure which opens the pressure control valves to the much more numerous secondary channels, allowing much more extensive and faster cooling, of course the system can't last in this state for long without ressuply, but it does allow handling much bigger heat sources

Pulse Fusion secondary engine
Similar to the dounat shaped standard fusion engine but with the plumbing on the interior loop and the rest of the magnetic loop held by pistons farther away then the central loop, when the engine is activated an explosive charge  in the positions pushes the loop into closing and the fusion fuel is pumped into the loop and the energy is harvested, as the pistons return to their original positions the energy is passed to a capacitors array allowing this massive energy excess to last a few seconds.

Engine is probably too big for our current mech, so I suggest the main capacitor array, which could probably work as a revision.
Main capacitor array
A central array of capacitors able to be charged from the main engine and supply extra power for needing system for short time before requiring another charge.

Will probably need to think of better names, but my idea is to make what needed for a powerful alpha strike weapon

A weapon to go with the idea, I don't think putting the charge with the weapon gonna work in the long run but it does give us an option for now
Capacitive Laser
A similar design to the small laser but with higher quality components capable of standing larger change and a capacitor bank, can either fire like the small laser or spend the capacitors to fire a more powerful shot and have the capacitors recharge over time.

[Knightwing64]

Empire is great

[frostgiant]

Type 25, 40mm Precision Cannon

Based around a 40mm shell, the Precision cannon trades fire rate in the name of a steady, medium-range paced style of shooting, In order to keep enemy mechs out at a range, in order to help maintain the rather subpar armour that is mounted on the current generation of HITMEN and has been specialized for taking out enemy mechs and Heavy vehicles.

While the precision cannon is designed with a rather small caliber in comparison to many Anti tank guns in history, The small caliber enables a relatively high shell count to be mounted, and subsequently emptied towards enemy forces. In combination with the shell's nature as SABOT rounds, the hope is that the precision cannon will be able to put down enemy mechs swiftly while still being mountable in the small mounts of the HITMAN Mech.

 WOO MK1 Fusion engine “Donutstacker”
A dissection and reconstruction of the WO mk 4, The WOO Mk1 has been designed from the ground up in order to primarily prevent the explosive destabilization that had been common in the WO mk 4 when under fire and increase the output of the engine in order to increase the amount of mass and weapons that can be equipped to the hitman. Part one is an increase of casing thickness, Making the Fusion engine thatmuch harder to actually damage.

Afterwards, a series of Decompression rings, similar to the primary chamber of the engine were added, sandwiching the primary chamber, earning the nickname of the Donut stack, from the technicians assigned to maintain them, These Decompression rings work similarly to the primary chamber, and serve to split the reaction in the primary chamber over these rings when threatened, allowing the Engine to safely decrease pressure when damage, while at the same time not losing power completely. These decompression chambers typically hold smaller reactions, ensuring the environment is ready as needed for the energies of the primary chamber, Contributing to the amount of power put out by the engine until such a time the primary chamber requires discharge, at which point the decompression rings will fill with the extra plasma from the primary engine and keep the power flowing and the engine working as the reactor rebalances itself.

In the event of an explosion, a series of valves will vent plasma out and towards a series of mountings in the skeleton that will be rapidly reduced to liquid metal, creating a series of weak points where the rapidly expanding energy from the destabilized engine will push out as the path of least resistance, ensuring the resulting explosion is channeled back, out and up, Protecting both the pilot, the majority of the mech for salvage and surrounding forces IF all goes to plan. In this way, the WOO Mk1 will provide more power to the Mech, ensuring heavier loadouts are possible, as well as render the engine much safer and harder to detonate by weapons fire.

“Slab” Steel ceramic Armour Plating

Formed from a 3 layered composition, The slab Sandwhiches a thick plate, Tripple the other layers, Of ceramic in between two layers of Steel similar to our standard steel armour.
The First layer protects the surface of the ceramic from light attacks, deflecting infantry small arms and light weaponry in order to help protect the integrity of the primary ceramic layer.
The ceramic is designed to crumble under weapons fire, throwingup particulate in order to diffuse laser strikes and rob kinetic strikes of their kinetic energy as it crumbles. This is backstopped by the last layer of Steel that provides structure to the first two layers and ensure that, IF the central ceramic have been compromised, infantry grade weaponry is still incapable of damage and protect internal structures.

In all hopes, The disposable nature of the SLAB due to the central ceramic layer will be outweigh by its ability to turn enemy weapons fire away, Protecting the mech and keeping it in the fight longer under weapons fire.

Feel like we definitely should hit up that engine first, A engine that explodes if it takes more than a glance is not a good thing.

[Doomblade187]

Type 25, 40mm Precision Cannon (1): Doomblade
Donutstacker (1): Doomblade

[m1895]

Type 25, 40mm Precision Cannon (2): Doomblade, m1895
Donutstacker (2): Doomblade, m1895

[frostgiant]

Type 25, 40mm Precision Cannon (3): Doomblade, m1895,Frostgiant
Donutstacker (3): Doomblade, m1895,Frostgiant

[Man of Paper]

Proposal: Type 25, 40mm Precision Cannon
Difficulty: Very Easy
Result: (4+1)+2=7; Average

The Type 25 is a Small Weapon that works exactly as you'd expect it to.

The 40mm sabot rounds are effective high velocity munitions, maintaining relative accuracy over the Akita at range and offering light anti-armor capabilities. The Type 25 is tuned for a high rate of fire at 180 RPM, which can lead to some withering fire in combination with the weapon's ability to stay generally on-target. The only drawback from the Type 25 comes from heat production, with questionable design decisions seeing captured gas and heat directed into the mech and through its cooling systems as opposed to outward and not having the mech deal with the majority of heat production at all. By itself this issue should be negligible, but it may prove to be the straw that breaks the camels back with mechs that run hot or in environments that don't allow much heat dissipation.

The Type 25, 40mm Precision Cannon is made for Small Mounts and is considered Cheap.


Proposal: WOO MK1 Fusion engine “Donutstacker”
Difficulty: Very Hard
Result: (3+2)-2=3; Buggy Mess

While we will never publicly admit that the Weitraum engineers contributed a good bit to the fusion engine project, a number of our engineers find themselves quietly missing the aid of their former coresearchers.

The Fusion engine itself sees a very minimal increase in power generation thanks to the addition of two decompression rings to the fusion core. These decompression rings do little more than delay a catastrophic meltdown for a couple more seconds in practice. In the event of a catastrophic failure, we are going to be very hard-pressed to actually contain a fusion-based explosion. This is probably where we hit our developmental speedbump and unfortunately we have nothing to show for it save for a couple nifty exhaust pipes (that don't pipe out excess hot gas or otherwise aid in heat dispersion).

The WOO MK1 Fusion engine “Donutstacker” is Cheap because, frankly, a lot of corners were cut trying to develop it. That's what happens when the government buys from the lowest bidder!


----


It is now the Revision Phase! You have two revisions to modify or alter your existing weapons, components, and mechs as you see fit!

Spoiler: Weapons/Components (click to show/hide)

Small Weapons
Small Lasers: Low-power energy weapons that draw from a mech's power source. Low power draw, but low range and low damage as a result. Cheap

"Akita" 12.5mm Machine Gun: A 12.5mm machine gun that fires 300 rounds a minute. Effective against infantry and light armor. Cheap
"Type 25" 40mm Precision Cannon: An automatic 40mm cannon firing sabot rounds at 180 RPM. Provides anti-armor capability at close and medium ranges. Produces some heat. Cheap

Components
WO.Mk4 Fusion Engine: A fusion engine designed by the Weitraum Republic and Okinasu Empire. Functional, but can catastrophically explode if it takes a significant blow. Efficacy of this engine drops precipitously as mass and energy weapons are added to a chassis. Cheap
WOO MK1 Fusion engine “Donutstacker”: A fusion engine designed by the Okinasu Empire. The decompression chambers sandwiching the reactor core do little more than provide a small power bump. Definitely does not divert entire fusion explosions out of exhaust pipes. Cheap

Jump Jets: Jet boosters that allow a mech to subject itself to a loosely controlled launch in a parabolic arc and subsequent loosely controlled landing. A larger number of jump jets are needed for higher mass chassis. Cheap

Subpar Heat Sink Bank: A collection of heat sinks meant to release excess thermal energy produced by a mech in order to keep the meat inside from cooking beyond medium. Slightly more effective than putting a fan in the cockpit. Cheap

Standard Steel Armor: A basic, cheap form of protection. Can stop small arms and lighter vehicle-based weaponry, and can resist smaller mech-sized weapons with some regularity. Cheap

Spoiler: Chassis/Mechs (click to show/hide)

HTM-1 "Hitman": A 30 ton bipedal mech with a cubed torso and a fixed domed head holding the cockpit. The torso can rotate up to 90 degrees in either direction. The HTM-1 has a Small Mount in the center of the torso housing an "Akita" 12.5mm Machine Gun with its ammo and a Small Mount on each side of the torso for a pair of Small Lasers. The side mounts have limited horizontal traversal but can be adjusted vertically +/-60 degrees. The torso mount has a greater freedom of movement, allowing it to fire on close targets much smaller than itself. The HTM-1 utilizes a WO.Mk4 Fusion Engine to provide power throughout. Jump Jets in the upper legs provide some ability to get airborne and control descents. The HTM-1 runs fairly hot during prolonged combat tests due to an inefficient pair of Subpar Heat Sink Banks in the torso flanking the "spine". The HTM-1 uses Standard Steel Armor for protection against smaller weaponry and some defense against an equivalent mech. Cheap

[frostgiant]

Wasabi Variant WOO mk1 Donutstacker
The orginal donutstacker is… a little embarrasing, Although there isn’t enough time to start from scratch. As such the design teams have broken out the most essential tool in an engineers arsenal Duct tape improvisation. 

Scrapping the use of the Decompression rings as Decompression rings, The Wasabi instead modifies them to continue running a similar reaction to the main chamber, turning them into secondary reactor cores in the name of more raw power. In the event of an explosion, this will, of course, mean a bigger boom, but until then at least the Wasabi will be providing a much higher level of power to the mech that encases it, Hopefully avoiding that fate.

In the name of, you know, not blowing up, The wasabi has given up on containment or mitigation, now Fully banking on prevention and encasing the Reactor im a relatively thick layer of rounded steel in order to prevent penetration, even at the cost of deflecting rounds towards other parts of the mechs internals in the name of preventing a sure kill detonation.

First take on an ad hoc to at least get a good engine out of the Donutstacker, if anyone has a more elegant solution I'm all ears but this would give us a better (If still clunky) engine while not eating to high on difficulty

Spoiler: Ratakataka 40mm Autocannon (click to show/hide)

Designed around similar 40mm shells to the succeful type 25 and essentially a direct cousin in terms of liange, The ratakataka  is designed to fire a 4 round burst of these large shells, at which point it will cool, preparing for another four round burst so as not to melt the barrel via fully automatic firing of such large shells. This four round burst enables the Ratakataka not only to punch through large amounts of armour due to similar impact zones, it enables a large amount of damage as the relatively large shells impact the target.
This burst fire,  of 40 mm shells in almost assured to dealmore carnage compared ito its smaller, single shot cousin, Trading weight for speed of fire and destructive force.

In a design swerve away from its younger cousin of a cannon in a design that holds very close to it, The Ratakataka has been designed explicitly to vent the Gas produced during it sfiring cycle out, instead of in and forcing internal cooling to deal with it. This is done via a blowback mechanism on the armoured outside covering of the cannon. When fired the armoured covering is pushed back by the explosive gas, allowing it to escape out into the atmosphere before it rocks back and locks into place, until unlocked by the firing mechanism again.

This produces a visual sight not unlike the slide of a Pistol, albeight many time larger, thicker and happening on both the top and bottom simultaneously in order to vent the hot gas produced by the 4 rapid firing shells in the most rapid fashion possible.

In order to ensure maximum carnage, The Ratakataka fires both the old sabot round, as well as an Armour piercing explosive round in alternation. This allows for the sabot to first strike the target, compromising the defences, at which point the APE will hit a similar location, followed by another Sabot and APE, Gouging holes out of both the target's armour and the internals of the target.

Aaand this is for later when the Type25 starts getting outpaced.

[m1895]

HTM-1* "Hitman II"
This is a simple variant of the Hitman that replaces the two small lasers with Type-25s, the Akita being retained for anti-infantry purposes. The basic WO.Mk4 has been replaced with the WOO MK1 "Donutstacker" engine, providing a small boost in overall power.

Wasabi Variant WOO Mk1 Donutstacker: (1) m1895
HTM-1* "Hitman II" (1) m1895

[frostgiant]

Wasabi Variant WOO Mk1 Donutstacker: (2) m1895, Frostgiant
HTM-1* "Hitman II" (1) m1895
-Renamed it HTM-1TO (1) Frostgiant

Yep, this is about right. but There is no way I am voting for that naming system.

[Rockeater]

Wasabi Variant WOO Mk1 Donutstacker: (3) m1895, Frostgiant, Rockeater
HTM-1* "Hitman II" (1) m1895
-Renamed it HTM-1TO (1) Frostgiant
-Renamed it HTM-1-1 (1) Rockeater

[Doomblade187]

Wasabi Variant WOO Mk1 Donutstacker: (4) m1895, Frostgiant, Rockeater, Doomblade
HTM-1* "Hitman II" (1) m1895
-Renamed it HTM-1TO (1) Frostgiant
-Renamed it HTM-1-1 (1) Rockeater
-Renamed it HTM-1.1 (1) Doomblade