Work Drone Utility

FRG Thor had taken me a very long time to build, as every digital matter signature needed to be combinated manually, every hull rivet driven in by hand, every weld put down by me meter by meter, and every computer wired and programmed between coffee breaks... It was very slow going as a one-man job... even with the wonders of modern technology at my disposal.

It was time for help.

I created a new work drone that could assist me in collecting materials from the digital matter signature storage facility, and combinate them into the correct format as determined by plans and blueprints, altered in real time as required.  The drone could be operated manually, remotely, or be fully automated while I stirred extra cream into the next coffee.

The base unit is a robotic simple AI with 4 cameras, flashing danger lights, work lights, and 3 attachment points.

The basic initial setup for the WDU includes a power-generation device, fusion welder, small fusion reactor, and a portable digital matter combinator and storage device.

With no defensive or offensive abilities, the WDU is created entirely to assist with building and maintaining infrastructure.

The Work Drone Utility was born, and I immediately set it about creating another 5 just like it.

I watched with delight as the first generated the second, then they both generated another, and so on... geometrically getting faster and faster with the building until finally the last Work Drone Utility took around a quarter of the time that the first one had built the second.  It was poetry in motion.

The rapid consumption of Threns and Mattise in the build forced me to locate my first Tekt and Jisper asteroids.

It left me free to mine or dream up new concepts for the growth of my budding empire while my automated work force went about carrying out my instructions.

The first task I gave my new work force (apart from creating itself) was to create a rack and reload system on the Dry Station infrastructure that would both serve as storage for the units when they were not being operated as well as a place where they could obtain instructions and digital matter signatures for their projects while in operation.

The WDU rack fits 6 units, with the option to easily expand to cope with many others in the future.

Digital Matter Signatures and instructions are transmitted into the docked WDUs via a new cable link

The Work Drone Utility (WDU) has greatly improved my build speeds, and the work sites are always clearly visible even from a long distance due to the collection of flashing orange danger lights the WDUs emit.

WDU is downloadable and available for public use for free.  Simply unzip the folder into your "blueprints" folder (eg: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\StarMade\StarMade\blueprints) and you will have access to this machine in-game under "Catalog" menu.

R&D Deck

Research and Development is something I enjoy.  It is also something that is critical for keeping ahead of the game and ensuring that your enemy does not overtake and destroy you.

For now I seemed to be surviving in my tiny patch of space despite having attacked several pirate strongholds.

Some of the data files I had obtained from destroyed ships and stations indicated several types of technologies that I had not yet figured out how to use (or even build) and some of the treasures looted from the same ships and stations contained devices that I did not understand.

R&D therefore became a priority for me.

To research new items I would need a sandbox to experiment with.  I resolved to build a small, well-lit deck above my factory complex where it would be shielded by Dry Station's shields, be wired directly into the power grid, and have easy access to my digital signature storage facility and factory.

The structure for the base of the R&D Deck perches on top the existing facilities.

Once the basic structure was in place, the deck was put down along with two elevated wing platforms designed for master control systems and experiment observation.

Lighting was providing by some very powerful halogen post lamps attached to the rim of the deck.

Deck is lit from below and above, giving good all round illumination of future experiments.

The operational deck measures 15x25 meters, with an additional 1m rim... plenty of space for basic experiments.

Once the R&D Deck was operational, I began immediately by experimenting with logic circuits (basic triggers and switches and timers to begin with), along with... explosives!  Oh yes.  I love R&D.

Logic circuits can be anything from simple ticking signals through to entire actual CPU's.

Logic was complicated and would require a great deal of research, trial and error.
After successfully developing a simple ticking circuit, I moved on to the explosive warhead trials.

I determined to measure the exact effectiveness of warhead explosions, by seeing how much range and damage was produced by exploding various payloads on a measured rod constructed of basic hull material.

Explosive Warheads obtained from pirate loot was one of my more entertaining experiments.

A tiny charge of 2 warheads had a blast radius of 7 meters, with enough force to obliterate hull in that radius.

A larger charge of 27 warheads (13.5 times the cost)...

..increases blast radius by 1 meter (and damage done in that radius by a noticeable amount).

My experiments confirmed what I had suspected for a long time - that many smaller warheads were more effective than one large single detonation.  I determined to use this information to my advantage - I would produce a vessel that could deliver many small ballistic missiles at a target.  This would also have the advantage of providing the missiles safety in numbers, so that even if a few incoming missiles were swatted, much of the payload would make it to the target to deal damage.

Samsonite Mk I Cruise Missile

I incorporated this new technology into my already well understood science of propulsion mechanics and automated ship control systems to develop the Samsonite Mk I Cruise Missile.  With a payload of 2tonne warhead and rapid ignition ion propulsion, the missile was capable of reaching a target at the range of rapid acceleration and sustained maximum speed for up to 8km... a longer range than it's target-acquisition sensors.

The Samsonite was an interesting creation, but one which would require a proper launching mechanism which could be fitted to the station or to vessels.

Another design that could utilise this technology without a launching mechanism would be mines.  I could mine my local space and defend against would be attackers in that way.

To build and deploy mines in that kind of quantity would require vast amounts of resources and build time.  I would need help.