RESEARCH AREA: ENGINEERING
HIGH PRIORITY RESEARCH (+1 Hand Size, all subfields)
Industry & Materials Science:
Metallurgist-Director: Relta Archaktal
Trait: Meticulous (Reduced risk when researching Dangerous Technologies.)
No technology researched last turn.
PROSPECTIVE TECHNOLOGIES:
Terrestrial Agriculture
Though we can now survive both on land and in the sea, Klaxes society still considers farming in the open air to be a novelty at best. Though light is available in abundance, the irrigation difficulties and low yields associated with terrestrial crops have made most largely dismiss the viability of the enterprise.
However, with the appearance of the Lights, it has become extremely clear that terrestrial crops can reach yields even comparable to those of our bioengineered kelp strains. We need to rethink our entire approach to farming on land - and steal a few pages from a Light farmer's almanac.
Unlocks the Terrestrial Agriculture Polity Benefit and the Cereals Farm industry project, allowing us to farm at industrial capacities even on dry land. Of clear theoretical interest for further research into wholly land-based industries.
Submersible Droneswarms
We have a problem. Light drones, while water-resistant, are not waterproof to depths of three thousand meters. What's more, they're primarily designed for terrestrial operations: few of them come with propellers fitted, and those that do are generally meant to fly with them. What aquatic designs they do have are highly specialized, designed for sucking, swampy environments quite unlike our own vast seas. It's not pretty watching them try to deal with two-meter ocean swells.
While our retrofitting teams have managed to adapt some of the existing Light designs to light submersible work, fully adapting the technology for use on the seafloor will take significant additional research. Until then, our homeworld will only be able to use Light designs at half efficiency or less.
Reduces Drone manufacturing costs on Ocean worlds, and unlocks aquatic Drone buildings. Of clear theoretical interest for further research into seafloor robotics.
Metamaterial Theory
Inspired both by Archaktium and the strange polymer recovered from the Precursor ship, a team of materials scientists are looking to investigate complex composite materials, precision-engineered for particular molecular structures. They believe these materials might be stronger and lighter than anything else we have previously discovered - and, theoretically, might have interesting optical or electrical properties.
Of clear theoretical interest for further research into materials science, but has no currently known practical applications.
Ruggedized Robotics Platforms
The Far-Flung Lights' drone philosophy seems to be one of cheap disposability, such that the loss of any individual drone to software failure or hostile environmental conditions is at worst mildly regrettable. Though this design philosophy allows them the incredible industrial power that they so casually demonstrate, to Klaxes eyes it seems incredibly wasteful. Electronic components are not so easy to manufacture that we can afford to just throw them away, regardless of how many of them we may have to hand.
As such, many of our roboticists are pushing for hardier, more purpose-built drone designs. Though the necessary investment of time and resources will no doubt make these drones more expensive, they believe that the resulting waste reductions will be more than worth it - especially when one considers the expanded range of useful work available to these hardier drones.
Increases the production cost of Drones, but also increases the production efficiency of our Droneswarm buildings. Additionally unlocks specialized Industry Projects concerning the use of drones for extremely hazardous work. Of theoretical interest for further research of specialist robotics, especially for dangerous applications.
Second-Shells
While body armor has been used throughout Klaxes history, recently it has fallen out of favour, due to the engineered cartilage of Workform and Warform shells doing the same job for a fraction of the cost. However, a niche remains for those Thoughtform Klaxes who are forced into hazardous environments by their research, and so it is still manufactured, though as a piece of specialist equipment.
Light applications of their drone technologies include the development of so-called 'powered exoskeletons', worn robotic frames equipped with pneumatic lifting assistance and power tools. Employed where automated drones cannot be trusted with delicate work, these devices are also at times deployed on the battlefield, serving as weapons platforms for medium ordnance such as belt-fed machineguns.
Though our own Warform shells have little need of Light alloys for personal defense, the concept is sound, and might be usefully adapted for hazardous environment suits of one type or another.
Unlocks the Powered Shells polity benefit and the Second-Shell Armory ship module. Of clear theoretical interest for further research into robotic Klaxes enchancement.
Industry Cards in the Innovation Deck: 7
Never-Drawn Technologies: 6
Hand Size: 5
Select a technology to receive the Industry grant for this turn.
[ ] Terrestrial Agriculture
[ ] Submersible Droneswarms
[ ] Metamaterial Theory
[ ] Rugged Robotics Platforms
[ ] Second-Shells
