I’ve been puttering about with code and I’ve written up a bunch of stuff for the following, I’d like some feedback on the concepts and ideas before I go much further:
* Graphene & graphene accessories
Essentially, I think graphene production would be considerably scaled up during the game’s timeframe - it’s only a rare material these days because there hasn’t been a viable method to producing it commercially. It’s a totally fascinating thing - a 2 dimensional, 1-atom thick crystal lattice made entirely of carbon rings that’s 50 times lighter and 300 times stronger than steel.
I’m thinking for future use that small-scale applications are available for civilians (similar to commercial 3d printing vs. industrial/medical) and large-scale applications are not craftable or repairable, but are findable.
Items:
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Nano-composite patch
A small square of graphene fiber lattice roughly one square foot in size. Available commercially at hardware stores. On its own, it is useless. These cannot be crafted, only found. -
Carbon fiber press
A small hydraulic press for home civilian use. Requires large amounts of batteries (100 per use, stores 1000). Activate and it looks for 2 pieces of raw material and 1 nano-composite patch and heat-presses them together to form: either a nano-fiber insert (2 plastic chunks), or a sheet of nano-fabric (2 rags). -
Nano-fiber insert: These are upgrades you can apply to any piece of clothing. 1 insert can be added for each 5 volume of an item (so large clothing, such as trenchcoats, can have 2 or 3 inserts). Each insert increases the clothing’s encumbrance by 1 but increases the cut/bash armor as well as greatly increasing the item’s durability (chance it’ll get ripped by attacks). To remove the inserts you must deconstruct the clothing; if a piece of clothing is destroyed by attacks, the inserts fall on the ground.
Note: These already exist. There are business suits available on the market lined with graphene inserts that make it immune to small arms fire, and yet it still looks exactly like a functional business suit.
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Nano-fabric: This is a square of graphene sandwiched between and woven into two pieces of fabric. The fabric can then be woven into extremely durable clothing or other items (such as backpacks) just like regular rags. It is not as protective as using inserts, but is less encumbering and weighs less. Unlike inserts, deconstructing the clothing destroys the nanofiber.
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Industrial Nano-press
This is a large, expensive piece of industrial equipment that compresses graphene between two pieces of material, similar to the commercial version. However, the industrial one is mounted on a vehicle and requires gasoline AND battery power in order to run. It is also extremely heavy. The press requires a lot more graphene and material than the civilian version, and the resulting items can not be repaired or disassembled:
8 graphene patches + 2 sheet metal: 1 nano-composite sheet
4 graphene patches + 8 plastic chunks: 1 rubber plating
4 graphene patches OR 1 nano-composite sheet + 4 heavy duty frame OR 2 military composite plating: 1 nano-composite armor plate
2 graphene patches + 2 reinforced glass sheet: 1 fortified glass sheet
1 graphene patch + 2 glass sheet: 1 reinforced glass sheet
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Nano-composite sheet
This is a heavy sheet of composite graphene fiber laminated between two steel plates; the result is much stronger than simply two pieces of metal welded together. It can be used in vehicle construction to craft fortified frames which strongly resist taking damage; they are lighter than heavy duty frames but more durable. -
Rubber plating
Two layers of thick plastic around a central core of graphene fiber. While very light, this armor plate can be used in vehicle construction and is almost as tough as steel plating. The plates can be removed or added very quickly but cannot be repaired. -
Nano-composite armor plate
This is a heavy-duty military application of nanocomposite materials - two plates of composite plating with a solid core of industrial graphene. It is lighter and much more durable than traditional military plating but cannot be repaired, only replaced. It is particularly tough against explosions and shrapnel, being used primarily in advanced military hardware to defeat armor-piercing projectiles. -
Fortified glass sheet
Graphene sheets being invisible at 1-atom thickness makes for an excellent window reinforcement. Using two sheets of already-strong reinforced glass with an industrial press can sandwich this glass around the graphene sheet, making it nigh-unbreakable but still transparent. It is heavily used in advanced military vehicles and armored cars.
* Tanks & Military Vehicles & War Museum
The second thing I’m working on is a War Museum rare building spawn. It is 2x2 and there are several different variants; the subjects are randomized between civil war, WW1, WW2, WW3, and future versions. Most weapons and objects are replicas; the working versions are kept behind reinforced glass. Sprinkled throughout the museum are turret, copbot and secubot housings; if the alarms go off the bots all pop out, making the place very dangerous for the unprepared.
Items in the different displays vary wildly, but there are a few archaic and ancient items added that may be useful, also some famous American firearms that aren’t in vanilla. Also quite a bit more future weapons, though the vast majority are nonfunctional replicas or require esoteric power sources. Nothing super state of the art.
One of the war museum potential modules is a military vehicle display plus hangar/warehouse, containing a number of different randomized vehicles in various states of disassembly, including:
- M1A1 Abrams MBT (military composite armor, 120mm cannon, HMG)
- T-72 Medium Tank (MCA, 120mm cannon, HMG)
- Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Tank (steel plate, 88mm cannon, HMG)
- Stryker ICV (MCA, M2 HMG or M19 Grenade Launcher)
- M18 ‘Hellcat’ Tank Destroyer (no armor, 76mm HV cannon, HMG)
- Churchill British Heavy Tank (with Oke flamethrower, AVRE SPIGOT mortar, and mineclearing variants)
New vehicle parts include tank treads, which can get blown off but are generally much more stable, durable, and slower than wheels, as well as equipment like mineclearing flails and bulldozer blades)
One thing that’ll catch most people’s interest I think is a proper cannon firing system – it works like this:
a) Cannons cannot be built from scratch, and can only be repaired up to YELLOW. Repairing them to full or building from scratch requires industrial equipment that just doesn’t exist anymore. They can however be found at green condition.
b) Cannon parts: (- denotes items that must be placed on a tile with the previous)
- Turret Ring or Turret Frame (the basis of all tank guns- direction placed matters! Rings can turn but require vast amounts of power, frames cannot turn but are more stable)
– Cannon Loading Bay (this is where you drop shells. has an armored mantlet)
— Cannon Autoloader (if this is installed, you can place more than 1 shell, and it will automatically reload them at a cost of power/gas)
- Cannon Barrel (also includes firing mechanisms… You MUST have at least 1 of these adjacent to a loading bay and both facing the same direction. Multiple barrels will extend the range and accuracy of a shot. Using only ONE cannon barrel with a loading bay and no other parts turns it into a SPIGOT mortar.)
- Cannon Muzzle (includes a muzzle break - increases accuracy, decreases noise)
Most heavy tanks (Abrams for example) are equipped wih a turret ring, loading bay, autoloader, 2 barrels, and muzzle, making it 4 tiles long.
Turret rings (not frames) can be rotated 45 degrees using the ^ vehicle control button and fired using the same. Shells travel in a straight line from frame, to barrel, to muzzle, and continue straight until they hit something or reach maximum range. It also reduces vehicle speed momentarily and depending on the caliber generates a TON of noise.
SPIGOT mortars function differently - they do not hit the first target struck, instead falling overhead to land randomly wherever the turret is pointed. This allows you to fire over buildings, etc. Shells (from both spigot and regular cannons) cannot hit targets less than 10 tiles from the muzzle.
Tank shells cannot be crafted (except maybe makeshift variants at some point…). Different calibers fit different barrels but there’s always the same types: High Explosive, Anti Personnel (heavy shrapnel), Incendiary, and High Explosive Anti Tank.
I’m considering adding future variants (hovertanks anyone?) but those will take a lot more designing.
Whew, anyway! Long post! If you have ideas or suggestions (or just hate all these) feel free to leave comments or questions!
