Ironclad Mk IV

BACKGROUND This antiquated vessel was a last ditch effort by it's parent company to outdo competitors in the scout submarine market. It boasted a one in three crew survival rate thanks to its advanced safety features, such as working drainage and a fire alert system. The most marketed feature however was the dorsal mounted "Rail Cannon". Sadly rail gun technology was in it's infancy and the slow reload speed, fixed firing arc and large power drain hindered it's effectiveness.

FEATURES. -Functioning rail cannon operated from the navigation console, has a cooldown light in the loading room Green for ready and Red for on cooldown. -Front and rear coilguns. -Constructor/Deconstructor. -Fire alarm. -Automatic drainage. -Automatic airlock. -Emergency battery power and lighting (Lever next to battery in command room to toggle.) -Worn out/lived in aesthetic, get that "Millenium Falcon" experience.

DESIGNER COMMENTS The premise for this vessel was to design a small submarine that could be operated with minimal crew (myself, my missus and a bot) and keep gameplay interesting. I was wary of making something too powerful and killing the challenge but I also wanted to have some cool stuff. Hence the idea for the "Rail Cannon" came into my head, a single shot rail gun with a cooldown, fixed firing arc and large capacitor drain (almost 50%!). It gives you something to hit larger creatures hard while still relying mostly on your coilguns. It also provides another dimension in gameplay for the pilot of the sub in combat as they try to manuever the vessel to line up a shot. The choice to give the sub it's "worn aesthetic" and background of being produced by a failed company was to justify how it functions. While everything works fine on the sub it does require active maintenance and if you push it's power grid too hard by running multiple machines while travelling at full speed you're gonna notice. I felt like this was a good balance choice because it meant the engineers would never feel like they had nothing to do and the crew would appreciate power/reliability upgrades more as you progressed.