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[VoidSlayer]

And no, war falcons are not a dead end.  We can keep making larger, more dangerous and more armored monsters to fly around on, from leviathan dragons to bulky griffons, armored in summoned crystal and with cannons mounted on them.  This is just a first stab to get our soldiers in the air.

Also yes we can put jetpacks on the falcons (or dragons) later, but I want these versions to be totally mundane on the battle field so we can concentrate on using them for ordinary soldiers without having to use expensive mage gems.

[Draignean]

Also yes we can put jetpacks on the falcons (or dragons) later

I thank you getting that reference.

I'd really love to see some crystalline barding on those eagles... Still, that's a revision after we make sure the eagles themselves work.

Admittedly, I'm now imagining a flying colossus with artillery cannons mounted on its back firing on their large airships while falcon riding crystal knights fend off carpet riders.

Argh. I do be conflicted.
Give me a minute to think on this.

[andrea]

Falcons would have the food bonus from plains. However, why make them carry soldiers? A falcon is an unstable platform to do sniping from.
Rather, give them layered crystal armor against lightning, crystal claws and a couple of grapefruit sized explosive grenades and let them do the fighting.

Edit. Wait, they are big enough to make soldiers ride them? Objection retracted, soldiers can probably fight decently from that. Still not too steady however.

If you want giant stable flying gun platforms, it is probably best to invest in blast technology, like the jetpack or waffle's flying thing. But i could see falcon cavalry having its uses

[VoidSlayer]

When birds are gliding they would be plenty stable enough to fire from.  Having them carry soldiers means we can use our rifles and anti magic bows in the air, both of which would be ridiculously effective at killing the mages or damaging the enemy vehicles.

Sure they can throw lighting at us, but we will have a LOT of falcons shooting projectiles at them.

[andrea]

Yes, yes, see my edit. I misread and thought they were carrying soldiers in their claws.
Riding is fine.

[helmacon]

I would be willing to support either a jet pack or a falcon rider design. The berserker Array/ Man cannon could easily transition to a device to launch larger craft at speed. (Catapult). As for g force stabilisation, well, magic!

[FallacyofUrist]

Overclock Process MK 1:
We've realized the true problem with the Man Cannon. The problem isn't our technology, it's the soldiers themselves. They're too physically limited for our plans to work. What if we could make our soldiers better? What if we could improve them, make them stronger, faster, and more importantly tougher?

We haven't much used life magic in the past, but we do have some experience with it from our Dogwood Wands and falcons. Now's the time to make use of this knowledge on humans.

Introducing the Overclock Process MK 1.

The object of this process is to create a super soldier that is better in every way than the average, superhumanly better, and hopefully able to survive being fired out of a cannon.

Here's how it works. Basically, we use a special crystal pod in which the soldier rests. Over several hours, apprentices, or Aethergems if we have them spare, channel magical energy into the pod, which is converted to life energy using our Dogwood magitechnology, and then infused into the soldier.

Raw life energy has... some issues. While much of the time it works and we get a supersoldier, sometimes we get defects. These defects die or are crippled most of the time, but occasionally we get mutations, typically bestial in nature(we don't know why). Hopefully in the future we'll be able to improve this process.

Once we do this, we can get around those pesky "human limits" and "g forces". Glory to Arstotzka.

DESIGN
1 - ASAF-F43 Interceptor: Chiefwaffles
1 - Direct Application Frost Towers: Andres
2 - Berserker Array: helmacon, Kadzar
2 - Aerial Mobility Unit: Andrea, Draignean
0 - SA-1: Railed Man Cannon:
1 - Overclock Process MK 1: FallacyofUrist

[Draignean]

Does the process transform them into catgirls?

[FallacyofUrist]

Rarely. Mind, that could probably be adjusted to all the time if you'd like.

[VoidSlayer]

As a benefit of the War Falcon project is experience altering animals, just saying.

[Andres]

Oh fuck what the hell is this shit. I wake up and what do I see? Shooting soldiers out of cannons. That is a stupid idea and it's shameful that it managed to get 4 votes before a flightpack was thought up.

Glory to Arstotzka.

[evictedSaint]

[VoidSlayer]

Oh fuck what the hell is this shit. I wake up and what do I see? Shooting soldiers out of cannons. That is a stupid idea and it's shameful that it managed to get 4 votes before a flightpack was thought up.

Glory to Arstotzka.

Now my giant fungus castles look sane in comparison.

[Light forger]

evictedSaint was kind enough to let me back into this madhouse. I really shouldn't need to explain by shooting soldiers out of a cannon is a poor way of doing anything other then killing them. In regards to jetpacks they are neat but, I doubt they mix well with lucky strike ballistas. So I propose a different path; a path to flying battleships.

Falcon Air Skiff
The falcon is a Arstotzka's first foray into the field of flying thanks to a new and revolution essence generator. This new device creates "essence" out of magic, an element that is able to lift an object into the air if contained. However essence slowly fades away meaning a mages need to generate more, less the craft slowly(or quickly) falls out of the sky. The skiff is crew by either three or four mages, one to power a smaller version of protector's engine, one to power the essence generator and, then either two snipers, a sniper plus a crate of blastshells+e or, a gunner with a HAC-1. The essence is contained in two crystal tanks off to either side of the craft with walls thick enough to avoid being split by long range ballista bolts. The smaller version of the protector's engine fitted with large propeller blades is located at the back and otherwise the craft looks a normal skiff albeit made completely out of crystal. The craft can get up to a surprising speed but, it turns slowly as the only method of control is a rudder located directly behind the engine. This means the craft has to be moving to turn and does so quite slowly. Altitude is controlled by the mage either increasing or decreasing the flow of essence into the tanks. Gaining height is fairly slow and safely reducing it is nearly as slow. A small number of aethergems located in the craft means in theory a single mage can fly the craft with some difficulty.

1 - ASAF-F43 Interceptor: Chiefwaffles
1 - Direct Application Frost Towers: Andres
2 - Berserker Array: helmacon, Kadzar
2 - Aerial Mobility Unit: Andrea, Draignean
0 - SA-1: Railed Man Cannon:
1 - Overclock Process MK 1: FallacyofUrist
1 - Falcon Air Skiff: Lightforger

[Chiefwaffles]

Okay.
So how does the Berserker Array solve any problems?


Moskurg uses really fast high-flying air units to attack us from above, and airships from extreme distances where we can't shoot at for long-range attacks.

Our problem is that the HA1 can't shoot at either of these places. Enemies directly above us are too fast flying and too high for the HA1 to be even able to try aiming at them. Long-range enemies outrange the HA1 when factoring in their wind spell.

The Berserker Array solves none of this. So the Berserker Array couldn't shoot at their air units and thus wouldn't help us at all.



This is why you should vote the the F43:
1.) We can revise the Jetpack if we design the F43. The F43 uses the "KPD" to move around, and we can just revise the KPD to strap it onto a soldier.
2.) The F43, with no awful rolls, will be able to solve the air problem. A jetpack just lets our soldiers help out a bit until Moskurg invents enclose ockpits. THe F43 is a solid interceptor that'll be helping us for the rest of the game.
3.) The KPD is an extremely useful tool that in addition to making the jetpack extremely easy to do, will help future tech. We could make so many things, like an actual flying airship!
4.) The F43 also helps with the ground, as its weapons apply there too, which would be extremely helpful. It can just fly over the range of their anti-magic.
5.) It's cool.

Also feedback regarding the F43 would be nice.