Bay 12 Games Forum

I think it's time we unleashed our emergency plan, the one we planned to design where we quickly and surely want Moskurg to lose ground. Since they are about to take advantage of the Jungle and Myark is wounded, I believe it's time.

Design: Direct Application Frost Towers

This design for frost towers does not merely pump coldness into the atmosphere as previous frost towers have done. Instead, it directly lowers the temperature of everything within its radius, bypassing such things as hard barriers. This should allow our frost towers to once more freeze Moskurg soldiers to death, their warm armour no longer protecting them from the cold now that their very insides are being directly made to be cooler. No form of insulation or heating can protect against it - it bypasses it all. The aim is to make the towers capable of a temperature drop of at least 10 degrees Celsius. A lowering of 10C is the point at which the human body begins to die. Our current frost towers can lower the temperature much lower than by 10C, so this goal shouldn't be difficult.

To ensure our own soldiers do not suffer from the effects of the DAFTs, they will be given simple anti-magic charms to wear. There's hardly any difference between these ones and the ones we already make - they are simply smaller so that we can make more of them, but their area of effect should still be large enough to cover an individual soldier. These charms will, however, be covered in a cheap fabric of some kind with some random symbol painted on them. The fabric and the symbol aren't meant to really do anything, they're just meant to trick Moskurg so that they don't know the answer is to simply apply anti-magic to the problem.

DESIGN
1 - ASAF-F43 Interceptor: Chiefwaffles
1 - Direct Application Frost Towers: Andres

Glory to Arstotzka.

Actually, Andres, could you have it so the AAA Blastshells work with the AS-HAC-1? Just so we can be one step closer to flak!

And are there any other benefits to upgrading Magegems other than a step towards better Blastshells? I mean, overall it seems like this may be putting one revision (better Blastshells) into effect using two, when we could be doing much more.

There's really no point to upgrading the HAC-1 to use blastshells. Keeping the upgrade focused on the HA1 shells is the best way to go. Using the revision for my idea rather than resizing it will probably give us more experience with shells anyway, so it'll get us closer to flak than resizing the shells for the HAC-1.

Upgrading magegems just for this is completely worth it, as the extra firepower it would give us would be nothing short of extraordinary, but it'll also allow for better designs in the future. That AAA magegems would be able to hold PSFs would be very valuable indeed and would allow for smaller cannons to fire blastshells.

Glory to Arstotzka.

Revision: Magegem Capacity Upgrade

Same thing as before: increase magegem capacity up by one level. It's an incremental improvement, it's an improvement we've done before, and we have the Crystalworks Mk. 2, so this should be pretty easy to do.

Revision: Blastshell Modularity

Our current blastshells come in E+, R+, and ER+ forms. Each of them use AA magegems to achieve their effects, which are all equivalent to one PSF. Once magegems get their capacities increased, they will use AAA magegems to achieve their effects. This revision aims to allow them to use the availability of different kinds of magegems to have additional effect.

We will now go forward with the assumption that magegems have had their capacity increase upgrade.

Here are examples of what this revision will do:
E+ blastshell has the explosive power of a PSF using AAA magegems.
After the revision, we can make E++ blastshells which use AA magegems, giving them a bigger boom in exchange for going one Expense level up.
After the revision, we can also make E+++ blastshells which use A magegems which have an even bigger boom than AA magegems.
This is not limited to explosive power. After the revision, R++ and R+++ can also be made to give them longer range. Not only that, but different combinations can be made, such as E+R++ or E++R+.

To make it easier to write down the capabilities of these shells, a new naming scheme will be brought into effect. Pluses will be replaced with numbers. For example, E+ shells will now be called E1 shells, E++ shells are now E2 shells, E++R+ shells are E2R1 shells, etc.

With the Crystalworks 2.0 lowering shell costs by 1 Expense level, E2/R2/E1R1 shells will be Cheap and shells with a total number of 4 (such as E4 or E2R2) can be made at Very Expensive cost rather than National Effort cost.

Between Crystalworks Mk. 2 and our extensive experience with artillery, the Fireball spell, and circuits, this shouldn't be a very challenging revision at all.

0 HA1-b "Mundane":
0 Arstotzkan Equipment Update:
0 Aethergem Shells:
0 Academy Aethergems:
0 Temporary Wizards:
0 Weightite works:
0 Gemerators:
1 - Magegem Capacity Upgrade: Andres
1 - Blastshell Modularity: Andres

0 Save the credit:

These two revisions will be very useful to us. Together, it would completely counter the effect of their range-dampening magic, giving us complete artillery dominance once more. Because of the increased firepower the revision also gives us, said artillery dominance would be utterly devastating, enough to defeat anything they throw at us next turn and then some.

Glory to Arstotzka.

EDIT: What would make this artillery even MORE devastating is that thanks to aethergems, we can have more apprentices crewing more artillery rather than charging magegems. Seriously, we have the opportunity to do a shit ton of damage here.

1 - AS-R2: Andres
4 - The Mind of Madness: RAM, VoidSlayer, FallacyofUrist, helmacon
0 - Demondium:
1 - AS-LFV-2 "Titan": Chiefwaffles
0 - Weightite:
0 - Celestedemorte:
0 - Living magic:
0 - AS-AMA "Manticore":
4 - Aethergem: Chiefwaffles, Kadzar, Andrea, Andres
0 - RAM-MAP-943 "Pashmad" Mobile Artillery Position:

Trader:
1 - Just give him Crystal Lances, Crystal Axes, and one of our many squad-destroying Wands of Fireball, if he can learn to use it: FallacyofUrist

Glory to Arstotzka.

I want to vote for aethergems, but it's my belief that it has a problem which needs to be fixed.

The problem is with its size/Expense. Rather than aiming for a specific size and a specific Expense, rebrand it so that it has multiple sizes with multiple Expense levels. In other words, make AAA aethergems, AA aethergems, and A aethergems. Alternatively, you could say that it's giving our current line of magegems the ability to connect to/recharge via their connection to the aether.

It'll give us more flexibility in regards to our aethergems and making it so it's practically an upgrade to magegems rather than a new thing based on magegems should make it easier to do.

Glory to Arstotzka.

Design: AS-R2

The AS-R2 is the weapon for the new age of magic and technology. The definitive weapon, to be eventually issued to every one of our soldiers. Soon, a day will come when the crystal axe is but an artifact of the past, reserved for the rare instance when Moskurgs manage to get into melee range.

The AS-R2's main improvement is the magazine. What was preventing the effective use of the AS-R1 in infantry combat was its rate of fire. Sure, breech-loading can make our cannons effective weapons, but it's not enough for the fast-paced nature of melees.

The AS-R2 was initially planned to utilise mechanical means of self-loading new bullets, but our Mathemagicians found this boring, "not cool enough", and still required loading of magazines of bullets.
So we did something new. A miniaturised fabricator scroll similar to the ones we have in the Crystalworks lies in the rifle. Fabricator circuits/scrolls radically grow in size with complexity, but a bullet is a relatively simple shape and our new Crystalworks fabricators from the Mk. 2 Crystalworks make this even easier.

The crystal fabricator, being circuit-based, is activated automatically by the firing circuits after the previous bullet leaves the chamber. Of course, recoil is still an issue and fabricating Crystal isn't completely instant, so the gun isn't fully automatic by any definition. We've slowed the fabrication process compared to the Crystalworks to allow for increased energy efficiency. Yet its rate of fire is much faster than anything we've ever made before.
The Crystal bullet is tweaked to be made out of slightly heavier durable crystal. The tweaks here are of course minor. They're not in any shape or form able to be applied elsewhere, but are just enough to allow the crystal bullets to be on par with their more regular counterparts.

The gun can be powered via two methods:
1.) Direct operation by a mage is easy and very viable, as mages can fire the weapon without stopping to reload.
2.) Operation by a mundane user is slightly different. The AS-R2 is powered by AA Magegems attached to sockets located on the bottom of the barrel, with circuits which connect them to the fabrication and detonation parts of the gun. It is not required for all of them to be have magegems in them. The SPSF-C powering the AS-R1 still left some energy in the AA Magegem, just not enough to be useful. We can use this to power the crystal fabrication.

The barrel of the gun takes advantage of the Crystalworks Mk. 2 to be much more exact in its construction and rifling, ensuring great accuracy increases. We're aiming for the AS-R2 to remain accurate up to Extreme range (which is its max range), but remaining accurate to Long range would also be acceptable.

Finally, a scope is placed on the top of the gun using modified Crystal Glass (again taking advantage of the more precise and easier-to-use processes of the Mk. 2 Crystalworks!) that magnifies whatever's behind the glass. This "Optical Crystal" can be used to allow the user to see and aim the gun precisely at Extreme ranges. The Scope can be attached and detached as necessary.

The Crystalworks Mk. 2 should allow for the Rifle to be Cheap in construction. Though mundane users are bottlenecked by the Magegem cost, the actual rifle itself should be Cheap thanks to the new Crystalworks being able to more effectively fabricate complex shapes and whatnot.

If we have time left in the project, we wish to use the enhanced nature of the Crystalworks to implement magic-insulating crystal into the design, protecting the circuits from anti-magic and allowing the rifle to operate in anti-magic fields.


The result shall be amazing. A rifle that doesn't require loading of bullets! For our mages, this shall be a devastating weapon, allowing them to continuously fire without reload. The fact that every mage will be getting one should even assuage our mages' (and Bjorn's) dislike of being human batteries! With this weapon, our mages shall be able to become devastating weapons of war.
Even our mundane infantry shall benefit. The AS-R2 completely obsoletes the longbow by being accurate, deadlier, and quicker-firing. Even if they swap out a magegem every firing, their rate of fire shall experience drastic improvements compared to the much harder bullet breech-loading and Magegem loading every single firing in the AS-R1.
Snipers shall rejoice as they can accurately snipe enemy officers from safety. As they can easily spot and acquire new targets then accurately and quickly dispatch them.
Artillery operators and disposable apprentices alike shall be overjoyed as flare-spotting becomes replaced by the much more effective optical spotting from safe distances!


TL;DR: A new rifle. The main improvement is the loading. Instead of being boring and just implementing self-loading, we give the AS-R2 a crystal fabricator like the Crystalworks. It fabricates new crystal bullets on the fly. This lets our mages fire without reloading, and means our mundane troops only have to load Magegems. Accuracy improvements mean it should at least have an Effective Range of Long, if not Extreme. It should be Cheap for wizards and as soon as we upgrade Magegems/get Aethergems, it should also become Cheap for mundanes as well. The scope makes it much better for sniping. It also serves as a better spotting tool. Anti-magic resistance is frankly unlikely, and should be done first in revisions if we don't get it.
A devastating weapon to bring about a new age of warfare!

Bullet Fabrication - We make a scroll fabricating (machine) crystal bullets that're as effectively tough+heavy as regular bullets (should be easy given size). Should actually be relatively easy given the Crystalworks Mk. 2 and the simple structure of bullets. Fabrication is done automatically because it's a circuit and we already have a circuit controlling firing, but the gun isn't automatic because 1.) Recoil and 2.) fabrication isn't completely instant (we intentionally nerf fabrication time to increase energy efficiency). Should massively increase rate of fire. Especially for mages. See Power Requirements for more details.
Accuracy - Take advantage of the Crystalworks Mk. 2's more precise fabrication abilities to make more consistent and precise rifling+barrels, increasing accuracy. The rifle's max range is already Extreme, but the AS-R1 is accurate only up to Medium. We aim to increase accuracy to at least Long if not Extreme. Shouldn't be hard because it's basically just getting a fairly-reasonable benefit from the Crystalworks Mk. 2. It can make more complicated structures easily, so just apply that here.
Scope - Modify Crystal Glass (using our extreme knowledge in modifying Crystal + the Crystalworks Mk. 2) to magnify distant targets. Put a scope made out of the stuff on the rifle, and allow it to be taken on/put back on in the field.
Power Requirements/Loading - A wizard can operate it for as long as they want, being free of bullet requirements. Mundanes use AA Magegems that fit into sockets located onto the bottom of the barrel. Fluff why: The SPSF-C doesn't completely drain an AA Magegem, so we can use the extra energy to power bullet fabrication. The magegem reloading is still much faster than loading a new Magegem and bullet in the AS-R1 and only has to be done per 2 firings, making the RoF really fast compared to anything else.
Anti-magic Resistance - Low priority. Use the Crystalworks Mk. 2's ability to create more advanced structures to make magic-insulating crystal (based off of resistive crystal) so we can make the AS-R2 immune to anti-magic.
Expense - The Crystalworks Mk. 2 bonus never applied to the AS-R1 even though it applied to the AS-HAC-1 (I may bring this up with evicted directly). So expense-wise, we're basically using a "resource expense credit" here like we did with the Mountains metal bonus and the first Crystalworks bonus when revising our old stuff into crystal construction. So making the rifle Cheap should be extremely easy. Of course for mundane users they're still bottlenecked by Expensive AA magegems.

1 - AS-R2: Andres

Glory to Arstotzka.

RAM, I will vote in favour of your order if you vote in favour of the Moskurg heir order.

Glory to Arstotzka.