Power Generation
1.) We already doubled the power output of Aethergems.
2.) We can use A-size (or AA) Aethergems instead of AAAethergems, increasing power output even more thanks to the Expense Credit and the Aethergem revision.
3.) Something I've made very clear in the F44 proposal is that an intentional side-effect of the improved KPD is significantly greater energy efficiency as instead of just constantly detonating PSF-Cs beneath the craft we're just applying precise forces where they're needed. If efficiency isn't increased, then that means we got a low enough roll that there's no hope for the design anyways.
1: That was in a revision, the design itself did not achieve anything, and that development did nothing for the design. It might be a little easier now but it still fundamentally fails to prioritise what is important to actually having a functional design(stable propulsion) and a better generator won't change that.
2: The expense credit makes things cheaper, not smaller or more powerful. The D-cells might work, but they might be too large to fit, and I suspect that they are still inferior to the AAA-cells in terms of power generation compared to volume as the larger ones started at a MASSIVE level of inefficiency in that regard. So it is possible that they might be cheaper, but they will not be any more likely to get the thing off of the ground. The revision, on the other hand, might help, but again, it is just a weight saving. The craft currently doesn't have a working engine, so no amount of reducing weight will get it off of the ground using existing technology. So please recant the "the Expense Credit
and " portion of the statement.
3: Yet another example of going out of ones way to make a design worse. The focus is to get the thing working and to get it stable. We made precisely zero progress towards the propulsion system. We had small frequent explosions before and we have small frequent explosions now. ABSOLUTELY ZERO PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE TOWARDS PROPULSION! If e want to avoid the risk that we could be at this same design forever then we need some explicit prioritisation of getting the propulsion itself to work and be stable. Not that we want this design to work, it is hopelessly outmatched given the circumstances, but if we did then we would need to prioritise what is important to make it work. You shoot the design in the foot by saying that it should make it a priority to be more efficient, as though power-generation were the primary obstacle to getting something to fly when all it can do is flip upside down and explode. You can feel free to mention that "hey, since it is only pushing into one direction, rather that exploding in all directions, it ought to be more efficient, right? As in: pointing out a side effect that would give us a free bonus for being clever. But asking them to make it a specific priority when you make no mention at all of the importance of actually doing the thing that we COMPLETELY failed to do last time that we tried this exact same thing is a mistake. Just repeating the same flawed project over and over again, hoping to roll well...
This is an ongoing problem with these designs. They keep telling the G.M. exactly how effective everything should be. That is what dice are for. we can try explaining why things might work really well, explaining why the design seems to be clever and easy, but saying that "yes this is definitely a SUPER-DUPER-MASSIVE-TOTHE
EXTREME!!! improvement to our SUPERAWESOME magic!!!$$$!!!" is not going to play out well. It just isn't our place to decide the effectiveness of things. If power efficiency is difficult then spending all our time on that might get us a penalty and doom the project. Saying "this is really good because it ought focus the force more efficiently and be super-stable because it pushes constantly and only in the direction that we want, so it is REALLY important that we get it working, even if it means ending up with a janky prototype that isn't efficient at all and don't have time enough to install it onto a vehicle" Would be much more productive, because it would prioritise what is important, rather than desperately trying to save face by insisting that it work to specification or not work at all.
Propulsion - This is the first time we've used Blastballs as actual propulsion.
Wrong. We have been using it to propel bullets and pistons and already knew all we needed to about using them to flip stuff over. We made zero progress on this front. The design was a complete failure at progressing propulsion magic.
our literal mastery of Blastballs
We have, like, two spells. Yeah, we have done lots with fireballs, but this is the edge of that. fireballs go to a place and explode into a ball of flame. We took out theflame, it was pretty simple. Now the design is looking to A: reshape the explosion to apply in only one direction. We have zero experience shaping the blasts, far less refining them down to a single controlled vector. B: a constant effect. We have only ever made discrete explosions, channelled fog might help here, but it is from conjuration and this is force magic derived from thermal magic, it is a big cross-discipline trek. C: conforming it to a surface. Again, zero experience, at best webs attach to surfaces. D: being a manifest magical field. This is a bit esoteric and maybe even semantic, but there is a definite concern here that we are trying to make a purely magical substance with a physical presence. Volume with no mass, as it were. Probably consistent with fireball's fire, but still a concern. This is a completely unprecedented application of magic and the design foolishly treats it as an assumption, even after we clearly failed to get it once.
Weight - Weight is no longer a problem since we upgraded Aethergems. See Power GEneration as well.
Weight only makes the difference between good and bad, at the moment it is doubtful that it will be at all, even if we do have the misfortune of voting to use an airforce against the sky itself and a loitering armada.
Turret - "An unpowered ball turret isn't going to cut it." But we're not going to develop a powered guided turret here because that's out of scope. Maybe later, but you have literally zero basis for this assumption that an unpowered turret is going to cut it. The AS-HAC-1 is already great at hitting their vehicles and is unpowered as well. Its only problem is that it can't pierce the armor.
A light turret would leave the operator exposed to lightning and ballistae. A heavy turret would be unworkable. If the force-film actually works then it might, potentially, be usable on little tabs to rotate the turret. If the design is more than "get this propulsion to work, and maybe stick it on a chassis while at it" then it will probably fail. If it succeeds then we will have a nice target for the enemy that completely controls the sky, and can develop it further to have a nice target with some shiny bells and whistles for the enemy that completely controls the sky. Without the propulsion it is nothing, and we have already seen, last turn, conclusively, that the propulsion is in doubt, because we literally tried to do the propulsions and it literally did not happen and there was literally zero mention of learning anything about propulsion from the disaster.
Vibration Issues - No, we do not need to add supports or the like. Vibration issues come from the crude PSF-C propulsion, which will no longer be done.
Clearly the tornadoes, squalls, lightning, ballistae bolts, and rough landings will not cause any vibration. Certainly, I could believe that they would have to be in trouble before exploding, but it would still be nice to have some insurance. Not that we would need any insurance if we just gave up on the project completely.
Stability - See above. Stability comes from the propulsion method.
The propulsion method is just pushing. What precise mechanism does the propulsion use to ensure stability? As near as I can tell it is basically a constant unidirectional force applied to all downward surfaces. There is no part of that that actually corrects a tilt, meaning that the pilot has to do so manually, in the middle of a storm, with whirlwinds... And if it flips far enough then they lose any way to right it si it just plunges to its explodey doom. Yes, it would gain much stability as a firing platform, but as a vehicle it would gain almost none. And they would be trying to shoot while being constantly jostled while being shot at by lucky strikes.
But hey, if we are so desperate to throw away our design, lets at least have some hope...
S.M.-944 "Steeple Belle" Sky Hunter
This is shaped like an upside-down full-helm with a short stump of an inverse-topped umbrella sticking out of it.
We spend a great deal of time on the propulsion, based upon the observed pulse of force around an explosion. We focus on extracting and maintaining this pulse until we can go from a spherical explosion into a thin film of perpetual pushing, or "force film". Essentially, we end up with the surface of a wedge-section of explosion that is flattened out and perpetuated for as long as needed. We hope to have it generated to instantly coat a surface and continue to push directly against that surface for as long as it is active. Given the extreme focus and consistency of this effect, it is hoped that it will be abundantly stable and efficient. Converting this to circuitry ought to be fairly familiar territory so we hope to be able to produce a design incorporating it.
The design has a large crown hat atop it with panels to project the force film is specific directions. Being mounted at the top of the craft and directed away from the centre, it is hoped that it will be akin to the craft hanging from a string, and thus inherently stable, unlike our recent tragic disaster. This "hat" is connected via a solid crystal stalk and each panel of the hat can be powered separately, allowing steering by way of depowering the sections that are propelling away from the desired direction. We hope to have short, rounded, vertical "wings" out the sides with force film projected upon them when rotation is desired. If time permits we would further like to investigate the possibility of a weighted "skirt" that would constantly spin, with a counterforce pushing against it to keep the 'Belle stable, but this is likely too mechanically involved for the scope of the initial project.
The pilot is mounted in a bulbous section at the bottom, laying down on their stomach after having strapped themselves onto the "bed" using leather straps through designated holes. They are slightly inclined to ease looking forwards and have a rotating mounting with a small hand-mirror to aid in observation through the transparent lower-section of the vehicle, which they enter feet-first. it is operated by moving a lever towards a direction to reduce power in that direction while continuing to push away from the opposing direction. There is also a lever to increase or reduce overall power to the force film(with a clear label as to the point at which firing the cannon becomes impossible, we hope to institute a separate generator and storage system for our magical supplies so that the cannon can store power separately and continue to fire past this point, just at a lower rate, but at present the force film sadly consumes the storage before charge enough for the cannon can be accumulated) and one for the rotational controls.
There is a forward-mounted gunner with a hack-uno permanently mounted on a ring at its centre-of-gravity. It can relatively easily be rotated over about 40 degrees although looking down the sights can be difficult at extreme angles. The gunner wears stuffing in their ear for the entire duration, which is fine given that nobody could ever hope to hear anything in the conditions that they will be dying through. Communications with the pilot are achieved through strings linked to tabs, that mark directions and alerts. Such as "Kegger left" "opportunity up" "collision behind" just by pulling their own tabs. The back is consumed by a large bank of universal magical sources(U.M.S.).
The whole thing is armoured evenly with transparent crystal where the crew are. Visibility out the back and top are minimal, but we hope to refine that in later versions. We plan to keep the armour light enough that it can exceed the altitude of any kegger design, but failing that we will attempt to armour it enough to withstand a ballistae bolt at close range, if it can hold such weight aloft. Of course, all of this is dependant upon getting the propulsion magic working, without that the design would be useless anyway.There! Looks ugly but actually works, as much as the ridiculous notion of building a flying machine in the current situation could hope to, which equates to "a complete failure, but better than some others". Antimagic is still the hugely more important priority.
The flaw is not a weak power plant.
The flaw is a horrendously energy-hungry engine.
You know the HA1, right? And how it takes three mages to fire one shot? This is because the HA1 uses three PSF-Cs to fire its projectile.
And now take the KPD Mk. 1 present in the F43. It casts 4x PSF-Cs every single second. That is extremely inefficient. Luckily for us, the ideal KPD doesn't use PSF-Cs. It uses its own "spell" to work. And since we're making this spell from the start, we'll have more control over it.
I find it difficult to believe that you do not understand that what you are saying is ridiculous. Our biggest guns fire very small projectiles along very concentrated tubes and they only need to move, Their orientation is handled automatically by their motion. That the unmentionable disaster could get aloft and maintain its orientation(well, it did neither of those things, but its pitiful efforts were adorable in their own way) with such ridiculously low power requirements is, quite frankly, wrong! I suspect that it had numerous such engines and was still ridiculously efficient.
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Topic: Wands Race - [Arstotzka] {COMPLETED} (Read 375631 times)