((Please. Can we try and keep this thread at least as in-character as the mission threads?
Also, missing updates sucks, at least for in-character interaction.))
I can do that.
Also, why'd you miss an update? You get two days to see it.
((Oops. Sorry, syvarris. >_>))
Eh, I don't really mind as long as I get tinker privileges back within a few turns. And if I don't, I'll probably just bribe someone into sciencing for me. ;p
((I won't deny the possibility that the exact scale of the thing eludes me, but it's still wormlike in shape, so a series of lesser warheads spaced along the length would work better, no?
Eh? 'Wormlike in shape'? Here's the description we got for it:
The data from the rapidly created and scrambled scout drone swarm shows a large mass inhabiting the lower levels. They can't get too far in, mostly because the thing literally blocks those levels off with its mass, but it is definitely organic and seems to be feeding on the metal and the stone. It appears to not be growing any larger, and is simply eating its way straight down into the planet's crust to stay alive. It hasn't attacked the drones, and in fact t's actually gonna clear the mining levels soon and keep going, by the look of it.
Personally, I visualized something more like a fat pancake. Worm would make more sense, but we weren't given an exact shape, so you might want to clarify before continuing with that assumption.
As for "laser bullets"... eh, not quite. I want to make a continuous-beam laser that can overcharge into a high-energy pulse laser. I recall the scene where Anton and Auron tested their weapons together against a proto-Altered - neither a continuous beam nor a weak pulsed beam could deal significant damage quickly. If you had to kill such a creature (or an armored opponent in general), you'd have to concentrate fire on a single point for some time. Using an overcharged laser pulse, you could get that initial "punch" to get through the enemy's armor quickly enough to deal critical damage, even if the enemy is quickly moving. The operating principle of the FEL just seems well-suited to this kind of thing, to me. ))
...Why do you want the capacitor to blow up upon use? Why don't you just use a rechargeable normal capacitor, that slowly recharges when the gun isn't firing?
Seriously, a 2TPU, almost instantaneous discharge capacitor is used in the gauss rifle, and it's size/cost is apparently negligible. The lasrifle battery has a much slower discharge rate, and isn't rechargeable, but it's the size of a small magazine and holds 120 TPU. I'm sure you could still maintain something with a silly high power like 20 TPU and gain a high discharge rate and recharge... ableness?.
And it'll probably still be massively smaller, more effective, and since it's infinite use,
cheaper than the PSL fluid capacitor. And it won't need mythril alloy in the design. Seriously, you're trying to make a battery out of an armor piercing frag grenade, there's gotta be a better way.
@Syvarris: You might want to specify how the sods roll for endurance (or whatever piecewise rolls for overdose), just so that you don't loose another turn.
If the sods have a chance to roll poorly, and die from overdose or whatever, then I'm abandoning the idea. I don't want missiles that are duds a third of the time.