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[GreatWyrmGold]

We REALLY need to do some science on Grate.
I mean think about it, if we could give his quantum immortality to OUR TITAN....

I'm pretty sure that was a nigh-impossible-to-reproduce event. Like the weird hard-water-and-lightning accident that made The (first) Flash. Or the gamma bomb that made the Hulk.

But if we can reproduce it...

[Corsair]

((Could get STEPHEN HAWKING to try something))

[Tack]

I'm starting to think that Grate is only gonna get 9.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I'd hope piecewise came up with something a bit more creative...

[Unholy_Pariah]

Im thinking every time grate dies stephen loses some life force or something, eventually hes gonna die and/or run out and grates gonna stay dead.

[Empiricist]

((What if Grate became "entangled" with something else? Quantum computers cease working if their superpositions get entangled with an external factor after all...))

[GreatWyrmGold]

Alright, no more Twister for Grate.

[PyroDesu]

((Sean, you can use whatever, just so long as you're not spawning complete weapons at cutting laser level and up. And I'm not working on the engineering challenge.))

I'm basing this thing on a design that uses it for propulsion (kind of like an Orion, but the detonation occurs at the throat of a magnetic nozzel and the fusion products and lithium are the reaction mass) - with a recycle rate of 14 seconds per pulse. And there's actually not that much fusion fuel to ionize - the lithium (actually, now I've read a study or two more... aluminium is better, swap that in instead) combined with the theta pinch (what I was reading for info was wrong, it's not a z-pinch, but a theta pinch that compresses the metal liner around the fuel) is what does most of the work - and scaling up the power of the device is done, it seems, by making the liner more massive (makes sense, I suppose - the fusion fuel ends up being crushed even more with the additional mass).

Though if it's really that much of an issue, we could swap fuels to a mix with a lower Lawson Criterion (deuterium-tritium, perhaps), since if less energy is required to set off the bomb but the energy from compression remains the same, then it should require less energy given to the fuel by radio excitation.

[Remalle]

Follow'd

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Sean, you can use whatever, just so long as you're not spawning complete weapons at cutting laser level and up. And I'm not working on the engineering challenge.))

I'm basing this thing on a design that uses it for propulsion (kind of like an Orion, but the detonation occurs at the throat of a magnetic nozzel and the fusion products and lithium are the reaction mass) - with a recycle rate of 14 seconds per pulse. And there's actually not that much fusion fuel to ionize - the lithium (actually, now I've read a study or two more... aluminium is better, swap that in instead) combined with the theta pinch (what I was reading for info was wrong, it's not a z-pinch, but a theta pinch that compresses the metal liner around the fuel) is what does most of the work - and scaling up the power of the device is done, it seems, by making the liner more massive (makes sense, I suppose - the fusion fuel ends up being crushed even more with the additional mass).

Though if it's really that much of an issue, we could swap fuels to a mix with a lower Lawson Criterion (deuterium-tritium, perhaps), since if less energy is required to set off the bomb but the energy from compression remains the same, then it should require less energy given to the fuel by radio excitation.

I think the core of the issue here is that you need quite a lot of energy to start the reaction regardless. Part through magnetic compression, part through radio excitation, but still a lot of energy. That you get a whole lot more back is obvious, but you need that starting spark, and that means a very high-density power cell, like the ones in the Black Death.

The entire device ends up being the aluminum fusion fuel canister surrounded by magnetic coils, plus radio antenna, plus power cell, arranged in a cylinder to be put into a missile, with the fusion canister up front. Only thing I can't say is how much energy needs to be delivered, so as to see how large the cell will need to be.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Hey.
Guys.
How big is an automanip?

[Lenglon]

diminutive, but not fine, nor tiny, if you want dnd terms and my memory of the progression is correct.

[GreatWyrmGold]

So, several inches?
Mortar shell or something it is, I guess.

Spoiler: The Grate Shell (click to show/hide)

1. Program an auto-matter-manipulator to turn everything from, let's say, 20 centimeters to a meter away from it into hydrogen when it receives a signal.
2. Attach a tactile sensor (ie, big button) to it. Do not touch the button. Ever.
3. Load them both into a shell, with a width a bit more than the width of the rest of the stuff and a length significantly larger, making sure to mark which end is the end that dropping it on will make your day very very bad. Also make sure to add some padding in the ends.
4. Mark "Do Not Use At Close Range" on the side.
You now have a Grate Shell! It's a bit big, but worth it!

When fired from a mortar or whatever, the automanip will hit the padding in back. When it hits the target (a battlesuit, in this case), it will slide forward and the tactile sensor will activate, telling the automanip to turn stuff into hydrogen. Including large amounts of battlesuit. The generation of a large amoung of hydrogen might result in an explosion should a spark emanate from the remnants of the battlesuit, but since it's far away I don't care.
Ideal world, you could recover the Shell later, but I wouldn't count on it.

It has bugs to work out, no doubt, but this is a good start.

Grate attempts to make the aforedescribed weapon for his Simus project, without destroying his virtual self.

[syvarris]

While not a particularly bad idea, I see two issues with that.  Maybe three.

First, it's got such a low blast radius.  If it's fired from a mortar, it's really only useful against a target that's entirely stationary for long periods of time- mortars have a long travel time, and are fairly innaccurate.

Second, it's probably reaally expensive.  Matter conversion manips are just plain expensive without needing to be automated, an automated one's gonna cost more than twenty tokens, not even factoring in the launcher or casing or anything.

(Maybe) Third, I think automanips are decently fragile.  Even with padding, you might need an inertia dampening manip just to make it survive the trip.  And then you'd have a mortar round that costs more than an Avatar of War.


Plus, you could always just fire a traditional mortar round.  It does require a direct hit anyways, so just a solid slug of metal should be able to take out a battlesuit.

[GreatWyrmGold]

While not a particularly bad idea, I see two issues with that.  Maybe three.

First, it's got such a low blast radius.  If it's fired from a mortar, it's really only useful against a target that's entirely stationary for long periods of time- mortars have a long travel time, and are fairly innaccurate.

True. I could set it higher, but I'm worried about excessive collateral damage and remembering that the AM at one point said that that's about the ideal size for amp stuff.
It's not like that that's the hardest thing to change.

Second, it's probably reaally expensive.  Matter conversion manips are just plain expensive without needing to be automated, an automated one's gonna cost more than twenty tokens, not even factoring in the launcher or casing or anything.

Wait, there was a 20-token budget? I missed that. Well, I might need to change the concept. Although this should work pretty well as an anti-armor round, neh? Up the radius a bit and it's great against starships (not enough to eat the whole starship, but enough to cut through both walls of the room?).
Thankfully, everything except the automanip should be pretty cheap.

(Maybe) Third, I think automanips are decently fragile.  Even with padding, you might need an inertia dampening manip just to make it survive the trip.  And then you'd have a mortar round that costs more than an Avatar of War.

I certainly hope I don't need all that.

Plus, you could always just fire a traditional mortar round.  It does require a direct hit anyways, so just a solid slug of metal should be able to take out a battlesuit.

...If it did, wouldn't this be pretty pointless as an exercise?