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[Xantalos]

((I should really read the Time Machine again.))

Well, now that my uncompensator is presumably turned on and I'm stuck as Unremarkable Man, go equip an MKI or whatever equivalent we have nowadays and explore the facilities.

Do you have any information on what happened after I was put in stasis?

[NAV]

I have the data you requested for the rapier.

It damages the human body quite well, because of the vibrating.
It can pierce most armours without a problem as long as the blade is long enough to reach the pilot. I tested it against a mk1, mk3, robobody, civic defenders longcoat, synthflesh, battlesuit plate, and steel.

In the combat tests I ran, it seemed to fare slightly better than a monorazor in a duel, because of the reach advantage.
In squad vs squad there was no notable difference in effectiveness.
Against synthflesh and battlesuits it fared better than a monorazor due to better penetration.

My cost estimates are 3 tokens for 20cm, 5 tokens for 30cm, and 15 for 1m.

[Parisbre56]

((Actually, it's 180 rounds standard, with 800 rounds if you pay 4 tokens for the extra large tank. So it's more of an ammo-based-upgrade, like the ones you can get for the gauss rifle. I think piecewise misunderstood that.

If we compare it to a laser rifle, 180 rounds seem good, because it equals to 9 turns of full auto shooting.
Consider that a laser rifle has a 30 second battery and the standard firing time is 3-5 seconds, meaning a laser rifle can fire for 10-6 turns at maximum intensity.
Also consider that a laser rifle can lower its intensity to conserve ammo, just like a Shard Rifle can lower its fire rate.
Also consider that with 4 tokens, you can give a laser rifle a generator, allowing for almost unlimited ammo (unless you melt it by firing continuously) while the Shard Rifle, even with the 4 token upgrade, still runs out of ammo after 40 turns of firing.
So you get comparable magazines to the laser rifle, even though the weapon is slightly more powerful))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((20 rounds from the Testament can do rather more damage than 5 seconds of laser rifle fire though. You wouldn't do much at all to Milnoplate or synthflesh with the laser rifle, but every one of the Testament's shots has a chance to pierce armor and deal damage, and when you fire a lot of them you'll eventually hit something important. Plus the Testament's shots deal electric damage, so even if there's no physical damage the target can still be shocked and stunned.))

[Parisbre56]

((Turns out I might have been wrong, as it was pointed out to me in the OOC thread.

Regardless, consider this: this is an RTD, not an FPS. So regardless of how much you shoot, you have more or less the same chances of hitting something. So one would be better off shooting a Crystalline projector against a hard target, since it has better chances of killing something with the same roll, since it causes much more damage even in a glancing blow. And they can shoot for more or less the same number of turns: 10. On the other hand, the Shard Rifle has more ammo, like a laser rifle, so you can shoot multiple soft targets in the same turn. So in the same price range, the Crystalline projector and the Shard Rifle will be like Gauss Cannon and Laser rifle. Or you can think of it as something in between the Crystalline Projector and Tesla Arc. It can hit many targets, but not as many as the Tesla Arc. It can hit hard targets, but not as hard as the Crystalline Projector.))

[syvarris]

@Sean & Paris
((I had opinions on this stuff, but then it hit me: Everyone has different opinions on how things perform against various different targets.  We really really need to conduct some tests to figure those stats out before we start arguing the relative merits of weapons.

Although, I do want to point out that your comparison of the lasrifle/cutlas to the Testament/PSL is kind've off.  The catlas battery supplies four times the energy, at twice the cost, while the PSL tank supplies 4.5 times the fluid, at four times the cost.  And a lasrifle with a generator would probably be a token cheaper than the Testament.))

@Nik

((Are you sure there were ten settings?  I only remember five.  And I'm really happy to see that someone else remembers lasrifles having a dial that multiplies power draw- When I tested it's effectiveness a few pages ago, even PW didn't remember them having that function.))

@NAV
((I'm gonna assume you sent the actual data that you got from the VR along with the text))

Thank you for your prompt response, this is quite helpful to us.  We will have to do some testing to check if we can reduce the costs down to more practical levels- at the moment, the 30cm version costs a similar amount to a monoatomic sword, but is shorter and less effective against battlesuits.

If we manage to produce a version that is more practical, I'll see if I can arrange a free copy of it for you.  We want you Sword-Board tinkerers to send us things like this.

[Nikitian]

((@syvvarris Absolutely sure. At some point they were redacted a tiny bit,  but they are there.
Intensity 1 to 10, directly multiplies the power draw. Diffusion (focus? the name kinda got unintuitive with that aforementioned change, but for a good reason) 1 to 10, where 10 is the default setting, and 1 is, according to Piecewise, "laser shotgun" (Intensity=10:Focus=1, actually, as he suggested it, but you get the point).
There are five focusing chambers, each progressively bigger, each contributing flat 2 to each setting range (e.g. if it was cut down to only two sections, the settings range would be 1-4 on both scales).
The diffusion spectrum direction got swapped at some point because originally it was (easy to guess from the name) 1 for maximum concentration of the beam (default setting) and 10 for minimum, but then we started trying to add/remove focusing chambers and it was easier to calculate the settings ranges the way I described above. ))

[swordsmith04]

((I thought the diffusion could be decreased, as well as increased? "Shotgun" was one end, but focusing the beam was also originally available, IIRC.))

[Unholy_Pariah]

((Maybe default is 8 and 10 is laser pointer?

I always thought it was 5 power and 10 diffusion though))

[Nikitian]

((Nope, as far as I know, focusing the beam further could only be managed with additional focusing chambers (which were used in that tinker experiment with 'strobing beam', which you might be thinking of).
To think of it, it would make sense why the default mode uses the lowest intensity setting available with all the focusing chambers increasing its potential - it uses the maximum focus they provide, at which that much energy expenditure is not really needed.
And yes, both settings were 1-10 - I don't really know where the 5 power came from.))
ADD:((Actually, I guess now I get it:))

((A question on the weapons' range bonus, GM:
If I happen to change the laser rifle settings so it turns into a laser shotgun, would it turn from this:
 Laser Rifle
   Range: Short:+0 Medium +1 Long+0
To this?
 Laser Rifle - High-Powered Shotgun Setting
   Range: Short:+1 Medium +0 Long-1))
Milno ... takes the laser rifle from his back, changing the setting to a higher intensity and a different diffraction, to turn it into a laser shotgun.

(Pretty much, yeah. Such things aren't listed though, since it's not the main function.)
You clip the telsa sabre to your hip and unsling the laser rifle, taking a moment to fiddle with the knobs and change the intensity and diffusion rates. You up the intensity from 1 to 5 and crank the diffusion from low to high.

ADD-2:((Found it!))

Summon a laser rifle, check for any other hidden feature on [it].

[Intelligence roll:5] Well, this dial here sets the intensity of the laser from x1 to x10, of course it drains the battery faster on higher settings. And this dial here, sets the diffraction rate, it's set at the highest setting by default. And this, this keypad here, lets you program in a radio frequency so you can have the rifle fire remotely.

[Unholy_Pariah]

((Holy remote firing laser rifles Batman. ))

[syvarris]

((Wow, thanks Nik!  Why aren't you part of the Hephaestus staff- we could really use you!

I think the 5 intensity probably came from there being five focusing chambers.  My imaginary idea that it directly multiplies power draw probably came from the dial being labeled as x1 to x10.

Also, editting the wiki.  EDIT: Huh, that quote you have has Milno saying a lasrifle gets a bonus at medium range, and no malus at other ranges.  But the default armory lasrifle has a  +1 at close, and a -2 at long, which makes it just slightly better than the gauss rifle.  Odd.))

[Empiricist]

Charles investigates the following:

• How much does it cost to modify a robobody to be compatible with the brain units?
• Could the production line be modified to have them compatible already upon creation?
• If the sodbrain was given control over the Pawn SFE, but it was currently being wielded by someone, could they just wave it about and have the sod fire the weapon precisely when it lines up with a target?
• Could the Pawn SFE's camera, turret stand and electronic trigger be equipped onto other weapons such as laser rifles and crystalline projectors?
• How durable is a regular braincase?

[Radio Controlled]

Ask ARESTEVE to start production on FTL-jump point defenses.

[piecewise]

-.-

Radio is okay with 900 rounds.  I'm reducing the number of shots you'd get from a PSL tank.  The second spoiler is a direct copy paste from the post you made with the modified suggestion- I assumed that you'd already read it and okayed it.

*sigh*  I'll copy paste the same question into this post later.

EDIT: Here ya go.

Here, instead of showing the statsheets to you and letting you figure out the differences, I'll just state them outright.  This obviously assumes that you're fine with the version that you posted yourself.

I wanted to reduce the size of the basic tank which costs one token, by 20 rounds.  I wanted to reduce the size of the large tank by ninety rounds.  This is purely because I aesthetically like this better.

I also wanted to add different firing options: Instead of only fully automatic and 10-round volley, I want to add in a semiautomatic mode, and a 3-round volley.  Lastly, I want to reduce the 10-round volley to a 9-round volley, and the 25 per turn automatic to a 20 per turn automatic.

1.Is all that okay with you?  If not, can we just go with the version Radio made for expediency?  I'm getting really tired of this.

2.Assuming Simus doesn't object, make a few prototypes and confirm that the gun does, in fact, act like it did in VR.  Then start mass-producing the things so that we can ship a few with the first supply run.

3.Look at NAV's 'vibrating penetrator' as you called it in the tinker thread.  The prices you gave him were "3 tokens for 20cm, 5 tokens for 30cm, and 15 for 1m.".  Do you think that mass-production could lower those somewhat?  After all, a monorazor costs 2 tokens and also has use as an effective cutting tool, and a monosword costs five and can cripple a battlesuit- but the five token vibrator can't do jack to a BS, and isn't a good cutting tool.

Alright, then wrap up the completed description of capacities and post it, along with the name you want it to have, the description of the armory, all that jazz. It will be in the armory for the next batch of missions.

We'll save time and assume it works how you think it does, with the only questionable thing being armor penetration levels. That might need a little fine tuning once we get it out in action, but thats the sort of thing I won't know until we get it out there. Should be fine though.

The cost of his vibrator...hmm...the cost of his penetrator....hmm...the cost of his weapon is mainly due to the fact that he's using an extremely expensive and robust meta material for the spike. Even in small amounts it is very expensive. You could probably make one cheaper (If less robust) via research into new materials, or via use of some of the samples that are coming when the missions end.  Basically, he made a combat knife out of diamond when tungsten carbide would probably do.

((I should really read the Time Machine again.))

Well, now that my uncompensator is presumably turned on and I'm stuck as Unremarkable Man, go equip an MKI or whatever equivalent we have nowadays and explore the facilities.

Do you have any information on what happened after I was put in stasis?

You get dressed, but I'm uncertain as to where you want to go specifically and where simus would let you go. Large parts of the facility are dangerous, after all; some for unexpected reasons.

((20 rounds from the Testament can do rather more damage than 5 seconds of laser rifle fire though. You wouldn't do much at all to Milnoplate or synthflesh with the laser rifle, but every one of the Testament's shots has a chance to pierce armor and deal damage, and when you fire a lot of them you'll eventually hit something important. Plus the Testament's shots deal electric damage, so even if there's no physical damage the target can still be shocked and stunned.))

I'm nervous to see what Sy creates next.

Or, actually, everyone else should be. He keeps this up and the UWM are really gonna have to step up their game and stop just dumbfiring fat guys in big armor at you.

((Wow, thanks Nik!  Why aren't you part of the Hephaestus staff- we could really use you!

I think the 5 intensity probably came from there being five focusing chambers.  My imaginary idea that it directly multiplies power draw probably came from the dial being labeled as x1 to x10.

Also, editting the wiki.  EDIT: Huh, that quote you have has Milno saying a lasrifle gets a bonus at medium range, and no malus at other ranges.  But the default armory lasrifle has a  +1 at close, and a -2 at long, which makes it just slightly better than the gauss rifle.  Odd.))

Nik was, I think, part of the original group intended to go, but he got kidnapped by the government and vanished for months at a time, popping up only occasionally to say hello from the shaky wifi of east european coffee shops or through the proxy of trusted Bedouin confidants.

We may have to make him part of the council, since he has a technical knowledge of things that might, frighteningly, be better then my own.

Charles investigates the following:

• How much does it cost to modify a robobody to be compatible with the brain units?
• Could the production line be modified to have them compatible already upon creation?
• If the sodbrain was given control over the Pawn SFE, but it was currently being wielded by someone, could they just wave it about and have the sod fire the weapon precisely when it lines up with a target?
• Could the Pawn SFE's camera, turret stand and electronic trigger be equipped onto other weapons such as laser rifles and crystalline projectors?
• How durable is a regular braincase?

1. Depends on distances but as long as you have someone actually carrying the thing near by, token or two.

2.Yes.

3. Uh. Well it can definitely try. But you can be a great damn marksman, doesn't help if your perspective is spinning around like you're on a tilt-a-whirl.

4. Sure. I don't know if it can do that as it is, but the modifications to allow it to do so (adjustable straps or clamps to hold on, some sort of powerful magnet or adhesive strip for the camera) would be easy.

5. Standard braincase is actually pretty damn robust; hence why people in robot bodies tend to survive more. It can take a shot from a gauss round and still function.  Though it probably can't take more then one shot.