Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sean Mirrsen]

1-3a. Ok, stop stop stop.

I'm not a physicist. I've never taken a physics class. Lets stop for a moment. What is the point of what you're trying to do? Is it just to make an powerful x-ray laser for ships? Is that what we're going with here?

It'd help to skim through it a little... >_>

In principle yes, one part of it is that. I basically tossed in the tech language to provide some manner of description, as usual. I want to check if using giant FELs is going to be an improvement over standard ship lasers, because for all I know standard ship lasers use automanips to overcharge their performance or already use non-UV frequencies.

Then, I want to see if I can make a Gamma-ray laser, specifically for a ship that's built around it. It is kind of like a souped-up FEL without a charge looparound, just straight emitter->wiggler->focusing array in one line. The power requirements for the Graser are huge, because it can sink all that power and actually deliver it - overall it's going to be more powerful than an equivalently powered laser, and will defeat armor easier if it can be made.

IF it can be made - I want to roll Int to see if Anton can actually manage to design this monstrosity by himself in VR, because unlike XRay FELs this is beyond modern-day tech by quite a bit. If he fails, he'll try to give the project to a science team later.

Then I'd like to design either one or two battlecruiser-size ships - one equipped with the Graser as its main weapon if it's designed successfully, and one equipped with two scaled-up FELs capable of firing in all directions, as per the description paragraphs. With some luck we'll actually come to a consensus on the design of the new ships sometime in the near future.

[syvarris]

Armor, mostly thickness:

1.How thick does a layer of hexbug armor need to be to resist a PSL shard without shattering?

2.How many seconds does the above layer of hexbug resist, say, a standard laser rifle?

3.How thick does a layer of hexsand need to be to 'eat' plasma?  Is there a minimum thickness?

4.How thick does the backing of sharkplate need to be to reliably keep the hexsand mostly in place?

5.How thick is a plate of battlesuit plate?  IIRC, there's five layers, with the last two being focused on ballistic resistance.  If those are different, could I have their thickness too?

6.Test replacing the top two armor layers of a battlesuit with hexbug on top, and hexsand below.  If the hexbug takes a strong kinetic hit, is the hexsand below damaged?

7.If the above is true, would putting a layer of sharkplate below protect the hexsand?  Is there a different material that does it cheaper?

8.Would a plate of sharkplate the same cost as a plate of battlesuit plate resist small arms to a similar extent?  Since neither hexsand nor hexbug seems to resist both kinetic and energy weapons well, a layer on the outside meant to resist ALL small arms seems like a good idea.

((Heph update coming later, but there's nothing very important to be updated.  Only important thing is that the idle crew is actually building a hammer cannon.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Just for clarification, in case my descriptions are confusing, for the FEL cruiser I intend a design a little like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

))

[piecewise]

1-3a. Ok, stop stop stop.

I'm not a physicist. I've never taken a physics class. Lets stop for a moment. What is the point of what you're trying to do? Is it just to make an powerful x-ray laser for ships? Is that what we're going with here?

It'd help to skim through it a little... >_>

In principle yes, one part of it is that. I basically tossed in the tech language to provide some manner of description, as usual. I want to check if using giant FELs is going to be an improvement over standard ship lasers, because for all I know standard ship lasers use automanips to overcharge their performance or already use non-UV frequencies.

Then, I want to see if I can make a Gamma-ray laser, specifically for a ship that's built around it. It is kind of like a souped-up FEL without a charge looparound, just straight emitter->wiggler->focusing array in one line. The power requirements for the Graser are huge, because it can sink all that power and actually deliver it - overall it's going to be more powerful than an equivalently powered laser, and will defeat armor easier if it can be made.

IF it can be made - I want to roll Int to see if Anton can actually manage to design this monstrosity by himself in VR, because unlike XRay FELs this is beyond modern-day tech by quite a bit. If he fails, he'll try to give the project to a science team later.

Then I'd like to design either one or two battlecruiser-size ships - one equipped with the Graser as its main weapon if it's designed successfully, and one equipped with two scaled-up FELs capable of firing in all directions, as per the description paragraphs. With some luck we'll actually come to a consensus on the design of the new ships sometime in the near future.

Apologies, walls of text and the slow onset of sickness were not meshing for me. In general, when I see walls of of text and technobabble, my eyes tend to glaze over a bit. Best way to get the Piecewise Brand Computer (Now with more vibrating skull action) to function is as follows:

1. Very general idea (Yo dog, I wanna make like, a big laser what I gonna use to blow up shit. Zap zap zap, frying nasty xenos ASAP!)
2. Then, some minor explanations about it's design and intended purpose. (alright so dig. You got the big fucking power source back here right? And the emitter diode up here, and these focusing lenses here and here, and then you take the whole thing and you slap it in a metal box and stick a trigger on that shit. Maybe some gold plating. Classy.)
3. Then, if Piecewise brand computer has questions, you answer those as you need to.

That way you have to write less, and I don't have to sift through a wall of text, much of which is greek to me, and attempt to decipher what you want through the haze of my own ignorance.

Anyways.


I dunno. I mean, unless FEL's get like, significantly more powerful or better results then standard lasers (piecewise is piecedumb when it comes to lasers) then it probably won't matter much. Unless you could just hit them with gamma rays powerful enough to kill the crew but not the ship. Well, you'd fry it something awful I'm sure, but the physical ship. But nah, automanip use on lasers is rare. They don't handle them well.

So Graser: more energy, but better use of energy so more powerful? Any differences between it and standard ones, besides better use of power? Is it still an invisible beam of making things crispy?

Is it beyond modern day tech simply because of the size and power needed or are there physics weirdnesses which make it hard to do? If it's just size and power then you should be able to do it.

((Just for clarification, in case my descriptions are confusing, for the FEL cruiser I intend a design a little like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

))

Das interesting mang.

So, is the idea that you have the big central laser generating things (cyclers, whatever you wanna call'em) and then various ports you can open, which direct down "Barrels" which then let out on outputs that direct the laser in a certain cone of fire using lenses or some such shit.

An interesting way to get around the limitations of a spinal mounted weapon. Looks like it should work, HOWEVER, there are still blind spots on it and those outputs are gonna be fragile. What happens if one of the "Barrels" or outputs gets damaged?

Armor, mostly thickness:

1.How thick does a layer of hexbug armor need to be to resist a PSL shard without shattering?

2.How many seconds does the above layer of hexbug resist, say, a standard laser rifle?

3.How thick does a layer of hexsand need to be to 'eat' plasma?  Is there a minimum thickness?

4.How thick does the backing of sharkplate need to be to reliably keep the hexsand mostly in place?

5.How thick is a plate of battlesuit plate?  IIRC, there's five layers, with the last two being focused on ballistic resistance.  If those are different, could I have their thickness too?

6.Test replacing the top two armor layers of a battlesuit with hexbug on top, and hexsand below.  If the hexbug takes a strong kinetic hit, is the hexsand below damaged?

7.If the above is true, would putting a layer of sharkplate below protect the hexsand?  Is there a different material that does it cheaper?

8.Would a plate of sharkplate the same cost as a plate of battlesuit plate resist small arms to a similar extent?  Since neither hexsand nor hexbug seems to resist both kinetic and energy weapons well, a layer on the outside meant to resist ALL small arms seems like a good idea.

((Heph update coming later, but there's nothing very important to be updated.  Only important thing is that the idle crew is actually building a hammer cannon.))

Oh dear, I feel like we're getting into that extremely specific realm where I'm gonna give out numbers because they feel  right in my head but they're gonna be too big or too small or contradictory with others and then someone is gonna end up with something super op and feel really annoyed when me and the council tell them to fuck off, because they did everything using the numbers I told them. Why do you do this to me Sy?

Alright, the thing is that I'm not entirely sure I can give you good numbers because when it comes to in game, I'm not sure I'll remember how it should behave and it will depend on rolls and...ugh. I'll give you what I can.

1. Pretty thin. It's a physical impact, even if it's sharp.

2. uh...well, directed I'd say 2, 3 seconds.

3. Well, depends on how much plasma. They sand can only eat so much so fast. But something like the plasma weapon we have could be stopped by like a half inch or something.

4.Inch or two maybe.

5. In all they're like...two feet thick or so. Divide by five, make the anti-ballistic ones a bit thicker.

6. Depends on how well secured it is and how, but assuming it doesn't transfer the force directly into the lower plate, should be fine.

8. Well thats a bit of a false equivalency. It would totally resist as well, but it would also be like 5 feet thick. It's much cheaper.  Like, make some body suits out of it asap cheaper.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Apologies, walls of text and the slow onset of sickness were not meshing for me. In general, when I see walls of of text and technobabble, my eyes tend to glaze over a bit. Best way to get the Piecewise Brand Computer (Now with more vibrating skull action) to function is as follows:

1. Very general idea (Yo dog, I wanna make like, a big laser what I gonna use to blow up shit. Zap zap zap, frying nasty xenos ASAP!)
2. Then, some minor explanations about it's design and intended purpose. (alright so dig. You got the big fucking power source back here right? And the emitter diode up here, and these focusing lenses here and here, and then you take the whole thing and you slap it in a metal box and stick a trigger on that shit. Maybe some gold plating. Classy.)
3. Then, if Piecewise brand computer has questions, you answer those as you need to.

That way you have to write less, and I don't have to sift through a wall of text, much of which is greek to me, and attempt to decipher what you want through the haze of my own ignorance.

((Noted, and will attempt to comply. I usually dislike having to have a question dragged out in time any longer than necessary, so I try to pack as much of the needed information as feasible in the leading post. I guess I'll split it into a summary/pitch, general details, and infodump sections next time. We'll see how that works. ^_^))

Anyways.

I dunno. I mean, unless FEL's get like, significantly more powerful or better results then standard lasers (piecewise is piecedumb when it comes to lasers) then it probably won't matter much. Unless you could just hit them with gamma rays powerful enough to kill the crew but not the ship. Well, you'd fry it something awful I'm sure, but the physical ship. But nah, automanip use on lasers is rare. They don't handle them well.

So Graser: more energy, but better use of energy so more powerful? Any differences between it and standard ones, besides better use of power? Is it still an invisible beam of making things crispy?

Is it beyond modern day tech simply because of the size and power needed or are there physics weirdnesses which make it hard to do? If it's just size and power then you should be able to do it.

FELs... don't really get all that better in regards to sheer power. The FELs' main advantage is how they can be scaled to different power levels and wavelengths - and the "harder radiation" of the emission spectrum does "hit harder", because it penetrates matter and deposits its energy beyond just the surface layer. Plus it's just far more energetic.

Anyways. A Graser is eminently possible to make via the FEL principle. I found a post here asking the question, and while there's a lot of words there that don't mean much even to me, the comment by the asker at the bottom sums up the everything succinctly enough:

"You have mentioned the two key challenges here for building a free electron laser with high photon energy in your answer: Either the energy of the electrons propagating through the undulators must be very high, or the period of the magnetic structure of the undulator must be very short. A gamma-ray FEL is in principle possible, but these two technological challenges are severe..."

So in principle, given precise enough engineering and powerful enough generators, a gamma-ray FEL can be built.
You can't hope to really reflect gamma-rays of the kind of magnitude used for ship-to-ship combat (XRays are trouble enough, they need special ceramics), so the cycling charge-up chamber will not be used - a smaller gamma-ray source of more conventional nature will instead be used to "seed" the free electrons to the required frequency.

Das interesting mang.

So, is the idea that you have the big central laser generating things (cyclers, whatever you wanna call'em) and then various ports you can open, which direct down "Barrels" which then let out on outputs that direct the laser in a certain cone of fire using lenses or some such shit.

An interesting way to get around the limitations of a spinal mounted weapon. Looks like it should work, HOWEVER, there are still blind spots on it and those outputs are gonna be fragile. What happens if one of the "Barrels" or outputs gets damaged?

Yes, the individual lenses will be vulnerable, however the same can probably be said of a conventional laser.
In this case, the focusing array runs the length of the ship alongside the "wiggler" chamber, so it is kept focused as it charges - the laser will only lose combat power if that central core itself is in any way damaged. Outer deflector lenses can be destroyed - this will only mean that the ship will have to aim the weapons the usual way (or rotate a bit and use one of the other arcs for the same weapon). The barrels are basically just long empty tunnels in the hull, not critical in any way. Damage to the "nodes" the barrels lead from is more dangerous, as at that point there's basically nothing between said damage and the weapon core. If the redirect node is damaged but the main mirrors of the focusing chamber are intact, then you only lose the ability to direct the beam out of any of the firing ports linked to that node.

Any damage to the focusing array, or any breach of the wiggler chamber, will mean that the weapon can no longer be used. Any other damage mostly just limits your aiming options.

And yeah, there are always blind spots. Better some blindspots than needing to swing the whole ship around to aim. ))

To sum up: the Graser FEL is possible, but the ship it's mounted on won't use the multi-aiming of the regular FEL ship because of extreme penetration ability of gamma rays compared to even XRays. The regular FEL ship's outer lenses will be vulnerable, but their destruction won't reduce its fighting ability below that of a conventional laser-armed ship.

Anton Chernozorov

Seeing as one of the science teams had completed their current task (Team Alpha was studying the glow-worm gun, and was meant to be done by the 22nd), Anton will go visit them and present them with his High Energy Blast Cannon prototype, as well as all of the development and testing data.

Two tasks for the team, addressing the same basic problem: Heat.
The science team should first work to try and reduce the amount of heating the device experiences, and then make it so the device can survive being turned up to higher compression levels by actively dumping the produced heat into an external heatsink, which can be of any nature. A smaller, infantry/battlesuit version can use a backpack heatsink, and a ship-mounted version can use the ship's own heat disposal systems.
Maybe make it look more like a weapon while all of that is being done.

========
Edit: Also, given that designing two giant spaceships, not to mention figuring out the challenges with designing the weapons for them, is kind of a big thing to be working on, have Anton start working on those projects as personal research projects.
Set an ETA, and we'll discuss details in the meantime.

[Empiricist]

"So, do you have any other questions to ask?"
Charles inquires and charges a speech dynamic bonus.

[piecewise]

"So, do you have any other questions to ask?"
Charles inquires and charges a speech dynamic bonus.

The man shrugs.

Apologies, walls of text and the slow onset of sickness were not meshing for me. In general, when I see walls of of text and technobabble, my eyes tend to glaze over a bit. Best way to get the Piecewise Brand Computer (Now with more vibrating skull action) to function is as follows:

1. Very general idea (Yo dog, I wanna make like, a big laser what I gonna use to blow up shit. Zap zap zap, frying nasty xenos ASAP!)
2. Then, some minor explanations about it's design and intended purpose. (alright so dig. You got the big fucking power source back here right? And the emitter diode up here, and these focusing lenses here and here, and then you take the whole thing and you slap it in a metal box and stick a trigger on that shit. Maybe some gold plating. Classy.)
3. Then, if Piecewise brand computer has questions, you answer those as you need to.

That way you have to write less, and I don't have to sift through a wall of text, much of which is greek to me, and attempt to decipher what you want through the haze of my own ignorance.

((Noted, and will attempt to comply. I usually dislike having to have a question dragged out in time any longer than necessary, so I try to pack as much of the needed information as feasible in the leading post. I guess I'll split it into a summary/pitch, general details, and infodump sections next time. We'll see how that works. ^_^))

Anyways.

I dunno. I mean, unless FEL's get like, significantly more powerful or better results then standard lasers (piecewise is piecedumb when it comes to lasers) then it probably won't matter much. Unless you could just hit them with gamma rays powerful enough to kill the crew but not the ship. Well, you'd fry it something awful I'm sure, but the physical ship. But nah, automanip use on lasers is rare. They don't handle them well.

So Graser: more energy, but better use of energy so more powerful? Any differences between it and standard ones, besides better use of power? Is it still an invisible beam of making things crispy?

Is it beyond modern day tech simply because of the size and power needed or are there physics weirdnesses which make it hard to do? If it's just size and power then you should be able to do it.

FELs... don't really get all that better in regards to sheer power. The FELs' main advantage is how they can be scaled to different power levels and wavelengths - and the "harder radiation" of the emission spectrum does "hit harder", because it penetrates matter and deposits its energy beyond just the surface layer. Plus it's just far more energetic.

Anyways. A Graser is eminently possible to make via the FEL principle. I found a post here asking the question, and while there's a lot of words there that don't mean much even to me, the comment by the asker at the bottom sums up the everything succinctly enough:

"You have mentioned the two key challenges here for building a free electron laser with high photon energy in your answer: Either the energy of the electrons propagating through the undulators must be very high, or the period of the magnetic structure of the undulator must be very short. A gamma-ray FEL is in principle possible, but these two technological challenges are severe..."

So in principle, given precise enough engineering and powerful enough generators, a gamma-ray FEL can be built.
You can't hope to really reflect gamma-rays of the kind of magnitude used for ship-to-ship combat (XRays are trouble enough, they need special ceramics), so the cycling charge-up chamber will not be used - a smaller gamma-ray source of more conventional nature will instead be used to "seed" the free electrons to the required frequency.

Das interesting mang.

So, is the idea that you have the big central laser generating things (cyclers, whatever you wanna call'em) and then various ports you can open, which direct down "Barrels" which then let out on outputs that direct the laser in a certain cone of fire using lenses or some such shit.

An interesting way to get around the limitations of a spinal mounted weapon. Looks like it should work, HOWEVER, there are still blind spots on it and those outputs are gonna be fragile. What happens if one of the "Barrels" or outputs gets damaged?

Yes, the individual lenses will be vulnerable, however the same can probably be said of a conventional laser.
In this case, the focusing array runs the length of the ship alongside the "wiggler" chamber, so it is kept focused as it charges - the laser will only lose combat power if that central core itself is in any way damaged. Outer deflector lenses can be destroyed - this will only mean that the ship will have to aim the weapons the usual way (or rotate a bit and use one of the other arcs for the same weapon). The barrels are basically just long empty tunnels in the hull, not critical in any way. Damage to the "nodes" the barrels lead from is more dangerous, as at that point there's basically nothing between said damage and the weapon core. If the redirect node is damaged but the main mirrors of the focusing chamber are intact, then you only lose the ability to direct the beam out of any of the firing ports linked to that node.

Any damage to the focusing array, or any breach of the wiggler chamber, will mean that the weapon can no longer be used. Any other damage mostly just limits your aiming options.

And yeah, there are always blind spots. Better some blindspots than needing to swing the whole ship around to aim. ))

To sum up: the Graser FEL is possible, but the ship it's mounted on won't use the multi-aiming of the regular FEL ship because of extreme penetration ability of gamma rays compared to even XRays. The regular FEL ship's outer lenses will be vulnerable, but their destruction won't reduce its fighting ability below that of a conventional laser-armed ship.

Anton Chernozorov

Seeing as one of the science teams had completed their current task (Team Alpha was studying the glow-worm gun, and was meant to be done by the 22nd), Anton will go visit them and present them with his High Energy Blast Cannon prototype, as well as all of the development and testing data.

Two tasks for the team, addressing the same basic problem: Heat.
The science team should first work to try and reduce the amount of heating the device experiences, and then make it so the device can survive being turned up to higher compression levels by actively dumping the produced heat into an external heatsink, which can be of any nature. A smaller, infantry/battlesuit version can use a backpack heatsink, and a ship-mounted version can use the ship's own heat disposal systems.
Maybe make it look more like a weapon while all of that is being done.

========
Edit: Also, given that designing two giant spaceships, not to mention figuring out the challenges with designing the weapons for them, is kind of a big thing to be working on, have Anton start working on those projects as personal research projects.
Set an ETA, and we'll discuss details in the meantime.

If it's just precision and power, then we can do that.

Alright. My question is this: If those "tunnels" get collapsed or damaged, will the grazer just punch through cleanly and be able to keep firing? Or would there be complications?

The sci team asks if you have any restrictions on size or cost they should worry about.

I'd say a month.

[Sean Mirrsen]

If it's just precision and power, then we can do that.

Alright. My question is this: If those "tunnels" get collapsed or damaged, will the grazer just punch through cleanly and be able to keep firing? Or would there be complications?

That's... a difficult question, because the Graser doesn't have those tunnels. A Graser is just a big, long, straight line. There's no loops, no fancy aiming windows, there's barely so much as a focusing array because of how hard it is to handle gamma rays at those energies. Any damage inflicted to the graser itself is going to significantly decrease its power, or put it out of commission entirely - but if there's an opening or firing port of some sort between the last segment of the weapon and the outer space beyond the ship's hull, any obstruction in there is just going to be melted through, with minimal scattering of the beam while the obstruction lasts.

If you're asking about the FEL battlecruiser, the one in the drawing, then damaging the tunnels is not going to significantly affect the laser itself either, the obstructions will be melted through, just like with the graser. However the scattering will both be more severe, and will actually incur further damage, because the tunnels end with the aiming deflectors. The mirrors for reflecting X-Rays are complex enough without having to deal with randomly fluctuating beams, and the scattered laser pulse will likely destroy the deflector at that tunnel, causing that particular arc of fire to be lost. The beam will still be just as damaging if fired through the now-wrecked deflector though, it will simply fire straight forward (or upward, or backward - in whatever direction the tunnel goes).

The sci team asks if you have any restrictions on size or cost they should worry about.

Size - Ideally usable by a regular human with an exoskeleton - i.e. something at most the size of a cutting laser plus backpack attachment if needed.
Of course there can and should be larger versions, up to and including large enough to deal damage to battleships. But something usable by heavy infantry is desirable, as a heavy breaching and anti-armor weapon.

Cost - As Anton would say it: "I don't care so much about cost-efficiency here. I'd prefer if it didn't use them manipulators unless it absolutely needs to, because the more of it we know how to repair, the less we're screwed if something breaks in the field. Beyond that, I'd much rather have a weapon that works well and is easy to use, than a weapon that's cheap to buy or make."
So basically take it easy on the space-magic, but feel free to use the fancy new materials we got or advanced production techniques a-la Stevebots if it's going to make a better weapon.

I'd say a month.

((Okay, so... I'm assuming not the 30th of February for the completion date. Shall we say 28th?

Also, can I still make small tinker stuff and various production/science order actions, or is Anton fully committed to this? I don't mind waiting, but there were a few things I needed Anton to do before the missions end and we have a supply shipment to send off.))

[syvarris]

((We have a free science crew.  I dunno what to make them do.  Mind blank.  Suggestions?))

Why do I ask heaps of extremely specific questions in this obtuse way that leads to erroneous numbers?  Primarily because it's how my mind works.  I normally try not to ask stuff like exact width, but sometimes I forget that I shouldn't.  Sorry. 

Glowworm gun question:

1.How effective are the glowworm gun termites at eating through various armor-like substances?  Can they eat into a battlesuit?  Basically, do they have any use aside from potentially controlling enemies?

Battlesuit (beetlesuit?) design:

2.What I want, is a battlesuit that has one layer of normal Battlesuit plate on top (to protect from small arms), then alternating layers of hexsand+sharkplate, and hexbug- these to protect against battlesuit killers, like PSLS and plasma projectors.  The measurements you gave before would allow us to have about... eight of each layer, plus the battlesuit plate on top, all without reducing the volume.

(two feet = 24", 24/5=4.8, the ballistic resistant ones are somewhat thicker, so I rounded to 20".  Half inch of hexsand resists plasma, it needs an inch of sharkplate backing, "pretty thin" is useless, but hexbug breaks to a HGC round at "1/2 to 1/4 of an inch" so I'm just going with a full inch for resisting a PSL shard.  0.5+1+1=2.5, 20/2.5=8)

3.In addition to the armor above, I want our new battlesuits to have sharkplate 'sleeves' over all of their joints.  Strong enough to resist a gauss round at least once, and strong enough to resist things being shoved in.

4.All that is probably way too much for a battlesuit that costs only 20 tokens.  Since the sleeves are basically a requirement, we have to remove armor layers to fix the cost.  How many layers of armor can we have under the first BS plate, and still have the price at 20 tokens?

5.What about mobility battlesuits, the only variant anyone cares about?  Is the hexbug armor too heavy to let one fly?

Sharksuit design:

6.Y'know the civic defender's longcoat?  It's crap.  Imma replace it.

7.The basic idea of this is that I want it to cost three tokens total, but have the option to buy either the chestplate or helmet alone, for a single token.  That way, robots or cheap people don't need to buy the whole suit if they only want some of the protective value, and newbie ampers can actually afford armor.

8.It should also have arm and leg protection, for the full 3 token version.

9.How much protective value does this afford, compared to the civic defender's longcoat?  Can it actually survive a gauss rifle round?

[Sean Mirrsen]

((If the team really has nothing to do, one of the other teams or Anton could use the help.))

[Unholy_Pariah]

((Why not apply the science crew to termite control systems?))

[Empiricist]

Charles makes small talk, discussing how Leo got here and his life prior to the HMRC.

[Parisbre56]

Charles makes small talk, discussing how Leo got here and his life prior to the HMRC.

((Do you really want to convert him to ARM or are you doing this because you've got nothing else to do? Because if it's the latter, one interesting way to spend your time would be to attempt to form trade/diplomatic relations with independent colonies. One of the things I wanted to do on Hephaestus. Or just study the political state and geography (space geography? Voidgraphy?) Of the surrounding space.))

[Empiricist]

((It's hard to convert him unless I know about his past and interests, things I can use to persuade him. I'll definitely be working on proselytizing nearby planets soon.))

[piecewise]

If it's just precision and power, then we can do that.

Alright. My question is this: If those "tunnels" get collapsed or damaged, will the grazer just punch through cleanly and be able to keep firing? Or would there be complications?

That's... a difficult question, because the Graser doesn't have those tunnels. A Graser is just a big, long, straight line. There's no loops, no fancy aiming windows, there's barely so much as a focusing array because of how hard it is to handle gamma rays at those energies. Any damage inflicted to the graser itself is going to significantly decrease its power, or put it out of commission entirely - but if there's an opening or firing port of some sort between the last segment of the weapon and the outer space beyond the ship's hull, any obstruction in there is just going to be melted through, with minimal scattering of the beam while the obstruction lasts.

If you're asking about the FEL battlecruiser, the one in the drawing, then damaging the tunnels is not going to significantly affect the laser itself either, the obstructions will be melted through, just like with the graser. However the scattering will both be more severe, and will actually incur further damage, because the tunnels end with the aiming deflectors. The mirrors for reflecting X-Rays are complex enough without having to deal with randomly fluctuating beams, and the scattered laser pulse will likely destroy the deflector at that tunnel, causing that particular arc of fire to be lost. The beam will still be just as damaging if fired through the now-wrecked deflector though, it will simply fire straight forward (or upward, or backward - in whatever direction the tunnel goes).

The sci team asks if you have any restrictions on size or cost they should worry about.

Size - Ideally usable by a regular human with an exoskeleton - i.e. something at most the size of a cutting laser plus backpack attachment if needed.
Of course there can and should be larger versions, up to and including large enough to deal damage to battleships. But something usable by heavy infantry is desirable, as a heavy breaching and anti-armor weapon.

Cost - As Anton would say it: "I don't care so much about cost-efficiency here. I'd prefer if it didn't use them manipulators unless it absolutely needs to, because the more of it we know how to repair, the less we're screwed if something breaks in the field. Beyond that, I'd much rather have a weapon that works well and is easy to use, than a weapon that's cheap to buy or make."
So basically take it easy on the space-magic, but feel free to use the fancy new materials we got or advanced production techniques a-la Stevebots if it's going to make a better weapon.

I'd say a month.

((Okay, so... I'm assuming not the 30th of February for the completion date. Shall we say 28th?

Also, can I still make small tinker stuff and various production/science order actions, or is Anton fully committed to this? I don't mind waiting, but there were a few things I needed Anton to do before the missions end and we have a supply shipment to send off.))

Alright. Grazer don't care about damage to anything except main part.
FEL cares more, will probably end up not able to choose firing direction.

Alright. We'll see what we can do, but cooling is difficult on small scales.

No, days that don't exist.

you can still work, I suppose.

((We have a free science crew.  I dunno what to make them do.  Mind blank.  Suggestions?))

Why do I ask heaps of extremely specific questions in this obtuse way that leads to erroneous numbers?  Primarily because it's how my mind works.  I normally try not to ask stuff like exact width, but sometimes I forget that I shouldn't.  Sorry. 

Glowworm gun question:

1.How effective are the glowworm gun termites at eating through various armor-like substances?  Can they eat into a battlesuit?  Basically, do they have any use aside from potentially controlling enemies?

Battlesuit (beetlesuit?) design:

2.What I want, is a battlesuit that has one layer of normal Battlesuit plate on top (to protect from small arms), then alternating layers of hexsand+sharkplate, and hexbug- these to protect against battlesuit killers, like PSLS and plasma projectors.  The measurements you gave before would allow us to have about... eight of each layer, plus the battlesuit plate on top, all without reducing the volume.

(two feet = 24", 24/5=4.8, the ballistic resistant ones are somewhat thicker, so I rounded to 20".  Half inch of hexsand resists plasma, it needs an inch of sharkplate backing, "pretty thin" is useless, but hexbug breaks to a HGC round at "1/2 to 1/4 of an inch" so I'm just going with a full inch for resisting a PSL shard.  0.5+1+1=2.5, 20/2.5=8)

3.In addition to the armor above, I want our new battlesuits to have sharkplate 'sleeves' over all of their joints.  Strong enough to resist a gauss round at least once, and strong enough to resist things being shoved in.

4.All that is probably way too much for a battlesuit that costs only 20 tokens.  Since the sleeves are basically a requirement, we have to remove armor layers to fix the cost.  How many layers of armor can we have under the first BS plate, and still have the price at 20 tokens?

5.What about mobility battlesuits, the only variant anyone cares about?  Is the hexbug armor too heavy to let one fly?

Sharksuit design:

6.Y'know the civic defender's longcoat?  It's crap.  Imma replace it.

7.The basic idea of this is that I want it to cost three tokens total, but have the option to buy either the chestplate or helmet alone, for a single token.  That way, robots or cheap people don't need to buy the whole suit if they only want some of the protective value, and newbie ampers can actually afford armor.

8.It should also have arm and leg protection, for the full 3 token version.

9.How much protective value does this afford, compared to the civic defender's longcoat?  Can it actually survive a gauss rifle round?

They can eat through pretty much anything, given enough time. But more material means longer times. If you have the luxury of shooting a battle suit and then waiting a bit, they're quite effective.

Ok. Though it's gonna be heavier. Hexbug is heavy as sin.

3. Ok, seems fair.

4.Yep. Eh...for 20? Shoot for about 2 layers. Hexbug and hex sand are rather slow to make.

5. a thin layer and you'd probably still be able to.

6.Ok.
7. Ok so 3 token suit, with 1 more for chestplate/helmet. Alright.  Biggest problem is gonna be the fact that sharksuit stuff is rubbery consistency so having it skin tight is gonna heavily restrict movement. So you're either gonna need to make it baggy or have layers of it with cloth or something under it.

8. I assumed it would have everywhere protection. Wetsuit style.

9. It could take a gauss round, sure. I'm still not 100% on what this thing looks like and how it's designed though.