We really don't need to make the voting system that much more complex. I'm going to "fix" it without the priority stuff in this post. Since if
everyone doesn't follow along it quickly devolves into a mess. You also should have set Ebbor's and my votes for the AS-HA1 to the highest priority.
Also, for Skirmish: I still say Revealing Mist or Flare. I
really like Flare, actually. It's simple (Fireball: Swap power for range + colors + brightness) and helps us in many ways. But I'm leaving my argument for that after the revision phase and after we see how badly messed up our design inevitably will be.
Artillery is just simply the best bet right now. Disregarding range and even regarding Lucky Strike, our artillery is superior to theirs. If we were to spend a design on improving it we would be
far ahead in the artillery game. I'm fairly convinced that while they've been able to keep up to us so far, but...
1.) Our artillery power has been in a way "saved up". The HC1-E has had a lot of improvements but it's still Very Expensive, so they haven't bothered countering it. Upgrading its range will suddenly beat all their artillery with one move. They'd have to upgrade a
lot of things to beat the HA1. If it's successful, but let's not kid ourselves here.
2.) They're probably reaching the limits of their Ballistae. Chances are that we've put way more effort into the HC series, and while up to this point we've been on-and-off equal in the artillery game, there should be a point when it becomes way harder for them to upgrade than it will to us. Even with magic, there's only so much you can do to make a ballista bolt fly further.
Getting a Regular/Expensive HA1 will be amazing for us - we may actually start pushing back on the seas, first off. We've gone from disasterously losing every sea engagement to a stalemate. Upgrading artillery puts it on
every boat, not just Fog-O-Wars. (Though I'm pretty sure the HC1-E is only fitted to Fog-O-Wars; our longboats get HC1's). So if we get the HA1 to be Regular/Expensive, every boat will get it,
drastically improving our performance at sea and giving us the upper hand. If we begin winning at sea, we can then use our advantage in artillery to support our troops on land. I'm nearly positive that a successful artillery design will spell victory on the sea and force their attention there while we can do strictly land-based things.
Then, it'll also greatly help us at land. The plains we should be able to keep a stalemate instead of losing ground. Jungle... I dunno. It depends on how much new artillery matters there and what they do as their actions.
But then there's the revision. The flare I'm now confident will work as a revision. If we get a working HA1 and a flare, imagine what we can do. We'll have super extreme range! Our soldiers will be better at skirmishes thanks to communication and control over lighting! Even if we have to use our revision fixing the HA1, super extreme range will still help. Just not as much.
I didn't change anything other than the priority here. If you want to use the priority version that RAM used, just fix the votes for the Onslaught to use the same priority system that he used for his votes, and quote his votebox instead of mine.
Designs
2 AS-HA1 "Onslaught": Chiefwaffles, 10ebbor10 http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447733#msg7447733
1 Shrouder Shell: FallacyofUrist http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447735#msg7447735
1 Flameshrieker Shells: Lightforger http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447746#msg7447746
0 Deadly Spiders: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447753#msg7447753
0 Anti-magic mosquitos:
1 Spell-forged Steamworks: RAM http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447761#msg7447761
1 Anti-luck charm: RAM http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447761#msg7447761
1 Pillar of unmagic: RAM http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447761#msg7447761
0 Crystal Pyramid Bunker: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447865#msg7447865
0 Fire Ball Staff: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447865#msg7447865
Revisions
0 Revealing Mist: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447772#msg7447772
0 Flare: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163277.msg7447772#msg7447772
Orders
EDIT: Oh yeah, also.
Future Design: Tower of GrowthWhen one apprentice stated "What if we just made a really tall tower then used dogwood wands from there?", our Project Lead was struck with brilliance. Sure, the apprentice may have been joking, but regardless! Our losses in the jungle can be attributed towards the fact that there actually wasn't any jungle, and the cold.
The cold is something that can be addressed later. The growth, however, is not.
First, what if we could apply jungle-like growths in
all the battlefields? The plains would become heavy with overgrowth that changes every night but our soldiers always know the way through. The jungle would be restored, as would our fighting chances there. The Tower of Growth aims to implement this.
The concept for the Tower of Growth was called "a giant tree?" by another unnamed apprentice, who was later severely punished for questioning the Project Lead. Numerous mages assemble at the construction site as a giant dogwood core is grown over the course of anywhere from a few hours to several days (Our mathemagicians really don't know yet without
funding approval) then a quick protective shell of stone or metal is built around it, making it appear like a tower. This dogwood core is almost like an amplifying device, allowing the mages operating the tower to have an extreme area of influence and general growth powers. The operating mages then will focus on different battlefields to radically change the terrain via the appearance of thick flora appearing practically overnight. Of course, an entire jungle can't be made in a night, but in several months it can. And the layout of that new jungle can easily be changed overnight via minor tweaks to the shapes and layouts along with a few additions here and there.
Not only does this destroy the Moskurgian advantage in every battlefield, but it gives us one we haven't seen before: Ultimate knowledge of the battlefield. We're the ones creating the battlefield. We know how to traverse it.
EDIT2:
Revision: SO1-AD 'Concussion'Named for the effect it seems to give to those filthy Moskurgians.
(Anti-divination)
The SO1-AD is a modification of the SO1-AM Equalizer. Instead of using the extremely expensive charms, this uses the same kind of crystal used in anti-magic bombs and is hence much cheaper. This was tried in the design process for the Equalizer, but the design summary notes that there were issues with the cannon's spell setting off the unstable crystal used within.
The solution? Set the crystal to be used for one "magical wavelength", in a way. The Concussion's crystal interior, instead of absorbing magic and exploding, will reflect magic of the divination variety (thanks to precise mathemagics!) away. This causes immense pain in any divination casters nearby and disrupts divination magic in general. Unfortunately, the shell still won't explode in the sky. But it will "bury" itself into the ground thanks to its weight instead.
TL;DR: A repeat of our anti-divination designs. This is possible as a revision because it's just "Equalizer, but use antimagic-bomb-like crystal tuned to divination waves instead". The Equalizer was doing a ton of different things that didn't work in a revision, but this one does.
Revision: SO2-AM "Grounder"1.) Use anti-magic bomb crystal instead of anti-magic charm gems -> Much cheaper; no longer National Effort.
2.) Utilize our circuits to "stabilize" the shell; the circuits are broken during firing but last long enough to prevent explosion in the barrel -> We can use anti-magic bomb crystal without it exploding in the barrel.
TL;DR: Bam. Cheaper because it's using crystal instead of charms. And because of our circuits, the crystal doesn't explode like it did in the design summary for the finished Equalizer and it will instead perform like it was supposed to - exploding into anti-magic shrapnel. All done in a
very simple revision utilizing knowledge that we already have.
More detailed write-out for this one to come in Revision Phase.