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[Chiefwaffles]

The Aether Reactor Mark 2 is a simple design. But it should be very effective.

It further paves the way for universal power. We don't need to waste effort and time on modularity when we don't need modularity in the first place. Imagine when we can just have our soldiers' armor just power their weapons without need for this modularity. The Reactor focuses on power.
We need power. We can easily downscale the reactor, and the principles learned from designing it should be of great aid to anything Aethergem-related that even doesn't use the reactor in the first place.

Also the point of the Reactor is to focus on magic generation instead of storage. I'd just like to point that out.


Also RAM.
Pendulum Rocket Fallacy.

[RAM]

The universal power system of aethergems is modularity. That is its whole problem. It is modularity(Literally a self-contained power module) in an item which only has one flavour and doesn't change its function at a frequency that would make changing modules practical. Generally power fluctuations are a matter of less than a second, or based on designs.

Oh. right, pendulums, I was going to have a righting thing but got distracted going back and forth with the other proposals. No time to fix it right now, gtg.

Ehh, I would say that it is a combination. The magems are like a bomb, and the aetheric accumulators are like a detonator. You take out the detonator, then most things won't set off the bomb, if you take out the bomb, then the detonator doesn't make a large explosion. Now that is the case for bombs, in this instance, there is zero explosive in the detonator, it is the magic that explodes, the crystals just don't have that much energy in them without it. So removing the magical storage should stop it from exploding more than the traces of magic that are channelled through it, resulting in a single burst crystal rather than a chain-reaction of gems setting off gems. I guess I could be wrong, I didn't consider that the magems are not explosive, but the theory still seems sound.

The synchronisation thing is meant to be an initialisation effect, once it is started it should continue to access the "deeper" connection continuously as normal. It just emits the pulse when starting up. I hope I made that clear but I should probably rephrase it.

I, umm, admit that I am not keeping track of things well in terms off size. The only reference that I could find was of aethergems being the size of a forearm, but with no reference to which variety that even was...

[VoidSlayer]

Design: Lucky Charm

Our engineers have figured out how the lucky strike spell works and can now apply the effect in a hardened, gem powered magic circuit.  The device can be attached to a cannon or even worn on the wrist/upper arm by a soldier and touched to a rifle and applies it's effect to make the weapon supernaturally accurate.

[FallacyofUrist]

Did someone say Fallacy?
Anyways.

DESIGN
2 - Aether Reactor Mk. 2: Chiefwaffles, FallacyofUrist  (Use Design Credit)
1 - Gemerators: RAM (Use Design Credit)

Should significantly help our Avengers.

Also... do we still have our spare expense credit? Because Expensive as opposed to Very Expensive Avengers could really tip the balance.

[Chiefwaffles]

Another possibility for the non-aether design is doing something like what Void suggested. Just a possibility, and (probably) not something I'll be voting or pushing for.

Potential Design: Luckshield

Most of our effort here is spent finishing the deciphering of Moskurg's Lucky Strike. Though we don't need to bother making a Lucky Strike spell. We just need to decipher enough to get the "Lucky" part.

Once this is done, we use the principles of magic learned with devices such as the anti-magic charm (where we used the laws of magic to create the AM field) in order to create a "luck field". Now, unfortunately, we can't aim for general all-encompassing luck because we simply aren't experienced enough with Lucky Strike. However, luck involving projectiles is close enough to Lucky Strike to hopefully be plausible.
The field is quite small and if needed we can put multiple Luckshields on a single object if one is too small of a field. But as long as the target is in the field, projectiles will be effected regardless of their distance from the field.

The Luckshield is actually an AAethergem. As the effect is constant, we hope to keep low power consumption by using as much "passive"-type magic as possible. It should be distributed to important individuals and weapons, such as Avengers, Mundane emplacements, and more.


The Luckshield simply causes projectiles aimed at anyone inside the field to tend to miss a lot more. We still aren't quite sure how it works (which is quite shameful for us) as all we're trying to do is to reverse the effects of Lucky Strike then have it work in a field. Though we should be closer to knowing how it works with this!

TL;DR: We make an AAethergem-powered luck field that basically does the opposite of Lucky Strike. It's much harder to hit anyone inside the field.

@Fallacy: Yep. I'd rather wait until after everything in this turn to apply the expense credit if at all, though. The thing about the Avenger is that if we design a new one, then the expense credit no longer applies to the new one.

[helmacon]

Use design credit on dividing aether gems into capacitors and generators. (specialization)

Use design action to acquire lucky strike (should help our aircraft peg those pesky sky hawks, should help our artillery hit aerial targets from range too)

Use revision to make the R1 auto loading.

[Andres]

DESIGN
3 - Aether Reactor Mk. 2: Chiefwaffles, FallacyofUrist  (Use Design Credit)
1 - Gemerators: RAM (Use Design Credit)

The Gemerator has some interesting ideas, but my philosophy is to generally make existing technologies usable first before doing other things.

Glory to Arstotzka.

[evictedSaint]

Looks like the Aether Reactor Mk. 2 is winning. Design roll in a bit, unless that changes.

[evictedSaint]

Design: Aether Reactor Mk. 2 [3+2, 1+1, 6]

Although no cheaper than the previous generation of reactors, the Aether Reactor Mk. 2 represents a step forward in magical power generation that can operate magical equipment sans mage.

It is roughly still the size of six adults standing in a tight 2x3 group, but the energy output is the result of a more finely developed and tightly-integrated Aethergem array system.  The Aethergems are constructed whole-sale out of our proprietary crystal glass with nickel and crystal wire components to hold the carefully-constructed spellwork for each, then arranged in a circle like the spokes of a wheel.  The circle allows each gem to work in tandem with its neighbor and opposing gem, which then amplifies the magical output.  These "wheels" are then stacked to about six feet tall and linked together.  The result is a single "axel"in which magical energy can be output and channeled away to other needs.

The Aether Reactor Mk. 2 features a circuit-based energy dispellment system, which automatically converts all stored energy into a harmless, high-pitched noise whenever the circuit breaks.  This results in a much louder but less violent explosion when damaged, and tests show that portions of the reactor can even be recovered for repair.

This new design should take care of most of our power requirements for most of what we design, though the complex nature and lengthy production time means the device is still Very Expensive.

And yes, we've taken the liberty of retrofitting the Avenger.

[FallacyofUrist]

Yay. Could have gone better, but still decent. More importantly, it's free because Bjorn(thank you, Bjorn!).

To be sure, it's Expense, Effectiveness, Bugs, right? Or was it Effectiveness, Expense, Bugs?

[evictedSaint]

Effect, expense, bugs.

You have one additional design left.

[helmacon]

Nice. Drop an expense credit on that and let's lucky strike it.

[Chiefwaffles]

Design: ASAF-F45 "Lightning"

The Lightning (should) be the final evolution of our aircraft, making use of all that we've learned and the new Aether Reactor Mk. 2.


The first and most important improvement is the KPD3. The KPD2 is frankly a silly way of managing flight - balancing something on a single source of thrust while also attempting to maneuver this. Why this leads to stability and acceleration issues should be extremely obvious, especially now that we've learned through doing.

Instead, we go back to the original vision. We take the constant applied thrust of the KPD2 and refine it. Via circuitry across the hull of the F45 Lightning, we can apply a constant propulsion to the entire hull, as if someone was directly holding the Lightning. Instead of using a single nozzle to focus the thrust, we have it focused by nature of the very spell. It's constant and varies to maneuver the craft.  Thanks to the direct application of thrust, acceleration is greatly increased unlike the KPD2 which has to fire at strange angles that makes horizontal acceleration nearly impossible. Stability is increased because we're not trying to balance the craft on one source of thrust.

The KPD3 isn't in one location and is instead spread across the hull due to the circuitry present across the craft to manage thrust at different locations. We're optimizing it to make full use of the Mk. 2 Reactor.

We're aiming for a small focus with this design. The hull and nearly everything else should be exactly the same as the F44 Avenger. Except for one other thing - the turret. This is again lower priority but should be at least more obtainable than prior attempts due to the fact that this is one of two changes.
The new turret should optimally make use of the KPD3. The turret gunner has a set of controls controlling localized and minor KPD3 thrusting to aim the turret. The AS-HAC-1 is present and should optimally be again increased to 20mm, but that is the lowest priority of this.

KPD3 - Focus on making the "original" KPD intention. Circuitry across the hull manages a constant propulsion and tweaks it to move the craft around. The direct nature of the thrust should massively help with acceleration, and the thrust on every part of the hull as if it were being held makes stability much easier than trying to "balance" on the nozzle of the KPD2. Optimized to take advantage of the Mk. 2 Reactor's power output.
Turret - Lower priority. Uses a localized very-low-power KPD3 to quickly and easily rotate+aim the turret with a set of controls. If possible, upscale the AS-HAC-1 to 20mm.
Everything else - Should remain the same as the F44 Avenger to allow for focus on the KPD3 (and turret).

TL;DR: Make a good aircraft by fixing the thrust then turret.


Lucky Strike isn't helpful when we don't have the range to get there. We need air superiority now. We need a vehicle to deliver the lucky strike-enhanced projectiles first. We can use an expense credit on this (or better yet, the Mk. 2 reactor which should be the bottleneck) to get it down to Expensive.

DESIGN
1 - ASAF-F45 "Lightning": Chiefwaffles

[FallacyofUrist]

Yup.

DESIGN
2 - ASAF-F45 "Lightning": Chiefwaffles, FallacyofUrist

[helmacon]

We need a better control system. Remove the overcomplicated and unintuitive control diets and replace it with a joy stick and I will vote for it. (honestly, a lot of the instability probably comes from the control system.)