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[Chiefwaffles]

In yet another post from me, let's analyze what we can do here:

• More HC1-Es. This can be solved in a simple expense revision, but considering our luck we'll probably accidently make the HC1-E a national effort. Sulk.
• PROTECTION AGAINST GODDAMN LUCKY SHOT
• A counter against that fire thing of theirs. Countering lucky shot should make it a lot less awful, and things like the crystal canopy could alleviate the effects, but it's still a problem. And from a precursory look at it, it seems like any actual counter for it would be useless for anything else. Annoying.
• Faster ships. See the fog-o-war stuff. More HC1-Es should prevent us from losing the sea unless they get another completely new design with tons of 6's.

@Ebbor: The window is explicitly made "closeable". As VoidSlayer detailed in his original post:

A portion of it is summoned separately to allow a "firing port" which can be dismissed and re-summoned quickly to allow the cannon to fire out.

It will only be open for very short periods of time right as the cannon fires. And I doubt even Lucky Strike can exploit that.

[10ebbor10]

Anyway, new design.

Ray of Frost   Based on our well known fire technology, this ray of frost siphons heat from whatever the target is firing at, quickly quenching flames. That it can be used in ambushes to stealthily freeze guardsand turn of lamps or torches is a bonus.


GM : Did the Moskurgian flames work in vicinity of our anti-magic charms?

It will only be open for very short periods of time right as the cannon fires. And I doubt even Lucky Strike can exploit that.

Humans need oxygen. A fire on top of the bunker will soon incapacitate those within.

[evictedSaint]

GM : Did the Moskurgian flames work in vicinity of our anti-magic charms?

Yes. It's also foul, sticky, and produces noxious fumes.  It's likely the sort of thing Moskurg soldiers would mix in with their booze.

[Azzuro]

Design: Fog-O-War
The final refinement of our prototype steam-powered ship is to supply the water intake via a Channelled Fog spell, thus eliminating the problem of salt building up in the pipes and increasing the efficiency as pure water boils at a lower temperature than seawater. Using the freezing spell-powered steam condenser from the HC2, the steam produced is not vented but is reused, thus helping to solve the problem of the drive belt slipping due to wetness. The new ship is thus named the Arstotzkan Fog-O-War, and with its speed and range advantage both, will help us rule the waves in the Western Sea.

Designs
1 - Anchored Crystal Canopy: Chiefwaffles
1 - Fog-O-War: Azzuro

Yes, I'm thinking the Fog-O-War is important enough that I'm voting for my own design. Remember, if Moskurg seizes the Western Sea, then we will be fighting a losing battle in the Jungle no matter what. And we don't know how close they are to controlling the Sea, either!

EDIT: Seconding ebbor's question. I was thinking that they might have reversed engineered one of our fireball spells, but I don't see how.

DOUBLEEDIT: So their fire shells are non-magical then. Good to know.

[Chiefwaffles]

Azzuro: See my comments about the Fog-O-War's name:

Also possible naming scheme:
SPB1-A "Fog-O-War"
Steam-Powered Boat - Artillery "Fog-O-War"

And it should probably explicitly include artillery shore support in its design. It's not really anything that needs to be added the extreme-range of HCx-E's should allow the boats to serve support roles on land, and already they're fitted on some boats.

And Ebbor:
I guess we could go with that, but it feels like it could be a bit more. The skirmish use is nice but it's still frustrating having to use a design on this. I am assuming Ebbor is voting for his own design. Please feel free to fix it if you were not doing so.

Designs
2 - Ray of Frost: 10ebbor10, Chiefwaffles
1 - Fog-O-War: Azzuro
0 - Anchored Crystal Canopy: Chiefwaffles

[Roboson]

The Hobbit:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpsFWBzDHkk

Got to three minutes and 45 seconds. That is what we need. 

[Azzuro]

Design: Fog-O-War
The final refinement of our prototype steam-powered ship is to supply the water intake via a Channelled Fog spell, thus eliminating the problem of salt building up in the pipes and increasing the efficiency as pure water boils at a lower temperature than seawater. Using the freezing spell-powered steam condenser from the HC2, the steam produced is not vented but is reused, thus helping to solve the problem of the drive belt slipping due to wetness. HC1-E steam hybrid cannons provide its firepower, allowing it to shell land and sea targets alike from extreme range. The new ship is thus named the Arstotzkan Fog-O-War, and with its speed and range advantage both, will help us rule the waves in the Western Sea.

I don't think such a naming scheme is necessary unless we're going to be fielding multiple types of boats.

[Roboson]

Design: Fog-O-War
Using the freezing spell-powered steam condenser from the HC2, the steam produced is not vented but is reused, thus helping to solve the problem of the drive belt slipping due to wetness.

We don't have this. The freezing spell is on the barrel of the cannon not the condenser and is too powerful so it freezes the cannon. Its why we don't use the MK2.

[Chiefwaffles]

I think the Fog-O-War is obtainable, but right now our land forces are being completely obliterated by their fires. Hopefully widespread HC1-E's at sea in our existing boats will keep them at bay for now. That and the Ray of Frost should definitely help ships as well, since right now the main reason we lost at sea is because of the fires. While speed is one way to circumvent the problem, putting out the fires is another.

Also, I sure hope we're making ironclads at some point.

[evictedSaint]

We don't have this. The freezing spell is on the barrel of the cannon not the condenser and is too powerful so it freezes the cannon. Its why we don't use the MK2.

You would not receive a bonus to the roll because you do not have a working copy.  You would not receive a penalty to the roll because you've tried it before.

[10ebbor10]

So...

They managed to make a fireweapon that is longer ranged than our fireballs, magic proof, apperently cheaper, seemingly deadlier, stays in place, and all that.
Well, I'll scrap the range, that comes from their ballistae.

I'm going to call upon Rule 2.

2. Keep in mind that I am not a historian, so there will sometimes be mistakes and inaccuracies. Even in the best of circumstances, minor inconsistencies are a common occurrence. If some piece of equipment is imbalanced/unrealistic, I might consider changing it if you bring it up once -AND ONLY ONCE- and politely state your argument. However, I will err on the side of consistency with my own game, I do not like to go back and change things. Sometimes it is more important to simply keep the game running smoothly than other concerns

My argument here is simple.

It is inconsistent for a single design roll to be vastly more powerfull than several design rolls made over a long period of time.

To start: By virtue of being magical, magical fire must be better than normal fire. If it isn't (ie, mundane fireweapons are easier to develop than fireballs), then we got heavily disadvantaged when choosing our starting wand. I assume Iituem did not intend that, so to be consistent magical fire must be better than normal fire.

After all, I would not expect a simple designed peptalk to defeat Moskurg's wand of heroism.

Now, the modifiers we got for our fireball wand were significant. We got -1 for Firewand reverse engineering, and -1 for making it stick for an hour. I emphatize that was with a design bonus.

Secondly, the design is ahistorical. The molotov cocktail was invented in the second world war. That is several centuries further away than our steam engine. Sure, alternative fire things existed in history, but those all relied on rare resources Moskurg should not posses.

Third, it's not consistent with our own rolls. When we designed the Design: Antimagic Bombs [6, 4, 5], which were even based on existing tech, we had serious limitations in range, applicability and damage. It was an explosive arrow that needed repeated fire to pierce shields. It started fires, but only very tiny ones. It had shrapnel, but stopped by armor. Our enemy does not share any of those disadvantages for their fire-stuff. In fact, their fire-stuff is completely immune to means of stopping fire.

Therefore, I do not think the design is consistent with either historical interpretations nor game mechanics as applied before now.

[Light forger]

Flameblast Gems
A fairly simple gem designed to be place in the back of our cannon shells. Once exposed to a great amount of heat(like our cannons firing) the flameblast gem actives and sends a powerful continual jet of fire out of the back of the shell. The jet isn't enough to fully counter the force of gravity but, can massively extend the range of our cannons let us hit things like castles from far out of eyesight. Once the shell hits something the shock breaks the gem causes it to shatter and release the remaining magic within in a massive explosion able to outright incarcerate a man if the gems doesn't travel too far. The gems are made by our mages inscribing a spell into them and then infusing them with the magical energy akin to dozen or so castings of fireball.

Designs
2 - Ray of Frost: 10ebbor10, Chiefwaffles
1 - Fog-O-War: Azzuro
1 - Flameblast Gems: Lightforger
0 - Anchored Crystal Canopy: Chiefwaffles

[10ebbor10]

What's the point of that. We can not aim at that which we can not see.

Beyond visual range is not that great.

[Chiefwaffles]

That's...
That's a missile. And I love it.

But I think we have bigger problems than that - namely the fire and all the other stuff I outlined earlier.
And, most importantly, what Ebbor just ninja'd me on - there's no point in increasing the range of our cannons before we devise a more efficient method of spotting. Speaking of which, we could:
- Telepathic communication? Doesn't have to be specific or conversational; just a location or numbers or whatever.
- General farsight-scrying-type spell where the user can look far ahead of their normal line of sight.
- Carrier pigeons Summoned messenger [animal]. I like this one because it works the best with our current magic.
- Probably other things as well.
Also, even if any of these things are Very Expensive, one wizard equipped with one of these things - telepathy, scrying, whatever - can act as the spotter to multiple artillery emplacements. With the carrier animals, one wizard can receive, then relay message to multiple emplacements. Etc.

But again, this isn't important right now. Later, sure, but not at the moment.

[Roboson]

Modified version of the ray of frost. Designed with the intention to blast their projectiles out of the sky and nullify their lucky strike.

Spoiler: Visual Aid (click to show/hide)

Frost Pulsar
This superweapon is a culmination of everything we've been researching. It is a modified Tower of Frost designed to created a repeated effect rather than a constant one. It does so through the use of specially designed quartz crystals that are used like magic batteries, absorbing energy for a bit and then releasing it all at once. The result is a directional frozen pulse of immense magical proportions. It flies forward through the air with incredible force, destabilizing the trajectory of anything trying to push against it. In essence, its a highly powerful magical pulse firing in a directed path. This does little to effect projectiles travelling with the pulse, even pushes them along a bit. But projectile trying to pass through this magically charged frozen pulse is going to be knocked backwards and frozen solid.

Edit: Now that I think about it, may be able to be used directly against enemy troops to flash freeze them.