Design: AS-M1 "Flame Rod"
I don't like this design. There are multiple reasons why I don't like this design. The core idea isn't bad, but there are details which I think make it a sub-optimal design.
Additionally, there's also a part reaching past the handle that goes over one's shoulder in order to stabilize the weapon during aiming.
The stock should go
against the shoulder, not over it.
Inside the barrel is a swath of circuitry. Specifically, circuitry to summon a "fire bolt" - a variant of our Streamlined Fireball design. The fire bolt uses roughly the same amount of energy as a Streamlined Fireball, but sacrifices some minor destructive power for increased speed and thus increased range. The Fire Bolt is still very destructive and has a minor AoE effect, but isn't quite as effective as a Streamlined Fireball in terms of raw power. Yet its increased speed and range make long-range shots much easier and make the M1 have a higher range than any of our fireballs.
This is the greatest flaw of the design, its use of a Firebolt. There are several problems with it.
1. It would be filling the
inside of the barrel with circuitry, which we've never done before and which will be especially difficult with a barrel this small.
2. It's an improvement/sidegrade of fireball, decreasing chance of success.
3. Streamlined Fireball still works against armoured opponents because it does relatively high damage. This Firebolt does less damage and may not work against armoured opponents as a result.
4. AA magegems would make the design bulky, and that's assuming it would be weak enough to fit in them. A gems are the only ones that can hold Streamlined Fireballs and they can only hold 2 of them.
Consider using bullets instead.
They're like cannonballs - which we've worked with often - except smaller.
They make use of our rifling technology, resulting in high accuracy.
The bullets will have better armour penetration since all the energy is focused on the bullet and not on creating an AoE effect.
Bullets require less explosive power than Firebolt to be effective, which means we can just strip down Streamlined Fireball. Downgrading is easier than upgrading or sidegrading, so less chance of failure. More importantly, the decreased power means we can use smaller magegems. Smaller magegems makes the design lighter and, critically, allows us to distribute more of the guns. If we can get it down to AAA, all of our forces can be equipped with them, which would be huge.
This process is done by a person applying pressure to an AAA Magegem "trigger" in the handle, pushing it into a circuit and completing it, firing the M1 without requiring any charge in the AAA Magegem Trigger.
The trigger doesn't need to work via magegem+circuitry. A simple lever would work in connecting the ammunition gem to the firing circuits.
TL;DR: A sniper rifle
Forget sniper rifle! If we get this cheap, this could be a standard issue weapon for our troops. Infantry would become relevant again and their flying carpets would drop out of the sky under a fusillade of projectiles.
tl;dr: Make it a cheap, bullet-using rifle.
Glory to Arstotzka.
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Topic: Wands Race - [Arstotzka] {COMPLETED} (Read 393861 times)