Print

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

[Chiefwaffles]

The problem with bird cavalry is how delicate it is.

The rider can easily get shot off the bird.
The bird can easily get shot out of the sky.

Remember that they have Lucky Strike and tons of ranged attacks on air. The AS-SPA-1 works because it's made out of crystal which doubles as armor in addition to being a light material. Birds are not armored. And Sure, you could say "But we can spend a revision on that!"
Wouldn't it be better to use our design on something that doesn't need a revision to actually work?
That and it's pretty hard to armor a bird. You'd have to armor everything while still allowing the bird to fly while still allowing the wings to move. And the rider is still exposed.

Then there's the fact where it can't field heavy weaponry. No AS-HAC-1. Andrea, you say it'd work wonderfully with rifles, but I would like to point out that that's not a great reason to like it. Any flying vehicle would work great with rifles. And rifles isn't something you want to design it around. For instance, the AS-HAC-1 on the AS-SPA-1 is better than a rifle. There's no reason to want a rifle over it when you can have a simply better weapon.

Then there's the part where birds don't get the Crystalworks bonus, and that are existing >regular sized< falcons are already Very Expensive.


Seriously. I'd rather any one of the designs I already posted - the Dreadnought, Aether Blink, explosive/flak shells, the AS-HAC-2, anything.

You want to use wind magic to do this stuff. While it's definitely not a huge leap to be able to draw wind magic from our mastery of hot/cold, it's still wind magic. And Moskurg specializes in wind magic. We don't want to go head-to-head against Moskurg in the one thing they've been truly specializing in for practically the whole game. It'd be like if Moskurg suddenly tried making better cannons than us instead of building on their own advantages.

I really don't follow your line of reasoning. There is absolutely no magic that is acting to create wind. All that the magic does is make things cold, wind is a natural product of that. It is like saying that we should give up on cannons because they cause objects to rise into the air, just like their levitation magic does. This is pure cold magic, a field in which we are strong in. This should, by all sanity, already be a thing, but it isn't, so I am putting in a design to make the logical consequences of a BEYOND MASSIVE field of rapid temperature reduction actually take effect.

This is just like when they used their wind magic to blow hot air from their deserts. That successfully reduced our temperature intensity, it removed our design bonus, and it was a pathtic effort. Moving an entire region's air into another region cannot be a simple task, it is a larger area than our frost towers by an order of magnitude and not lacking in force, but it is still weak because they do not actually have a source of appreciable temperature. We,  the other hand, have a source of appreciable motion. Convection is not gentle. Making an area this large, this universally chilled, it is not a petty thing like moving some air from a place that is still habitable, this is making the skies fall by taking away the ground beneath them.

There really is no gentle way to phrase this. The argument I quoted above has invalid assumption, it is in no way wind magic. The argument has invalid logic, Deriving wind magic from hot/cold interactions is ridiculous. Wind magic is motion magic and temperature magic is state magic, there is no logical connection there. There is no logical basis to believe that competing with the opponent is impractical. You can argue that energy states are motion derived but that won't fly even a little bit. The argument has invalid conclusions, Wielding enough wind magic to oppose them would actually be quite effective, and observing their wind magic in progress would probably give a design action dedicated to duplicating their wind magic a bonus. We would actually have an example to draw from. If convenction was not available then wind magic might well be a good idea, but we have access to convection on a scale that makes modern technology look like a joke. I am pretty sure that a single tower of forever frost would take less than a day to put out more energy than a moderate-sized nuke.

Sorry, but the quoted statement is purely wrong. The only insane thing we could do with wind magic is try to fly wthout accounting for it.

You want to make wind magic.
Wind is the movement of air. You want to make magic to control the movement of air. Moskurg uses magic to control the movement of air. You want to make wind magic. How do you not understand this?
Just because we know how it technically works doesn't make it not wind magic.

[helmacon]

You guys seem to like to fiddle with the fluff in support of arguments and stuff, but I would like to point out... It is the end result, not the process, that is the main factor in determining relative bonuses and penalties. You might have some stellar fluff, but if the end goal is something unlike anything we have ever done, we will likely get slapped with penalties.

And I reiterate

I just had a great idea for an anti air shell. Our anti magic crystals have a tendency to explode when encountering magic, right? Now, these fragments are good for grenades and such, and basically how our bomb arrows work.
What if, instead of just exploding it once, we explode out twice. Simultaneously. We do this by connecting two different mage gems to it, and pumping it full of magic from each end.
The result is the mage gem not just exploding, but literally testing itself apart into a fine glassy powder.
When detonated in midair, the result is a cloud of powder that takes a few minuets to dissipate, and will coat any flying carpets our airships that fly through the area in a billion tiny grains of anti magic.
This allows us to render entire areas of the sky inoperable for short periods of time, and take down air targets without direct hits.
It's like a flack shell, but even better because it hangs around for a bit.

[Chiefwaffles]

My point about wind magic is entirely not fluff. In fact, that's what I'm trying to say - it's not about fluff. If we try to compete with Moskurg in wind magic, we will lose. We will have wasted actions that could have gone somewhere else.

Regarding the anti-magic shell thing, Helmacon: It seems useful but mildly overengineered and could be too expensive to be useful. I think a valid course of action is designing a cheap explosive shell then revising a flak shell, or just designing a flak shell then revising something else. I already really want to use our revision to make our engines+cannons crystal, so I'm iffy on design explosive shell + revise flak shell idea.


And in general, I shall reiterate. I'd be willing to vote for many designs other than bird cavalry.
This isn't fluff - I don't doubt that we could do it- it's about use. Moskurg is really good at hitting smaller targets with their ranged attacks. Our birds will be flying utterly exposed, just like their riders. One shot means they're dead, and one shot is going to be extremely easy for Moskurg to do.
And weaponry - while the AS-SPA-1 can use a cannon and other spells, bird cavalry can just use fireball, which has a shorter range and is less versatile.

EDIT
Oh yeah, and bird cavalry has to rest and can't stay in the air indefinitely. The AS-SPA-1 can.

Dreadnought

Crystal Optics (Revision probably)
Would just help now, and a lot in the future. Crystal Optics, in its base form, allows for a Crystal Spyglass that can be used for safe and precise long-range spotting far superior to the flare. Doesn't obsolete the flare, as it can still be used for communication.

Steam Rifles
Actually possible now, thanks to the AS-HAC-1. Would help against their carpets, in a sniper role, potentially in melee, and not much in skirmish. Would actually be quite useful at sea as our soldiers could snipe their ship crew, and eliminate their
If we do the Crystal Optics revision afterwards, we can have the revision actually do Crystal Scopes on the rifles that can also spot for cannons. Would make snipers with Steam Rifles super powerful.

APC
Equipped with an AS-HAC-1 turret, an armored APC could really help our soldiers in the field. Though I don't think we need to focus this much on land at the moment. But it would help secure our advantage at land by a lot, and we could potentially use the revision for something that helps at sea.

AS-HAC-2
A self-loading cannon. Would be much more useful as anti-air and in its other roles. Maybe automatic or semi-automatic, but its main feature is that it would use easy-to-load magazines and loads shells into the chamber by itself instead of requiring each shell to be loaded. See my AS-HAC-2 future design I posted earlier. It would also include the HC2's Steam Recycler to practically eliminate the need for water.
This would really help

Explosive + Flak Shells
Boring, but would be really useful. Explosive shells can be designed and would give our artillery in every theatre a huge benefit + make all our cannons better against armor(?). Then we can revise Flak Shells to basically end Moskurg's air domination, allowing us to advance at sea once more.

I'd be willing to vote for any of these over bird cavalry. And designs that I posted further back not mentioned here. And designs made by other people (but not guaranteed).
I just don't think bird cavalry is a good idea anymore.

[helmacon]

Well, yea. The whole fluff thing was kinda in support of you on the wind magic thing, but I generalized it because you've done similar in the past and I don't want to single people out.

And the way my flack works is not necessarily an explosive shell. The explosive part already exists in use (in our bomb arrows). The whole thing is basically just designing a circuit system to set a spell on a timer. After that we just stick it in a regular shell. The downside is that it wouldn't work as an explosive shell for anything else, but the upside is that it's not an explosive shell we are trying to use for anything else.

[Chiefwaffles]

I'd prefer a more versatile explosive/flak shell, but your flak shell could just be a revision to the Equalizer.
But then we'd have to worry about expense. Hmm.

Anyways.
Design: AS-M1 Steam Rifle
The steam rifle is a remarkable weapon decades in the making.

To describe it in the simplest terms possible, it's a steam cannon scaled down for handheld use. It retains a relatively long (rifled, of course) barrel allowing for high accuracy, maintains a high range, is usable by mundane troops, and is breech-loaded.

The AS-M1 is of course, made out of crystal. This makes maintenance a thing of the past, as it regenerates itself. It also benefits from the Crystalworks. The tough crystal construction makes it lighter, cheaper, and more durable. The AS-M1 is made to fit comfortably in one's hands to allow for easy aiming without the use of a mount. When not in use, the AS-M1 can be stored on the back of a person.

On the bottom of the rifle, there's a slot for an AA Magegem. An AA Magegem is "clipped" into the slot where a crystal conduit connects it to the circuitry in the rifle and powers its operation. Due to the small size, a single AA Magegem can power it for multiple shots. Though we don't know the exact number until we finish the design. All we know is that because of how small the steam rifle is, it doesn't take nearly as much power as our former designs.
AS-M1 users are recommended to keep a supply of Magegems on hand for continued use in the field, and they can keep their depleted Magegems to be recharged by a wizard. If the supply of the AS-M1 happens to outnumber the supply of AA Magegems, then the excess AS-M1s shall be given to our wizards who do not require magegems to utilize the weapon.

The shell has been scaled down into what we're now calling a bullet. Users of the AS-M1 are to carry a bullet pouch along with small amounts of water. Thanks to the bolt action breech loading design, bullets and water can be very quickly loaded in. In fact, the AS-M1 is our fastest-firing design thanks to how easy it is to transport, store, and load the smaller caliber.
Because of how small each bullet is, exit velocity of the projectile is greatly improved over every other steam cannon despite the decrease in power. Bullets are made of crystal, allowing for great piercing power and even greater velocity than a steel bullet.

The weapon has a stock that goes against one's shoulder to stabilize and aim it during fire. It has an improved crosshair based on the primitive one used in the AS-HAC-1 in order to aid with long-range aiming. It has a comfortable handle with a physical trigger connecting a circuit between the Magegem and operational circuitry. When the trigger is pressed, the gun is fired via its circuitry. Allowing for mundane use.

TL;DR: A steam rifle.
Smaller Caliber/Crystal Bullets - We use bullets made of crystal. The smaller caliber and crystal construction makes the bullets much faster than any other projectile before despite the decrease in power. The bullets being made of crystal is cheap, light, and makes them have extra piercing abilities.
Scaled Down - The AS-M1 is essentially a scaled down version of the AS-HAC-1. It sacrifices power mainly for this, which is made up in the decreased caliber.
Breech-Loading - Obviously.
Crosshair - Very basic. Has an upgraded crosshair compared to the AS-HAC-1's crosshair.
Magegem-Powered - Because of its much lower power usage thanks to the fact it's been scaled down, the AS-M1 can get multiple shots from a single AA Magegem. No idea on the exact shots though. If we have more AS-M1s then magegems, then the extra rifles get given to mages who don't need Magegems.
Size + Crystal - Made out of crystal and thus gets the Crystalworks bonus. Is small enough to comfortably aim and carry on the person for indefinite periods of time. The crystal construction makes it lighter, durable, and self-regenerating.
Range + Accuracy - As high as possible. We want to be able to snipe air units and ground units alike with this thing.

DESIGN

2 AS-SPB-3 "Dreadnought" (w/ Research Credit): Chiefwaffles, RAM(insane)
1 Ritual of the Enflamed Wasp(R): RAM
1 Jetbirds: RAM
1 Pillar of unmagic(R): RAM
0 Aether Blink (w/ Research Credit):
1 AS-SPA (w/ Research Credit): Andres
2 AS-SPA-1 (w/ Research Credit): Chiefwaffles, Andres
1 Celestedemorte: RAM
3 Giant Mutant Bird Cavalry: Kadzar, voidslayer, RAM
1 AS-M1 Steam Rifle: Chiefwaffles

I'm voting for this too. If there's a tie, I'll change my votes accordingly.

[helmacon]

The gyro copter seems like it would be super hard to pull off, even with a 6, but I'm gonna vote for it for now just to prevent the bird cavalry from winning, because I think that would be a disaster.

Someone add me please. My phone makes pulling quotes a nightmare.

[Chiefwaffles]

Done.

DESIGN

2 AS-SPB-3 "Dreadnought" (w/ Research Credit): Chiefwaffles, RAM(insane)
1 Ritual of the Enflamed Wasp(R): RAM
1 Jetbirds: RAM
1 Pillar of unmagic(R): RAM
0 Aether Blink (w/ Research Credit):
1 AS-SPA (w/ Research Credit): Andres
3 AS-SPA-1 (w/ Research Credit): Chiefwaffles, Andres, helmacon
1 Celestedemorte: RAM
3 Giant Mutant Bird Cavalry: Kadzar, voidslayer, RAM
1 AS-M1 Steam Rifle: Chiefwaffles

What do you think about the M1 though, out of curiosity?


Also, I already said this, but for our revision we should revise our steam engines + cannons to be made out of crystal. This would make our stuff much more durable - Crystalclads would no longer have a weak spot that can sink the ship in one hit. Cannons can no longer be destroyed with one artillery strike, and more.
Combined with some firepower/offense-related design, it could really help.

[VoidSlayer]

I still want to know what is wrong with the idea of fireball rods usable by infantry.  It involves researching better mage gems and more advanced circuits within the design, both things we want to advance.  Any steam rifle will need a constant source of water which has always been the issue with the steam cannons, while the fireball spell would only require them to swap out mage gems.  We know that small wand like spell weapons are possible, the enemy uses them.  Ours would just be multi shot and shoot a giant fireball instead of a bullet.

Another thought I has, was what if we spend some time learning to summon water for the steam cannons and create a crystal-works type contraption for each steam cannon that summons the shell right inside the barrel.  That way it could keep firing without the need to reload anything but magic energy.

[Andres]

Design: AS-M1 Steam Rifle

Will never vote for this so long as it's called the "M1". Just call it an AS-SR1 like a normal person would.

Also, using steam is unnecessary. Just have a fireball be the propellant. The gun can be smaller, it'll have less weight (no water required),  streamlined ammunition (just the bullet, not bullet+water) which means higher rate of fire, and it paves the way for fully-automatic weaponry and magazine ammunition. The lack of steam will also translate to either more reliability, greater safety, or decreased reload time.

Smaller Caliber/Crystal Bullets - We use bullets made of crystal. The smaller caliber and crystal construction makes the bullets much faster than any other projectile before despite the decrease in power. The bullets being made of crystal is cheap, light, and makes them have extra piercing abilities.

Making them out of crystal is a bad idea. The density of lead is a feature, not a bug. Crystal bullets might give it higher muzzle velocity, but the lower weight (and thus lower inertia) means it'll suffer from a net decrease in range and stopping power. Not good for your stated purpose of being a sniper weapon. Giving them a crystal jacket, on the other hand, should allow them to keep their range and power while increasing muzzle velocity and giving them better AP capability.

If you think a jacketed round is too complex, fine, but even a pure lead bullet is better than a pure crystal bullet.

Scaled Down - The AS-M1 is essentially a scaled down version of the AS-HAC-1. It sacrifices power mainly for this, which is made up in the decreased caliber.

Attempting to make this kind of weapon as a scaled down version of a cannon will result in failure. They are different weapons with different design requirements.

EDIT: Not to say we wouldn't benefit from our experience with cannons, it's just that approaching the design as "a cannon, but smaller" isn't the right way to go about it.

Glory to Arstotzka.

[Chiefwaffles]

@Voidslayer: Wow. I'm amazed I haven't thought of that.
Yeah, we can just skip self-loading and have our cannons summon the shell right inside them. It wouldn't work for special shells, but that could be fixed later.
We can also summon water. Wouldn't be that hard.


I just think steam rifles are more versatile. More energy efficient, better range, more able to be made resistant to anti-magic, and cooler.

@Andres: I'll see about implementing your criticism. I'm a bit wary on he scaled down/steam stuff you mention though, since I do feel it should build off of steam cannons to avoid unnecessary difficulty. But I'll probably mostly implement it.

[Andres]

I still want to know what is wrong with the idea of fireball rods usable by infantry.

Range and the fact that the more powerful a spell the more mage energy it requires.

Another thought I has, was what if we spend some time learning to summon water for the steam cannons and create a crystal-works type contraption for each steam cannon that summons the shell right inside the barrel.  That way it could keep firing without the need to reload anything but magic energy.

Using Conjuration magic to conjure in the required ammunition would certainly increase rate of fire significantly, but there is a problem. The conjuration of the shells themselves wouldn't make use of our crystalworks unless we used a teleport spell, in which case we're using a teleport spell for shell-loading duty which would be a waste of the spell's potential.

There may also be difficulties in regards to making it possible for non-mages to work the device by themselves. As an overall design goal we're trying to minimise our reliance on mages to conduct war.

If you can think of a way to achieve the idea of ammunition conjuration feel free to share it with us.

Glory to Arstotzka.

[helmacon]

I think it's a decent design, but not the best. Es already told us how our anti air cannon was more than pushing size limits. I think using the same basis for our rifles, (which are much smaller) would incur a heavy penalty. The Crystal bullet idea is terrible though. Crystal is super light. Even if it is harder than steel, it would make a terrable bullet.

If I might suggest an alternative, and a compromise with void slayer.
Instead of approaching rifles through a cannon perspective, we approach through a wand perspective. The wand is set at the back of a short metal tube. (Not Crystal. The wand shoots fire, and that's bad for Crystal. Plus, we gotta burn the mountain bonus somewhere.) on the other side, a rotating cylinder holds up to 6 mage gems at a time, and the gem is used to power the wand for a small fireball. A small trigger is located on the bottom of the device that when pulled completes the connection between the mage gem and the wand. The release of the mage gem allows the cylinder to turn, clicking the next mage gem into place.

This has the benefit of not requiring water to fire, and holding multiple shots at once. A fireball wand will also probably be more accurate than a proto musket too.
Best case, we get a revolver like thing. Even if it needs A size mage gems, it's vaguely the build of a grenade launcher.

Edit: oops triple ninjad. I didn't even notice.

I like Andres  idea of using the fireball as the propellant, instead of the payload. Much more versatile in the long run, if a little more complex up front.

[RAM]

Advantages to the Celestedemorte:
1: Improved efficiency. We already have overkill on our frost towers, by encouraging airflow we draw more air into their influence and thus increase their effectiveness and extend their influence.
2: Denies the skies. The amaount of airflow this would produce is catastrophic. The results of chilling are simple, obvious, and significant, the mass iunvolved is beyond extreme. There is no way that the air anywhere near one of these things is safe. It is basically a whirlpool in the sky sucking everything down and then out. The enemy has massive sky dominance. Their weather magic can make the region unsafe for flying and their wind can protect themselves from the obvious issues of air vehicles being far more vulnerable to inclement weather than sea vehicles are. Throwing flying vehicles at them only results in losing flying vehicles. Also note that our crystals are very heavy. Not heavy compared to steel, but very heavy compared to rock. Remember that they were being used as axes and lances. Axes and lances are inertia weapons, that means weight. We KNOW, that crystals are heavy.
3: consistent aiming. It controls wthe wind patterns in its area. The enemy can fight in stops and starts, but air will be drawn in regardless. This makes our cannon shells more reliable, although the strong winds would take some experience to become familiar with.
4: Ritual experience. The ranges that war is being fought on render conventional magic useless. We need a way to boost our spells to a power level that can operate at artillery range and beyond. Augmenting our wizards would be nice, but it is a difficult and slow path. Rituals could easily juice up our magic to the level required to operate on the current battlefield.
5: Lightning rod. We need to start implementing this on all of our designs, this is a good place to start.
6: Actual physics. We have need to start observing the field. Convection and conductivity have been happening in front of us for a long time, we should start using it.
7: Easy. This is basically just a forever frost tower, we have lots of experience with those. We could do this blindfolded and it destroys the skies in a massive area. The other ideas are all stretching the limits of what is possible. Either small but extremely difficult advances in mundane technology or large leaps from established magical theory... This holds the line and we get to save our research credit for something good next turn.
Disadvantages:
1: Kills birds. We need to be careful, but we know where these are and when they will be starting, so we can avoid it.
2: Land only. Not for long...

The fluff is important because it justifies how we can do the things that we do. It is the difference between:
Magic cannon
A tube that shoots metal balls because magic.
and
Steam cannon
We use our existing heat and water magics to create pressurised steam that, combined with a sudden burts of pressure from a fireballs spell, will propell a projectile with both speed and force.
The first one is a completely new field of magic with very low odds of getting a practical weapon out of it. The second uses existing magic in a fashion that is understandible and we know how to achieve it.

We have the ability to spontaneously drop the temperature over a large area. This is all that is necessary for convection. Convection force is as powerful as the mass and the drop in temperature. The drop in temperature is large, the mass is off the charts. This is temperature magic and we are much better at temperature magic than the keggers are at wind magic. So even if that were a thing it would be an argument in favour as they would be unable to compete with our superior skill in the field. As it is, however, the "don't do it because they are better than us" argument is completely false. It is a good deal less well supported than the popularised "slippery slope" fallasy. The whole "don't do it because it is wind" is completely baseless nonsense and I am embarrassed for anyone who honestly believes it. Which, I suspect, does not apply to anyone here...

1: not wind magic. It is no more wind magic than the firewall in a bolier is ship-moving magic. And the Keggers use wind magic to move their ships, so obviously we should just give up on the whole idea... This is not controlling the wind, it is changing the wind's circumstances such that directly controlling the wind is a fool's errand.

2: Better at wind manipulation than wind magic is. We are talking about millions of tonnes, entire regions. The forever frost effect is much more powerful than their wind magic is. It easily overpowers every wind magic that they have in the field. If they want to resist this then they need to use absolute wind control rather than relative wind control. And if they do that then they would be better off with a literally invulnerable shield by holding the air still rather than their current "push it away with opposing force" shields. Not to mention that their energy expenditure of holding a space stationary while the whole world is moving around it would be too high to maintain while we already know that we can keep the forever frost up pretty much constantly. Not to mention that they probably thing that Earth is stationary, and thus all their attempts at absolute position control result in being flung out into space or crushed deep into the planet.
We have seen what wind magic, magic that acts directly upon wind, can do, and it is not enough. We have seen what cold magic can do, and combined with convection it is clearly more effective to manipulate wind indirectly than directly.

3: Stop being a troll. It no longer seems plausible that you honestly believe what you are saying. Cold magic = wind magic is a ridiculous notion. All magic has side-effects. Magic categories are very clearly based upon what they actually do, and experience in magic categories applies accordingly. Lightning causes explosions, fireball is an explosion, therefore lightning is fireball magic?
They have magic in that field so we shouldn't bother is also a complete fantasy. They used wind magic to create a temperature effect and it was very effective, we needed to rtaliate immediately and it was difficult because we were already pushing the limits of the field. They have flight magic, so all these hawks and helicopters should be given up on! No, wait, that would be stupid, we should give up on flying attackers because of their wind magic giving them free reign to control the air and with an upgrade that can cause our helicopters to flip upside down and crash. There is no part of your argument that is even slightly plausible. There are ZERO foundations, the assumptions are pathetically flimsy, the logic is flawed, the conclusions are fantasy. I am usually the last to call a troll a troll. I normally just assume that people are being honest, but in this instance it is really rather impossible to believe that someone could honestly state that macroscopic kinetic force is equal to thermal force and that an opponents superiority in a field is reason to abandon the idea of denying that field to anyone.


Summoning ammunition is good against air opponents, but bad against ground opponents who can protect themselves with antimagic.
Rifles are short-ranged, that is currently useless to us, but may well become useful later.

[Chiefwaffles]

Okay, how about this one?

"Changelog":
- Crystal-jacketed Steel Bullets instead of Crystal Bullets.
- Changed name to AS-SR-1.
- Uses scaled-down fireball as propulsion instead of steam.

EDIT2: Changed it a bit.
- Name changed to AS-HR-1. Hybrid Rifle instead of Steam Rifle, because it no longer uses steam.
- Removed mentions of water.

EDIT3: More changes!
- Name changed again to AS-R1. Because evidently Andres was traumatized by the word "Hybrid" at some point in his life.
- Bullet material changed to lead, if not too expensive.

Design: AS-R1 Hybrid Rifle
The hybrid rifle is a remarkable weapon decades in the making.

To describe it in the simplest terms possible, it's a steam cannon scaled down for handheld use. It retains a relatively long (rifled, of course) barrel allowing for high accuracy, maintains a high range, is usable by mundane troops, and is breech-loaded.

The AS-R1 is of course, made out of crystal. This makes maintenance a thing of the past, as it regenerates itself. It also benefits from the Crystalworks. The tough crystal construction makes it lighter, cheaper, and more durable. The AS-R1 is made to fit comfortably in one's hands to allow for easy aiming without the use of a mount. When not in use, the AS-R1 can be stored on the back of a person.

The rifle actually isn't just a scaled-down steam cannon, however.
Thanks to our extensive experience with steam cannons and the AS-HAC-1, this gun is able to be made reality. But just making it a smaller steam cannon isn't efficient. It'd need water and a boiler chamber and many other components that just prove unwieldy and unnecessary for a rifle.
So instead, the rifle is powered simply by a scaled-down streamlined fireball instead. The magic energy required is similar to that for a theoretical steam cannon of the same size, but the energy transfer is much more efficient. We get a faster projectile for the same energy cost, the size of the rifle is drastically reduced, and the need for water is eliminated.

On the bottom of the rifle, there's a slot for an AA Magegem. An AA Magegem is "clipped" into the slot where a crystal conduit connects it to the circuitry in the rifle and powers its operation. Due to the small size, a single AA Magegem can power it for multiple shots. Though we don't know the exact number until we finish the design. All we know is that because of how small the hybrid rifle is, it doesn't take nearly as much power as our former designs.
AS-R1 users are recommended to keep a supply of Magegems on hand for continued use in the field, and they can keep their depleted Magegems to be recharged by a wizard. If the supply of the AS-R1 happens to outnumber the supply of AA Magegems, then the excess AS-R1s shall be given to our wizards who do not require magegems to utilize the weapon.

The shell has been scaled down into what we're now calling a bullet. Users of the AS-R1 are to carry a bullet pouch with many bullets. Thanks to the bolt action breech loading design, bullets can be very quickly loaded in. In fact, the AS-R1 is our fastest-firing design thanks to how easy it is to transport, store, and load the smaller caliber.
Because of how small each bullet is, exit velocity of the projectile is greatly improved over every other steam cannon despite the decrease in power. Each bullet is made out of lead encased in crystal to retain its weight while giving it the ability to easily pierce Moskurg's metal. If lead turns out to be expensive enough that it raises the overall cost, then the heaviest acceptably cheap possible metal will be used instead.

The weapon has a stock that goes against one's shoulder to stabilize and aim it during fire. It has an improved crosshair based on the primitive one used in the AS-HAC-1 in order to aid with long-range aiming. It has a comfortable handle with a physical trigger connecting a circuit between the Magegem and operational circuitry. When the trigger is pressed, the gun is fired via its circuitry. Allowing for mundane use.


The result should be amazing. Our mundane and magical troops alike can snipe enemies both on the ground, and out of the sky. The gun is easily carried and so is its ammunition. Anyone can use it with the ammo. The lethality of a soldier equipped with this rifle is devastating. Carpets can be shot down with just one bullet, the rate of fire is the highest yet, anyone can carry it, and more!

TL;DR: A light handheld "steam" rifle. Should be accurate+long-ranged, and uses a fireball->bullet propulsion system instead of fireball->steam->bullet.
Fireball-Powered - We cut out the middleman and have the fireball spell used to shoot the projectile instead of boiling water to make steam to shoot the projectile. The result is a much more space and energy efficient gun that shoots faster than a steam cannon of a similar size. Also removes the need for water, reducing the amount of stuff needed to fire and increasing the rate of fire. You just load the bullet and fire, instead of loading the bullet then the water and fire. And you don't need to carry water and bullets anymore! Just bullets.
Smaller Caliber/Crystal-Jacketed Lead Bullets - We use bullets made of lead and jacketed with crystal. The bullets retain a decent weight while being faster and much better at armor-piercing than a regular steel bullet. If using lead adds penalties to expense, then just use the next heaviest metal that won't hurt the expense.
Scaled Down - The AS-R1 is essentially a scaled down version of the AS-HAC-1. It sacrifices power mainly for this, which is made up in the decreased caliber.
Breech-Loading - Obviously. Uses same bolt action breech-loading mechanism we have in every cannon at the moment.
Crosshair - Very basic. Has an upgraded crosshair compared to the AS-HAC-1's crosshair.
Magegem-Powered - Because of its much lower power usage thanks to the fact it's been scaled down, the AS-R1 can get multiple shots from a single AA Magegem. No idea on the exact shots though. If we have more AS-R1s then magegems, then the extra rifles get given to mages who don't need Magegems.
Size + Crystal - Made out of crystal and thus gets the Crystalworks bonus. Is small enough to comfortably aim and carry on the person for indefinite periods of time. The crystal construction makes it lighter, durable, and self-regenerating.
Range + Accuracy - As high as possible. We want to be able to snipe air units and ground units alike with this thing.
Expense - Considering the size of it, the removal of the steam parts, and the crystalworks, I'm optimistically hoping for Expensive. Cheap is possible, and so is Very Expensive.

DESIGN

2 AS-SPB-3 "Dreadnought" (w/ Research Credit): Chiefwaffles, RAM(insane)
1 Ritual of the Enflamed Wasp(R): RAM
1 Jetbirds: RAM
1 Pillar of unmagic(R): RAM
0 Aether Blink (w/ Research Credit):
3 AS-SPA-1 (w/ Research Credit): Chiefwaffles, Andres, helmacon
1 Celestedemorte: RAM
3 Giant Mutant Bird Cavalry: Kadzar, voidslayer, RAM
1 AS-HR1 Steam Rifle (w/ Research Credit): Chiefwaffles

RAM, I don't appreciate being called a troll. Just because you don't agree with what I'm saying doesn't mean I'm only doing it to try and annoy you.
It doesn't matter how you're doing it; you're using magic to create wind. Moskurg has much much much much more experience creating wind. The technique Moskurg or we use to create wind does not matter at all.

[helmacon]

Ok... If we do the steam rifle now, I think we need to be prepared to use the revision to finish it up as well. I'm willing to do that if you guys are. I think it could be a game changer.
I've got a few changes to suggest though.

-Drop the crystal jacket. It's a good idea, but lets try to get a cheap, working gun before we add any bells and whistles.

-Make the firing chamber metal, even if the rest is crystal. Heat is bad for crystals. Regeneration is fine for something chronic like a steam engine, but a sudden burst of heat (like a detonating fireball) could shatter the crystal before it can regenerate. We will have a mountain bonus to burn soon, so I think it would be fine. (It's a miniscule amount of metal anyways)

-Exchange the clip for bolt action. An automatic firing clip is something we have never done, and arguably worthy of a revision on it's own. Bolt action is very similar to our breech loading, and much more reasonable.

-Change the name. It's not a steam rifle anymore. We don't use any steam in it. Don't call it a steam rifle.


Change this stuff, and i'm in.
((You still have mentions of soldiers carrying water for the gun in the last description too, so you might want to reread it and touch up.))