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[andrea]

I... uh... just clearly said that the only reason I can gloat about this was that we rolled  low enough for it not to work and had it been just a bit higher the problem would have been solved by the mages. I was right about the physics, but that is it.
Although on further thoughts I wonder if we might have had a bonus to effectiveness, had we used our more familiar steam action. Maybe, maybe not.

I agree, we can revise it later. We were just saying, if it is not made effective it should not be deployed this turn.

[Andres]

GM, how does the SPSF compare to the Streamlined Fireball?

[helmacon]

For the record, I meant that it was "ridiculous" as in "this sucks" not "EvS is wrong". No animosity. Just wanted to make that clear.

[evictedSaint]

GM, how does the SPSF compare to the Streamlined Fireball?

SPSF is a bit less powerful, but considerably more concentrated than a Streamlined Fireball.

[VoidSlayer]

For gem manufacturing can I suggest we make a sap bearing tree which produces amber mage gems?  It would be a full design but would draw on our plant magic to make them grow quickly and would be an alternative manufacturing to the crystal works.

For a new spell, what about a direct lighting shield spell?  If we created around a target alternate pathways for lighting it could cause the strikes to ground out in other places, like the earth or water around the target.

I would support the crystal construction if ti was limited to our steam engines.  Trying to do those and steel cannons at the same time is extra complications and unnecessary, it is at the sea where the lighting strikes are mattering.

[Chiefwaffles]

It's extremely simple. It's a material swap. We've already done a crystal steam cannon and we have very extensive experience in crystal construction.
We're not making anything new. We're just changing metal to crystal in our steam engines and cannons.

[helmacon]

@EvS, can we get clarification on what exactly happens when lightning strikes crystal?

[evictedSaint]

@EvS, can we get clarification on what exactly happens when lightning strikes crystal?

It depends largely on the size and complexity of the crystal.  Mostly it just heats up; if it's large enough, then that won't really do any damage (or at least any damage that microrepairing can't fix).  If they're smaller, finer crystal connections in something really complex, it'll cause cracks or shattering.  For example, it rarely happens, but if the crystal hull of the crystalclad gets struck rather than the steam engine, it's usually fine.  The sudden influx of heat is often too much for the nickel circuits to immediately cool, and they need to themselves cool down from red-hot to start working again.  On the bright side, they don't liquefy like the gold circuits did!

[RAM]

Also, I have an XKCD showing that large animals are more vulnerable to lightning than small ones.

That I am abundantly willing to believe, but it might be possible to give them little lightning rods to seduce the lightning into less sensitive positions. I still think that big birds is a new field though...

Crystalclad reshaping
The obvious weakness of the exposed boilers is easily fixed by placing an armoured covering over them, with ventillation handled by redundantly numerous chimneys with crystal hats on them. While we were at it we also gave the cannons little ramps to recover from the recoil, adjusted the firing ports according to advice from experienced gunners, thickened and reduced armour according to experience of the structure, and experimented with tweaking the hull to increase speed, trying to reduce eddies and wake...

Rotting Escargot ammunition
 We make shells that are thinner and make a summoning platform that generates a hollow crystal shell around the shell to make it the shape of a normal shell. This crystal covering disappears shortly after being removed from the platform and comes with a crystal hour-glass timer. The effect of this is to launch a smaller and lighter shell with the full force of a larger shell. This results in greater velocities and, once the outer shell is unsummoned(Preferably early in flight) a smaller projectile that displaces less air and impacts over a smaller surface area. The projectile has the same length(and greater average length) as a normal shell thus hitting with the same greater force over the small area it hits. These shells thus have greater range and speed and penetration but lesser impact force.

Furrybooms
We implement a timed detonation on our powerful streamlined fireballs and tweak their effect to be less fire and more ball, resulting in a greater displacement effect but causing less burning.

[VoidSlayer]

Exploding falcons

We place a mage gem and nickle circuit system on our falcons.  When they get close enough they move the mage gems to the circuit and explode in a fireball.  Used to "dive bomb" airships.

[RAM]

REVISIONS
2 - Crystal Construction: Chiefwaffles, Helmacon
1 - Buoy of Forever Frost: FallacyofUrist
0 - Crystalclad reshaping:
0 - Rotting Escargot ammunition:
0 - Furrybooms:
0 - Exploding falcons:

Exploding falcons could be useless if they increase their altitude, or create a much more effective lightning defence, but it seems that they ought to work well enough and probably won't increase our falcon losses.

manually detonated fireballs might be vulnerable to antimagic, so a timer was used. We already have spells with durations so it shouldn't be that much of a stretch. It would also give us some movement in the direction of an explosive that can actually make a rifle work...

Discarding sbots are what we need right now to make our artillery effective against the greater altitudes or heavier armour that they are likely to produce next turn.

Ooooh, ooh, idea: tracer rounds. Should be dead easy if someone wants to make a revision for it.

Crystalclad reshaping would block that obvious hole that has been sinking all our ships, along with some minor performance enhancements, and give us some hydrodynamics as well if we are lucky.

The buoy makes sense. We do need to quell their storms and if we can do the celestedemorte then this would put it at sea... I do not see anything else being this powerful in a revision. Kind of risky though.. Frozen seas would be unstable and I would expect less "frozen sea" and more" lots of little ice flows that could cause problems. But turning off their weather magic would be nice. I am still not entirely certain how they are using weather magic to make storms and not forcing their air force to scrub the mission due to bad weather. One would think that they are spending their entire magical reserve just keeping their airships from capsizing...

Crystal construction does, to me, seem a bit optimistic. Lightning does destroy crystals, and metal is actually extremely good at protecting against lightning, it is just a matter of having enough of it. Honestly, their fire pots are doing more harm to our crystalclads than the lightning is and it is sort iof ridiculous that lightning would strike a metal boiler that is sitting in a crystal tub. The lightning only veers into metal if it is a faster route to equalisation. If the boilers are positively charged for some reason, then making them out of crystal won't change their lightning suction at all. If they are not positively charged, then the lightning should find the big slab of crystal around them, say "huh, well it is a fast road but it goes sideways to my destination, so why would I go ther when these rickety old roads will still get me there faster..." and go another way. It seems tht crystal must be at least equal with air in conductivity which would mean that it doesn't really address that issue much. Still a good thing, mind, just that it is pretty minor at actually protecting our crystalclads.

[helmacon]

@EvS, can we get clarification on what exactly happens when lightning strikes crystal?

It depends largely on the size and complexity of the crystal.  Mostly it just heats up; if it's large enough, then that won't really do any damage (or at least any damage that microrepairing can't fix).  If they're smaller, finer crystal connections in something really complex, it'll cause cracks or shattering.  For example, it rarely happens, but if the crystal hull of the crystalclad gets struck rather than the steam engine, it's usually fine.  The sudden influx of heat is often too much for the nickel circuits to immediately cool, and they need to themselves cool down from red-hot to start working again.  On the bright side, they don't liquefy like the gold circuits did!

Actually, if our boilers are getting struck by lightning, they should be big enough to be fine if made from crystal. At worst, it disables the circuits within, and the ship is stuck until they cool down. Still, its a lot better if lightning just stalls our ships rather than exploding them.

[Chiefwaffles]

So, the revision credit.
I can't do it all at once, so here's a rough draft-type thing for the foreword of my plan.


Trek through Forenia: Foreword

Arstotzka prides itself on its knowledge and mastery of the natural world. Thanks to the tireless efforts of our Mathemagicians, we know much about the reality that surrounds us.
A true education isn't achieved through pure study, though that is an important part. A true education is achieved through seeing in person how Arstotzkan knowledge shapes and exploits the world around us. This is why in order to reach his full potential, Björn must travel through Forenia. Tons ee what we're fighting for. To see the people that'll be subject to his rule. To see our mastery of magic and reality at action, and to truly know the power of magic.

[RAM]

A train ride would be good, but we should try to capitalise on our academy. I mean, fundamentally, this is about education, and we have an education facility...

Can we use bird-taming to train him?

[helmacon]

A train ride would be good, but we should try to capitalise on our academy. I mean, fundamentally, this is about education, and we have an education facility...

Can we use bird-taming to train him?

If we had ever revised our mind spell to something further, then probably. As is, probably not. If we used this revision to advance it this turn, then it might be possible. We still have Myark as his personal mentor, right?