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[helmacon]

Ok, ok. Nice. We got us some decent long rifles now. Not bad. Now let's do something about that lightning! We got a good bit of experience working with Crystal. Let's make that insulating armor!

[Chiefwaffles]

Revision: Insulating Crystal

We build upon our efforts to create insulating crystal from the Combat Armor project. With this foundation, insulated crystal shall be an easy task.
The structure of crystal is changed to no longer facilitate electricity flowing through it. We already have plenty of experience tweaking crystal to achieve particular ends, and this is no different. The Crystalworks allows us unprecedented control of the properties of crystal, and things such as Crystal Glass only prove this. While we may have had not enough time to finish insulating crystal as a part of Combat Armor, we can use the work done there to gain a head-start here.

Insulating Crystal is to be primarily used in layers. In instances such as Combat Armor, our Crystalworks shall create the insides of the Combat Armor out of insulating Crystal while ensuring a path from the head to the ground in conducting crystal. As a result, the occupant is virtually entirely protected by lightning and other similar environmental hazards, and the electricity harmlessly flows to the ground.
This layered approach can be used for practically any design, with Combat Armor being the highest priority. With this revision, we aim on equipping as many designs as possible with the new crystal variant.

TL;DR: Use our experience from the failed attempt in Combat Armor to make insulating crystal. This should be easy given we already gave it some effort as a part of Combat Armor. Should typically be incorporated in designs via layering conducting crystal on the outside, giving a path to the ground, with insulating crystal protecting the occupant/design/tech/whatever. Should be applied to Combat Armor and preferably everything else.

Experience/Difficulty - We already made a (partial) attempt at insulating crystal with the Combat armor design. We have experience with finely manipulating individual properties of crystal just in general, and with Crystal Glass. We have the Crystalworks, which greatly facilitates tweaking Crystal's properties. The actual layering part is easy. We can already seamlessly integrate crystal glass into our designs, and insulating crystal should be no different. This should be easy.
Insulating - Insulating crystal insulates against electricity. Surprise, eh?
Layering - While it should be acceptable anyways in Wands Race, apparently it's not the best idea to just make the whole armor out of insulated crystal. But if we just insulate the inside, the occupant is protected against electricity while the electricity can still path through the conductive crystal to ground. This method obviously should be applied to crystal armor first, but can be used with pretty much any design - the Crystalclad, steam engine, our cannons, etc.
Distribution - It should be pretty easy to incorporate this into our designs given the apparent ease we had with Crystal Glass. But priority from most critical to least is: Combat Armor, Steam Engine, Cannon, Crystalclad, Restless, any other crystal designs I forgot about.

If anyone wants to reintroduce any revision, please feel free to just copy it over from the other votes.

Revisions:
2 - Insulating Crystal: Chiefwaffles, Helmacon

But yeah, the Blastball is great! The better AS-R1 should be great, the combat armor should be nice, and hopefully insulating crystal goes well too. The steam engine comment seems promising, as we can use that in conjunction with our "steam engine credit" to get a much better engine. At some point, we should look into improving the accuracy of the AS-R1 as well. And cheapness. Cheapness can be done by better magegems (which can also be used for the HA1 to decrease its apprentice cost)
(Let's do the IDE!)
Also people use the discord please so I can talk about designs without doing it post-by-post on the forums!

Note to self: If we decrease apprentice requirement of HA1 down to anywhere(?) from 3, it should lower in cost from Expensive to Regular.


EDIT: Evicted, two questions:
1.) Will the Concussive variant be useful as a regular spell, for use in anti-air? (Knocking riders off of carpets, etc.)
2.) Does the Concussive variant have potential against Moskurg armor?

And I just realized that the lack of water requirement should really help us with the HA1 as even with the train, it should benefit because we can focus on transporting shells, we can set up the HA1 anywhere instead of near a lake, etc.
Oh, and our cannons RoF should increase too without the requirement to load water!

EDIT2: I added the "advanced summary" to Insulating Crystal.

[evictedSaint]

Your fireballs explode on contact, and you currently have no way to set a timer on the spell, so the concussive variant is not particularly more useful than a heat-centric fireball against air units

Your fireballs have always been effective against Moskurg Armor.  It's not a full-body suit, hitting them with a PSF will wash over the exposed bits like face and hands and stuff.

[Kadzar]

I voted for the Combat Armor so we could have lightning protection, so I consider this is essential:

Revisions:
3 - Insulating Crystal: Chiefwaffles, Helmacon, Kadzar

[RAM]

Revisions:
1 - Conjure Water: RAM
0 - Beachfront Frost Tower:
0 - Anti-Magic Mist:
1 - ETA: helmacon
1 - Crystal Durability: Andres
0 - Creepy Crawly Crystals:
0 - Furthest Forever Frost:
0 - Antimagic Bomb Concussive:
0 - Lead Overlayed Crystal Ordnance:
0 - Big Dummies:
3 - Insulating Crystal: Chiefwaffles, Helmacon, Kadzar
0 - :
0 Save the revision credit for later use:

I voted for the Combat Armor so we could have lightning protection, so I consider this is essential:

Creepy Crawly Crystals are also lightning protection, with the added bonus of potentially lighter and less flawed crystals while also offering more future expansion and having a better name and higher odds of success... True, it relies upon the utterly ridiculous notion of using insulation to protect against lightning, but that is the standard way of doing things in WandRworld.

Oh, and please stop throwing away good voteboxes, the previous votes are very much relevant at this time...

[helmacon]

uh.. RAM, are you sure you want to vote for conjure water? Especially seeing as how our cannons no longer require water?

Our cannons now no longer require water to operate, removing the rather complicated boiler attachments.

[RAM]

Pretty much yes. I haven't relooked at the list, but I knew what that was going in. Summoned water would be extremely valuable. It has always had huge potential for hygiene, concealed camps, crossing deserts, logistic trains, sea voyages... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... The extent to which ready access to water would help any army is pretty much mind-exploding. If it isn't permanent then it would be potentially problematic to drink it, but even then, the number of lives that can be saved just from clean socks can't be underestimated.

Adding a note to C.C.C. to note distribution.

[FallacyofUrist]

Seeing as we need to better protect our ships, I'm fine with Insulating Crystal. One of these days, though, I'd like to vote a non Chief design.

Revisions:
1 - Conjure Water: RAM
0 - Beachfront Frost Tower:
0 - Anti-Magic Mist:
1 - ETA: helmacon
1 - Crystal Durability: Andres
0 - Creepy Crawly Crystals:
0 - Furthest Forever Frost:
0 - Antimagic Bomb Concussive:
0 - Lead Overlayed Crystal Ordnance:
0 - Big Dummies:
4 - Insulating Crystal: Chiefwaffles, Helmacon, Kadzar, FallacyofUrist
0 - :
0 Save the revision credit for later use:

[Andres]

Revision: Insulating Crystal

Insulating Crystal is to be primarily used in layers. In instances such as Combat Armor, our Crystalworks shall create the insides of the Combat Armor out of insulating Crystal while ensuring a path from the head to the ground in conducting crystal. As a result, the occupant is virtually entirely protected by lightning and other similar environmental hazards, and the electricity harmlessly flows to the ground.

TL;DR: Use our experience from the failed attempt in Combat Armor to make insulating crystal. This should be easy given we already gave it some effort as a part of Combat Armor. Should typically be incorporated in designs via layering conducting crystal on the outside, giving a path to the ground, with insulating crystal protecting the occupant/design/tech/whatever. Should be applied to Combat Armor and preferably everything else.

Layering - While it should be acceptable anyways in Wands Race, apparently it's not the best idea to just make the whole armor out of insulated crystal. But if we just insulate the inside, the occupant is protected against electricity while the electricity can still path through the conductive crystal to ground. This method obviously should be applied to crystal armor first, but can be used with pretty much any design - the Crystalclad, steam engine, our cannons, etc.

My big problem with this design is that it's too sciencey. Moving electricity to the ground? That's unnecessary. Just say that it insulates against electricity and let it bounce off/not hit at all. Moskurg has proven that such physics-defying thing is possible what with how their lightning spell works against our plate-armoured troops despite faraday cages. (Whatever those are supposed to be.) Making it simply so that it's "electricity doesn't work on it" means we don't have to bother with armour layering and it means we don't have to potentially worry about grounding and its potential problems that may in some way come up in the future.

Glory to Arstotzka.

[Chiefwaffles]

If Evicted doesn't want to deal with the science he can just say "you incorporate insulated crystal into your designs and they're now lightning-resistant." The science behind it is simple: Ground electricity while protecting the important stuff.
Layering doesn't add any real difficulty because of how easily we can combine/manipulate different types of crystal, as shown by how we integrated Crystal Glass into Combat Armor.

Point is that layering is simple, straightforward, and doesn't add any difficulty.

[Andres]

If Evicted doesn't want to deal with the science he can just say "you incorporate insulated crystal into your designs and they're now lightning-resistant." The science behind it is simple: Ground electricity while protecting the important stuff.
Layering doesn't add any real difficulty because of how easily we can combine/manipulate different types of crystal, as shown by how we integrated Crystal Glass into Combat Armor.

Point is that layering is simple, straightforward, and doesn't add any difficulty.

((Ok.))

Revisions:
1 - Conjure Water: RAM
0 - Beachfront Frost Tower:
0 - Anti-Magic Mist:
1 - ETA: helmacon
0 - Crystal Durability:
0 - Creepy Crawly Crystals:
0 - Furthest Forever Frost:
0 - Antimagic Bomb Concussive:
0 - Lead Overlayed Crystal Ordnance:
0 - Big Dummies:
5 - Insulating Crystal: Chiefwaffles, Helmacon, Kadzar, FallacyofUrist, Andres
0 - :
0 Save the revision credit for later use:

Future design/revision: Fireball. The current Fireball family is inefficient. In its current sub-optimal state, the Streamlined Fireball and the Powerful Streamlined Fireball are different spells, despite the only difference between the two being power. No more. From now on, there will only be the Fireball spell.

This reworking of the Fireball spell is such that a low-powered and higher-powered version of the spell will all be one spell. Instead of an apprentice casting "SF" for a low-powered ball of fire or "PSF" for a high-powered ball of fire, they cast "Fireball" and choose how much power they put into the spell, the amount of power they can put in being limited only by their skill.

With this spell, an apprentice could theoretically cast a spell even less powerful than our current SF without having to learn a new spell; they just pour in less power than they would if they were casting an SF-level Fireball. By that same mechanic, Myark could throw out a fireball magnitudes more powerful than our PSF using the same Fireball as that same apprentice, he just puts in more power than the apprentice did. (Though he can of course put in less than his maximum, if he wanted to.) Furthermore, a wizard can further augment the power of their Fireballs by pouring in magical energy stored in magegems.

This allows our wizards to have more flexibility in casting and allows our proper wizards - especially Myark - to reach their full potential and not being limited in the amount of damage they can do by the hard limits of the spell. Ideally, this upgrade can be applied to the other Fireball family spells - Flare and Concussion. Our wizards could blast apart a ship with Concussion when working together and Myark could outright blind the enemy by casting an exceptionally luminescent Flare.

Credit must go to our glorious king's glorious son and heir, who brought to our attention the fact that our wizards were more being used to power devices than doing anything significant on their own. This new system should solve or at least greatly alleviate the problem.

Glory to Arstotzka.

[helmacon]

Pretty much yes. I haven't relooked at the list, but I knew what that was going in. Summoned water would be extremely valuable. It has always had huge potential for hygiene, concealed camps, crossing deserts, logistic trains, sea voyages... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... The extent to which ready access to water would help any army is pretty much mind-exploding. If it isn't permanent then it would be potentially problematic to drink it, but even then, the number of lives that can be saved just from clean socks can't be underestimated.
Adding a note to C.C.C. to note distribution.

Certainly having access to water is useful, but do you really think it is more important than a lightning counter? The reports haven't made any specific mention of us needing water, and I imagine that our supply trains mitigate any critical needs for it. It really just seems low priority right now.

[Chiefwaffles]

Future Design: AS-HA-2
Powered Artillery

The HA-2 is, of course, the latest improvement to the versatile AS-HA1. At the Academy, we aren't just satisfied with complete domination of the artillery game; we want to go further. The artillery piece is all-crystal in construction. It looks vaguely like a rectangular prism with a large barrel extruding from the front. The entire construction is covered in crystal; the crew and ammo reside inside the crystal enclosure where they're safe from enemy fire and environmental hazards.
Crystal Glass is used extensively in the design, allowing for 360 degrees of vision both upwards and downwards - even moreso with the AS-HA1, as the HA1 blocked vision directly ahead with itself. The crew can easily see out in any direction, and spotting is not an issue at all. If needed, cooling circuits (which we have very large amounts of experience with) can be used to cool the interior to a very comfortable temperature, and ventilation similar to that on Combat Armor can be employed so its crew doesn't suffocate.

The crystal interior, to reduce expenses, is remarkably small. It fits three people (the required crew), immediate ammunition, and nothing else. The AS-HA-2 is not designed to go places without support, is not designed to move soldiers, and is not designed to actually have anything above a short-term supply of ammo. This is mobile artillery, not an independent fighting vehicle. Our Mathemagicians are explicitly instructed to not go overboard with this aspect of the design.
Hopefully the small crystal interior combined with the Crystalworks should ensure that the expense of the AS-HA-2 is not raised relative to the AS-HA1.


The AS-HA-2 is powered by a new kind of steam engine ((using the free steam engine upgrade)) that makes use of general mathematical improvements and the Blastball. The Blastball allows the steam engine to be much smaller while outputting more power. The engine is made out of crystal like our other engines and is safely secured. Its smaller construction allows it to be easily incorporated into the AS-HA-2 without requiring a notable increase in size, and its greater power means the AS-HA-2 will  be remarkably fast.
The steam engine powers the wheels on the AS-HA-2, allowing it to move itself; the smaller size of the HA1 and the improved steam engine should give it very remarkable speeds with very little difficulty. But if it doesn't come easily, improving the speed of the HA-2 is a very low priority in this design.


For vertical alignment of the barrel, the AS-HA-2 has an interesting feature. The barrel uses a system of gears very similar to the AS-HAC-1, but scaled up to be able to support the heavier and larger barrel. Manual alignment of the barrel is possible and is easier than aligning the HA1's barrel, but it's not the primary way to align it.
The steam engine is geared by default to the wheels, but anyone in the crew can, with the pulling of a lever, switch the gears to connect the steam engine to the barrel's gears instead. This allows for easy powered vertical movement of the barrel. It's possible to move the barrel vertically with the steam engine while moving or rotating the actual construction, but manual alignment here is still possible if absolutely required. But thanks to the ease of the powered movement, quickly switching between vertical alignment and horizontal rotation/movement is a much faster method of aiming the barrel instead of alignment using gears or the AS-HA1's methods.

Another aspect of the barrel's new rotational capabilities is its maximum angles. The barrel can be aligned from 45 degrees downward to 90 degrees upward. It can't be rotated side-to-side, but the AS-HA-2's self-locomotion effectively replaces the need for horizontal rotation of the barrel. Both powered vertical and horizontal alignment are much more robust and quicker than their mundane counterparts in the AS-HA1.


TL;DR: Powered artillery. An upgrade to the AS-HA1 that can move itself around the battlefield quickly, has a greater firing angle, ensures maximum protection for its crew from anything Moskurg has to offer via a completely enclosed interior for the crew, and can very quickly aim using powered rotation for its barrel and the whole construction. Uses Crystal Glass to allow for maximum (even greater) visibility without sacrificing integrity or protection.

This is more-so of a brainstorm design. (Probably) not something I'm immediately pushing for next turn or anything like that.
Andres suggested this with just explosive ammunition and improved firing angles, but that feels very unambitious for a design. Especially considering how we improved firing angles on the HC1-E as an unintended side effect of the HC2 which rolled a [3, 3, 1].

This is kind of but not really like a tank. It's not meant to be used in the front lines, but its ability to move itself is to allow for very easy relocation as the battle lines change. Its crystal enclosure allows for safety from environmental hazards and Moskurg weaponry. Originally, I was going to have it be open and not entirely enclosed in crystal, but then I realized we have Crystal Glass and extensive experience in crystal construction.

Why do this instead of a tank, and why do this instead of just a better artillery piece?
1.) This makes tanks/APCs even easier. Hell, they aren't hard to do right now, but a bonus of this design is that tanks and APCs will be just a revision away after this. Add some seats, swap out the cannons, add more cannons, add anti-magic resistance, and more!
2.) It's been explicitly stated before that a disadvantage of the HA1 is its difficulty to move. As the battle lines move forward or backwards, the HA1 can't keep up. If we're losing any ground at all, then the HA1 can't move backwards in time and is hurt by enemy forces. The AS-HA-2 will also be able to easily move forward and just about anywhere, which is a huge buff in general.
3.) The all-crystal enclosure protects the crew against all threats that even combat armor with a 6 on insulated crystal can't protect against.
4.) Better firing angles - the HA-2 will be able to actually fire at nearby airships now, greatly reducing their effectiveness. That and better firing angles are just good in general.
5.) Easier aiming. The powered aiming will make the HA-2 more accurate and quicker to aim. Time between spotting and firing is reduced, moving targets are easier to handle, etc.

[VoidSlayer]

FUTURE DESIGN NOT NOW: Blastboat

This is a small row boat sized ship made of crystal with a hardened bottom.  A super high powered blastball spell is cast under it, shooting it up into the sky.  Done repeatedly it can stay aloft for a while, but more importantly it is very fast to fly up, where it can unload several armed men directly onto enemy airships!

It's a first generation rocket powered airship.

[Andres]

Future Design: AS-HA-2

I really dislike this design. The actual shape just doesn't make sense to me, it doesn't get us explosive ammunition, it tries to put something too big for trains onto something that doesn't go on tracks, and it wastes the free engine bonus on something that really doesn't need it. A proper fighting vehicle, a new ship, or a gyrocopter would all be good candidates for the engine, but not this thing.

Right now, what we need is better firing angles, explosive ammunition, a horse carriage, and then some kind of system to manage the recoil so our men don't have to re-aim it after every firing. It gives us everything we need and is simple enough that we can get it done despite the EA. We can get truly mobile artillery at a later date, but gunning for it right now is unwise. The horse carriage should at least give it some mobility.

We are getting crushed out at sea and your design will either be impossible to apply to ships or result in a malus to adapt it to ships. An upgrade whose structural change is limited only to better firing angles and recoil management, on the other hand, would work very well on ships.

FUTURE DESIGN NOT NOW: Blastboat

This is a small row boat sized ship made of crystal with a hardened bottom.  A super high powered blastball spell is cast under it, shooting it up into the sky.  Done repeatedly it can stay aloft for a while, but more importantly it is very fast to fly up, where it can unload several armed men directly onto enemy airships!

It's a first generation rocket powered airship.

This seems like it would be better done with some kind of variant of Fire Wall with Concussion mixed into it rather than than C-balls. C-balls are good for explosions, but what you're looking for seems like some kind of continuous effect, which is what Fire Wall is. Definitely not a bad idea, though. The fact that our circuits means we can have continuous effects running forever means this could definitely be a possibility.

Glory to Arstotzka.