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[Andres]

Aerial mobility unit
Blastballs allow us to increase the range of our shells, but a single big explosion has proved to not be the most efficient way to deal with the problem. Rather, they would work far better with a continuous rather than impulsive effect. Therefore much like the wall of flame or channeled fog we modify our traditional blastball to achieve a constant force applied on the point of summoning.
The first application of this new spell is in an add-on to our combat armor: a Crystal box positioned in the back of the combat suit, in the shape of a backpack. This box contains mostly A or AA magegems (as our designers see fit. Target cost is VE) and circuits that summon the continued blast spell on concave plates on the sides  of the soldiers, near his Center of Mass. Those plates, are on a swivel mount and while normally they are blocked in position, the soldier can unlock them and move them to gain limited control during powered flights. This device will allow unprecedented mobility to our troops: jumping higher than a building, charging faster than a speeding bullets, impacting the enemies stronger than a locomotive ( and surprisingly, we actually can make the last 2 comparisons in this modern age). An AAA battery powers a small light in the visor , signaling the charge level of the aerial mobility unit (AMU). Provisions are made for adding an aethergem or at least linking to one externally through circuits, should such devices become cheap enough in the future.


Here, soldiers can fly, but at useful ranges without being killed by cannon.

This design is heavily flawed. Worst about it is its lack of aethergems, which should've been an obvious inclusion but is noticeably absent. I mean come on, it requires a constant influx of energy. That's the perfect application for aethergems.

Design: AS-AMA43
Aerial Mobility Armour

This is a new kind of combat armour. On its back is a small box-like contraption that, despite its appearance, most closely resembles a wand in nature as far as its effect goes.  The box thing is a KPD - a Kinetic Propulsion Drive. It is a Blastball-derived propulsion system filled with circuitry that takes some knowledge from our Firewall. Instead of producing a single brief, large, omnidirectional push as with a regular blastball, it instead produces a constant monodirectional push.

IDEs rely on an omnidirectional blast moving pistons which then move machines. The KPD relies on a monodirectional blast which moves machines. By removing a middleman and focusing energy in the one relevant direction it needs to go in, speed and energy efficiency will be MUCH higher than with IDEs, the difference possibly being even greater than that between IDEs and steam engines.

Circuitry lining the interior of the armour produces "hard points" which anchor the effect of the KPD. In effect, this should mean we don't have to design a complex set of circuitry for the KPD to produce its pushes in free air. It's like if the KPD was a pencil and its flight production was the act of drawing a circle. The hard points mean it can simply trace a circle, rather than have to draw the circle freely with no aids. This inclusion should decrease design complexity and is enabled by our experience with circuitry.

The AMA43 is powered by AAA athergems, with Cheap, Expensive, and Very Expensive variants available, each having longer flight durations than the last. They also come with magegems to store energy when flight is not being produced and to provide an emergency source of energy in case the aethergems run dry.

Glory to Arstotzka.

[Chiefwaffles]

Seriously; We can revise a jetpack if we make the F43!

The F43's main innovation is the Kinetic Propulsion Drive. If we make the F43, all we need to do for a jetpack is revise the KPD to be able to be strapped onto a human. That's it.

So we'd be getting the jetpack and the F43. A jetpack still needs to catch up with Moskurg's aircraft. A jetpack still needs to avoid being shot at by Moskurg's aircraft. And the person with the jetpack has to directly land on a Moskurg aircraft without issue to have any effect. When Moskurg revises closed cockpits, what will we do then?

[RAM]

What is wrong with the name "weightite" that would make someone think that it was some form of crystal?

Oh, fine, you want flying machines? I'll give you flying machines! just need to... ergh, what all do we have? Heat? rejected, how could that help with flight? Webbing, fog, wasps, explosions, crystals, cold...
Waspinator
We tweak the crystalworks a little, and then a lot more, and produce a hybrid of wasps and webs and crystals. This combines the buoyancy of wasp magic, the cohesion of webbing, and the regeneration of crystal, along with some innat chilling circuits to stop the dense wasp-mesh material from overheating and cooking itself. Some anchoring gems are required to maintain the vitality aspect of the wasps, but they will survive long enough without it to sink gently and safe;y to the ground in case of antimagic. By incorporating the wasp-mesh into crystal fabrication we hope to involve mathemagics to the level at which the "flight" quality of wasps can be isolated and controlled, allowing a great bolstering of the effect, effectively allowing any altitude that we want. We then imbed cannons in the cardinal directions to provide mobility by shooting wet(we use a fog spell to add some mass to the propulsion) air and mount a crystal turret with a [insert whatever gun we can fit in a turret, those guns all have the same name and I can't be bothered telling them apart...]. Wasp mesh would, of course, be vulnerable to lightning, but would regenerate quickly enough. Twisters would be a problem but we can probably produce a cold-beam that will destroy them, and they do not have that many of them(cue: whirlwinds revised to be cheaper), and fire will burn through the wasp-mesh and fall out the bottom, to be regenerated...

Chill Pill
This is a concentrated tower of frost effect with an activated use instead of a permanent one. It contains a number of large magems in a cart along with a cart-load of complex circuitry. The effect is quite simple. It creates a very brief(generally only about 5 seconds) but powerful and tall(though not particularly wide) pillar of instant cold at a designated remote location. This causes a pillar of air to fall suddenly. This has the effect of destroying dust devils. It will also cause severe turbulence for any aircraft too. Thus the "chilling pillar" effect will nullify their tornadoes and interfere with their aircraft while advancing our universal field theory.

DESIGN
1 - ASAF-F43 Interceptor: Chiefwaffles
1 - Direct Application Frost Towers: Andres
2 - Berserker Array: helmacon, Kadzar
2 - Aerial Mobility Unit: Andrea, Draignean
0 - SA-1: Railed Man Cannon:
2 - Overclock Process MK 1: FallacyofUrist, RAM
0 Weightite:

[FallacyofUrist]

After a lengthy conversation in Discord in which Chiefwaffles promised we'd try to use the tech from the F43 to go into space next turn barring an emergency, and in which he explained why this thing is going to work, I decided to vote for the F43 instead.

DESIGN
2 - ASAF-F43 Interceptor: Chiefwaffles, FallacyofUrist
1 - Direct Application Frost Towers: Andres
2 - Berserker Array: helmacon, Kadzar
2 - Aerial Mobility Unit: Andrea, Draignean
0 - SA-1: Railed Man Cannon:
1 - Overclock Process MK 1: RAM
0 Weightite:

[Draignean]

After a lengthy conversation in Discord in which Chiefwaffles promised we'd try to use the tech from the F43 to go into space next turn barring an emergency, and in which he explained why this thing is going to work, I decided to vote for the F43 instead.

use the tech from the F43 to go into space next turn barring an emergency,

go into space next turn

I think I just heard ES either develop alcoholism or burst out laughing, I'm not sure which.

[Light forger]

2 - ASAF-F43 Interceptor: Chiefwaffles, FallacyofUrist
1 - Direct Application Frost Towers: Andres
2 - Berserker Array: helmacon, Kadzar
2 - Aerial Mobility Unit: Andrea, Draignean
0 - SA-1: Railed Man Cannon:
1 - Overclock Process MK 1: RAM
1 - Falcon Air Skiff: Lightforger
0 Weightite:

The skiff got dropped from the vote box so added it back in. Also can some post here/pm me a link to the discord. The other links I found where expired.

[VoidSlayer]

the ASAF-F43 Interceptor has WAAAAAY too many weapons.  I count 3 cannons.  All our cannons can be breach loaded, choose one and have the pilot able to load it from the inside through a sliding hatch.  We can make a larger multi role fighter at a later time, this thing needs to be able to get in the air and shoot things.

[FallacyofUrist]

Well, not space next turn, but in a few turns, we can probably do it.
~~~
Just one weapon wouldn't be all that useful, and doing all this is within our reach.

[VoidSlayer]

2 - ASAF-F43 Interceptor: Chiefwaffles, FallacyofUrist
1 - Direct Application Frost Towers: Andres
2 - Berserker Array: helmacon, Kadzar
2 - Aerial Mobility Unit: Andrea, Draignean
0 - SA-1: Railed Man Cannon:
1 - Overclock Process MK 1: RAM
1 - Falcon Air Skiff: Lightforger
0 Weightite:
1 War Falcons: Void Slayer

I mean one weapon with multiple reloads, do you want this thing to be anti aircraft or some kind of air cannon ship or a bomber?  Concentrating on one type of weapon will reduce the chance we overload the thing and add in more complications.

[FallacyofUrist]

The problem is that the AS-HAC-1 can't support all the ammo we want. It currently doesn't fit Blastshells in it.

[Gwolfski]

Space. Now we're getting somewhere.

3 - ASAF-F43 Interceptor: Chiefwaffles, FallacyofUrist,Gwolfski
1 - Direct Application Frost Towers: Andres
2 - Berserker Array: helmacon, Kadzar
2 - Aerial Mobility Unit: Andrea, Draignean
0 - SA-1: Railed Man Cannon:
1 - Overclock Process MK 1: RAM
1 - Falcon Air Skiff: Lightforger
0 Weightite:
1 War Falcons: Void Slayer

[VoidSlayer]

But would the AS-HAC-1 be good against their metal carpet things?  That is the primary concern I have right now.

[Chiefwaffles]

Look, it's Arstotzkan destiny!

Sure, we may be making a satellite in the year 944, and it may be a magical satellite, but it's possible! With the F43 we'll have what's basically a rocket drive able to move things into space and that doesn't rely on fuel. We'd just need to do a bit of research into orbital mechanics with our Mathemagicians and bam, we're in space!

the ASAF-F43 Interceptor has WAAAAAY too many weapons.  I count 3 cannons.  All our cannons can be breach loaded, choose one and have the pilot able to load it from the inside through a sliding hatch.  We can make a larger multi role fighter at a later time, this thing needs to be able to get in the air and shoot things.

That's not particularly viable, unfortunately. The ASAF-F43 needs to have weapons that can be used and work against its opponents. The HC1-E is practically the bare minimum for armor-penetration, yet it's not too viable for a pilot to breech-load their own weapons. And that's like putting a tank cannon on an interceptor.
Though saying it has three cannons is mildly misleading.

The ASAF-F43 has three weapons, yes, but not really three cannons.
1.) A standard AS-HAC-1 cannon for general anti-personnel use and for armor-piercing at short range as a last resort. Reloaded from inside the cockpit. Small and light. I may be willing to remove this if people think I should, though.
2.) Two single-use "Blastpods" for launching blastshells at the enemy. This would be too bulky to reload mid-flight + ammo is heavy so we just reload it on the ground.
3.) A single +E Blastshell in a "bomb bay" that is just dropped at the enemy. Requires very little space, is simple, and is effective.

And the AS-HAC-1 wouldn't be that good against Moskurger skiffs. According to the last battle phase, the AS-HAC-1 can penetrate Skiff armor at close range. The HAC in the F43 can also be used for shooting the crew of Skiffs and Airships from above and for annihilating any remaining targets.

[andrea]

A final magegem revision would give us explosive HAC ammo

[FallacyofUrist]

The carpet itself would probably survive. If we were to shoot the rider, however, which is an option, off he or she goes from the carpet. Even if their armor held, which it wouldn't, getting hit by something like that would knock you off a rolled-up carpet, or disrupt your concentration enough so you fall off.

If you have doubts, remember we have two expense credits to throw at it.