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[Kashyyk]

Dayum that's a nice file.

[NAV]

Beautiful! Where did you find all the art?

[Draignean]

Beautiful! Where did you find all the art?

Various random google searches, I just did the blending. I take credit for nothing.

Topaz Lance
This advance in Kasgyre engineering came about due to the excess of low-quality lumen crystals now present within the spire. A gem cutter’s apprentice decided to see what happens when a lumen crystal is cut into a lens of the type used to examine jewels for quality. This lumen focusing lens was found in testing to enhance the aetheric projection effects of weapon crystals.
Making use of the strength of Topaz Crystal, this weapon system uses a focusing lens to focus the aetheric energy being projected into a coherent lance. The lance is longer and sharper than a standard aetheric blast, displaying greater ability to pierce a shield without too much of the destructive impact being absorbed.

To be clear, I have nothing against this proposal of a lensing crystal as a whole, but the method of simpling cutting a lumen crystal wouldn't work. Experimenting with growing them with slightly different matrices and cutting them in different ways, I'll buy it, but just cutting one wouldn't do the trick. Lumen crystals generate light, aether cannons have nothing to do with light, a cut lumen crystal would explode the same as anything else when struck.

Again, just mention faffing about with the matrix and everything is chill.

[helmacon]

Fluff rewrite for public use.

Lance crystal.
The newest piece of kasgyrite engineering, "The Lance Crystal" is at it's simplest a bastardization of a weapons crystal and a core crystal. Being derived from a core crystal, a lance is a completely self sustainable piece of equipment. The core crystal part allows for power accumulation and storage, but the intricacies that allow for shroud generation are stripped away to allow for a more offensive purpose. The charge is delivered to the back half of the crystal using the copper wiring, fed in to the core matrix. The weapons crystal however, is part of the same crystal. The core and weapon crystal matrices being intertwined allows for the unique function of the lance. The charge can be fed directly into the weapons matrix much faster and more steadily than when linked indirectly by bulky wiring. Likewise, the weapons crystal can have it's matrix tweaked to allow for a much faster discharge without fear of minor fluctuations in the power feed causing a catastrophic cascade withing the crystal. This near instantaneous discharge of an entire weapons charge results in a brilliant beam moving at what our researchers estimate is near the speed of light. Needless to say, this has the potential to be far more accurate than traditional aether shells. The far reduced surface area also allows for much more concentrated fire, punching through a shroud with enough force left to impact a ship below. 

At an extremely small scale this could be used to create anti-personnel snipers, and at larger scales it is a massive upgrade to traditional ship weaponry.

[helmacon]

You have a point.

[2] Vertical Envelopment (1 die +1 rush + 3c, 3o, 5w, 5s) + Commercial Bronzewood (3 dice) + hold 2 dice: Kashyyk, NAV
[1] AIM (3 Dice), Battle Barge D (3 Dice): Doomblade
[2] Battle Barge D (3 Dice), Topaz Lance (3 Dice): Talion, helmacon
[1] New VPL (3 dice) : Helmacon

Designs:
Battle Barge Mod D
Commercial Bronzewood
AIM
Topaz Lance

[BBBence1111]

[2] Vertical Envelopment (1 die +1 rush + 3c, 3o, 5w, 5s) + Commercial Bronzewood (3 dice) + hold 2 dice: Kashyyk, NAV
[1] AIM (3 Dice), Battle Barge D (3 Dice): Doomblade
[3] Battle Barge D (3 Dice), Topaz Lance (3 Dice): Talion, helmacon, BBBence
[1] New VPL (3 dice) : Helmacon

Designs:
Battle Barge Mod D
Commercial Bronzewood
AIM
Topaz Lance

[Kashyyk]

I would really rather not start two projects when we've still got several incomplete. don't get me wrong, I like both of them, but we need to actually finish some of the things we've started first.

[helmacon]

Vertical envelopment is almost not worth completing imo, and while the AIM is useful groundwork tech, it's not super relevant at the moment.

On another note, I feel like we should start pushing towards a carrier ship doctrine. The battle barge and lance are two steps in that direction. The idea is to eventually have large ships holding reserves and smaller fighters, picking off targets with a big lance, while fighters and whatnot tie up the enemy and outmanuver them in the engagement area.

Our shield tactic for our ships already supports this. Our more maneuverable, and less protected, ships also support this.

Eventually, with a ship to launch off of, we can downsize our skiffs to darts, (which should be cheaper and more plentiful) and our vipers, with their heavily focused firepower and high maneuverability, would naturally grow into a roll as a dive bomber.
Eventually, the tactic becomes using lances to poke a hole in the shroud and having a viper bomb the shit out of the opening. Might require slightly more refined communication, but with clear weather and good training, it would be possible to pull it off even just using the flashers.

It would mean we don't have to beat them on a ship to ship basis anymore. Most arms races fall into a habit of just "making better X" and trying to do so faster than the enemy by doing so ingeniously. With this arms race, and the creativity it allows and encourages, we have the opportunity to design things that don't just work better, but also synergise. We can make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. It's likely that, at least for a long while, the enemy will continue to play this as a normal and race, throwing out ingenious, if unrelated, improvements. We can take advantage of this. So long as we are faster, and can prevent them from breaking off the engagement, we can still own the battlefield, even if they technically have better parts to their ships (which there is no guarantee they will even have that)

I think it's important in design to have an ultimate vision, and I've decided that not sharing mine is a but stupid and paranoid, so here it is. (Please don't abuse this, Wrethian spies)

[Doomblade187]

I really do want to make sure we do one thing this turn though: IMPROVE CREW AND/OR INFANTRY TRAINING.

Draiganean has been mentioning it throughout for a while now, and it will definitely be needed if we want carrier tactics. It is a bottleneck in our forces effectiveness.

[Talion]

Here is a hopefully lore-friendly version of my idea. Due to the other version by helmacon, I've opted to rename this one so we don't have any further voting confusion.

Lance Augmentation Crystal
This weapon enhancement crystal was first grown by an enterprising family by accident. Although they had before only managed basic lumen crystals, in this batch the growth process was disrupted and the crystal cracked. The resulting misshapen crystal did not glow and was initially seen as a failure. However, when purchased as a curiosity and after cutting it into a more pleasing shape, it was tested to determine how it interacted with aether; its similarity to a weapon crystal was discovered. This focusing lens was found in testing to enhance the aetheric projection effects of weapon crystals. Acting as an augmentation to existing weapon crystals.
This weapon augmentation uses a focusing lens to focus the aetheric energy being projected into a coherent lance. The lance is longer and sharper than a standard aetheric blast, displaying greater ability to pierce a shield and a more destructive impact.

[BBBence1111]

Anyone has problems with using the Lance Crystal? Because at this point making 3 new votes is just asking for confusion.

[helmacon]

Anyone has problems with using the Lance Crystal? Because at this point making 3 new votes is just asking for confusion.

+1

[Doomblade187]

[2] Vertical Envelopment (1 die +1 rush + 3c, 3o, 5w, 5s) + Commercial Bronzewood (3 dice) + hold 2 dice: Kashyyk, NAV
[4] Battle Barge D (3 Dice), Topaz Lance (3 Dice): Talion, helmacon, BBBence, Doomblade
[1] New VPL (3 dice) : Helmacon

Designs:
Battle Barge Mod D
Commercial Bronzewood
AIM
Topaz Lance

[Kashyyk]

I'm okay with all three proposed designs. My issue is starting two of them at once.

[Draignean]

Lance Crystals
[Time: 1 Progress: 1 Cost: 6]

The Lance crystal project proves to be one of the more... ambitious undertakings. Much of this from the technical aspects of the project. The lance crystal is designed to be a hybrid crystal, carrying some features of the core crystal as well as modified attributes of the weapon crystals. Considering that the only other multi-function crystals at present are core crystals, this is an exciting undertaking for the engineers. Likewise, sources of funding are thrilled by the possibility, which has yielded a steady stream of money and resources to fund the project.

Unfortunately, that assured source of money has, once more, brought the engineers into only partially good-natured competition with one another. Spying, sabotage, and encrypted notes are commonplace, slowing project progress to a crawl. The Lance will be completed, but it will take considerably longer than if the damn fools just cooperated.

Lance Crystals: 1/25 | 3 Crystal | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Prototype
[Efficacy: 6 Cost: 1 Bugs: 3]

The results of the working models, however, speak for themselves.  A working model of a small scale lance, assembled with great difficulty, was able to fire several times before exploding. Tests from those initial shots showed a range increase nearly a 50% increase over standard LAC blasts, and a destructive power increase of approximately six fold over the course of the beam discharge. The discharge itself lasts for approximately a fifth of a second, which greatly reduces its penetrating power against swift targets. A skiff on a high speed pass can travel approximately 90 meters per second. Since a skiff is only about six meters long, this means that even a very skilled gunner is likely to get only glancing shots unless the pilot is matching speed, and a shot that can (in theory) destroy a shrouded skiff in a single shot may only rake the web.

The cannon's increased power comes with several drawbacks. The heat from the beam is incredibly intense, and though the tightened geometry of the lance decreases the interaction with the incident air, the windage on the barrel had to be increased to prevent melting. This results in decreased beam accuracy, complicating its longer range. In addition, heating on the crystal now appears to be a serious concern. While water quenching of the barrel is an established cooling technique, cooling the crystal proves more complicated- as dousing hot crystal uniformly results in cracking or shattering. Thus, while the capacitor of the lance crystal can theoretically be charged in twenty seconds using existing systems, the crystal itself needs approximately a minute and a half before it's cool enough to fire again.

The most worrying part of the project, however, is the projected price tag on the crystals themselves. The hybrid matrix systems are incredibly fragile- the slightest defect in the core section of the matrix could potentially allow a power bleed into the weapon section, with predictably disastrous results. Even crystals with suitable matrix systems can later be culled for faults that could potential lead to micro-fissures during the rapid heating during firing, an issue that, if unnoticed, would cause the crystal to explode on the next shot.

A sideline issue, which appears to be an issue of the methodology itself instead of a bug in the design, is that the smaller core cannot be used to transduce aether into electrical energy without introducing dangerous power irregularities when connected to a primary core. While the crystal is small enough that the effects from incident aether can largely be ignored, attaching a  live silk line to a lance crystal already linked to a core would be a bad idea. This sidenote is delivered by a singed looking engineer.

Small Lance Cannon: 2 Ore, 7 Crystal for 1 | A beam weapon crystal, with 50% increased range and 500% increased firepower relative to the standard LAC. Fires its beam over a fifth of a second, and can be technically recharged in 20 seconds. Issues with cooling the crystal, however, mean that it can only fire about once every 90 seconds.


Battle Barge
[Time: 6 Progress: 1 Cost: 1]
The main problem with the battle barge's design is that all of the engineering A-team members are hot and bothered over the brand new and spiffy lance crystals. Likewise, most of the funding has been appropriated by the project that involves fuckmothering death beams, instead of the project that gives marines a slightly better skybus. Still, after command comes down and forcibly moves a couple engineers to the Battle Barge projects, and threatens them into actually working on it, they draft a remarkably concise action plan.

Probably because the sooner they get done with this the sooner they can go back to the death beams.

Battle Barge: 1/8 | 10 Wood, 2 ore | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Prototype
[Efficacy: 5 Cost: 6 Bugs: 4+1]
The scale mock-ups are good. Really good. The specs the engineers were given asked for a 4 gun military-transport, capable of transporting six squads of marines in speed and safety, focusing on the new bronzewood material. The Battle Barge is all that and a bit more besides. She's tough as nails, with a spaced wooden-slat hull layer that can actually catch an LAC shot or two before the ship actually suffers true structural damage. Internally, she's designed so you could gut half the rooms and keep flying, with her circuitry system routed around three redundant lines. She can mount a medium core, a small lift crystals (though there's room for upgrades), and up to a dozen trim crystals focused in the fore and aft of the ship to emphasize linear speed over precise maneuverability.

Most impressively, her hull cost is shockingly low. Despite requiring bronzewood, her elegant construction and expert design make her actually cost less than ordering a pair of standard transports.


Battle Barge | 14 wood, 2 ore for one.
The Battle Barge is the first of a new generation of purpose built military transports. Built of Bronzewood, she's tough, faster than a standard transport, fire resistant, capable of mounting heavy shroud, and has enough cannons to deter opportunistic poachers- though she's hardly meant to hold her own in a fight.

She can hold 12 units of cargo.
Armament
4 Light Cannon mounts (2 fore, 2 aft)
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (Up to Medium size)
1 Lift Crystal (Up to small size)
4/8/12 Trim Crystals (Bad, poor, okay maneuvering)
5 reams of webbing



Spire Kasgyre's Production stands at
13(+10)/y Crystal, 45/115 Banked
17/y Ore, 16/85 banked
19/y Wood, 71/95 banked
10/y Silk, 39/50 banked

It is now the revision phase. You have 0 dice left to spend. Go think about strategy or something.

Spoiler: Projects (click to show/hide)

Viper Production Line: 1/35 | 7C + 5O + 5W + 2S, +15 From any combination of any resource | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Vertical Envelopment 2/10 | 3 from each of COWS + 4 from Any combination of COWS | Rushed 0 times | Nothing Invested
AIM (Special Project) 6/27 | - | Rushed 0 times | Nothing Invested
Battle Barge: 1/8 | 10 Wood, 2 ore | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Lance Crystals: 1/25 | 3 Crystal | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

The Calm: The calm is a region of the aerosphere with almost no wind beyond fleeting turbulence, and absolutely no aetheric currents. It's frigidly cold, and filled with fine red 'snow' that barely moves. Traversing it with a conventional vessel is impossible due to the lack of energy to fuel the lift and trim crystals.
The Everstorm: As the name suggests, the everstorm is a region of the aerosphere dominated by an enormous and eternal thunderstorm. It's a chaotic region of raging winds and surging aetheric energy that manifests in terrible bursts of prismatic flame. No conventional vessel could hope to survive the nightmarish storm conditions.


Kasgyre Territory

Blackstone
Marine Presence: K 0/14 |  W 0/14
Territory: 4/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 5O, 2W, 0S
Conditions: Rocky, large caverns, very dark

The Hive
Marine Presence: K 0/10 |  W 0/10
Territory: 4/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 2O, 1W, 4S
Conditions: Spider Nursery, narrow and twisting tunnels

Glowcove
Marine Presence: K 0/20 |  W 0/20
Territory: 4/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 2O, 6W, 1S
Conditions: Verdant galleries, significant bio-luminescence


The Belt

Three Captains
Marine Presence: K 0/20 |  W ?/20
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 6O, 2W, 6S
Conditions: Kinetoluminescent Ores, Heavily Infested

Wrackspire
Marine Presence: K 0/12 |  W ?/12
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 3C, 4O, 4W, 2S
Conditions: Unstable Aetheric Phenomena, Broken Spire

Burned Mountain
Marine Presence: K 0/24 |  W ?/24
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 1C, 10O, 1W, 0S
Conditions: Inexplicably Molten Core, Hundreds of narrow tunnels and small galleries.

The Unfinished
Marine Presence: K 0/45 |  W ?/45
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 8C, 0O, 6W, 2S
Conditions: Unfinished infrastructure, Massive open rooms and halls.

Spoiler: Ships (click to show/hide)

RKNV Ophidian - Viper Class
Loadout
1 Communications Officer
1 Vanguard Cannon (forward Mount)
8 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun) [6 front, 2 rear]
2 Sections Light Copper Armor
1 Medium Core Crystal 
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal
8 Trim Webs
4 Trim Crystals
6 reams of webbing
Location: Three Captains
Status: Shipshape

RKNV Anguis - Viper Class
Loadout
1 Communications Officer
3 Light Topaz Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun) [2 front, 1 rear]
5 Light Aether Cannon+ (Kettlegun) [4 Front, 1 Rear]
1 Topaz Vanguard Cannon (Front)
2 Sections Light Copper Armor
1 Medium Topaz Core Crystal 
1 Small Topaz Lift Crystal
10 Topaz Trim Webs
2 Topaz Trim Crystals
6 reams of webbing
Location: Three Captains
Status: Shipshape

RKNV Viperidea - Viper Class
Loadout
1 Communications Officer
10 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun) [8 front, 2 rear]
Bronzewood Hull
2 Sections Light Copper Armor
1 Medium Topaz Core Crystal 
1 Small Topaz Lift Crystal
6 Topaz Trim Crystals
8 Trim Webs Bronzewood reinforced
6 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Kasgyre
Status: Shipshape

Canary - Skyskiff Class (x1)
Loadout
Communications Officer
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Location:  Three Captains
Status: Shipshape

Natalies - Skyskiff Class (x2)
Loadout
Comms Officer
2 Light Topaz Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun)
1 Very Small Topaz Core Crystal
1 Very Small Topaz Lift Crystal
4 Topaz Trim Webs
2 reams of webbing
Location: Three Captains
Status: Shipshape

Dionysus - Transport Class
Loadout
Comms Officer
1 Small Topaz Core Crystal
1 Small Lift Crystal
2 Topaz Trim Crystals
1 ream of webbing
Carrying: 6/6
--->Marine Squad Siegfried: Aetheric Pistols (3/4) | Witchhunters (1/4) | Aetheric Grenades (1 per squad)
--->Marine Squad Siegward: Aetheric Pistols (3/4) | Witchhunters (1/4) | Aetheric Grenades (1 per squad)
--->Marine Squad Siegmeyer: Aetheric Pistols (3/4) | Witchhunters (1/4) | Aetheric Grenades (1 per squad)
Location: Glowcove
Status: Shipshape

One Eyed-Will - Skyskiff Class (x1)
Loadout
Communications Officer
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Location:  Glowcove
Status: Shipshape

Natalie V - Skyskiff Class (x1)
Loadout
Comms Officer
2 Light Topaz Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun)
1 Very Small Topaz Core Crystal
1 Very Small Topaz Lift Crystal
4 Topaz Trim Webs
2 reams of webbing
Location: Glowcove
Status: Shipshape

Natalie VI - Skyskiff Class (x1)
Loadout
Comms Officer
2 Light Topaz Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun)
1 Very Small Topaz Core Crystal
1 Very Small Topaz Lift Crystal
4 Topaz Trim Webs
2 reams of webbing
Location: Glowcove
Status: Shipshape

Natalie VII - Skyskiff Class (x1)
Loadout
Comms Officer
2 Light Topaz Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun)
1 Very Small Topaz Core Crystal
1 Very Small Topaz Lift Crystal
4 Topaz Trim Webs
2 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Kasgyre
Status: Shipshape

Spoiler: Goods Stockpile (click to show/hide)

Topaz Gauntlet x1
Topaz VS Core x1
1 comm officer
Topaz VS core
Topaz S Lift
Topaz Trim pair

Viper Hull (Standard)

Spoiler: Infantry (click to show/hide)

Marines x18

Current Technology