Viper Class Corvette
Progress: 23/20 (4,4,4,6)
Prototype Complete!
Project Complete!
[Efficacy: 6 Cost: 4 Bugs: 5]
The Prototype Viper is a thing of beauty, and a marvel that more than restore's high command's faith in the engineering team's ability to pull together and create something truly revolutionary. Deviating from the broadside design that had previously occupied the thoughts of military engineers, she presents unparalleled frontal firepower at the expense of some firing coverage. She's fifty feet from end-to-end, and distinctively shaped with an armored, angular 'head' similar to that of a pit viper that extends slightly beyond the main deck in all dimensions, partially shielding the crew from wind during high-velocity runs. While she does not natively sport an armored skin, dozens of bronze mounting points dot the head and offer purchase to support armor plating. The eight guns mounted into the 'head' are attached to the new gun swivels, which are fully integrated into the Viper's design and provide excellent cannon stability, although the poor integration into the light cannons themselves still somewhat hampers their accuracy, and the swivels themselves are as slow as they ever were. Even so, by dialing in all the cannons to several pre-marked positions listed on the swivels, the Viper can focus fire on various points beyond her bow, bringing all eight guns to bear with devastating results.
Behind the head is a compact section that serves as crew quarters, provisions storage, engineering, and the web room. The lack of broadside guns means that permanent webbing mounts can be made in a cylinder around the ship's middle, and greatly increases the amount of 'safe' web she can put out. Of course, the immense power draw of her main gunnery array combined with the heavy load on her lift crystal means that she still needs to run swathes of web outside her shroud, but she can still maintain a surprising strength when all of her exterior web is crippled. Engineering is deliberately slightly larger than it needs to be, and as room for mounting up to medium size on both core and lift crystals. She can fly with a small core crystal, but it's not enough for her to operate at full power. Her initial barrages will be slow, her shroud will be weak, and she'll be a little heavy. Conversely, the medium core crystal seems like a slight bit of overkill, providing a great deal more energy than she is actually needed by her guns (particularly when hot and dry) and more energy than any current lift crystal can handle- although the thick shroud is still an enormous benefit. The small lift crystal that the engineers have to work with is... functional, though they'd really like a better one. A lot. The speed specified by the original design document is provided by an array with capacity for up to a dozen trim crystals, though she can get by reasonably with as few as eight, and can limp with only four.
In short, she's a stunningly capable little warship that trades some flexibility in firing arcs for focused firepower and blistering speed.
Viper Corvette:12 wood, 5 ore for one.
A fifty foot long frame of wood and bronze reinforcement, her unusual structure reminiscent of the head of a pit viper. She's designed with forward firepower and incredible speed in mind, featuring eight bow mounts and two aft mounts, all of which integrate the mechanical hand-crank system to aim the cannons. She has a notable ability to keep up a good fight even when all of the webbing outside her shroud has been disabled.
She has no usable cargo capacity.
Armament
10 light cannon mounts | 8 in the bow 2 aft.
Armor
None intrinsic
Can mount two sections of armor on the head.
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (At least small, up to medium)
1 Lift Crystal (At least small, up to medium)
4/8/12 Trim Crystals for poor/avg/good performace
6 reams of webbing
Medium Core Crystal
Progress: 17/15 (5)
Project Complete!
You may now manufacture Medium Core Crystals during the production phase!
It is the beginning of the Revision phase, but you have no dice to spend.
Go take a minute, plan for production, and thank whatever heathen god you sacrificed your soul to for those rolls.
Author
Topic: Arms Race: War of the Cinder Spires | Spire Kasgyr (Read 150483 times)