Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jilladilla]

1 die to existing project: (0)
2 dice to existing project: (0)
3 dice to existing project: (3) Milo, NUKE9.13, Jilladilla

New Project:
Suppressor MK1 Repeating Crossbow (3 dice): (2) Milo, NUKE9.13

Not voting on a project due to simple fact that I'm about to keel over from sleep deprivation, and there's only one project. No offense to the crossbow though, I consider it a good idea at the moment... If this vote's still a thing in 8-10 hours or so I'll vote then.

[Khan Boyzitbig]

1 die to existing project: (0)
2 dice to existing project: (0)
3 dice to existing project: (4) Milo, NUKE9.13, Jilladilla, Khan Boyzitbig

New Project:
Suppressor MK1 Repeating Crossbow (3 dice): (2) Milo, NUKE9.13

Also not voting on a new project because tired and would want to offer my own alternative which takes time to design. A crossbow is nice though.

[ATHATH]

*yawns and cracks knuckles*

It's been quite a while since I participated in an arms-race game. What resources and projects do we have?

I recommend capturing the monsters of the mist at some point and unleashing them within the enemy's spires. Hopefully, both sides (monster or our sworn foes) will damage each other enough that we can send in proper troops to clean them out later. And hey, maybe the monsters that we'll find will have interesting biologies/body parts that we can weaponize or something.

Draignean, you mentioned in the main thread that going too high up causes people to go insane due to the high quantities of Aether there. How much is "high", and can we "gas" our enemies out by filling their spires with a considerable amount of Aether? Can we shoot an incredibly concentrated stream in order to drive people insane on the spot/within a day of being shot?

[NUKE9.13]

Incidentally, we should spend 12 Crystal and 6 Ore on the project. Diversify costs, ye ken.

[Jilladilla]

1 die to existing project: (0)
2 dice to existing project: (0)
3 dice to existing project: (4) Milo, NUKE9.13, Jilladilla, Khan Boyzitbig
-Spend 12 Crystal 6 Ore (1) Jilladilla
-Spend 14 Crystal 4 Ore
-Spend 16 Crystal 2 Ore
-Spend 18 Crystal 0 Ore

New Project:
Suppressor MK1 Repeating Crossbow (3 dice): (2) Milo, NUKE9.13

Don't want to completely empty out our Crystal reserves with this.

[Tack]

Hello all. This is my first arms race!
I hope we can be a friend.

To start with, I'm going to throw up a rival design to the crossbow.
We do need superior marines, but hopefully actual combat will come after a decent period of calm and infrastructure.

Spoiler: Gliding Sails (click to show/hide)

Conventional sails taken to the next level, gliding sails are linked sheets hooked horizontally to a sturdier frame to allow for basic lift under no power.
While they won't prevent a rapid decline, and they are just as fragile as regular sails, they allow for core power to be diverted elsewhere for short periods during an emergency, can help a ship to reach safety despite raked webbing, and can be used for very fast forward manouvers at the cost of altitude... almost all of the altitude.

Drop-dinghies, anyone?

Also a Question for Draig re: the bookmarked scattercannon design.
What would it would be translated into GameStuff^tm as?
Something like:
Aether: Very little Shroud penetration, Low Shroud damage, High Web Damage.
Gunpowder: Ignores Shroud, Little Web Damage
..?

Could help us in the design process, and to identify if we're designing ourselves into a corner.
Then again I don't know how arms races work so maybe that's all fluffside.

Lastly:

1 die to existing project: (0)
2 dice to existing project: (0)
3 dice to existing project: (5) Milo, NUKE9.13, Jilladilla, Khan Boyzitbig, Tack
-Spend 12 Crystal 6 Ore (2) Jilladilla, Tack
-Spend 14 Crystal 4 Ore
-Spend 16 Crystal 2 Ore
-Spend 18 Crystal 0 Ore

New Project:
Suppressor MK1 Repeating Crossbow (3 dice): (2) Milo, NUKE9.13
Basic Gliding Sails (3 dice) (1) Tack

Am very big on getting a superior crystal production up and running considering that literally everything is going to rely on it, but I'm not up to speed enough on resource minutiae to make a vote on how our crystals and ore should be allocated.

Intrigued by ATHATH's ideas of collecting and storing gas too, but for more passive implications.
Having compressed Aether would be great for NoS-ing our ships, and having stored oxygen would mean we could go higher (and faster, and shoot louder) than our competition.

[Jilladilla]

1 die to existing project: (0)
2 dice to existing project: (0)
3 dice to existing project: (5) Milo, NUKE9.13, Jilladilla, Khan Boyzitbig, Tack
-Spend 12 Crystal 6 Ore (1) Jilladilla
-Spend 14 Crystal 4 Ore
-Spend 16 Crystal 2 Ore
-Spend 18 Crystal 0 Ore

New Project:
Suppressor MK1 Repeating Crossbow (3 dice): (2) Milo, NUKE9.13
Basic Gliding Sails (3 dice) (1) Tack

Welcome aboard Tack!
I changed the vote box due to 2 reasons:
One: New designs MUST use at least 3 dice.
Two: The rules clearly state that you only get 1 vote for each topic. (AKA, no voting for multiple design proposals. I left your vote on your thing because your dice allocation implied you preferred it over the crossbow. Either way, as you can see, there's two sections to the vote: How much we're continuing the crystal project, and new design suggestions)

Now as for what I think of your proposal: Is this basically intended to be a makeshift parachute? Because I don't think this will get us much, if any, lift unless the airship is over an updraft. That said, I'm no expert on aerodynamics, so there's a chance I'm horribly wrong on just how much lift this will get us without an updraft.

[Draignean]

*yawns and cracks knuckles*

It's been quite a while since I participated in an arms-race game. What resources and projects do we have?

I recommend capturing the monsters of the mist at some point and unleashing them within the enemy's spires. Hopefully, both sides (monster or our sworn foes) will damage each other enough that we can send in proper troops to clean them out later. And hey, maybe the monsters that we'll find will have interesting biologies/body parts that we can weaponize or something.

Draignean, you mentioned in the main thread that going too high up causes people to go insane due to the high quantities of Aether there. How much is "high", and can we "gas" our enemies out by filling their spires with a considerable amount of Aether? Can we shoot an incredibly concentrated stream in order to drive people insane on the spot/within a day of being shot?

The (current) upper limit of the aerosphere is a bit more than 3 miles, going above that for prolonged periods invites disaster. It's worth noting that's also an altitude at which even experienced marines will develop altitude sickness, which plays into the aether madness strongly.

Aether (as yet) cannot be bottled and contained directly. It can be channeled by webbing, transformed by core crystals, and devastating surges can be produced by weapons crystals, but there is no steady-state storage available. Think of Aether more as a high energy field than a gas, one that interacts with brains when the power gets high enough.

Edit: Also, unless something changes soon, or you decide it isn't what you want, I'm going to lock you in for
3 dice to existing project (Spend 12 Crystal 6 Ore )
AND
Suppressor MK1 Repeating Crossbow

[Tack]

Ah, thank you so much for fixing that up. Had an inkling there was a three dice rule but I couldn't remember where (I've tracked it down now)
I'll change my post accordingly too.

Not so much a makeshift parachute as a makeshift glider.
Not lift generated so much as less fall.
But the most important piece is the forward motion
-  Means we can kamikaze our skiffs in the event of total engine failure, and also with enough revisions maybe glide the calm.
- We can get in range with the scattergun and crossbows much faster.
- Plus dinghies  which have to "choose two of three" could throw all of their power into maintaining shroud and dive in towards the spire, making them much better at punching blockades.
That, though, might require a revision or new design.

Edit-Edit: This being said  I have no idea how hard it is to "turn off" or "reboot" a lift crystal, so it could just be asking for catastrophic failure.

[NUKE9.13]

The Skyskiff already has sails, which are stated to be... lacking. I suppose developing better sails might be worth looking in to, though I don't consider it as high a priority as marine equipment.

Being able to store aether somehow is an interesting idea. Tanks of aether to serve as either backup power if webbing gets destroyed, or as, like, a performance booster in combat. We may not be able to do it now, but perhaps in the future.

[milo christiansen]

I think gliding sails would be a revision or bullet point on a future ship design, not a design by itself. Good idea though!

[Jilladilla]

But the most important piece is the forward motion. Means we can kamikaze our skiffs in the event of total engine failure, and also with enough revisions maybe glide the calm.

Do remember that The Calm is on their side of the map, so while that ability would more or less let us attack them directly, we would have to get to the middle of the map through the normal routes, as I feel that trying to send a glider through The Everstorm will go terribly, terribly wrong, and being able to go through The Everstorm would likely grant a better tactical advantage for us over being able to go through The Calm.

Being able to go through both is however optimal of course, especially if we somehow manage it with a single design...

[Madman198237]

Heh. I don't like the crossbow idea, not at this stage. I think we'd be much better off deploying a new ship hull ASAP,  ensuring that it's properly researched before the end of development.

Although, I *did* think of another possibility...
Hey, Draignean, would it be possible to "funnel" Aether around a person's head by the use of an aethersilk full-facemask?

[milo christiansen]

We coul probably make shielding for our marines, but what about the altitude sickness? We don't have a way to bottle oxygen yet, and providing a reasonable amount would be non-trivial.

[NUKE9.13]

I'd like for a new hull to be our next design (by which I mean, next turn's design), yeah. Although I disagree with your idea of integrating armour into the hull- optional modular armour is better, since it gives us more flexibility when it comes to cost.

Also, I don't want to call it a frigate. And clearly the naming conventions we use are very important.