Print

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

[milo christiansen]

We are not going to put all our effort into infrastructure. That is simply inviting the enemy to grab all the good spires while we screw around.

Anti-web cannon, infantry crossbow, THEN a new ship. No dockyards until we have several new spires under control.

[Jilladilla]

In fact, we may want to experiment with some form of steel "shielding", as in a last-ditch-defense layer made of steel, protected by the copper or bronze primary armor. Anywhere that an aetheric weapon burns through the weaker copper or bronze plating, it will reach steel, which will certainly last to the end of the battle. If it can't be patched, the steel will rust in the area exposed to the air, but the ship will have been saved and can be repaired.

Snipping a bit of your post yes, but with how the Iron Rot was described, it seems like even a small breach in your proposed armor scheme would eventually doom the entire steel layer to ruin if it isn't found and sealed. As such, I would like to reiterate my proposed armor scheme for steel:
Encased Steel Armor Plates: A relatively small (for an airship armor plate) steel plate is encased in either copper or bronze to prevent it from rotting away, these plates are to be attached to the outside of an airship hull side by side. As each plate has its own casing, a hole in one does not doom the entire armor system to rusted ruin, just whatever plate became exposed.

But either way Madman does raise a point, lets focus more tech for our first thing, and let the scattercannon be our second or third thing, perhaps by waiting a bit it can take advantage of what we made, and get a bit more bang for the dice we put in it.

[Nirur Torir]

I could do without trying for a fancy spread-fire cannon first thing.
 
I'd like to work down the flaws in our ship crystals (Which should also make cannons a bit easier), make the infantry crossbows (So we're a threat if we can't properly blockade a few-miles-round spire with 5 ships), and a new hull.

[NUKE9.13]

...alright. How about this, then?

Itshana Crystal Refinement: Crystals of all kinds, but especially lift and trim crystals, are prone to fracturing when under heavy stress, due to internal flaws. The Itshana process aims to cut down on the number of flaws of this kind. A slight modification to the chemical bath used to grow the crystals, combined with a specialised device that emits harmonising waves of aether through the vat, results in a purer product. Since the device only emits very faint aetheric waves, it does not consume a significant amount, and should not increase the cost of production.
This should improve both our Lift and Trim crystals, as well as provide experience for the upgrading of other crystals in the future.

I wouldn't mind switching over to this, if people would prefer it.

[Khan Boyzitbig]

Better crystal cores sounds good. Less explody (to our ships) is good and might allow for greater output/reduced drain for components.

[milo christiansen]

The vats needed require years to get started growing even small crystals of usable purity

Does this mean a crystal improvement will take abnormally long to finish? If yes then you will be hard pressed to get me to vote for that this early. If no, the I suppose I'll support it if only to get things moving.

[Nirur Torir]

Multifaceted Light Aether Cannon (3 dice): (3) NUKE9.13, Jilladilla, Khan Boyzitbig
Itshana Crystal Refinement (3 dice): (1) Nirur

[Khan Boyzitbig]

Multifaceted Light Aether Cannon (3 dice): (2) NUKE9.13, Jilladilla
Itshana Crystal Refinement (3 dice): (2) Nirur, Khan Boyzitbig

We do have years before any fighting begins, and that rule might be based on current tech. If its not then yes we need to start ASAP.

[milo christiansen]

Multifaceted Light Aether Cannon (3 dice): (3) NUKE9.13, Jilladilla, Milo
Itshana Crystal Refinement (3 dice): (2) Nirur, Khan Boyzitbig

I'll switch if it turns out crystal improvements won't take too long, or if it is confirmed that mundane fire is good vs web.

[Jilladilla]

Multifaceted Light Aether Cannon (3 dice): (2) NUKE9.13, Milo
Itshana Crystal Refinement (3 dice): (3) Nirur, Khan Boyzitbig, Jilladilla

Even if this will need years to take effect, remember that we have Four of them before we start!

[NUKE9.13]

Multifaceted Light Aether Cannon (3 dice): (1) Milo
Itshana Crystal Refinement (3 dice): (4) Nirur, Khan Boyzitbig, Jilladilla, NUKE9.13

Yeah, alright.
Although. Should I mention that the lack of flaws getting in the way should increase power efficiency as well, or is that too ambitious?

[Jilladilla]

If too much ambition is a thing we're worried about, just mention a slight increase in durability and/or being slightly more tolerant under stress, due simply to having fewer/no internal flaws... But seeing as this is literally turn one (turn -4?), I'm not sure if any of us has a scale of just how ambitious is too ambitious/not ambitious enough...

[Madman198237]

Quality, not quantity, unless we can streamline efficiency, which admittedly DOES appear to be less than easy.

Basically, my short-term ideas are as follows: Have a better setup for producing crystals (Which gives us an advantage in EVERYTHING WE DO regardless of what it is) would be excellent.

Alright, I see that going AFK without posting was a big mistake, since I missed 11 posts and most of the discussion. Ah well.

Multifaceted Light Aether Cannon (3 dice): (1) Milo
Itshana Crystal Refinement (3 dice): (5) Nirur, Khan Boyzitbig, Jilladilla, NUKE9.13, Madman198237

Yes, NUKE. We want to wring generic improvements across all our crystal types, that'll give us the very best chances possible. Every advantage we can get.

Oh and I'd ask ANOTHER grand strategy question: Fewer but better, or more but weaker? Remember than either one works as long as you keep it balanced. A bunch of guys with clubs can't beat two guys with assault rifles, but a thousand bolt-action riflemen can beat five hundred semi-automatic riflemen, assuming everything else equal.

[milo christiansen]

How about a more realistic balanced happy medium? We don't need to go full zerg, but we also don't need to build deathstars.

Focus on simple and cheap at first to take as many spires as we can, then build larger an tougher stuff to support the cheap and light.

[Draignean]

Draignean, what does a dockyard capable of running a production line for Transport Barges look like? How about one capable of producing the above frigate?

It looks like the one you already have. If you make a production pattern for barges or frigates, you can take the Skiffs off and put the new ships one.

With four years of development, you might (might) be able to come up with a new production line for small ships. It would be dicey and require great rolls.

EDOOT: Actually, Draignean, could you clarify whether aetheric cannons destroy web by overloading it, or setting it on fire?

One begets the other. Webbing is relatively thin stuff, and thus coating it in flammable material will burn it, but an aetheric cannon shot is particularly destructive since it overloads a large section of web, burns it to ash, and then starts secondary damage at the edges.


Itshana Crystal Refinement
[Time:5  Progress:2  Cost:1] 

Work on the Itshana system of Crystal refinement begins immediately, but not terribly fruitfully. While the process should straightforward once the correct series of frequencies is discovered, the testing and refinement to discover that series proves... destructive. While initially promising results have spurred the projects forward, the constructive harmonic for each class of crystal varies depending on both size and types, and nascent core crystals still show the ability to absorb the incoming energy and transform it into electricity- which often interacts destructively with the chemical mixture of the vats. Nevertheless, work continues, and success is assured!

Itshana Crystal Refinement: 2/15 | 4 Crystal + 2 of Ore OR Crystal | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

It is the now the Revision Stage, you have two dice left. You may make revisions, or vote for 'No Revision' to bank the dice for the next round.