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[Tack]

Not if it's first to get ambushed and killed every combat.
I guess it's just too many problems and not enough dice.

[Jilladilla]

That ship needs to get deployed ASAP to get us a larger advantage in all combats.

The only way the Cloudrunner will help inner spire combat is by helping protect transports as they unload, something that our lack of only cost us a quarter of a squad and 2 damaged transports, despite it being a 5v5 and them ambushing us.

That said, I'm all for making a ship tactic as one of our revisions, either evasive maneuvers (for maximum air superiority), or maybe some reconnaissance perhaps? (We can't protect our transports if they keep ambushing them!)

[Draignean]

P.L.A.C.E
[Time:1+1 Progress:3 Cost:5]

Perhaps, some time in the future when the PLACE system is a point of history and not a current issue, people will look back on this banjaxed design process and laugh. That time, however, is a long way off.

On the good side, bureaucratic efficiency is running at full steam, and the costs have been minimized almost as far as is humanly possible. This has been accomplished at the expense of the engineers, many of which would have developed a drinking problem were it not for the massive amount of paperwork needed to requisition alcohol. Because of certain technicalities regarding the design of the PLACE, auditors have insisted on classifying it as an ultralight ship, which means that engineers must follow the rigid safety procedures and protocols as though they were working a sailing vessel.

Progress on the project is slow, but the accountants are quick to point out that progress is also safe and efficient- which more than offsets the time costs, right?

PLACE: 3/15 | 1 Ore, + 2 from Silk OR Ore OR Crystal | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested


It is now the revision phase. You have 2 dice left to spend.

[Madman198237]

Well fine then.

Spent so much time typing that I didn't get in my last reply.

I guess we better hope we can do everything with three less revisions and a bunch of wasted dice next time?

[NUKE9.13]

Madman, the DIE was not going to work. Draignean straight up said it would be a design. You asked him yourself! Plz stop being salty. Or, uh, onigiri, I guess.

Anyway. Shame about the time.
So, we need to revise better tactics for our ships. I prefer Counter-Dive, since almost all their damage is in the initial attack; if we can avoid that, we have the upper hand. No need to get fancy.

And... well, I still think we should go for an arbalest. But I'm not married to it, if someone can convince me of a better idea. Really, the only thing that is super important to do this turn is the ship tactics, I could be convinced to hold onto our last die.

[Jilladilla]

Well fine then.

Spent so much time typing that I didn't get in my last reply.

I guess we better hope we can do everything with three less revisions and a bunch of wasted dice next time?

Main flaw with the project so far is that we rolled a 1 for time, thankfully the simplicity made it an effective 2, but that one would've trashed one of your revisions. And besides, we're not hoping to finish it next turn, only to get the prototype (Which we can in fact deploy immediately, as per Word of GM), in which case we only need to make 5 progress to get (Feasible with 2 dice, average result of 2 dice is 7 after all). Also, I said earlier that next turn's ore won't be able to help with our first reinforcement wave, we only have what we can get this turn. Other than the PLACE prototype.

That said, we have 2 dice for revisions. Start making plans everyone, are we going to want 2 revisions, or perhaps save one or both?
I'm partial for spending one on a ship reconnaissance tactic, but I could be swayed towards evasive maneuvers (like yours Madman).
As for what we do with the other? I'm less sure of that..

[Madman198237]

My ship tactic revision is a comprehensive upgrade of ship tactics, based around making sure we're exploiting our maneuverability advantages to fire everything, instead of just running right at them to fire everything.

As for now, I'm going to vote for the Aetheric Gauntlet Improvements, which makes them less likely to burn the user and also slower to overheat. I'll be back later to fix the votebox if nothing happens in the meantime.

[10ebbor10]

My ship tactic revision is a comprehensive upgrade of ship tactics, based around making sure we're exploiting our maneuverability advantages to fire everything, instead of just running right at them to fire everything.

As for now, I'm going to vote for the Aetheric Gauntlet Improvements, which makes them less likely to burn the user and also slower to overheat. I'll be back later to fix the votebox if nothing happens in the meantime.

The problem is that your ship tactic revision is mostly hot air. It contains no substance beyond "outmaneuver" the enemy.

[Draignean]

Would a cranked heavy crossbow fit as a revision?
Actually while I've got Draignean

Is it possible to research designs which affect our design speed or amount of dice? Not sure of the rules re: wishing for more wishes.

No. With a well-rolled revision you succeeded in getting the power up a bit in exchange for accuracy. However, you're coming to the limits of what you can simply 'revise on' to the old design.

Think of it this way.  Your original design was for a submachine gun. You can bump its power up and fiddle with things to optimize it, but no amount of revision is going to make a Thompson into an Enfield.

As to research to improve research... A lot of what other arms race games handle with bonuses (I.e, you have so much experience with this, here's a +3 to efficacy!) I intend to handle through reduction in time. So, in a way, all research reduces the time of related research.  However, research to get more dice is a dangerous path to go on. Impossible? No. Costly, yes- and even when finished, It's not just going to be a passive +1 die per turn. It'll be some mechanism for paying resources in exchange.

It's a long term tech for sure, and one that would take a very long time to pay out.

That being said, the special events that happen in Arms Race games will be a semi-regular source of additional dice.

[NUKE9.13]

My ship tactic revision is a comprehensive upgrade of ship tactics, based around making sure we're exploiting our maneuverability advantages to fire everything, instead of just running right at them to fire everything.

Hmm

revision

comprehensive upgrade

:/

Would a cranked heavy crossbow fit as a revision?

No. With a well-rolled revision you succeeded in getting the power up a bit in exchange for accuracy. However, you're coming to the limits of what you can simply 'revise on' to the old design.

Think of it this way.  Your original design was for a submachine gun. You can bump its power up and fiddle with things to optimize it, but no amount of revision is going to make a Thompson into an Enfield.

Ah, good to know. Still trying to get a handle on what exactly we can do with revisions. Thanks for telling us this before we wasted a die.

So, obviously I'm off of arbalests. I still don't think a gauntlet is ever going to be an armour-piercing weapon, though.

Aetheric Gauntlet Improvements & ?: (1) Madman
Counter-Dive Tactics & Save last die: (1) NUKE9.13

Here's the old votebox for reference:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Unfinished
Retreat: (1) NUKE9.13
No Retreat: (0)
This Depends On What We Revise And We Can't Decide At All Yet: (1) Madman

Bugswatting:
Exterminator Heavy Arbalest:
Aetheric Gauntlet Improvement (Longer firing): (1) Madman
Torment Gauntlets (More power): (1) Madman
Improved Flintlocks:
Dinghy anti-Infantry Emplacement (DIE): (1) Madman

Ship Combat:
OUTManeuver Use superior flight characteristics to not take damage (Outrun, Undermine, Terrorize): (1) Madman
Counter-Dive (Roll-and-Broadside)

Anti-Insanity measures
Total Aetheric Protection (Full-body modification of aethersilk vests): (1) Madman

[10ebbor10]

A few tactic suggestions

Buddy system

Divide our ships in couples of two ships, each trained to operate as a unit. Both of them will operate together, focusing their fire on a single target. This should ensure that enemy ships are crippled or destroyed much faster as concentrated fire overwhelms their shrouds.

Wall of battle

The wall of battle is a vertical formation of ships, one above the other yet, slightly staggered to ensure that each ship can raise or lower independently. The wall of battle ensures that there's no risk of friendly fire (allowing maximum fure rate) and allows firepower to be concentrated against a single target.

[milo christiansen]

How about more power and detachable, swappable, copper heatsinks for our gauntlets? Two revisions, of course.

[Jilladilla]

As to research to improve research... A lot of what other arms race games handle with bonuses (I.e, you have so much experience with this, here's a +3 to efficacy!) I intend to handle through reduction in time. So, in a way, all research reduces the time of related research.  However, research to get more dice is a dangerous path to go on. Impossible? No. Costly, yes- and even when finished, It's not just going to be a passive +1 die per turn. It'll be some mechanism for paying resources in exchange.

It's a long term tech for sure, and one that would take a very long time to pay out.

So, possible, but would likely involve a massive expenditure of resources and dice to set up, then combine that with something like our Itshana Select crystals where we need to pay up a very noticeable amount of resources for the bonus dice?... Yeah, this would likely be an extremely long term plan if we went for it, with nothing to show for it but a drain on our resources and dice for a long, long while...

Speaking of special events, does the transport that got kamikazied have any notable amount of salvageable scrap material from the skiff that rammed it? (I ask only because this is the one instance where it makes sense that one of the destroyed ships did not have its surviving bits simply fall to the surface.)

(PS: For people asking to give our gauntlets more power... We sort of have that already in Itshana Select weapons crystals... We just need to improve user friendliness and probably cooling some to actually take advantage of that.)

[milo christiansen]

For more powerful gauntlets, we should focus on better power efficiency. Less heat to deal with, better damage.

[Nirur Torir]

Their dive-bombing tactic seems to focus on our transports. We need to counter that before they get a stronger weapon. Even as it stands, that's going to cost resources every time our transports are near a battle. Scouting should counter that, and be useful later for fleet organization.

50% Light Scouts Doctrine
The cowardly Kasgyr prefer to strike from ambush, and their ships are likely to do so at any time. In response, half of our fastest combat ships should be performing reconnaissance patrols around our fleets at any given time. Upon engagement, they should fire once (at the enemy ships, if they can safely do so) to sound the alarm, before falling back to the main force.