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BEEG

3 (15%)

HUEG

0 (0%)

YUGE

0 (0%)

FEKHUGE

2 (10%)

I dream of profits because I'm secretly Salviosi

4 (20%)

Of Kinetic Sheep

11 (55%)

Total Members Voted: 20

[Kashyyk]

As it'll be the first thing we'll ever do with Caelium, I'd like it to be something we don't care about the quality of. Once we get experience from it, we can use it for important things.

My suggestion would be a Spotter Craft. Same role as the balloons in Knights of the Skies, but using Caelium instead. They'll be tethered, meaning the generator can stay on the ground and still power the Caelium.

It limits the risk of crap rolls and more importantly, get a us experience.

In fact, have a design:

The Peeper is reminiscent of various Hot Air balloons used over the last century. The crucial difference is the means of lift. A set of four small Caelium cores (one on each upper corner of the basket) provides lift, giving the single observer a wide range of view across the battlefield. The Platform is anchored to the ground to prevent drift, and attached to the mooring line is two cables, one for a telegraph (allowing easy communication between the observer and the artillery crews) and the second is an electrical cable, used to power the lifting cores. A simple petrol generator under a weather proof cowling is placed at the bottom by the anchor as the source of energy.

The Observer himself has a set of controls for managing the lift provided by the cores, as well as a sturdy pair of binoculars, maps, cases and other observation paraphernalia.

This will give us a very useful improvement to our artillery even with a poor roll, and should give us experience with Caelium for our next front-line use.

[Jerick]

I rather like the peeper. It should be much harder for the enemy to see and shoot down than any balloon while being very cheap. Now on a different subject the research credit is something that is only available on this turn and it gives us an extra 2d6 roll dropping the lowest 2d6 roll. So I think we should use this on something ambitious. Ideally something that will be consistently useful for the rest of the game. I propose we use our research credit on this:

The caelium gravitational generator consists of a small caelium core and a number of tubes each one forming a loop. Each loop is wrapped in copper coils and is positioned so it stands vertically and that only half the loop is in the core's field of effect. These tubes are setup in a circle around the core. Each loop has a small additional section of tubing through which magnets shaped to fit the tube can be dropped near the top of the loop, away from the core. When magnets are dropped into the loop they fall and accelerate. Their momentum then carries them into the field of the core which reduces the effect of gravity on the magnets allowing the magnets to travel back to the top of the loop where they leave the field and are pulled back down thanks to gravity. Multiple magnets can be used in each loop and multiple loops can fit within the core's area of effect. The Caelium gravitational generator includes a battery system in order to provide the initial electrical charge needed to power the core.

Since we choose which resources to develop it is in our interest to eliminate any resources we can from our designs. If we just use caelium and ore it'll be easier to get our stuff marked as cheap. This one design if it works could remove oil as resource we need to think about while providing much needed electricity to all our caelium projects.

[Kashyyk]

If I understand that correctly, we're abusing both Faraday's Law to generate electricity, and sci-fi soft to let Caelium lift the magnet back up for less energy than it generated to drop it?

Sounds uncomfortably like a perpetual motion machine. I'm not sure soft sci-fi will stretch that far.

[Jerick]

Yup it's basically a perpetual motion machine or rather it might be depending on the gm. You see caelium has the property that it nullifies gravity in an area and it can somehow do this with amounts of electricity generated by backwards nations with 1911 technology. There is a gloriously large mismatch between the effects produced and energy inputted, there are only three possible explanations to this;

a) Caelium is an anomalous material that is a gross violation of thermal dynamics. If this is true it doesn't matter what other rules are given to caelium, perpetual motion is possible and will remain so unless the rules of thermal dynamics are no longer being violated.

b) Caelium is somehow making up the difference by pulling the missing energy from something else. Maybe running caelium makes the whole world slightly colder, maybe it's pulling the energy from an alternate dimension, this is soft sci fi there is no end to the possibilities. If this is the case then the generator I proposed will work, it just won't be a perpetual motion machine and it might lead us to discover new fascinating energy sources.

c) Caelium has an incredibly dense internal store of energy that is released when we run electricity through it. This is the most likely explanation but it means caelium could work as an even denser energy source than Promethium. It does however mean that caelium cores might burn out after enough use. However if this is the case the generator I proposed should still work and again won't be perpetual motion.

[Doubloon-Seven]

Wouldn't the Peeper be ARAC-Peeper-O though, since it's an aircraft? Also, if you want it with the army designation since it helps out artillery, change the date to 1912. As for why I'm voting for the generator, I want to use that research credit to it's fullest.

Free Design:
Caelium Gravitational Generator: (1) Jerick
-ARA Model-1912S: (1) Doubloon
ARAF Model-1911O "Peeper" Artillery Observation Platform: (1) Kashyyk
---------------
Artillery:
Iron Rain Mortar:
-ARA 1912ART "Iron Rain": (1) Doubloon

[Kashyyk]

I always interpreted Caelium as having a negative weight when powered, rather than actively screwing with gravity. Thus it is repelled by massive objects rather than attracted by them. That personally makes more sense to me, but if ends up being your explanation, then all the better.

@Doubloon: Why ARAC-Peeper-O? THat doesn't follow the naming convention at all.

Free Design:
Caelium Gravitational Generator: (1) Jerick
-ARA Model-1912S: (1) Doubloon
ARAF Model-1912O "Peeper" Artillery Observation Platform: (1) Kashyyk
---------------
Artillery:
Iron Rain Mortar:
-ARA 1912ART "Iron Rain": (2) Doubloon, Kashyyk

[Doubloon-Seven]

Because it's a different group of the military, the Abberan Royal Air Corps. ARAC, followed by the class of craft, followed by the purpose indicated by a letter, O being 'Observation'.

Also, the way I originally wrote it, Caelium was directly attracted to the magnetosphere. Since this would make Caelium get stronger with height, I can see why Man of Paper would veto that. As for how it works here, I can't be sure.

[Kashyyk]

I agree that it is a different group of the military, but I'd call it the Abberan Royal Air Force. It then follows the equivalent code scheme for firearms: Model-[Year][Purpose] "Common Name" Description. Thus it is the Model-1992O "Peeper" Artillery Observation Platform.

[Doubloon-Seven]

It doesn't matter so much the year of an airship as what class it is, though. I also happen to doubt it's 1992, so you may want to fix that. Also, this may just be semantics, but I personally think ARAC sounds better than ARAF.

[Kashyyk]

That's just a mistype in my message, the actual proposal is correct.

The 'O' indicates the class, along with the Name.

[Doubloon-Seven]

It doesn't really, considering as how we'll probably make more observation vessels in the future, and different ship designs can't be of the same class.

[Kashyyk]

'C' is not indicative of a shotgun, yet we have one with that class. However it does fit into the Close Combat class.

'ART' is the Artillery class. We don't have separate Light and Heavy classes, cannon and howitzers classes, nor guns and rocket classes. We know what type of artillery it is based on the description, yet they all fit in the same class.

'O' is not indicative of a fixed spotting platform. It means Observation, which the Peeper would fit into.

[Doubloon-Seven]

...fair enough. The model system isn't great for true airships, but an observation balloon would work fine there. Still, this would be more of an infantry support tool, so it makes more sense for the craft to be ARA instead of ARA[something].

[Kashyyk]

As that's just different opinion now, I think we'll need the rest of the team to weigh in on that one.

[Doubloon-Seven]

True, true.

Also, I've got a few thoughts on shields. I think it would be better to have more of a hovering wall than a lightened shield. A large plate of steel that can protect an entire squadron at once would be especially useful, maybe with a bit of angling so that bullets can deflect easier and our soldiers can throw grenades into enemy trenches or drop in with shotguns.