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[Slick]

FINS (3): Failbird105, Piratejoe, Slick

[Happerry]

Revision : Flying It Now Successfully Project (Easy Difficulty)
4+4+1 = 9: OVERCRIT

Huh. It turns out someone wrote down the wrong value in... well, around a dozen places on the blueprints. No wonder it was so hard getting the Sky Breeze to work properly. All fixed now though! I mean, once it turned out the engine didn't weigh twice as much as an Octoling it was a lot easier to fit into the machine without turning it into a falling machine. We also added a pair of batteries to the underside of the balloon, right over where the pilot rests, to store excess power and enable 'sneaky mode', where the pilot turns the engine off and proceeds purely by battery and muscle power. Sneaky Mode only lasts for around ten minutes at max, assuming you aren't being a stationary sneaky mode in which case it can keep it up for a good hour, but the Octoling Agents are sure that ten minutes at a time is still long enough for them to do fun stuff with.

Well, it'll be less then ten minutes if they're opening fire with the Splatling, but if they're opening fire they aren't being really sneaky anyway, right?

Besides the engine stuff and adding a speed lever and hooking the Splatling up to the engine, there's also been an optional mount for carrying either six punt bombs or one balloon mine underneath the Octo-Balloon as makeshift bombs. The Punt Bombs aren't really accurate, it seems, and the Balloon Mine is so heavy it really slows the balloon down (and good luck using sneaky mode carrying one of those), but Agents assured the engineers that some bombs were better then no bombs. There's also been a redesign of the wind sails, so even Octolings whom aren't specifically gifted as pilots can gain some use out of them now, though the designers still think a dedicated pilot would do a lot better then just a normal trooper, or even a normal Octoling Agent. But even without the sails the balloon still moves as fast or maybe a little faster then a running Octoling Agent now that there's a proper engine installed.

On another note, the project finished so early this year that the scientists had the time to do some brainstorming, and have generated a collection of notes that is worth +1 to your next vehicle design or revision action.

Spoiler: Resources (click to show/hide)

Basic Resources
Plastics : 2
Super Sea Snails : 1

Advanced Resources
Zapfish : 2

Spoiler: Octoling Armory (click to show/hide)

Primary Weapon

• Bamboozler : A compression powered ink gun that was recently invented before the Great Turf War. It charges somewhat slowly, is hard to charge on the move, can not store a charge, has limited maximum range, has low ink usage efficiency hampering repeated use before one must refill their ink tank, and can not be fired while uncharged. In other words, a revolutionary improvement over all that came before. Despite being shaped somewhat like a hammer, it is not advisable to use it in melee to hit someone over the head with. Recent advances in Ink Tank pump speed have increased the Bamboozler's charging speed by around 5%, and an additional redesign of the nozzle and front half of the gun has increased ranged by an astonishing 15%.
  Cheap - Cost : 2 Plastic, 0 Super Sea Snails.
• Bamboozler Mk.2b : A reconstructed version of the Bamboozler that replaces the old ink compressor and awkward trigger/plunger set up with an entirely new selection of complicated gearing and valves, using a two tank air/ink pressure system to achieve greater range, charging speed, and ink usage efficiency then the Mk.1 Bamboozler. While originally the Mk.2 was overly complicated to build and maintain, a recent redesign has dramatically simplified and 'cleaned up' the inkarm. While this results in it working a bit better in most ways, most noticeably in Ink Efficiency as it has stopped being a bit leaky, the biggest result to this is that it's far easier to build. Additionally, new generation nozzle compression technology has increased its viable range by an astonishing 15% above and beyond its original specs.
  Expensive -  Cost : 3 Plastic, 0 Super Sea Snails.
• Splatling Cannon : A large crank operated automatic ink cannon. Has short range, extreme weight and size, and equally extreme inkpower. Can be operated at either a low firing speed, which actually has accuracy, or a high firing speed which can suck dry an entire ink tank in under thirty seconds using the higher pump speeds made possible by the Rotodynamic Pump but in return can barely hope to hit the broad side of a barn due to the crank and the pump knocking the weapon around as it fires as well as the increased recoil.
  Expensive - Cost : 3 Plastic, 0 Super Sea Snails.
  
  • Wind-Up Cannon : A modification of the Splatling Cannon by way of the addition of a rubber band winder to the crank. Now can be wound up in advance for at least half a minute of fire where one doesn't need to work the crank, allowing for substantially increased accuracy until the band winder finishes unwinding. After that, users have to go back to working the crank because it takes to long to rewind the winder for the average skirmish.
    Expensive - Cost : +1 Plastic, 0 Super Sea Snails.

Sub Weapon

• Balloon Mine : A large balloon, inflated close to bursting with ink. Being sturdy enough to avoid accidental discharges means it requires some amount of focused firepower to detonate, and it takes around a minute and a full ink tank to deploy in the first place. Covers a large area with friendly ink when it does detonate, however, and has an optional automatic pump to allow for deployment without manual operation.
  Cheap - Cost : 2 Plastic, 0 Super Sea Snails. When used with the Automatic Pump, gains the Complex tag and therefor becomes Expensive.
• Punt Bomb : A foot sized balloon designed to be kicked at enemies. Has a somewhat weird shape that makes it hard to throw, but easier to kick. Can be filled directly from an ink tank or with a Balloon Bomb pump. It's horizontal range is noticeably superior to its vertical range (well, you can still kick it high, but when you do it's almost impossible to aim), and it has some trouble with windows.
  Cheap - Cost : 1 Plastic, 0 Super Sea Snails.

Specials

• Krakenblade : A average sized blade of raw Ink and Ink Energy, stabilized by an anchoring hilt and internal spine. Takes a moment to form and is only effective at melee range, but does hold the power to splat anything you get a direct hit on. The blades lasts for around fifteen seconds before loosing cohesion, and also allows the user to rechannel the Ink Energy to power a hyperspeed dash forwards three to four yards. This dash can either be done as a blade dash, where the user swings the sword as they dash, striking everything between their starting and stopping point but also burning through the rest of the special's energy. Or it can be utilized as a normal dash that merely uses up most of the energy and allows for up to five seconds of continued use after the dash.
  Expensive - Cost : 0 Plastic, 2 Super Sea Snails.

Ability
No Abilities start out designed.

Personnel

• Octoling Guardsman/Guardswoman : An Octoling member of a volunteer weekend warrior association, where they train in basic military skills and teamwork. The association consistently turns out professionalized militia with consistent if not outstanding fundamental skills as well as a well honed sense of squad wide mutual trust and teamwork. Now have improved physical conditioning from a new exercise program.
• Octoling Elite Agent : An Octoling graduate of the S.T.E.P Up Program, they are harder, faster, better, and even stronger then normal Octoling Guardsmen or Guardswoman. They also come with advanced tactical training, but their primary and greatest advantage is simply that they are all highly physically conditioned and drilled until responses and tactical calls are, if not genius, pretty much instant. The program for training them was suprisingly effective, so instead of being Rare these agents are Uncommon.
• Giant Octoling : A subspecies of Octoling which, as the name suggests, commonly reaches sizes far greater then the average Octoling. Their additional strength and endurance makes them natural heavy weapon experts, but also reduces their speed and makes them easier targets for enemy fire.

Cultural Artifacts

• Octo Valley Radio Network : A popular radio broadcast station in Octo Valley that broadcasts music, news, and humor, as well as speculation. Many though not all octoling soldiers are fans, and listening to its daily broadcasts can put a spring in their step.

Other Gear

• Mark 1 Ink Tank : A basic ink tank, invented by the same inventor that invented the Bamboozler, and designed to work with the Bamboozler. A quarter of its mass is taken up with the complicated gearing that connects it to a Lings primary weapon and the generator for the subweapon, limiting how much ink it can store. Still better then having to produce ink manually whenever you need a refill though.
  Cheap - Cost : 2 Plastic, 0 Super Sea Snails.
  
  • Rotodynamic Ink Pumps : A new rotational pump for the Ink Tank. It's smaller size and more efficient form allows for an increased ink reservoir as well as faster pumping, both for refilling the tank and for output to weapons. The increased tank pumping speed for refills is partially countered by the increased tank size however, and ends up only being somewhat faster.
• Octoling Home Guard Program: A volunteer training organization that meets twice a week to train with weapons and with working together. Beyond the teamwork and unity drills, each meeting addresses a different subject of military life, from weapon certification and recognition to maneuvering in Ink Form to theoretical tactical studies, with specially formatted programs meant to drill the basics into the skulls of civilians. And it works. The Home Guard may not be legends nor cutting edge professionals, but they learn the basic skills they'll need to survive a war. And more importantly, they learn to trust one another. Now has an improved exercise program derived from the S.T.E.P. program's training.
• S.T.E.P Up : The Superior Trained Enlisted Personal initiative is an upgraded training program based on the older weekend warrior program. It scopes the best of the best out of the Home Guard Program and puts them through continual and dedicated training. Afterwards, what returns are Elite Octoling Agents, skilled and drilled to the max. Unexpectedly, they've managed to put many more Octolings through the training program then originally anticipated, and parts of their exercise regime has made it to the Home Guard.
• Society For Prevention of Biased Species Interaction : A group of sign waving fanatics whom are against treating any subspecies of Octoling differently in any way, shape, form, or ink. This represents a noticeable issue with any attempts to train Octolings to use their subspecies specific advantages to their, well, advantage.
• "Born This Way" Initiative : An art, music, and radio based initiative designed to show SFPBSI's repressive and chilling effects on Octoling subspecies. Caused a great reducement of SFPBSI's membership rolls, and also now allows subspecies with proper training and recruitment programs designed to be, well, recruited.

Vehicles

• Sky Breeze Octo-Balloon : A floating one octoling balloon ship, with sails and a small engine to power the propeller. Has a front mounted Splattling that is turned by the engine, allowing continual max speed fire without accuracy issues. Moves decently fast now, and can still be peddled (and go on battery power) for a slower 'sneaky mode', as well as being more resistant to enemy firepower. Can carry either six Punt Bombs or one Balloon Mine as a bomb, though the Balloon Mine is heavy enough to really slow the Sky Breeze down. With a wind in the proper direction, can use sails to increase its speed.
  Very Expensive - Cost : 5 Plastic, 0 Super Sea Snails.

Superweapons

• Typhoon Assault Airship : A giant airship with four giant engines, a nose mounted respawn pad that fires respawned Octolings back to their squad, and a medium load of balloon bombs. Flies far to high to be attacked by any weapon, meaning it's only vulnerable on the ground, when it lands to reload. Or, well, to some crazy Inkling shooting its bombs out of the sky and back into the airship to send it careening down into the ground in a flaming crash, but who'd be crazy enough to do that?
  Needs 2 Zapfish to be deployed.

Heroes

• Dofley, Sketch Artist with a Big Gun : A Giant Octoling, equipped with a custom giant Splattling Cannon, custom giant Ink Tank, custom giant Krakenblade, and a second old style hilt only Krakenblade strapped onto his Spattling Cannon. A well trained wrecking ball of brute force, whom also does scroll art between combat missions as part of a failed PR scheme. Has unusually great control over his own personal Ink Energy, allowing him to use Krakenblades with unusual efficiency and also allowing snap activations or deactivations when needed or desired.

The Deployment Phase of Summer, Year 2 has begun.

[KitRougard]

Just a note, I believe next Creation Phase we should make a dedicated team for the Sky Breeze and it's vehicular offspring. The +1 may even count towards that, given that they need knowledge about their vehicles they drive.

[Failbird105]

Deploy army 1 to Moray Towers
Deploy army 2 to Calimari Country
Deploy Typhoon to Octo-canyon
Have Dofley defend Typhoon where necessary

Deploy army 1 to Moray Towers
Deploy army 2 to Calimari Country
Deploy Typhoon to Calimari Country
Have Dofley protect Typhoon where necessary

Deploy army 1 to Moray Towers
Deploy army 2 to Octo-canyon
Deploy Typhoon to Octo-canyon
Have Dofley protect Typhoon where necessary

plan A ():
plan B ():
plan C (1): Failbird105

My reasoning for choosing plan C here is that the Canyon seems like a rather good place to deploy the Typhoon, the one long path meaning that the enemy can't get out of the way of the bombs, only hope that they're in a space too narrow for a balloon to land properly. Meanwhile our ground troops can pick off those enemies who managed such a thing. However this means that we will likely be losing ground in Calamari Country if they decide to deploy anything there.
Plan B is the riskiest option, we send Typhoon and Dofley to practically guarantee that we take ground in Calamari Country, but this leaves us completely open to a push further into Octo-canyon.
Then Plan A is using Typhoons ability to create a terrifying push forward and the fact that there's only one path to be taken to our advantage by having Typhoon simply paint the canyon purple as it advances from one end to the other, meanwhile Dolfey can take out the stragglers who managed to find a place too narrow for a bomb to land.

[piratejoe]

plan A ():
plan B ():
plan C (2): Failbird105, Piratejoe73

[dgr11897]

plan A ():
plan B ():
plan C (3) (PO): Failbird105, Piratejoe73, DGR

[Slick]

plan A ():
plan B ():
plan C (4) (PO): Failbird105, Piratejoe73, DGR, Slick

[Happerry]

The Great Turf War of Summer, Year 2, has now Finished.

The Design Phase of Fall, Year 2 has begun.

[KitRougard]

Alright, they complained about "how the heck do you fly these things," so we're gonna thach them to fly. And drive. And sail. Because I'm sure we like vehicles. We need a squad of Octolings trained in driving these machines we're making, and I don't have the time to do a full write-up!

TL;DR- I'm voting for any "vehicle driving squad" we whip up this Phase. We need a vehicle driving squad.

[piratejoe]

Newspaper Knight Bailey
The Octoling Bailey, known more for the nickname he has, the Newspaper Knight, was a security guard for the Bluefin times, and he hopes to return to his job once the fighting is over. Regardless there are a few things that make him unique and also explain why he has the nickname Newspaper Knight. First off, he has a specially designed pavise as a sheild along with armour that makes him look kinda like a knight and offers a good deal of protection while being as heavy and easy to move in as full platemail, which is actually a lot for both weight and ease of mobility surprisingly. The armour also has a bunch of comic strips from the Bluefin times funny pages, and possibly exaggerated rumors exist that his ink control is at such a high level the comics and writing change depending on how he is feeling and what is going on around him, but despite this, that is not where the name newspaper knight comes from, instead its from a special part on the right gauntlet that when activated with a rolled up newspaper in hand makes it infused with the ink Bailey has along with the ink on the newspaper, protecting the newspaper and empowering it to a point that getting hit by the thing just as bad for you as if you got smacked with a Kracken blade, but with the added bonus of being as light as a newspaper. It should be noted that when the newspaper is removed the newspaper is depowered and returned to normal and perfectly able to be read as normal, The last two things to take note of is a set of punt bombs on his belt that are easy for him to kick or throw, and a small rapid fire 'Inkzi' which is like if someone shrunk a splatling to the point it could be held in one hand and is hooked up to a small tank on the back of his belt.

Felt like throwing this up and out there.

[Failbird105]

Boiler Pack
The Boiler Pack is a new type of weapon. While originally meant to be a variety of Ink Tank, the fact that nobody was ever going to use it without a weapon specifically designed for it in mind meant it was easier to re-develop it into a weapon. The Boiler Pack consists of two major parts, the Boiler itself, and a specialized hose.
The Boiler is fairly simple, effectively a second tank, that is attached to the wearers already present tank. This tank can intake ink on its own, and have ink pumped into it by the main tank, but the actual storage portion of the tank is smaller. The reason for this, is because the missing space has been used to turn the tank into a boiler, as the name would imply, boiling the ink into a burning hot mist, effectively ink-steam. The base structure of the tank is made up of a large number of materials that are poor for conducting heat, and additionally makes use of the slime from special Chilly Sea Snails. While their name implies the slime would decrease heat, it's actually just a particularly effective insulator. A layer of this is included between the inner tank and the outer tank so as to keep the heat from leaking out, thus to stop the heat from boiling the ink in the regular tank, and to prevent it from burning the users back.
The hose meanwhile, is considerably simpler, more a proof of concept than anything else, but expected to be effective nonetheless. The hose, like the tank itself, has multiple layers, an inner and outer layer of typical rubber, with chilly sea snail slime in between to insulate it. The nozzle is designed so as to maximize the distance the spray goes and to focus the stream, thus allowing it to be used without being too much of a risk to the actual user themself. While the sheer boiling heat of the mist means that it is a hazard to our own soldiers as well. In the future we will make newer, more effective weapons to take advantage of the boiler concept in other ways, such as possibly a source of pressure for increased power, but as a proof of concept, this weapon is sure to be terrifying at close ranges.


Bringing this bad boy up to the front. Frankly I'm not really sure it's what we need, currently we're lacking at long distances the most it seems, but weapon variety is always nice, and there weren't really any other previously written options that stood out to me.

[Failbird105]

Here's two new weapons from me. Frankly I don't think either of them are what we need this turn, but I had the ideas and just wanted to get them on paper before they vanish from my head. They're a sub-weapon and special respectively.

Fizz-balloon
You know soda? How when you shake it up it gets all fizzy and sprays everywhere? Well, we've decided that this could be something we can use to our advantage. The simple explanation is a thrown bomb(something we've been rather lacking in, our punt bombs need to be kicked and our mines are stationary), which you fill up from the tank, shake it to increase pressure, pull the pin, then it will burst after a few seconds so throw it. The more in depth explanation though is thus: Its design has one large handle to the side which is attached to a thick disk at the top, two curved semi-rigid plastic strips go down the sides opposite to eachother, before meeting at a large cap on the bottom. A balloon is stretched between the cap and the top. The balloon is filled to near-bursting with ink from the cap and already contains large amounts of carbon-dioxide. The pin starts a short timer to a needle being jabbed into the balloon. Once the balloon is filled, shaking it scatters about the bubbles of CO2, thus meaning that once the balloon is popped, the CO2 rushes out and carries the ink with it, sending the ink even further than it would otherwise travel.

Rainmaker
The Rainmaker is a special that continues off some of the concepts previously used in the Krakenblade; that being that it's a physical weapon, which is used to focus ink-energy as well as ink itself into a more stable form. The Rainmaker is a gun, fairly large itself though not possessing much in the way of proper mechanisms, on its own it simply lets out a steady flow of ink when the trigger is held, and it is designed with the basic appearance of an Eastern Dragon, with the barrel being its jaws. These jaws are designed to focus ink-energy between them, which in turn is intended to effectively control the massive amounts of ink flowing out of it from the special. This forms the ink into condensed balls, that are then launched forward when the trigger is released. These balls lose cohesion the longer they travel due to low ink energy use, so fired straight they are powerful single blasts, but launched across greater distances or into the air they will eventually begin to scatter, showering ink from them until they have diminished to nothing, hence the name Rainmaker, as when launched into the air it effectively causes ink to rain down for several seconds. You may have noticed I said 'balls', that is because this weapon, because of its mechanical components, can fire either one ball containing the whole specials worth of power, or several weaker ones by holding the trigger for less time, it is limited on time however, so make sure you get the most out of it.

[The Ensorceler]

Design: Swizzler
Main Weapon

Our first foray into long range weaponry, a Swizzler is (loosely) a single shot Splatling. Rather than a tortion bundle, the Swizzler's elastics are wrapped around the barrel, and form an attractive set of stripes when twisted. An oversized crank is used to wind the barrel, and a scope helps make sure your one shot actually hits.

The shot itself is spun by contact with the barrel into a dense projectile able to maintain coherence until impact, where it blossoms into a spiraling pinwheel pattern. This projectile is significantly more powerful than the spurts and blobs formed by our previous weaponry, and is able to splat alone.

[Failbird105]

Davy Jones
Well, this is it. We've done it. A weapon the likes of which 'lings, both Ink and Octo, and every other being on this world, has never seen. The Davy Jones, though truly devastating in power, is very simple in concept. What would happen if we packed every single drop of ink that we physically could into a single, 'ling portable solid projectile, and then kept putting more ink into it anyway. It comes with a tri-pod mounted launcher, to place down and aim the weapon, with the launcher itself serving as the tube through which the rockets payload is loaded. When the special is used, all of the tremendous amounts of ink generated are poured directly into this, comparatively small rocket. The ink-energy itself is used for one thing, compression, packing the ink within the warhead tighter and tighter, until it has compressed as far as ink can, and then even further. Then, once the loading process is finished, the rocket, no longer being kept packed tight by ink-energy, effectively fires itself, the unbelievably pressurized ink jetting out the back like a makeshift thruster, acting as the rockets propulsion. Then, when it collides with something that isn't very, very soft, it will inevitably crack. When that happens, there's only one place that all of that ink can go, and that's everywhere.
Obviously, such a weapon is not without its flaws. As it travels further it loses ink meaning that at longer ranges it's not quite as powerful as it would be otherwise, not to mention that it isn't particularly accurate at very long ranges either. Its own raw power can also be a problem in some situations, while the edges of the blast zone are just like getting hit by any other friendly attack, getting caught near its center can potentially splat our own troops from the force of the explosion alone.

Another new special, and now a votebox.

Swizzler (1): Failbird
Fizz-balloon ():
Rainmaker ():
Boiler Pack ():
Newspaper Knight ():
Davy Jones ():

[KitRougard]

If we nail the Davy, we could use a Revision to copy it into a smaller, similar version, weaker, with more focus on distance and aiming...
You know, the Swizzler, just made a little differently. Like, a pre-loaded Ink Tank or something.

Swizzler (1): Failbird
Fizz-balloon ():
Rainmaker ():
Boiler Pack ():
Newspaper Knight ():
Davy Jones (1): KitRougard