Design Phase, Turn -1Thaumic Radio:
Radio is, at this point, a well understood technology. Minor advancements are being made every year, making it ever more powerful and portable. Who knows, perhaps a few decades from now there will be radios you can hold in your hand? Unfortunately, war is not going to wait. We could really use such hand-held radios right now. And with magic, we can have them!
The Thaumic Radio operates in a manner closely resembling a standard radio; it transmits using conventional radio waves, the amplitude of which is modulated to encode a signal. However, the way in which said waves are generated, and the source of power, is different. Instead of using an inefficient and bulky vacuum tubes, the Thaumic Radio does it by magic. More specifically, it contains an engraved cylinder which is connected to the 1 meter long collapsible antenna, which is enchanted to replicate the effects of a radio transmitter. A similar cylinder acts as a receiver. A microphone, speaker, and some dials to adjust settings complete the package. The whole thing shouldn't be much larger than a brick.
As it requires mana to operate, the Thaumic Radio can only be used by mages. However, since it transmits and receives regular radio waves, it is fully compatible with conventional radios, such as those used by the army and navy.
This shouldn't require us to requisition a radio first, since we're not actually building a radio- we just need to Understand how radios work, which is publicly available knowledge.
Design: Thaumic Radio (3) [E Hard]
Our Magineers struggle initially with the Thaumic Radio design for a couple reasons.
Firstly, we are designing our radio from scratch without a radio of our own for reference; we find plenty of literature on how radios work and how to build one, but having a physical radio to tinker with would have been helpful.
Secondly, we're replacing a large number of the integral components with freshly-designed magical ones. We manage to borrow some of the jumbled logic components from the Lucky Rabbit's Foot in order to replace the bulky vacuum tubes, but the radio will go faintly static-y whenever the accompanying Mage takes a step. Next, the heavy battery is replaced by a newly invented Mana-powered generator, which takes us a significant amount of time to design but thankfully isn't terribly Mana-inefficient.
Despite these draw-backs, the Thaumic Radio succeeds in acting as a functional Mage-powered radio. It is capable of transmitting on standard AM radiowaves, although the current communication abilities are limited to pulse modulation for Morse code based messages. Even better is the relatively small size of the radio, making it capable of being carried and operated by a single Mage. The internals consists of a pair of engraved sheets rolled into cylinders to handle both transmission and reception logic, and a slightly larger Mana-generator underneath. The antenna is a long, swishy wire that sticks up into the air about a meter and a half. The entire ensemble is rigged as a backpack with a wired handset and a set of dials to adjust the settings. Range extends out to nearly 2 kilometers, which everyone agrees is a respectable distance. Oddly enough, Thaumic Radio operators are reported to be "bizarrely seductive" when in use.
Due to the complexity of the design, it is fairly expensive to maintain and unfortunately requires a Competent Mage to trouble-shoot it when it inevitably breaks down. The Thaumic Radio is a promising design, and can easily be improved to superior capabilities later down the line.
Progress: (0/15) (3 per turn)
Cost: [8]
Skill Level: [Competent]
Type: Enchantment
Accelerated ProgressGalilei Lensing: (2) We manage to bully a few of the Magineers into staying late, letting us accelerate progress on the Galilei Lensing. At the current rate of progress, it should now complete 1 turn sooner. (2 Turns)
Fulcrum Armor V2: (2) Now becoming known as the "Exploding Coat Project", Fulcrum Armor V2's manufacturing deal has been worked out ahead of schedule. At the current rate of progress, it should now complete 1 turn sooner. (5 Turns)
It is now the Revision Phase.2 Dice Available.
Galilei Lensing | (8/14)(3) | 4 Dice Spent | [Rookie] | [4] | Sorcery
Gauntlets of Force | (3/12)(3) | 3 Dice Spent | [Competent] | [5] | Sorcery
Fulcrum Armor V2 | (4/14)(2) | 5 Dice Spent | [Rookie] | [6] | Enchantment
Thaumic Radio | (0/15)(3) | 3 Dice Spent | [Competent] | [8] | Enchantment
Author
Topic: Wands Race 2: The Great War - Abbraccio (Read 22604 times)