Abrogation (Steampunk)
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
He's asked for haste. This will be resolved rather faster if we can send help (whether that help is a diplomat, an assassin, or an army) straight to the problem, no waiting around for information-gathering or trying to bait out an attack.
Also, I feel like this is apropos:
- Location
- Germany
... we are planing to build a flying castle ...
i know which one i will be aiming at trying to build :
it is also strangly fitting for the setting* giant flying castle with weather control, lots and lots of robots, an superweapon and some other rather strange stuff.
*from what i can see
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Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
I feel like that's a bit too, ah, peaceful. I have the feeling that our fortress is going to be slightly more like...
(goddamn is the sound design on those movies amazing. chills every time I watch that.)
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- Location
- Germany
considering the damage that the robots can do and what the "super" weapon can do i would not call that castle peaceful.
Also was going for a flying castle and not a spaceship (even if i might be able to do just that) and when it comes down to it i don´t really like most of the designs of the empire.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x] Vebyast
Yeah for the flying fortress! and some healthy caution on the return trip to the battlefield.
Yeah for the flying fortress! and some healthy caution on the return trip to the battlefield.
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- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It really does depend on the foe. You'll be safe from the vast majority of weapons should you fly high enough, but there do exist weapons capable of firing fiery light in straight lines. You should probably avoid anyone who's known to have such, at least until you can find a good countermeasure for it.
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
That's why the vote suggests a walker if we can't immediately jump to flight, yep.
And the presumably instant speed would mean we can't use Skybreaker for point defense the way we can for other weapons, annoying. So, yes, avoid people that have those until we can find a way to deal with them.
Small modification:
[X] You can make no promises, but you can try.
-[x] Can Vincent tell you where their estates lie? It might be best if you knew which areas you oght to avoid after all.
[X] Thank Vincent for his time.
-[X] Go to bed.
[X] Get a sandwich or something for the road and depart.
-[x] Take care of your horse, too.
[X] Start building yourself a mobile fortress. Flying would be ideal, but crawling would be a good way to get started.
-[x] You're going to need parts for this. Conveniently, there are a couple of morons nearby with enough material to make poor choices. "Someone important", then, is you.
--[X] If you didn't get anything from Vincent, head back to the site of yesterday's battle to get information and maybe (if you're lucky) materials for another Surge.
-[X] Be careful. Keep an eye out, scout using all needed equipment (spyglasses, high altitude flying equipment, recon drones, etc.) Use Skybreaker to make sure nobody can follow you, change direction so nobody can predict your course, etc. Surprise isn't totally necessary but it'd be very useful.
And if be build a crawler, something like a hägglund would be ideal.
[X] You can make no promises, but you can try.
-[x] Can Vincent tell you where their estates lie? It might be best if you knew which areas you oght to avoid after all.
[X] Thank Vincent for his time.
-[X] Go to bed.
[X] Get a sandwich or something for the road and depart.
-[x] Take care of your horse, too.
[X] Start building yourself a mobile fortress. Flying would be ideal, but crawling would be a good way to get started.
-[x] You're going to need parts for this. Conveniently, there are a couple of morons nearby with enough material to make poor choices. "Someone important", then, is you.
--[X] If you didn't get anything from Vincent, head back to the site of yesterday's battle to get information and maybe (if you're lucky) materials for another Surge.
-[X] Be careful. Keep an eye out, scout using all needed equipment (spyglasses, high altitude flying equipment, recon drones, etc.) Use Skybreaker to make sure nobody can follow you, change direction so nobody can predict your course, etc. Surprise isn't totally necessary but it'd be very useful.
And if be build a crawler, something like a hägglund would be ideal.
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Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
We could always just have something to detect such devices, and teleport out if one is pointing at us.
Edit: [x] Vebyast
Seems like a good plan. Also, incorporates my ground fortress suggestion, so...
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- Location
- Illinois
A crawler would be significantly inferior, almost to the point that we shouldn't consider one. I think I'd rather outright not build anything instead of that.
There's a few reasons...
First, the most dangerous thing we can do right now is Surge. We need to Surge to make progress, but Surging identifies us, exposes us, and generally is a risk. Thus, the chief limit on our growth right now is surges.
Material is actually much easier to come by. Abrogation World is strewn with wreckages and pre-wreckages (i.e., things waiting for us to smash them with Skybreaker for parts)... And it's trivial to move material to a more secure location once found (by way of porting it off somewhere). We are also somewhat flush with money, which should allow a one-time acquisition of relatively rare material if we're careful about it.
Second, because of the first point, more than anything else we need to pick projects very, very carefully.
A crawler suffers three critical disadvantages compared to a flier: it's potentially restricted by terrain, it's vastly easier to spot while traveling (yes, even with portals), and it can actually be attacked while it's being moved.
The first one is obvious in its differentiation from a flier.
The second point can really be expressed as "people don't look up." If we portal with a crawler, even just passing by a population center, we will be spotted. Because people (and machines) are on the lookout for ground-based Inspired platforms, all. the. time. This forfeits immeasurable amounts of stealth.
The third point, of course, is the most problematic. It's an issue of dimensions.
An early crawler or flier will by necessity be thin along the Z-dimension and large along at least one of the X- and Y- dimensions, probably whichever one it will move the fastest along. This is because building "tall" would be highly undesirable, both for reasons of visibility and physics.
Now, the thing is, the flier moves into portals along the Z-axis. The crawler does so on the X/Y plane. This means that the crawler takes much longer to move through a portal, which is a vast disadvantage, both to travel time and the window in which we are vulnerable at any given time.
All of these combined result in one thing:
A crawler will be much easier to track than a lone girl or a flier, and noticeably easier to attack.
Our virtue at this stage is stealth. I cannot express how trivial it would be for someone to overcome us if they were able to discover our location and nature -- they would only need to wait for us to sleep.
Building a crawler would give us some degree of protection as well as a mobile lab, but we would forfeit much of our stealth in exchange for it. I do not view this as a wise course of action. We are much better off simply settling for a smaller flier, or remaining with the low profile presented by our pedestrian nature, given that we would be angling for a flier as soon as possible anyways. The crawler also would not provide a meaningful offensive boost -- skybreaker outweighs anything we could build.
All we really need is enough lift to put a platform into the sky. The size is virtually irrelevant, it will only determine how quickly we can scale up. We should only even consider pursuing a crawler as an intermediate step if we discover that we cannot build a device with which to generate meaningful lift without a specialized workspace.
There's a few reasons...
First, the most dangerous thing we can do right now is Surge. We need to Surge to make progress, but Surging identifies us, exposes us, and generally is a risk. Thus, the chief limit on our growth right now is surges.
Material is actually much easier to come by. Abrogation World is strewn with wreckages and pre-wreckages (i.e., things waiting for us to smash them with Skybreaker for parts)... And it's trivial to move material to a more secure location once found (by way of porting it off somewhere). We are also somewhat flush with money, which should allow a one-time acquisition of relatively rare material if we're careful about it.
Second, because of the first point, more than anything else we need to pick projects very, very carefully.
A crawler suffers three critical disadvantages compared to a flier: it's potentially restricted by terrain, it's vastly easier to spot while traveling (yes, even with portals), and it can actually be attacked while it's being moved.
The first one is obvious in its differentiation from a flier.
The second point can really be expressed as "people don't look up." If we portal with a crawler, even just passing by a population center, we will be spotted. Because people (and machines) are on the lookout for ground-based Inspired platforms, all. the. time. This forfeits immeasurable amounts of stealth.
The third point, of course, is the most problematic. It's an issue of dimensions.
An early crawler or flier will by necessity be thin along the Z-dimension and large along at least one of the X- and Y- dimensions, probably whichever one it will move the fastest along. This is because building "tall" would be highly undesirable, both for reasons of visibility and physics.
Now, the thing is, the flier moves into portals along the Z-axis. The crawler does so on the X/Y plane. This means that the crawler takes much longer to move through a portal, which is a vast disadvantage, both to travel time and the window in which we are vulnerable at any given time.
All of these combined result in one thing:
A crawler will be much easier to track than a lone girl or a flier, and noticeably easier to attack.
Our virtue at this stage is stealth. I cannot express how trivial it would be for someone to overcome us if they were able to discover our location and nature -- they would only need to wait for us to sleep.
Building a crawler would give us some degree of protection as well as a mobile lab, but we would forfeit much of our stealth in exchange for it. I do not view this as a wise course of action. We are much better off simply settling for a smaller flier, or remaining with the low profile presented by our pedestrian nature, given that we would be angling for a flier as soon as possible anyways. The crawler also would not provide a meaningful offensive boost -- skybreaker outweighs anything we could build.
All we really need is enough lift to put a platform into the sky. The size is virtually irrelevant, it will only determine how quickly we can scale up. We should only even consider pursuing a crawler as an intermediate step if we discover that we cannot build a device with which to generate meaningful lift without a specialized workspace.
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We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Watched, but not currently playing.
The problem with lift is the engine! Yes we could build one. But to bild the engine on the first try that a) can create any lift and b) run for hours constantly? I don't think so. The thing with flying is, what's up must also come down. And I really don't want to have this huge flying fortress that constantly has to do emergency landings.
And another point. How many people do you think are walking outside with anti-tank weaponry? Yes we could build a flying castle, but how long would that take? And what do we do untilthe castle is built? Sleep in a tent, or inside our armored vehicle.
And for that thing with looking up? That's only true with very high flying aircraft. I garantee you, if there is any type of helicopter or low flying aircraft buzzin by, everyone is going to look up. And that doesn't even take into consideration rhe huge shadow created by any type of flying castle.
And I if by a crawler you mean a many legged type of macha type thingy. Then i agree with you. I had actually more thought of something like this:
And another point. How many people do you think are walking outside with anti-tank weaponry? Yes we could build a flying castle, but how long would that take? And what do we do untilthe castle is built? Sleep in a tent, or inside our armored vehicle.
And for that thing with looking up? That's only true with very high flying aircraft. I garantee you, if there is any type of helicopter or low flying aircraft buzzin by, everyone is going to look up. And that doesn't even take into consideration rhe huge shadow created by any type of flying castle.
And I if by a crawler you mean a many legged type of macha type thingy. Then i agree with you. I had actually more thought of something like this:
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Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
If we want to concentrate materials we need something with just enough heavy lift to drag them through a portal. We can't do that by hand. We'll probably also want a crane or something else to help us pick up heavy stuff and put it on our transport. Our transport doesn't need to be fast, portals do stay open for a couple minutes. Long-term, even if we're portaling things around, we'll still want a smaller platform that we can use to gather scattered material from a battlefield into a single lump that we can portal up to the fortress.
A crawler would be doing all non-trivial movement by portal and would be almost totally unrestricted.
I think that you're expecting a much larger vehicle than I am. I'm thinking of something about the size of a big dump truck. Nothing that'd take a significant amount of time to move through a portal. Semi with shipping container at the absolute maximum, likely much smaller.
People assume that things can't teleport. They watch roads and chokepoints and open fields. The middle of a deep forest? The bottoms of deep cuts, behind hills, in caves? Nope. I agree that the stealth isn't as good as a fortress flying so high it's just a dot in the sky, but that's still not "guaranteed to be spotted".
Also, recall that surges aren't all equal. I agree that it'd be a waste to spend a powerful surge on a truck you could buy off the lot of an IRL truck dealership. But if we get a smallish Surge, I think that we could find worse things to spend it on than a light truck.
- Location
- Illinois
Now that I will agree with.
Alright.
As for all the people yammering about ideas for what it should look like... Nah, I have better.
Gotta write it first...
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Like, I could probably build something in From The Depths.
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Hmm. I think we want a thrustercraft rather than a fortress build. Work on the PIDs until it's nailed to the sky. Onyx Watch aesthetic? Different colors, obviously, maybe something in copper and brass? And pink. Lots of pink. In fact, now that I think about it, aggressively pink, because I think Lorelei will not want to let anyone forget that she's "just a girl". @Alivaril, what shape are the rifts that Skybreaker makes, and what shape should a fortress be to move as much fortress as possible per unit of Skybreaker battery expended? Lots of empty internal volume for what will be labs and cargo IC. Observation deck on the bottom for Lorelei to occupy with Skybreaker, loaded with shields. Weaponry... needs to be things that'll complement Skybreaker. Probably no missiles. Advanced cannons for anti-air, anti-personnel, and anti-tank roles. Skybreaker is the siege weapon and army-killer. Need point defense for missiles and shells. Have they gotten adv. cannon AMS up to par, or is effective PD still lasers? And maybe one really spectacular railgun for targets that are farther out than Skybreaker can reach.
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- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Vesica piscis - Wikipedia.
Since rifts last for several minutes, you likely want something significantly longer than it is wide or tall; your biggest requirement is that it be able to fit. In other words, an aerial ship, or airship. *badum cha*
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We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
I'll make a showpiece matching the specifications, but don't expect more than bare minimum functionality for the internals.
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Heh, yeah, was just trying to figure out what might be visible on the outside as far as weapons go - "no missiles, but plenty of small gatling cannons and a big-ass railgun". Then just slap on the right number of gauge increasers and etc.