At first glance the main thing I'm getting from this is "this is MAD SCIENCE dont you dare try to bring real world technoabble into this baka" but I could be wrong..
Basically the Inspiration likes f***ing with core laws of physics but aint got no time for thinking about how this is accomplished or trying to munchkin the system. Go big or go home.
At first glance the main thing I'm getting from this is "this is MAD SCIENCE dont you dare try to bring real world technoabble into this baka" but I could be wrong..
Basically the Inspiration likes f***ing with core laws of physics but aint got no time for thinking about how this is accomplished or trying to munchkin the system. Go big or go home.
I normally dislike giving out tips, but since some things are lost in translation, I can probably get away with handwaving the following as "An alternative way to convey IC knowledge."
EDIT: Regretting using that as a tip now; it's not accurate enough. -.-
At first glance the main thing I'm getting from this is "this is MAD SCIENCE dont you dare try to bring real world technoabble into this baka" but I could be wrong..
Basically the Inspiration likes f***ing with core laws of physics but aint got no time for thinking about how this is accomplished or trying to munchkin the system. Go big or go home.
I think it's less about "technobabble", and more about how dispassionate the descriptions were. Using technical terms has worked before, like in our references to "point-defense". So clearly it can't just be the use of real-world terminology.
They were probably a bit too clinical and dry to really catch our Inspiration's fancy. Apparently or ideas about flying fortresses only took off (I'm not sorry) when we described them as such, so this is not a new issue. I think we could probably use all the technical terminology we like, so long as the proposal sounds interesting to our Inspiration.
However, it may also be the case that individual components, when not put into the context of a final product, won't be very interesting to our Inspiration. If so, I think we could probably fix a lot of these suggestions by altering their nature somewhat.
We should describe some of what we'd want out of the endeavor. What are we picturing as the end result? What do we want it to do? Alternatively, may be able to get our Inspiration's approval if we can link the project to a larger, more interesting proposal, or as upgrades to our existing gear.
I can see two major points for improvement, here, I think. The first is to tie it back to our overall goal of a flying fortress. The second is to describe it differently. "Impossibly light gasses" might work better, for example, or to describing the size of the gas bags as being ridiculously small. Stuff like that.
I normally dislike giving out tips, but since some things are lost in translation, I can probably get away with handwaving the following as "An alternative way to convey IC knowledge."
I'm getting the impression that simple "coolness factor" is a component. So while "breed a roc" might not work, we might get more interest for "THE WINGS OF THE THUNDERBIRD WILL BLOT OUT THE SKY".
I'm getting the impression that simple "coolness factor" is a component. So while "breed a roc" might not work, we might get more interest for "THE WINGS OF THE THUNDERBIRD WILL BLOT OUT THE SKY".
Oh, for sure. It comes down to how best to spin the concepts involved. While I doubt we'll be able to convince our Inspiration that white-washing fences is cool, we should be able to convince it to do a lot of your proposals, I think. And one of the tools to do that might, in some cases, be tying it to something else that's cool.
Our flying fortress, for example, is most likely going to be made piecemeal, and some of the things we'll want or need for that larger goal won't necessarily be super cool. As such, I figure we should probably try making the connection in a proposal, to see if coolness is transitive, as it were.
Huh, based on Inspiration's reaction it would love a Gravitic Reactionless drive that creates motion by distorting the very fabric of spacetime so that objects "fall" at the velocity and direction we want them to.
OK, I'mma try the same thing as Vebyast then, please give me colour coding for these things:
[sound of mentally coughing and taking a deep breath]
What about a CONVOLUTED anti-gravity effect? Let's Make a tiny portal with skybreaker and then SHATTER IT INTO A BILLION PIECES and mix it into an alloy to make it BLOCK THE ENTIRE EARTH FORM SUBJECTIVE EXISTENCE!!! A mere coat of paint to the eye, but from the perspective inside it THE EARTH DOESN'T EXIST, and thus it could float even the GREATEST of fortresses if only you get enough to cover the surface!!!
We can't make a tool to phase stuff out of reality you say? I SAY WE ALREADY HAVE ONE! The only thing we need to do, is TILT one of the portals we create with skybreaker, and BAM, anything that passes through it will be out of alignment with the very fabric of reality, untethered from it''s rules! As simply as passing through a doorway, we could leave behind the world in which gravity has any hold of us, or the one where bullets exist! And this is only the BEGINNING of all we could do with this power!!!
On the other hand, who needs something as PEDESTRIAN as a flying fortress anyway! We already have an infinite dumping ground for whatever we decide to snatch up, we only need to figure out how to get things BACK, and then we can safely enter and live in a realm where WE make the rules instead of this one thrust upon us with a billion arbitrary restrictions it enforces like some bullheaded PARENT!
We really need to lift something here? Fine! It's already being pushed up by a bazillion tons of air pressure, we just need to do something about the similar amount pushing it DOWN, so let's just REMOVE that air the same way we do anything else that displeases us: throwing it into a portal. There is the small issue of needing the portal to move up with it, but that should be easily fixable by attaching the portal edges to some sort of metal frame instead of to fixed points in space, we can't let ourselves be stopped by minor details like that.
Or we could just use the fact we can already make an immovable object 3km in the air, use one portal as a platform and another to move our stuff up onto it. The only thing we need is another generator, with some kind of output that can recharge and existing portal and keep it from timing out and dropping us. This principle does have potential for expansion to flying fortress levels; a slight modification and we can hang building underneath the platforms from cables instead, and lower it in and out of further portals using winches, easily traversing, releasing, and grabbing onto and through a myriad permutations of portal setups to be wherever we want! The winches could double as elevators, support swinging weaponry, emerge from portals to grab enemies and pull them right into detainment cells, or pull things in different directions. And if we just increase the speed a bit to pull of quicker to JUMP and SWING the entire fortress across the sky like a gibbon who had too much sugar!!!
...I probably should have mentioned that I suspect our Inspiration of having a somewhat short attention span. Also, too much data could be overwhelming or confusing. We should probably try and be concise, as well as interesting. We'll need to strike a balance there.
What about a CONVOLUTED anti-gravity effect? Let's Make a tiny portal with skybreaker and then SHATTER IT INTO A BILLION PIECES and mix it into an alloy to make it BLOCK THE ENTIRE EARTH FROM SUBJECTIVE EXISTENCE!!! A mere coat of paint to the eye, but from the perspective inside it THE EARTH DOESN'T EXIST, and thus it could float even the GREATEST of fortresses if only you get enough to cover the surface!!!
We can't make a tool to phase stuff out of reality you say? I SAY WE ALREADY HAVE ONE! The only thing we need to do, is TILT one of the portals we create with skybreaker, and BAM, anything that passes through it will be out of alignment with the very fabric of reality, untethered from it''s rules! As simply as passing through a doorway, we could leave behind the world in which gravity has any hold of us, or the one where bullets exist! And this is only the BEGINNING of all we could do with this power!!!
On the other hand, who needs something as PEDESTRIAN as a flying fortress anyway! We already have an infinite dumping ground for whatever we decide to snatch up, we only need to figure out how to get things BACK, and then we can safely enter and live in a realm where WE make the rules instead of this one thrust upon us with a billion arbitrary restrictions it enforces like some bullheaded PARENT!
We really need to lift something here? Fine! It's already being pushed up by a bazillion tons of air pressure, we just need to do something about the similar amount pushing it DOWN, so let's just REMOVE that air the same way we do anything else that displeases us: throwing it into a portal. There is the small issue of needing the portal to move up with it, but that should be easily fixable by attaching the portal edges to some sort of metal frame instead of to fixed points in space, we can't let ourselves be stopped by minor details like that.
Or we could just use the fact we can already make an immovable object 3km in the air, use one portal as a platform and another to move our stuff up onto it. The only thing we need is another generator, with some kind of output that can recharge and existing portal and keep it from timing out and dropping us. This principle does have potential for expansion to flying fortress levels; a slight modification and we can hang building underneath the platforms from cables instead, and lower it in and out of further portals using winches, easily traversing, releasing, and grabbing onto and through a myriad permutations of portal setups to be wherever we want! The winches could double as elevators, support swinging weaponry, emerge from portals to grab enemies and pull them right into detainment cells, or pull things in different directions. And if we just increase the speed a bit to pull of quicker to JUMP and SWING the entire fortress across the sky like a gibbon who had too much sugar!!!
Inspiration doesn't even seem to want to give you enough information to determine whether or not it likes any of those ideas. It's moved straight to teasing you about your apparent attempts to use excessively-loud and long rants to make ideas sound better. Or something along those lines, anyway.
Honestly, you're a little glad. You don't want to be one of those Inspired who yells at everything that moves. Singing seems much classier and unique, although you do need to practice it more.
EDIT: Please provide even a little reasoning (not as part of the [X]'d IC vote itself) for why you vote a specific way, even if it's just a sentence or two. What you're hoping to accomplish by voting that way, why it seems like a good idea, something else along those lines. Your vote will not be counted otherwise.
Honestly, you're a little glad. You don't want to be one of those Inspired who yells at everything that moves. Singing seems much classier and unique, although you do need to practice it more.
inb4 Inspired are all nuts because they get angry at having to sleep but fuck up the Inspired stimulants because they're too impatient and wouldn't know a sustainable workload if it bit them on the nose.
Locking and rolling. I'll be doing a compromise option since voting is more-or-less tied, even after ignoring the votes of those who didn't provide proper justification.
You smile and briefly scour the information provided. You were torn between making Inspiration's suggested deflector and a defensive module for Skybreaker, but why should you need to choose? Certainly, the end result won't be as efficient as either would've been had you focused on it, but safe exploitation of the army is more important. Inspiration even seems to have gone out of its way to make refinement of the design easy on you. It only takes three rounds of trading plans before you come out with something you're both happy with.
You'd thought Skybreaker needed you to slash in a specific direction in order to open appropriately-aligned rifts, but that apparently isn't true. It merely needs to be pointed in roughly the correct direction; moving it is simply to make it easier for you to use. Either way, it's the work of mere minutes to shove the various cogs, crystals, plates, and joints into a small box. Your extensive practice under your parents serves you well; it doesn't even explode once. Leaving it inactive until the device is completed probably helps there.
The end result is hideous and looks like the mutant child of an iron jewelry box and a bronze spider. You're glad nobody will be able to properly see it from a distance.
(Basic Clockwork Defensive Module Acquired)
(All Warclock Sensor Crystals Expended)
(-60 Ounces Basic Bronze Clockwork Components)
(-15 Ounces Basic Iron Clockwork Components)
Styles at time of creation: Stubborn/Redundant
Components: Clockwork, Crystal
Fuel: Coal
Traits: Magnetic (NF/F), Fragile, Short-Lived, Automated, Sensory, Toggled, Ugly
A temporary attachment to Skybreaker, this clockwork controller is intended to protect you from basic attacks. Slower threats will be blocked by appropriately-sized Skybreaker rifts while bullets, ferrous or otherwise, will be deflected by the "barrier." You think it might even be able to block the attacks of sufficiently fast Empowered. Skybreaker can use rifts to block incoming attacks in a hemisphere dictated by the direction it's pointed in while the repulsion function is omnidirectional.
You fully expect it to burn through half your coal supply within six minutes. Fortunately, that's far more time than you'll need to become invincible. The resulting black smoke will be contained inside the device until and unless it runs out of fuel or is shut off, whichever comes first.
You don't expect the original device will last very long at all; if you want to make an upgraded version later on, you'll first need to either repair the original or redo the project from scratch.
You will not be able to use Skybreaker yourself while the module is attached to Skybreaker. You may detach it without damaging either device. The repulsion function may be used without first attaching it to Skybreaker, although its little limbs will still move as though it was attached.
The Surge ends as soon as you push the last plate into place. However, Inspiration doesn't really feel tired at all. If anything, it seems even more enthusiastic than it was before you initially Surged. You don't know if the ease of the project had anything to do with that or if it's simply because of the upcoming army-sized audience exploitation. Both? Neither?
[] Surge and attack the army. You think you have enough defenses to work with.
-[] Wait until this evening to do so.
-[] Wait until the following morning before you attack.
-[] Write-in approach plan.
[] Leave.Even if your defenses aren't 100% perfect, you're sure you can properly exploit the army somehow. You even made a module just for that purpose.
[] Write-in
Voting will be locked for 90 minutes after this first goes up.
More experimentation: If you vote and subsequently leave the thread, I hereby dub thee fair game for @'ing by those who actually stick around. I rarely put the best potential options in base votes, and as such, it's rather unfair to make better write-ins fight so hard to replace defaults. That being said, the hostility to voters who don't later switch is a little much. Please refrain from such in the future; it's a game, remember?
I think the morning is better, less because of groggy people and more because of the light. We want everyone to see us, especially if we manage to make liftoff (which I think we might, even if it's just a glider or whatever).
Our big advantage is that we don't need to finish anything we start with the first Surge. I think we need only one thing, really:
an Uber Power source. Right now Skybreaker's major limitation is that it doesn't have enough power to be used frequently (this is also a problem with the defense field). This power source could, also, be repeated again to power a repulsor field or just about anything else in the future, so it's a damn good project to have.
Slower threats will be blocked by appropriately-sized Skybreaker rifts while bullets, ferrous or otherwise, will be deflected by the "barrier." You think it might even be able to block the attacks of Empowered.
Eeeeexcellent. This even fits into our specialties - having multiple options for effecting intercepts means multiple lines of defense and some tolerance for breakage.
[] Surge and attack the army. You think you have enough defenses to work with.
-[] Wait until this evening to do so.
-[] Wait until the following morning before you attack.
-[] Write-in approach plan.
We definitely want to attack. The question is timing.
Evening, while they're setting up for camp, means they're all tired from a day of marching, everything is confused because they're busy unpacking things and setting up tents, and people are starting to crash.
Any time after reveille, they'll have been expecting to be woken up and will be pretty awake and cruising through their morning routines. We'd want to hit them an hour or two before reveille.
We want to wait until they've set camp and we want to hit them before they break camp. The more clustered-up the are the faster we'll be able to handle them and the more of them we'll be able to get running.
With the addition of Skybreaker's portals to the defense module's effectors, I believe that our defenses are good enough that we don't need to worry about ramping up and will be better off going fast and loud to maximize Surge power and give the Inspired as little time as possible to counter-Surge.
I don't expect to use very much juice from Skybreaker, but having some for safety is good.
Waiting until morning gives the Inspired time to Surge to build something to respond to us.
How confident are we? If we're sure that our system can deal with Inspired weaponry, we could intentionally give the Inspired time to Surge to develop countermeasures and then blow through them to emphasize our power.
How confident are we? If we're sure that our system can deal with Inspired weaponry, we could intentionally give the Inspired time to Surge to develop countermeasures and then blow through them to emphasize our power.
Not that confident. Really, all that would be good for would be an extra reputation boost. You don't really feel as though you need one; even just cracking open the sky will get the attention of adjacent countries within a few months, especially since you didn't die in the process. "Impressive feats" and "untimely demise" often go hand-in-hand for Inspired.
Do we think that there's any risk that the army won't open fire if we just show up on the road waiting for them? Or do we need to give the army a little push?
an Uber Power source. Right now Skybreaker's major limitation is that it doesn't have enough power to be used frequently (this is also a problem with the defense field). This power source could, also, be repeated again to power a repulsor field or just about anything else in the future, so it's a damn good project to have.
Would have the added benefit of making some of our better builds safer/easier to make - I expect that Skybreaker exploded so much primarily because of its hax power source. A generator would give us the option to build things that require lots of power without having an audience around to let us build a suitable power source.
@Alivaril How many batteries will Skybreaker have charged by sundown?
Hmm. I am currently in favour of attacking the army at some point in the middle of the night. A couple hours before they're due to naturally wake up. I am also in favour of harassing the army during the night with multiple low level disturbances so no one gets a good night's sleep before we make our attack. But I'll leave Vebyast to actually votecraft something.
Meanwhile, let me contribute a few project ideas I think may be of use, and which I hope Inspiration-chan likes.
Hammerspace. This is what we most need so we can lug around parts and gear while staying mobile. Given we're getting more glider than fortress, we'll need somewhere to stash our stuff, meaning hammerspace. Possible ideas for how to get hammerspace: mini-pocket dimension (possible seed to full dimension of our own where we can build our stronghold), bag of holding / container that is bigger on the inside than it is outside (bonus if it comes with its own mobility/defence system, e.g. Rincewind's Luggage). If we are unable to do that kind of space-bending fuckery just yet, then at the bare minimum, an antigrav platform that we can drag around with us will do.
Infinity power source. We would want multiple of these, and they'd need to be modular like batteries so we could slot them into different projects as we liked. Ideally, they should come with their own defence mechanism to ensure they can't be stolen/scavenged from any future projects we have. Right now, I'm kind of picturing a power crystal set into a clockwork spider. The spider legs are the interface to fasten the power source into our project, but in autonomous mode, they can scurry around, be recalled back to us, and possibly shoot laser beams from the power crystal to deter thieves and saboteurs.
Cloaking field. Obvious utility. Possible methods: straightforward device that bends light around us. Device that phases us half a step out of reality so we're undetectable by normal means. Device that absorbs incoming energy to kind of 'muffle' our presence. Notice-me-not perception field.
Timeslow/timestop. Freeze time around us, or accelerate us to the point time around us looks frozen. Mobile device would be best, but merely being able to set up a field of slowed time would also be beneficial.
Highpowered scanner. Knowledge is power. Being able to scan our general vicinity for unusual power signatures as a bare minimum. Ideally, able to scan another Inspired's invention to identify weaknesses. Possibly upgrade with an AI to continuously scan our surroundings and be aware of any possible threats to us. Basic version may be installed into reconnaissance drone for stealthy infiltration.
With the above in mind: A set of tiny minions. Thinking something like Bonesaw's spiders, but clockwork and much less creepy. They should have basic intelligence and be able to do things like fetch things for us and possess some video/audio recording/transmitting capability to be used as spies. If basic intelligence is too difficult, maybe include some way of remote controlling them so they can be used as saboteurs as well.
Hmm, that's all I've got for now. Not sure how interesting my ideas are, but I'm sure they'll be useful. Any Inspired can make powered armor or a zappy gun, but I think strength comes more from clever preparation than raw power.
OOC: I'm afraid I'm going to be That Guy, so you're going to have to put in the effort to list them in a way close to how you'd prefer for them to be asked IC.
