- Location
- USA
You're not wrong.
About me being subtle as a thrown brick that is. But given the genre we're working with...
Super Robot Quest G
- Thread starter Basarin
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
You're not wrong.
About me being subtle as a thrown brick that is. But given the genre we're working with...
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
Yeah, as Drake has discovered firsthand, super robots are not even remotely "subtle."
...It'd be ironic if she managed the stealth bonus for the first time ever because we're there to take attention off of Valiant. I mean, Miss Plug-n-Play seems a little... mundane next to a GaoGaiGar refugee, to me.
NHO
Dumb is a state of existence
- Location
- ᓚᘏᗢ
Consider a mecha that transforms into a gun for combiner to use.
Pardon me, that transforms into Big Fucking Gun for combiner to use.
View: https://twitter.com/mechagirlaya/status/1629144112774500353
Or maybe something like R-Gun
Is there any piece of self-propelled artillery/assault gun we can convert to Energy Cannon and then make transformable for usage with Beowulf or maybe Perseus?
Pardon me, that transforms into Big Fucking Gun for combiner to use.
View: https://twitter.com/mechagirlaya/status/1629144112774500353
Or maybe something like R-Gun
Is there any piece of self-propelled artillery/assault gun we can convert to Energy Cannon and then make transformable for usage with Beowulf or maybe Perseus?
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
Seems viable to me, and considering we're talking actual military vehicles here, I'd be very surprised if there isn't some kind of artillery design (primarily used against Westphalia, for obvious reasons).
Or at least, it seems viable as soon as we figure out a focusing lens that can actually take a beam of that magnitude. We don't wanna wind up like the Brute, do we?
Thors_Alumni
Proud member of Thors Class VII from Liberl
- Location
- Liberl Zemuria.
we already have examples of that in the Blaster rifle we nabbed off Bandit the first time we fought him and we can also ask the legion for any help with that kind of thing.
- Location
- Attempting to cast animate object on a black hole.
Huh, whatever happened to that other Super Robot program we gave advice to?
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
You mean Ground Pound? Should still be working on getting their first prototype up.
- Location
- USA
...huh. I'm going to admit, I've never seen a variation on Heavy Arms quite like that one.
Thors_Alumni
Proud member of Thors Class VII from Liberl
- Location
- Liberl Zemuria.
What does it say about us that I want us to build that heavy arms Super Robot. Take all of our tech and pool it together to build it.
That we're fairly genre savvy and know that big gun robot is cool?
- Location
- Attempting to cast animate object on a black hole.
Looking back at the Sidestories from the first thread, it looks like shields can be used to block air. They get used for both re-entry and for sealing holes leaking air during re-entry. Contrary to popular opinion, re-entry actually takes a while, even if the Kausen can likely handle harder Gs and shield against higher re-entry temps, meaning they can do it faster. Note: We need to get some nice inertial dampeners and shields to make orbital dropped reinforcements a thing with a practical timescale.
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
- Location
- west
If only you could find Kuramochi Zukan books outside of sad panda because they do some pretty cool SFW mecha art.
December, Year Three - SCIENCE! Results
- Location
- USA
Mental Merger
"Sam here! It's been a hot minute since I've done these short briefings, but that's just how the self-assembling nano-particulate de-constructor paradoxes itself out of a metaphor. Let's get back to it!
"First off, let's start with the good news, test subjects: your minds are perfectly fine. You both ratcheted up the Psychic Theater Link a little more intensely than I thought you were going to, but as I'm finding, the kaiju involved had a bit more bite to them. Bite, heh. But aside from the fact that you're a little more multilingual and have a weird habit of anticipating each other's thoughts a little better than married couples do, I'd chalk this up as a net positive for you both honestly! Well done!
"Now, the awkward part: having gone over your notes about how Perseus was exhibiting far more independent and anticipatory movements than expected, we ran a battery of tests on it. Data log review, input from the engineers, even a simulated Rorschach test or five. It's not responding to any of it, but I can tell you one thing based off of your testimonies and our own tests: we're pretty sure Perseus is developing some kind of low level sentience.
"Unfortunately, I have no idea why. I also can't tell you how far along it's developed. We're far beyond the point of chalking it up to quirky programming when you tell me your Super Robot independently decided to emulate the same namesake statue by Benvenuto Cellini. Try saying that five times in a row without coffee.
"Until we find out more, we'll continue more testing. This is Sam Carlson, we're done here."
ESP Materials Augmentation
"Good morning, everyone! This is Katarina, and I have some great news to share with you all!
"And please, don't mind Ivanna over there. We, ah, might have kind of sort of maybe slightly broken a tangible law of physics, but I'm sure it'll be fine! Heheh...I think at least...
"So, I will preface this with some limitations and to set expectations - we're still very much in the theoretical side of things. Originally, Dr. Carlson and Ivanna were determining if ESP waves conducted through the Man-Machine Interfaces could fundamentally alter physical materials, with the primary focal point being K-Class and all other mundane materials serving as secondaries. Further research has concluded that while mundanes cannot be altered at this time, K-Class Materials...kind of can.
"I emphasize 'kind of' very strongly for one reason. The changes are not permanent, and if done incorrectly could lead to destabilization of K-Class augmented materials.
"But what this does mean is that K-Class can be altered slightly to facilitate a certain effect very temporarily. We have found that with enough ESP waves directed into, say, a weapon such as the Arc Blade, one can render it to be more conductive than it already was. The same applies for making things more flammable, but this unfortunately does not come so far with a matching durability to being set on fire.
"And...I think that's it for now. Especially since Ivanna is about to reboot out of frustration, so I should reallytakecareofthatokaytalktoyoualllaterIvannaholdonasecond-!"
Improved Dispersion Field Projection
Meanwhile, in somewhat more sane conditions, Zulu has continued tinkering with the Dispersion Field Projector prototypes. Having spent a good deal of his online time tinkering with Bandit's equipment while onboard the Belligerent as a means of survival and appearing useful, he's actually rather familiar with the equipment - far more so than Bandit ever was. It also unfortunately didn't come with an actual instruction manual - Bandit had, by Zulu's recollection, stolen it from a scientist called Aftershock back on Mekaen, and even then it was mostly notes for a potential patent equivalent. So not even the original inventor was 100% sure where he was trying to take the idea.
The advantages to Dispersion Fields are clearcut - they are basically science fiction force fields that can block kinetic and energy strikes, and possibly detonate warheads earlier than intended. This comes with two problems, however:
1) Actually powering the Dispersion Field. Even by the Free Brothers' standards, the Dispersion Field is notoriously energy inefficient. Max's earlier experimentation infamously drew so much power that it actually was starting to bite into the budget in the early days when you had to worry about resource constraints. Both Max and Zulu are still not entirely sure how Bandit was making it work - Zulu is pretty sure he just carried around a battery pack or something, but he was never made privy to that.
2) Actually maintaining the Dispersion Field. Even Bandit's models are inconsistent in activating or staying online. Zulu's determined that it has something to do with the Dispersion Field itself - it is incredibly powerful, but such an effect can only materialize into reality for a brief amount of time in a coherent form.
Current prototypes that can actually be used come in the form of 'riot shields' mounted onto Phalanx-type models, though any Super Robot could mount it onto their forearms. But even then, those models don't just rely on the Dispersion Field for the very reasons mentioned earlier - inherent unreliability. So they still unfold into material shields, with the Dispersion augmenting it.
Zulu's current workaround is to collapse the Dispersion Field into small charges. Packed with enough power and energy for a one-time 'cloud' of Dispersion Field, in theory it will serve as a smoke grenade that also just happens to block incoming energy and kinetic attacks for maybe up to one second (with wildly different extremes shown during testing). Still horribly inefficient, but also at least much more predictable.
Energy Blaster w/Faedium and Production
You are rapidly coming to the realization that whoever had ignored or blacklisted Mary's Faedium research was heavily sleeping on something revolutionary. The Engineers are already singing its praises openly and have even come up with a prototype engine based around it with promising results. So naturally you were going to wonder how well it applied to weapons technology.
Given Zulu's uncharacteristic difficulty around Kausen energy blasters and reworking the internals and the ergonomics behind it, Mary decided to join in and see what they could come up with. That, and she was naturally curious about the Kausen, especially after learning that they were just as divided as mankind currently seemed to be.
It quickly becomes apparent to Mary that the current generation of energy blasters created by the DFRI are 'brute forcing' an emulation of Kausen energy crystals. You don't understand the details despite - or because of - a rapid crash course given to you by Mary in the span of about five minutes, but the short of it is that conventional human understanding of material sciences are falling short of efficiently recreating the focusing crystals. Creating the energy to power the weapon is no problem - actually focusing it into coherent attacks is a problem. And even the Legion's workshops are making do with cannibalizing their own equipment or salvaging what they can from skirmishes with the Free Brothers, leading you and Mary to suspect there's some method to making them that just won't work on Earth.
So naturally her solution was her own pet project. And given how successful it has been so far, you give her the green light to try.
Growing and shaping Faedium crystals into the same geometric structures as the original weapons has proven rather interesting. Some attempts have concentrated it too much, leading it to drill a hole into the exact same ice cream delivery truck that the K-Horn experiments had by chance (sadly, there was no ice cream to salvage from this one). Others were not concentrating it enough, leading to a rather wide blast rather than the standard single shot. But according to Zulu, this is not something he would consider a failure. In fact, he was making a note of significant success, even if he was understating his satisfaction.
These are not ready for actual development yet, as Mary wants to find a way to standardize the crystal growths into templates for ease of future use. But this is far more successful than anticipated.
Especially since Galbinus found out about the experiments and is very keen to opening discussions about it. You suppose Mary is going to get that meeting with the Kausen sooner than she expected.
Faedium Crystal Battery
Mary is also taking notes from the Faedium 'Block' engine - though she has grumbled quite a bit about the name, no matter how simple and straightforward it is. But regardless of names or aesthetic, she has focused her efforts on testing to scale and durability rather than seeing if it works - thanks to Wilde and Henry's prototype, she knows it works mostly in practice.
So instead, she decided to try creating smaller block 'batteries.' Having conceded the point on the name, Mary's cultivated smaller cubes that can fit into the palm of a Jackal and hooked them up to conventional power. She's doing this in isolated environments, mind - the problem with Faedium is that if it is overly taxed, the results do resemble that of a fragmentation bomb. She's just trying to see how quickly they charge, how long they retain the charge for, and how easily another energy source can siphon off the stored power.
In order: moderately quickly (no more than you would expect a conventional battery power unit), a fairly long time (there is some power seepage, but it appears to be negligible up to about a week before it starts degrading more dramatically), and remarkably easily (the hardest part was coming up with a 'port' to plug it into).
Mary is convinced she can go further with this line of thinking. Anything from energy blaster 'cartridges' to plug and play battery units. She just needs to work with the engineers to come up with an ideal template to build off of and make it all standard.
QM Note: Some of the research options haven't been fleshed out narratively. That's because either it's coming up in a Sam Carlson special or because of the Beowulf interlude. I'll begin work on that tomorrow!
"Sam here! It's been a hot minute since I've done these short briefings, but that's just how the self-assembling nano-particulate de-constructor paradoxes itself out of a metaphor. Let's get back to it!
"First off, let's start with the good news, test subjects: your minds are perfectly fine. You both ratcheted up the Psychic Theater Link a little more intensely than I thought you were going to, but as I'm finding, the kaiju involved had a bit more bite to them. Bite, heh. But aside from the fact that you're a little more multilingual and have a weird habit of anticipating each other's thoughts a little better than married couples do, I'd chalk this up as a net positive for you both honestly! Well done!
"Now, the awkward part: having gone over your notes about how Perseus was exhibiting far more independent and anticipatory movements than expected, we ran a battery of tests on it. Data log review, input from the engineers, even a simulated Rorschach test or five. It's not responding to any of it, but I can tell you one thing based off of your testimonies and our own tests: we're pretty sure Perseus is developing some kind of low level sentience.
"Unfortunately, I have no idea why. I also can't tell you how far along it's developed. We're far beyond the point of chalking it up to quirky programming when you tell me your Super Robot independently decided to emulate the same namesake statue by Benvenuto Cellini. Try saying that five times in a row without coffee.
"Until we find out more, we'll continue more testing. This is Sam Carlson, we're done here."
Perseus pilots are not at risk of mental degradation. However, Perseus's growing independence remains inexplicable.
ESP Materials Augmentation
"Good morning, everyone! This is Katarina, and I have some great news to share with you all!
"And please, don't mind Ivanna over there. We, ah, might have kind of sort of maybe slightly broken a tangible law of physics, but I'm sure it'll be fine! Heheh...I think at least...
"So, I will preface this with some limitations and to set expectations - we're still very much in the theoretical side of things. Originally, Dr. Carlson and Ivanna were determining if ESP waves conducted through the Man-Machine Interfaces could fundamentally alter physical materials, with the primary focal point being K-Class and all other mundane materials serving as secondaries. Further research has concluded that while mundanes cannot be altered at this time, K-Class Materials...kind of can.
"I emphasize 'kind of' very strongly for one reason. The changes are not permanent, and if done incorrectly could lead to destabilization of K-Class augmented materials.
"But what this does mean is that K-Class can be altered slightly to facilitate a certain effect very temporarily. We have found that with enough ESP waves directed into, say, a weapon such as the Arc Blade, one can render it to be more conductive than it already was. The same applies for making things more flammable, but this unfortunately does not come so far with a matching durability to being set on fire.
"And...I think that's it for now. Especially since Ivanna is about to reboot out of frustration, so I should reallytakecareofthatokaytalktoyoualllaterIvannaholdonasecond-!"
New insights into temporary phenomena on the interplay between K-Class and ESP waves directed by MMI.
New options for ESP Theory available next turn.
New options for ESP Theory available next turn.
Improved Dispersion Field Projection
Meanwhile, in somewhat more sane conditions, Zulu has continued tinkering with the Dispersion Field Projector prototypes. Having spent a good deal of his online time tinkering with Bandit's equipment while onboard the Belligerent as a means of survival and appearing useful, he's actually rather familiar with the equipment - far more so than Bandit ever was. It also unfortunately didn't come with an actual instruction manual - Bandit had, by Zulu's recollection, stolen it from a scientist called Aftershock back on Mekaen, and even then it was mostly notes for a potential patent equivalent. So not even the original inventor was 100% sure where he was trying to take the idea.
The advantages to Dispersion Fields are clearcut - they are basically science fiction force fields that can block kinetic and energy strikes, and possibly detonate warheads earlier than intended. This comes with two problems, however:
1) Actually powering the Dispersion Field. Even by the Free Brothers' standards, the Dispersion Field is notoriously energy inefficient. Max's earlier experimentation infamously drew so much power that it actually was starting to bite into the budget in the early days when you had to worry about resource constraints. Both Max and Zulu are still not entirely sure how Bandit was making it work - Zulu is pretty sure he just carried around a battery pack or something, but he was never made privy to that.
2) Actually maintaining the Dispersion Field. Even Bandit's models are inconsistent in activating or staying online. Zulu's determined that it has something to do with the Dispersion Field itself - it is incredibly powerful, but such an effect can only materialize into reality for a brief amount of time in a coherent form.
Current prototypes that can actually be used come in the form of 'riot shields' mounted onto Phalanx-type models, though any Super Robot could mount it onto their forearms. But even then, those models don't just rely on the Dispersion Field for the very reasons mentioned earlier - inherent unreliability. So they still unfold into material shields, with the Dispersion augmenting it.
Zulu's current workaround is to collapse the Dispersion Field into small charges. Packed with enough power and energy for a one-time 'cloud' of Dispersion Field, in theory it will serve as a smoke grenade that also just happens to block incoming energy and kinetic attacks for maybe up to one second (with wildly different extremes shown during testing). Still horribly inefficient, but also at least much more predictable.
Dispersion Charges developed. Can be equipped with any Super Robot or certain Support Units.
Further insights into Dispersion Field technologies now in reach. New options available next turn.
Further insights into Dispersion Field technologies now in reach. New options available next turn.
Energy Blaster w/Faedium and Production
You are rapidly coming to the realization that whoever had ignored or blacklisted Mary's Faedium research was heavily sleeping on something revolutionary. The Engineers are already singing its praises openly and have even come up with a prototype engine based around it with promising results. So naturally you were going to wonder how well it applied to weapons technology.
Given Zulu's uncharacteristic difficulty around Kausen energy blasters and reworking the internals and the ergonomics behind it, Mary decided to join in and see what they could come up with. That, and she was naturally curious about the Kausen, especially after learning that they were just as divided as mankind currently seemed to be.
It quickly becomes apparent to Mary that the current generation of energy blasters created by the DFRI are 'brute forcing' an emulation of Kausen energy crystals. You don't understand the details despite - or because of - a rapid crash course given to you by Mary in the span of about five minutes, but the short of it is that conventional human understanding of material sciences are falling short of efficiently recreating the focusing crystals. Creating the energy to power the weapon is no problem - actually focusing it into coherent attacks is a problem. And even the Legion's workshops are making do with cannibalizing their own equipment or salvaging what they can from skirmishes with the Free Brothers, leading you and Mary to suspect there's some method to making them that just won't work on Earth.
So naturally her solution was her own pet project. And given how successful it has been so far, you give her the green light to try.
Growing and shaping Faedium crystals into the same geometric structures as the original weapons has proven rather interesting. Some attempts have concentrated it too much, leading it to drill a hole into the exact same ice cream delivery truck that the K-Horn experiments had by chance (sadly, there was no ice cream to salvage from this one). Others were not concentrating it enough, leading to a rather wide blast rather than the standard single shot. But according to Zulu, this is not something he would consider a failure. In fact, he was making a note of significant success, even if he was understating his satisfaction.
These are not ready for actual development yet, as Mary wants to find a way to standardize the crystal growths into templates for ease of future use. But this is far more successful than anticipated.
Especially since Galbinus found out about the experiments and is very keen to opening discussions about it. You suppose Mary is going to get that meeting with the Kausen sooner than she expected.
New development options for Energy Blasters available next turn!
Legio-Galbinus want to discuss this development with you. Liaison option open next turn.
Legio-Galbinus want to discuss this development with you. Liaison option open next turn.
Faedium Crystal Battery
Mary is also taking notes from the Faedium 'Block' engine - though she has grumbled quite a bit about the name, no matter how simple and straightforward it is. But regardless of names or aesthetic, she has focused her efforts on testing to scale and durability rather than seeing if it works - thanks to Wilde and Henry's prototype, she knows it works mostly in practice.
So instead, she decided to try creating smaller block 'batteries.' Having conceded the point on the name, Mary's cultivated smaller cubes that can fit into the palm of a Jackal and hooked them up to conventional power. She's doing this in isolated environments, mind - the problem with Faedium is that if it is overly taxed, the results do resemble that of a fragmentation bomb. She's just trying to see how quickly they charge, how long they retain the charge for, and how easily another energy source can siphon off the stored power.
In order: moderately quickly (no more than you would expect a conventional battery power unit), a fairly long time (there is some power seepage, but it appears to be negligible up to about a week before it starts degrading more dramatically), and remarkably easily (the hardest part was coming up with a 'port' to plug it into).
Mary is convinced she can go further with this line of thinking. Anything from energy blaster 'cartridges' to plug and play battery units. She just needs to work with the engineers to come up with an ideal template to build off of and make it all standard.
New Engineering option available for 'Faedium Block Refinement'
QM Note: Some of the research options haven't been fleshed out narratively. That's because either it's coming up in a Sam Carlson special or because of the Beowulf interlude. I'll begin work on that tomorrow!
Last edited:
ConfusedCanuck
Where did it all go wrong?
- Location
- Neverland
Science has been achieved!
And all it has done is unlocked even more Science huzzah!
And all it has done is unlocked even more Science huzzah!
- Location
- USA
The Science must expand to support the ever expanding Science.
That said, practical engineering options are going to be available to you because of this, so keep an eye out.
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
Both of these seem like potentially-useful byproducts. The "over-concentrated" version could potentially be used as a precision finisher, while the "wide blast" is, assuming adequate potency, essentially a laser shotgun (which is both cool and useful, albeit energy-intensive).
- Location
- Pennsylvania
We need to retrofit the Pegasus and the aircraft carrier to use Faedium in their blasters. Last time we fought a Kaiju the Pegasus' blasters only annoyed it. With a Faedium upgrade though the next time they're used against a Kaiju they might actually do substantial damage.
ArchAIngel
Sorcerer Supreme.
- Location
- Right behind you.
Oh no! The ice cream truck got blown up!
THE HORROR! SCIENCE HAS GONE TOO FAR!
THE HORROR! SCIENCE HAS GONE TOO FAR!
While I am pushing to do a look into C-Crystal, ESP, and Empathic Boosters to find the underlying principle of their operation.