And a terrible baseline. It's easy to improve from zero after all, and while this admittedly isn't zero, I don't see it as much better.
edit:
This is an issue, because if we rely too much on a single combine vehicle, it becomes a mass-production design, at which point it is no longer cool enough to be effective.
If you want to expand into making more varied vehicles, put it into voting - there won't be a deployment between now and the next top of the turn, so the chance will come soonish.
I never watched the Energon cartoons (though I know this was also lots of people's introduction to Transformers). That version of the Constructicons looks off to me, but I grew up on Generation 1 Devastator, who, for the longest time, was the only one who could combine. (I was profoundly disappointed as a kid to realize that no, the Dinobots could not combine, which was honestly a lost opportunity)
...I wanna say that at least one of them probably already has a construction vehicle alt-mode. Architect is the most likely suspect (don't remember if it was ever stated what he turns into), but not the only one.
Plus, there're members we've never seen on-screen, which increases the number of candidates even more.
You have yes! It's always fun theory crafting and guessing on what could come up next, Basarin.
Also on the subject of new potential vehicles, given that we both need aquatic ones and the GM posted the potentials of retractable pterawing technology...
It might be worth dusting off the designs of the Caspian Sea Monster or the Lun class Erakoplan to use somewhere down the line after refinement as maybe an alt mode for actual flying ships so that it cruise below radar range but far faster than if it were actually traveling in the water itself.
Not quite. Nailhead is the closest to a technician, but Tracker and Breakneck (who are both more hunters and scouts than anything) don't really fit the mold.
Architect comes closer, but he's a one-Kaus show at the moment.
Appreciate it. I have a chronic need to worldbuild and channel shows from my childhood, so here's hoping I can keep you all entertained with what comes next.
It might be worth dusting off the designs of the Caspian Sea Monster or the Lun class Erakoplan to use somewhere down the line after refinement as maybe an alt mode for actual flying ships so that it cruise below radar range but far faster than if it were actually traveling in the water itself.
Maybe, though... well, sorry for repeating myself, but I feel nothing short of an actual submarine will do, because we need a way to actually reach Sheol (who, lest we forget, is based at the bottom of the ocean, and while I doubt his ability to lolnope our K-Class, I'm sure he at least has the keys to his own front door).
Maybe, though... well, sorry for repeating myself, but I feel nothing short of an actual submarine will do, because we need a way to actually reach Sheol (who, lest we forget, is based at the bottom of the ocean, and while I doubt his ability to lolnope our K-Class, I'm sure he at least has the keys to his own front door).
Hey, maybe once we beat the Westphalians and hopefully repossess the Bismarck in one piece, we'll have a full naval vessel to retrofit for space travel.
Because if fiction has told us anything, if it's good for space, it's good for the sea. They're both oceans in some way, right? (I know it won't be as easy as that, but still.)
Hey, maybe once we beat the Westphalians and hopefully repossess the Bismarck in one piece, we'll have a full naval vessel to retrofit for space travel.
Because if fiction has told us anything, if it's good for space, it's good for the sea. They're both oceans in some way, right? (I know it won't be as easy as that, but still.)
...I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have something around as a carrier for our robots. Doubt we'll be able to crack Configuration at that scale anytime soon, so it won't be a Super Robot in its own right, but for launching our amphibious team (and probably Mercury by that point) to raid Sheol it should be good enough.
Considering how much of its functions can be controlled by our AI, I think their crew requirements might be surprisingly small.
Not sure how frequently we get new soldiers transferred to us besides the robot pilots, but that could be another explanation for us to not need to deliberately recruit crew members. I don't really plan to push my luck too far on that front though, since that sort of privilege could easily be revoked.
Either way, I think we aren't at max capacity just yet, though a third Pegasus might be pushing it.
The DFRI is still a military unit. It will grow organically and people will be assigned as more openings are created in the unit. There should still be plenty of room on the airfield for other units since other dropship classes are apparently coming and going often enough with various cargo and supplies. so getting a third and fourth Pegasus class with their own complement of personnel should be easy. The plan has always been to have 3 corvette class dropships for the 3 platoons, We are already Two 3rds of the way there with the completion of the second Dropship. Once the third is built we will be at max capacity and any new dropships that are built will be going to other Super Robot Programs like Ground Pound which will need the Dropship for their own Super Robot and supporting units.
How? There are too many moving parts and living bodies in the dropship for it to probably configure safely. Or if there is a way than it'd have to be like the Carriers being grafted onto the SDF-1 in Macross/Robotech. Or being a transformer sized one. If we did go that route we'd have to design the Drophip from the ground up with the idea of transforming into a Super Robot or Kausen mech. We really pushed it with the carrier and will again when we eventually do start on the Battleship spaceship once we have a Super Weapon for it.
The DFRI just needs to find a way to dispense K-suits from rings inside the mecha too, so that the martial arts types can just jump in and start punching.
Kinda quiet around here... Anyone up for brainstorming something new to do?
Setting aside my recent Lungfish obsession for a bit, maybe a supplementary robot that turns into a bigass cannon (like R-Gun) might be worth considering?
Personally, I'd like to liaise with the EU Academic Review Board - both to get a measure of who exactly is throwing out all these visionaries, and maybe get records to see if there are any other dismissed experts with ideas we can integrate. And hey, if we can prevent another snubbed genius from turning into the next Sheol, all the better.
Alternatively, I think we need to get another Defense Force advisor; it's noticeably smaller than our other branches and with the escalating issues, we can start liaising and hobnobbing with more branches.
We could make a fighter jet Configuration Robot if we did like Gundam Z and made the nose cone a Weapons system..
We could put the Drill or a variety of Weapons on the nose if we make it interchangeable.
Rest of the Frame light and compact as possible .. like G1 deception coneheads.
Call it the Tooth and design it for fast strike capabilities at the exclusion of armor.
Hey, wasn't blaming anyone or complaining, really; just figured I'd try to use the down time productively. Kind of a thing I like to do during lulls in quests.
If it were anyone else, you might worry that they were developing a fixation and a sunk cost fallacy regarding the ESP Channeling theory. A one off result that only seemed to replicate itself whenever it felt like it, but were so fascinating or vexing that the rest of the research grant's budget was ultimately sunk into trying to find that one specific result.
Thankfully, this is Sam Carlson, this is super science, and you now have budgets of 'yes.'
By now, Sam mostly understands that you only have just enough time to get the highlights of the research results, so he thankfully keeps it brief. After studying multiple users of the MMI headsets, certain emotions in the heat of simulations - as well as during live fire conditions based on previous deployments - send 'spikes' of mental radio waves into the MMI. Unlike most of the thought processes, the MMI isn't entirely sure how to interpret them. After all, happiness, determination and anger aren't exactly quantifiable to a computer.
How this led into temporary changes in the laws of physics apparently is asking the wrong question. According to Sam, the human brain isn't changing anything per se. What it is doing is interacting with the malleable nature of K-Class Materials - which just about every part of the Super Robots are built out of. It's K-Class itself that is reacting so strongly to the psychic signals, which opens up all sorts of other new questions.
"The best kind of Science!" he assures you.
SCIENCE!
...as does the rest of his staff.
Ultimately, what this means right now is that he can at least predict how they can redirect these signals to the weaponry and make subtle changes. The combustibility (yes, that's a word apparently) of the air around the Arc Blade or the Beowulf's Inferno Mode, the conductive properties of metal that the Spark Caliber relies on, and more.
Notably, you recall Max constantly hovering around these discussions taking notes furiously.
If nothing else, further research into the 'Channeling' phenomena has given a deeper study into the signal intensity broadcast by the human brain. The Super AI can't really benefit from it at the moment, but some tweaking with the Man-Machine Interfaces can definitely - but very temporarily - alter the physical conditions of fists and weapons. He's yet to find a reliable way to recreate it, however.
Infrequent but highly damaging spikes of damage inflicted is predicted, but the phenomena doesn't recreate often enough to reliably test. Bonus to Emphatic Booster research gained.
K-Lung Refinement
"Sam here! Just want to let the boys and girls in labsuits know you're making great contributions to your field!
"Now that we've got our obligatory back patting out of the way, let's go over what we've found about the K-Lung:
"1) (And that's with the parenthesis, not the colon) We're not going to make indefinite sources of thunderbolts, lightning, or fire. That part of kaiju physiology requires the rest of the kaiju's physiology. We're not trying to make diet kaiju here.
"2) The K-Lung is amazingly efficient for storing all that energy and processing it. What we can do with this is effectively make contained gas bags that feed into the Super Robots' weapons. It's easy enough that we can retroactively help the Engineers get that installed right quick.
"3) Staying on brand, there is no third point. I just like saying that.
"Sam Carlson, we're done here!"
Sam has a much clearer idea of what it can and cannot do. What it can't do is literally breathe fire or lightning like what was observed with the kaiju - that apparently does require a lot more organic bits than he's comfortable using. What it can do is hold and regenerate 'pockets' of air that cling to metallic surfaces - like, say, blades.
Application found for K-Lung application in Finishing Strike weapons.
Maximiliane Brand
Empathic Booster
"It's not cheating or plagiarizing if it's in a military project!"
You tried to argue against that. Sasaki tried to argue against it. Then you both glanced at each other somewhat guiltily, because yes, nothing is original material in the officer world when it comes to putting together briefings and you're both guilty of it.
That non-sequitur aside, you found that those notes that Max had been taking with the MMI Channel spikes gave her something of an inspiration. Her past stumbling blocks with this bit of the Regency's technology gifts was that she tried to treat it as an isolated end system all on its own. But given that human understanding of our own brains even in the 2070s is woefully incomplete, she decided to try it with the one bit of technology there seemed to be overlap with: Sam's ESP Theory.
To whit, the previously identified 'grooves' that the psychic signals carved into the material did still exist, but even with Sam's finetuning there's nothing really directing them towards them: Max compared it to trying to pour soda from a restaurant machine, but instead of the directed funnel the whole thing just exploded. Sure, you'll technically get some soda in the cup, but it'll also get everywhere else you preferred it didn't
Given that the Empathic Booster is already reacting to human emotions, she decided to try and make it the funnel in this example.
Wonder of wonders, it works. Not terribly reliably, but further testing (at least after she and Sam had something of a scuffle/slapfight over academic citations no matter what she claimed to you - bibliographies were Serious Business) shows that the psychic signals were emitted somewhat more reliably towards the weapons to give them the extra 'oomf' (Max's very technical term) during heightened emotional states. Which is typically around the time when the pilots really need it.
As you're so often told, more testing is required.
The Empathic Booster reacts rather strongly to the MMI, interestingly. Still not quite reliable, but only in the sense that the human brain isn't always reliable with emotions. Sam and Max have already worked to install this onto the existing piloted Super Robots.
Empathic Booster Refinement available next turn.
C-Crystals - AI Compatibility
Max's other efforts surrounding the Regency's gifts revealed an unforeseen use for the C-Crystals:
"They're effectively Turing Tests."
The reason they didn't react as expected with Zulu: while in the previous year or so his confidence and his sense of self has been gradually increasing, his personality and intellect aren't quite in line with what the C-Crystal would consider a sentient being. The Regency itself seemed to agree when Max asked it, replying, "There is not enough for it to work with."
Ichiro is an entirely different matter. The 'audition' C-Crystal was presented in his direction, and it immediately locked onto him with curiosity. Though, now that you think about it, isn't as surprising as you were thinking it would be. Bravery is not in doubt - the physical evidence of the mangled arm cannon still is on display in the hangar bay, much to his constant embarrassment ("Can't I get a personal trophy room or something?"). Good character is a little fuzzier - he's only ever been surrounded by people who were vetted to do the right thing, and his exposure to the Westphalians was in a war zone and not in personal conversation. But you're pretty sure you've seen enough of him to know that when the chips are down, he's always going to stand for what's right, and not what's expedient.
The sisters were all scanned as well - to varying degrees, they were not considered proper candidates (Adrianna seemed rather disappointed at that). The Argonauts were also considered - they were not outright rejected, but rather the system seemed to place them in a 'wait and observe' category with them.
The Legion...you weren't able to scan everyone - Patch was leery about adding yet more 'untested Xenotechnology' - but Galbinus passed with no issues.
In short: yes, AIs can be treated as candidates, and will be judged as such like with humans.
Coincidentally, the system had to cough up a new testing C-Crystal - Ichiro refused to relinquish it and he browbeat Sam and Max enough to help get it installed. "It picked me, I'm keeping it!"
Max confirms that Drones such as Zulu (though he's improving) just aren't quite self-aware enough to qualify. The Legion - and your AIs however - are another story entirely.
C-Crystal Compatibility with sufficiently advanced AI found.
Ichiro installed with C-Crystal due to QM generosity and sense of tradition to the genre.
SCAI-01 Ivanna
Experimenation: Olympic-class leg
The larger the kaiju, the more complicated the internal physiology. That's Ivanna's takeaway.
Everything about the Olympic's leg shows that more and more work was done in simply ensuring it could stand, let alone move. The ways the muscles interlocked with one another, how one muscle and fiber group in a seemingly unrelated part of the leg supported locomotive actions - even the blood vessels were weaved in such a way that spread additional oxygen without literally getting trampled underfoot.
You only have the one leg, and Sheol - and his new field officer - is unlikely to volunteer any more to you so easily. So there's only so far that Ivanna was willing to dissect, and x-ray and biological scans only told part of the story. But there's plenty of fascinating insights that she's passed on to the Engineers - the way the leg is constructed is unfeasible for smaller scale, but given you're working into making larger combinable frames, there's some good takeaways to pass along.
Action can be repeated next turn.
The next Combinable Configuration Experimentation roll gains +1D6.
Experimentation: Crocalisk Scale and Hollow Explosive Spikes?
The Crocalisk scale presents a different problem. On the one hand, it shares lots of similarities with the venerable Sample Zero, particularly with how it can be crafted. On the other hand, it's also rather brittle and, well, hollow. The previous idea of making it an explosive spike of sorts is proving to be finicky because the hollow shell just doesn't have the penetrating power required. Despite this, it's almost more malleable than the K-Scale, so shaping the hollow charge wasn't an issue.
One vague suggestion that Ivanna proposed was to create a secondary delivery system with the Pile Bunker - after the spike drives in the puncture, the hollow case would then slam into the gap created through a secondary use of the blast charge, and would detonate on a timer. However, this is somewhat clunky and counterintuitive, and most enemies aren't going to be that cooperative.
She still thinks there's something to the Hollow Scale, and is requesting another go at studying it in the future.
According to Ivanna, the Crocalisk scale operates mostly the same as Sample Zero. The only difference as predicted was that it leaves a hollow internal space inside, no matter what the shape or purpose. The idea of an exploding spike, however, is proving tricky - she has a workaround, but it's not terribly efficient.
Joint Project
Mary McCullough/Zulu: Energy Blaster Refinement
"Ergonomics - needs refinement." Zulu's voice sounded almost apologetic, if Hotwire focused his receptors just enough. "But it should work."
"Human pilots don't quite treat these things the same a Kaus would." Mary - the human scientist - added. "They treat the whole robotic frame as another piece of equipment, and it's basically one-size-fits-all-"
"Don't worry about it," Hotwire grunted. The blaster they had both cooked up looked weird, and definitely felt weird - it was incredibly blocky and reminded him of some of the more 'kludged together' homestation solutions he'd come across in his earlier freighting days. "You work with what you've got." He brought the 'blaster' to his shoulder, brought up the targeting reticle over his own HUD, and with a huff of compressed air, pulled the trigger.
The blaster's recoil nearly sent him back a single step, were it not for bracing.
"Whoah." Almost ignoring the explosive power it left behind in the Proving Ground's much abused earthworks - and making damned sure to keep the thing pointed away from anyone - Hotwire brought the blaster back up again, this time with a greater appreciation for the recoil. Four more blasts destroyed yet more earthworks, all in a rather lovely shade of red and white. Looks kinda different from Violet-Six's rounds.
"Feedback?" Hotwire turned to the converted Drone - and tried to ignore at how eager he seemed. Zulu's composure seemed completely at odds with what he knew about Drones - right now, Zulu struck Hotwire like Drifter in the middle of one of his 'I've Got A Plan!' moments.
"Gonna give you a 7/10 for it." With some doing, Hotwire looked over the depleted rifle, and found the somewhat kludged component slide. He tried sliding it open -
- only for it to simply tear apart. "Uh."
"We, well, didn't exactly intend for hands to break it open like that," Mary admitted. "The Engineers do maintenance on them with the crane setup."
"...6/10. If Kausen are gonna make use of it, we like to do our own spot check maintenance on 'em." With that awkward moment still hanging in the air, he pointed to the focusing crystal - which again, was completely different from what he knew of Mekaen designs, yet clearly functional. "It's trying to squeeze too much power through the crystal. If you keep doing that, the crystal's gonna break."
"Curious." Zulu tilted his head. "The crystal seemed to do well under stress testing."
"It's both safety and efficiency," Hotwire argued back. "Look, take a look at the Nebulas we all use. You see how we can adjust the...?"
A chance visit by Hotwire soon turns into a shooting range day, with the communications officer disturbingly knowledgeable about all sorts of Mekaen firearms. Zulu and Mary have gotten the prototype even smaller now, and a Legion gun critic just showed up to give feedback.
One Turn Remaining (due to allowing extension)
Zulu
Dispersion Zones
Zulu's apparent solution to increasing the yield of Dispersion Zones:
When in doubt, brute force with more.
The Dispersion Zone's newest incarnation went through various forms. First, he simply tried to make a bigger charge - which worked, but ultimately suffered from diminishing returns pretty quickly (that and it defeated the purpose of keeping it portable and self contained). Next, he tried what Lana dubbed the 'spray bottle' method - which simply exploded on him and ensured light acted very strangely around him for the next minute.
Finally, he did something that you've been yelled at for doing many times in your career: he simply daisy-chained lots of them into a wide spread pattern.
The good news: it does work. The Dispersion Zones seem to momentarily feed into each other, oh so briefly expanding the lifespan by a few seconds. Which is apparently quite the success. The bad news: it's good for only a few significant uses, estimated to be about two or three times depending on what it's blocking. Zulu helpfully advises that should you need to block battleship bombardment (by Mekaen standards), the resulting lack of firm terra firma to stand on from disintegration will do more damage to you than the bombardment for a gloriously brief moment.
That's good. You think.
In short, he's doing something that most safety regulators would have yelled at you about: daisy-chaining Dispersion Zones. And as scruffy as it sounds and looks, you can't deny it works.
New Option available next turn.
Mary McCullough
Mary has a new achievement under her belt: she's confused the Regency.
To explain, she's basically taken a standard cut of Faedium crystal, and requested that they skip the fabrication process entirely. The Regency requested to observe, dubious as it was that the C-Crystal could be condensed enough into what it clearly still considered to be primitive technologies.
It quickly changed its mind when it observed the implantation process.
Four out of five crystals took in the raw energy and computing power required for the C-Crystal. Only one failed, resulting in a fine hairline fracture due to a slight error in its original cut. Even so, the ones that survived handled their new forms as C-Crystals fairly well. The Regency believes it's due to the fact that less processing power was required in having to shape the crystal, and more was focused on simply finetuning what was there into the existing vessel.
"How did you come across this material?"
"I made it."
"Made it."
"Yes. Had a single sample set, unproven, no one thought it would work and no one was willing to try it."
The Regency's response was to later contact you and ask just how many more 'failed' projects were lurking around on the planet.
Your answer of 'yes' did not amuse it. No matter how honest it was.
Only a few months into the job, and Mary has done something remarkable again: she's befuddled the Regency. Faedium apparently is quite ideal.
AI-01 Katarina
Aftermarket Special: Saddle
The Saddle is another semi-discontinued piece of equipment. As in, it's long enough in the tooth that you've seen reports of the Westphalians having put something together of it (but not of what they could make it do). It's not quite being made in additional great numbers, new models still being churned out due to one last contract for a production run, but it's also not being actively phased out due to how useful it still remains.
It's biggest drawback for conventional forces is just how massive it is. With a size almost matching that of the twentieth century's Osprey, it presents something of a large targeting profile for any potential attackers. However, it is also was originally made to be tough enough to last, built with enough redundant systems to at least limp back to a friendly area if it took damage. Ultimately, the incredibly strong grappling claws - built with the ubiquitous intermodal shipping containers - could even hold and carry those containers up to a point. And in a real pinch, the claws could be replaced with small weapons pods for minor fire support missions.
Katarina is not convinced that changing this thing into a Super Robot or even a Support frame is the right way to go. However, she's already imagining how it might combine with something else. Judging by Lana's considering stares, she's not the only one.
By Katarina's reckoning, the Saddles is ideal for both its original purpose (cargo handling, natch) and light fire support, but not exactly someone to put in a shield wall. Lots of potential for Combinable Configuration, however.
New Engineering Option available next turn.
Experimentation: Pterawing
The problem with the leather mesh is not that it's not useful. No, Katarina agrees it's very useful. The problem is finding its own niche inside of your existing lineup.
"Our current lineup are almost exclusively all ground-based," she explains to you. "In some cases, very heavy ones. The best I can think of to add this to is the Thunderbolt, but...she's kind of operating on her own rules of physics already. Please don't mention that in front of Ivanna." Understandably then, her focus on how best to use it focuses heavily on the Seeker.
She thinks the leather wings can be integrated into the existing wing frame for a potential Super Robot Seeker. Despite how fragile they seemed while in action, she notes that it could very well have been due to how fragile the Pterawings themselves were - appropriately sized up, though this would require committing this to an actual frame, it could actually be quite strong - and in the event of running out of fuel, they're tough enough that the Seeker could glide a fair distance before requiring to gently crash onto the earth.
"...we could also make a cape out of it for Ground Pound!"
Also, apparently Katarina's not the only sister fixated on the cape idea.
According to Katarina, incorporating the wing mesh into our current designs is a tricky prospect. The best candidate would naturally be the Seeker (naturally lining the wings with the material for adjustable wind resistance or lack thereof), but mostly as a Super Robot candidate in itself, and not what the Air Wings use.
For future mecha, she would probably build retractable wings with the mesh built into it for limited flight and gliding...but Ivanna's idea about a whole cape has also captured her fancy.
I have a chronic need to worldbuild and channel shows from my childhood, so here's hoping I can keep you all entertained with what comes next.
