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Tacit Ronin: The Power of Three
- Thread starter Fyrstorm
- Start date
Week 48: Downtime
Fyrstorm
Gun Waifu Extraordinaire
- Location
- 'Straya
- Pronouns
- He/Her
Neo-Seattle:
As Neo-Seattle's cleanup crews set to work, the MPFs are already hard at work producing new airframes-- along with a bit of extra equipment for the AKBs. Soon, new pilots are being assigned to the assault choppers, while the infantry break in their impressive new exoskeletons.
5 Banshee Assault Helicopter Squadrons constructed!
Anti-Kaiju Brigades upgraded to Mechanized Anti-Kaiju Brigades!
A little while later, however, the armoured soldiers are requisitioned by Breach Tech, citing "emergency safety measures" or something like that. Not long after that, the Breach alarm goes off, and stays on for about ninety seconds before deactivating. The anti-kaiju brigades are returned in short order, completely unharmed, but having worked up a sweat and missing about a hundred rounds of ammunition. When asked what had happened, the head of Breach Tech replied 'nothing important. Damn thing didn't work right, anyways', and refused to elaborate further.
While... that is going on, K-Science is, as always, hard at work. In this case, taking on a part of Raubtier development that doesn't require access to gametes; nutrition. Thanks to some heavy referencing of Ridgeback's mouth-less feeding method and unusual digestive system, the project actually gets done in a fairly quick amount of time, and seems like it'd work! True, it's not the only option for nourishing a biomechanical titan-- but it's easier on the design team, and far less disturbing than giving the thing a mouth or something. Hooking it up to a nutrient tank every once in a while is vastly preferable to having the jaeger eat its kills.
In any case, with this done, the TN-0 developed, and the A.R.T mostly hammered out, it's safe to say that a partially-living jaeger could be maintained and repaired without too much hassle-- and so, Kaiju Science checks that box off the list.
Bio-Jaeger Life Support prerequisite fulfilled!
Remaining prerequisites:
- Biomass (DNA source)
- Control System
- Pons Modification
- Design Consideration
C-Tech has several projects to work on this week, the first of which are drones. Specifically, drone combat units, using the limited AI cores that KRAUN provided. The work is surprisingly quite easy, and only gets a little hairy when it comes to modifying airframe canopies for the core. The size of the drone cores actually allows for the landbound designs and Meganeura variant to sport a bit of extra stuff-- though ultimately, not enough to have any noticeable impact on the scale they'd operate at. Still, the fact that they don't have to worry about life support or really training the drone units automatically makes them a lot cheaper to construct and field, plus the lack of sapient pilots should reduce the effects of unit loss on morale a lot. All in all, it's a pretty successful project.
New Conventional Unit variants available: Type 100-D, Type 105-D, Type 108-ADD, AKM22-D, HJT-TV-01s-D, AG-60D, A-KA-78D-L!*
- Type-D (Drone) variant units have the following special rules:
-- Type-D variants cost only 90% that of their piloted variants
-- destruction of Type-D variants has no effect on morale
-- Type-D variants require at least one piloted unit on the field to act as a director, but otherwise may operate as normal.
-- Type-D variants cannot become Elite Units.
*Or, without the alphabet soup; Tanks, Laser Tanks, Acoustic Tanks, Mortars, Meganeuras, Dragonfly Scouts, and Banshees
Also, yes, they're pretty much immune to anything that'd require the Conventional Air Purification System's use, since they're robots and don't breathe.
Unfortunately, efforts to determine the best way to refit the salvaged vessels currently sitting in the dry-docks are stymied by a mix of conflicting opinions and computational errors. Nothing happens to the ships themselves, but there's very little effective progress on the blueprints or reconstruction plans.
On the plus side, the ships do come in handy for the last project-- with a little examination of the frigates' missile launchers, it's determined that an updated version would be large enough to mount the Sunfire Bombs as missile warheads. So, when that's dealt with, at least there's gonna be a non-bomber means of delivery for the things.
Refitted Missile Frigates will be able to mount Sunfire warheads on their Long-Range Missiles.
J-Tech decides to look into an old, but oft-used augment-- the Solid Fuel Thrusters-- and try to improve upon their function. However, the designs themselves are somewhat old, and more than a little crude, even with the recent design changes-- so rather than make an exact update, it's decided to create more of a spiritual successor; something to allow for multiple bursts of increased combat speed at the scale a jaeger operates on. Due to the recent developments of flight technology, it's decided that any successor augments should be able to work with the new gear, rather than compete with it for space-- meaning it'll have to be mounted on the lower legs or feet.
Ultimately, what they come up with isn't perfect, but it does work. The Overcharge Mobility Enhancement Network (OMEN for short) accelerates the control impulses and power flow in a jaeger's legs, allowing for impressive bursts of speed and agility throughout a fight, with no worry of consuming fuel. However, this doesn't come without a price, and regular use of OMEN risks burning out or damaging the same circuits it enhances. Thankfully, there shouldn't be any actual nerve damage to the pilots from this, but a malfunction sure as hell won't be painless. With a bit of luck, though, a jaeger's crew should be able to get half a minute's consecutive function out of OMEN before they have to worry about overload.
New Jaeger Augment available for purchase: Overcharge Mobility Enhancement Network!
Overcharge Mobility Enhancement Network (Legs)
1400 Resources
As a free action, the augmented jaeger may activate OMEN, or maintain it if it was active in the previous round. While active, the jaeger increases its Agi by 50%, rounding up-- or another appropriate stat, if one is being substituted for Agi-- for all relevant purposes. The first time OMEN activates, the jaeger must roll 2d5 for a Difficulty 3 test before any of its actions are resolved. On a success, the system acts as planned, but on a failure it immediately suffers 1d5 Ice damage to the Legs, ignoring Armour and Toughness. Each round OMEN is in use, this test must be repeated, the difficulty increasing by one for every previous consecutive round of use. Every round OMEN is not in use, the difficulty of the next test decreases by two, to a minimum of 3.
Efforts to reverse engineer the Jagdgewehr continue to be thwarted. It's unclear where the difficulties are occurring in the process, but nonetheless it's been infuriatingly difficult work with little reward.
The Kaiju Hunt Scanner continues to produce some pretty decent results, all of which are noted in the official records. Starting with the new ones, and-- surprisingly enough-- there's only really one. Another Category IV, on the lower end of the scale, codename "Roughneck" is nonetheless sturdy and well-armoured, especially around its cervical vertebrae. Bipedal in design, it appears that its main weapons take the place of its lower arms in a fashion similar to Umpo and Heartbreaker, though not bearing any particular resemblance to either of them.
As for the previous ones... well, as always, Tara is hard at work on her building project, and seems to be hastening to finish it. Rime moved a short ways up the coast this week, before heading back down to its usual location-- possibly to hunt (though the matter of kaiju diets and intake requirements is still a shaky area), possibly for some other reason entirely. Armstrong seems a little more skittish, but no less aggressive, and a blurry picture seems to suggest the presence of a deep wound on one of its hind legs. Smirker and Dissenter really haven't done much of note. Leadhead hasn't changed much either, other than going on a short-lived rampage and brutalizing a city block or two. Perhaps it's immature, or simply bored. The uneasy feeling around Bristlethorn has grown worse.
New Anteverse Activity within Territory!
- SE-27-010-H, "Roughneck", Category IV. Location: North. On the smaller side, but sturdy and well armoured. Main weapons appear to be built into its forearms in place of hands.
Meanwhile, the Heavy Munitions Factory churns out a quintet of new magazines, filled with Special Bakelite rounds.
5 Bakelite Magazines constructed!
With Everett's own mechanical defender heavily damaged, it's decided to send over Tacit Ronin to take point there. The white jaeger has its armour damage patched up, before it's loaded onto a Meganeura group and shipped over, pilots in tow.
Tacit Ronin fully repaired! Tacit Ronin transferred to Everett!
As soon as Tacit and its pilots are dropped off, Phenom and the Uemuras are picked up and brought back in turn. With their return to Neo-Seattle, the beat-up jaeger can receive the major repairs it would require.
Phenom Sable transferred to Neo-Seattle!
Of course, repairs aren't the only thing Neo-Seattle intends for Phenom Sable. The jaeger's entire lower half is temporarily stripped of armour, exposing the sinuous artificial musculature that grants the machine its motive abilities. Entire strands clusters are ripped out, and replaced with new, denser arrays, designed to harness even greater vascular pressure and enhance the machine's footwork. Meanwhile, the stomach cavity is fitted with the curiously organic-looking lump of machinery that makes up the core of the TN-0 system. As soon as it's finished being hooked into the fluid distribution system, Phenom won't just bleed like a kaiju-- it'll heal like one, too.
TN-0 Clotting Factor constructed!
2 HMHV Strands constructed!
All Modifications installed! Armour installed! Phenom Sable fully repaired!
And, last of all, Jagdhund's damages are dealt with. The last of the current Jagdarium stockpile is expended to re-armour the leg, but the internal structure and circuitry should all be working properly again.
Armour installed! Jagdhund fully repaired!
Attempts to design some way to allow Everett to perform in-depth maintenance on their machines go... somewhat well, technically. The design teams rush the work a little, but they come up with a way that the city can construct at least a piece of a functioning Shatterdome-- namely, the jaeger repair bay. It's not perfect, being kind of exposed, drafty, and made to be its own freestanding structure, instead of part of the actual complex, but it's definitely a step up from the current situation that the other city's jaegers are stuck in.
A Basic Shatterdome Cell can be constructed in Everett for 5000 Resources as an Action, and will upgrade its jaeger limitations to the following:
- Only one Jaeger may be held in Everett per Shatterdome Cell.
- Everett may repair Major+ Wounds, but doing so costs an extra Action for every such Wound to be repaired.
- Everett may not construct Jaegers unless they have at least one empty Shatterdome Cell
Everett may possess a limit of up to three Shatterdome Cells, but each must be constructed as a separate action.
Next, Neo-Seattle and Everett work together, attempting several joint research projects for some notably difficult topics. All in all, the results are impressive-- and, if nothing more, prove the worth of this method of cooperative research.
(See below for Joint Research results)
With the actual construction of Fangs seeming to become closer and closer, it's decided that the pre-existing Garnele Autonomous Rifles need a bit more independence-- specifically, in the ammunition department. While their size limits the number of magazines that can be fitted to them, with a bit of work it is possible to alter the positioning of the loader, allowing for three magazines to be stacked on top of each other to create a far thicker "drum", from which any of the three magazines can be accessed by the weapon's systems. It's not true reloading, but it'll give them a bit more longevity in battle, and it's kinda the best they can manage without, say, teleporting new magazines in via an artificial Breach-- or something crazy like that. Thankfully, it's not as if the Garnele is supposed to be hand-carried, given its added bulk.
JF-99R Garnele Autonomous Rifle
1875 Resources
Carried Medium Remote Weapon (Fang/Rifle, M 12)
Attack Dice: 1d10+1/2x 1d10/3x 1d10-1
Armour Penetration: 0
Damage Type: Impact
Damage Bonus: 2
Range: 15/25/30
Capacity: 12/12/12 (see below)
Reload: 1 Standard/Full (see below)
Armour: 3/2
Structure: 2
Movement: 6 (Land only)
Special:
Compatible with the Sovereign RWC.
May reattach to (its assigned controller) as a Standard Action when Engaged.
The JF-99R carries up to three compatible magazines of ammunition onboard, the type of which are chosen at the start of a battle, and draws from a single one at a time. As a Reload Action, it may choose to switch to any of the other onboard magazines. An allied unit may also choose to Engage with it, and replace one of its magazines as a Full Action.
Any time the JF-99R is fired, chose the firing mode: Semi-Auto, Burst, or Fully Automatic. The JF-99R may be loaded with the same specialty ammunition as any M-99 weapon:
- Assault Rounds: As above. Standard ammunition.
- AP Rounds
- Special Bakelite Rounds
Not only does this give you more ammunition for the things, it means they can technically load multiple ammunition types at once, further increasing their utility.
Last of all, a search is organised for the city of Redmond, a long-time neighboring city that hasn't really been seriously investigated much Post-TdJ-- despite containing the main campus for one of the biggest tech companies in the world, and practically sitting on Neo-Seattle's doorstep. True, during the initial EMP collapse and re-founding, a number of people from Redmond had come, with materials as well, but there's really no reason not to have followed up on it by now. Oh well, better late than never.
Thankfully, there still seems to be a lot of stuff still there, and a truly massive haul is brought back by the investigation and salvage teams, consisting mainly of all sorts of electronics and computery things. Even though there's not as much surviving data as one might want, just the electronics themselves are extremely valuable-- and what data is there should prove quite useful.
+5000 Resources!
New Research Tokens: Redmond Tokens!
- Redmond Token (Improved Computer Systems)
- Redmond Token (Improved Electronics)
===
Everett:
With their limited manufacturing ability and resources, most of Everett's efforts (asiding cleanup) are focused on research this week.
For their independent work, the scientific division decides to try and fix an issue that's been becoming increasingly more prevalent in recent fights-- the problem of Jagdhund's weapon storage. Though the jaeger's back-mounted SEER system is certainly useful, it doesn't work too well for split-second decisions, and the lack of compatibility between her sword and the other weapons in her arsenal make this even more glaring, with Jagdhund often forced to toss her firearms to the ground in order to draw her melee weapon,, leaving her in an awkward position to reclaim the gun afterwards. To solve this, and hopefully reduce the amount of wear on the aging rifle, the Everett team proposes the use of an adjustable combat sling, and start work on a prototype. Made of carbon nanotubes to better stand the stress of activity, the sling itself is a simple sash of pitch black fabric, with up-scaled titanium adjustment clips and a barbed locking mechanism on either end. Fitting it onto the rifle-- or any carried piece of equipment, for that matter-- should be a simple process, and allow for hands-free, hassle-free carrying of the equipment. Overall, the sling is light, strong, and fairly inexpensive thanks to the massive leaps in material science this last decade. And, to add the icing on the cake, the prototype sling is pretty much equal to the final product already! All it takes is a bit of furnishing and prettying up, and it's ready for use in the field!
New Carried Weapon Modification (Miscellaneous): Nanotube Combat Sling!
Nanotube Combat Sling:
750 Resources
Carried Weapon Modification
Each Sling may be applied to any single two-handed ranged weapon or other appropriate carried equipment (at the GM's discretion).
A weapon with a Nanotube Combat Sling is treated as having its own Inventory Slot, and can be carried without the use of hands or a dedicated storage system. While carrying a weapon with a Sling, the wielder does not drop the weapon if they let go of it (though they may still intentionally drop it as usual with a Standard Action). If an opponent attempts to Disarm the wielder of a Sling-equipped weapon, they must spend one additional Advantage Point or else take a Str (8) check to rip the weapon free. A combatant may only carry one such weapon with a Sling at a time.
1 Nanotube Combat Sling manufactured for free!
As for the rest, it's all related to their joint research projects.
(See below for Joint Research results)
===
Joint Research:
Three joint research projects take place this week between Neo-Seattle and Everett, each one taking on a different task. First, the long-incomplete Breach Storage project is nearing its end. After far too many months, the final issue, that of the power requirements, is to be resolved. More efficient mechanisms are devised, small compromises are made in carry capacity, and the transfer wavelength narrowed to further save on power. By the end of the week, it's about as efficient as they can make it.
Breach Storage Power Supply finished! Breach Storage System baseline Completed!
However, while they've completely figured how how the mechanisms work and what's required for them, the researchers haven't had quite enough time to put together a completed blueprint. They'll have to have a bit more time for that, and to make sure all the kinks are worked out.
Also read: I have the mechanism for Breach Storage all hammered out, I just don't know how best to give it to you guys, so I'm going to make you spend another action next downtime so I have the time to figure out the details.
Next is the prospect of Mark IV, a point in the future that's swiftly approaching. Of the two or three 'real' options available to the Protectorate, none are without flaws; the Helios and Polaris are unshielded and only crudely upgraded to deal with that issue, while the Fury is unstable and vents radiation. The Polaris is perhaps the best option at current, due to its smaller size and general stability, but the aforementioned shielding issue is still a major thorn in its side. Thus, this second project is intended to remove that issue.
Thankfully, between technological advances and the extra space afforded my the reactor, it's possible to integrate a form of shielding around the power core, and use the jaeger's frame as an electrical sink, removing the need for the short-lived burnout fuses. The only real problems with this upgrade are the fact that internal damage will also split open the shielding, which is more of an addition than a completely integrated piece of equipment-- but such damage would certainly have other, worse effects, and the shielding is quite cost-effective, so the potential 'flaw' (no worse than the requirement of the burnout fuses in the first place) is left be.
Polaris Compact Fusion Stellarator (Mk 4) (Helios Variant)
- 50 500 Resources
- See Helios Heavy Fusion Stellarator (ignoring Burnout Fuses)
- Magnetic Shielding (Polaris only): Disables the effects of the Unshielded Trait until the reactor suffers a Major Chest Wound.
- Smaller Than Normal: The Polaris takes up significantly less space than the Helios does, allowing for more intrusive components and equipment in the jaeger's chest cavity.
Basically, if you take a Major Wound to the chest, you're probably kinda screwed already, so a slightly increased vulnerability to electrical effects is gonna be the least of your problems. And, again, it's an upgrade that only costs 500 more Resources, and doesn't take up enough space to negate Smaller Than Normal.
And last of the three is a more recent topic; the potential and workings of the newly discovered "Entropy Dilution Field". They don't want to try and apply the physiological data without at least some improved understanding of how it works at least. And, thanks to the two city's cooperation, it seems they'll at least be figuring out the basics, and a few ideas as well.
True to initial impressions, the Entropy Dilution Field does drain the thermal energy from a wide area in exchange for increasing its own molecular activity a similar amount. It's currently impossible to tell whether or not it's actually diluting entropy, but at bare minimum it's one of the most efficient mechanisms the researchers have seen, within a few ten thousandths of a percent from one-to-one efficiency. The thermal magnitude, affected area, and range all seem to be somewhat variable, as simulations of the organ from Boreas seem to be capable of both wide-radius 'chill' and a short-range spheroid of freezing cold, though the mechanism for controlling this is unclear (it was likely tied to the kaiju's nervous system, but that's about all they can tell).
In any case, it seems as if this is going to share another similarity to the Barrier Field system; namely, the Protectorate knows what it does, but not how it does it. There's no particularly unique materials in the organ, no electromagnetic field, no hard radiation, nothing that actually explains the mechanism behind the workings. It would be possible to manipulate the effects, but otherwise this thing might as well work by magic.
Though, admittedly, it's starting to seem like that's not such a far-fetched idea these days.
As for applications, there's quite a wide range-- and not just in terms of weaponizing the thing. Just as some examples;
- Power sources. In its passive state, Boreas' Field produced an incredible amount of heat (though it was covering a seventy five kilometre radius), enough that it steamed. With all that thermal energy concentrated in one place, it should be more than sufficient for it to function as a reactor core, powering generators without the need for a fuel supply or risk of spilling hard radiation.
- Cooling systems. While perhaps not useful on a jaeger, with a smaller area of effect and lower magnitude, an Entropy Dilution Field could function as an effective means of cold storage, or maintaining a safe temperature on hot-running equipment, such as Neo-Seattle's computer banks.
- On a related note, it could allow for more readily used superconductors, though that depends on just how much thermal energy it can sap.
- For weapons, perhaps the easiest application would be to take advantage of all the heat it's concentrating, and run a thermal tap from it into a melee weapon. In a way, ti'd be similar to the 'fire and ice fangblades' thought up a while ago-- except instead of 'ice', it's just more fire, and some very chilly surroundings.
- Alternatively, if the actual shape of the affected area can be modified, it could be possible to create... well, Exotic Physics hates to use the term 'freeze ray', since it's not a ray in any sense, so they're calling it a Zero Cannon. Essentially a cylindrical (or rectangular, conical, etc) area of effect projected with the Field generator at the perimeter, and a high transfer magnitude, such a weapon would likely be extremely effective against hard substances, rendering metal, bone, and carapace into a brittle state, while still damaging soft tissues. On the downside, it would transfer all that heat to the generator, and without a particularly effective cooling system (such as Boreas' particulate heat sink), a 'zero cannon' may end up being just as lethal to the one firing it as it is to the one being fired at.
There's still a lot of possibilities, and those being listed are really just examples.
In any case, it seems as if this is going to share another similarity to the Barrier Field system; namely, the Protectorate knows what it does, but not how it does it. There's no particularly unique materials in the organ, no electromagnetic field, no hard radiation, nothing that actually explains the mechanism behind the workings. It would be possible to manipulate the effects, but otherwise this thing might as well work by magic.
Though, admittedly, it's starting to seem like that's not such a far-fetched idea these days.
As for applications, there's quite a wide range-- and not just in terms of weaponizing the thing. Just as some examples;
- Power sources. In its passive state, Boreas' Field produced an incredible amount of heat (though it was covering a seventy five kilometre radius), enough that it steamed. With all that thermal energy concentrated in one place, it should be more than sufficient for it to function as a reactor core, powering generators without the need for a fuel supply or risk of spilling hard radiation.
- Cooling systems. While perhaps not useful on a jaeger, with a smaller area of effect and lower magnitude, an Entropy Dilution Field could function as an effective means of cold storage, or maintaining a safe temperature on hot-running equipment, such as Neo-Seattle's computer banks.
- On a related note, it could allow for more readily used superconductors, though that depends on just how much thermal energy it can sap.
- For weapons, perhaps the easiest application would be to take advantage of all the heat it's concentrating, and run a thermal tap from it into a melee weapon. In a way, ti'd be similar to the 'fire and ice fangblades' thought up a while ago-- except instead of 'ice', it's just more fire, and some very chilly surroundings.
- Alternatively, if the actual shape of the affected area can be modified, it could be possible to create... well, Exotic Physics hates to use the term 'freeze ray', since it's not a ray in any sense, so they're calling it a Zero Cannon. Essentially a cylindrical (or rectangular, conical, etc) area of effect projected with the Field generator at the perimeter, and a high transfer magnitude, such a weapon would likely be extremely effective against hard substances, rendering metal, bone, and carapace into a brittle state, while still damaging soft tissues. On the downside, it would transfer all that heat to the generator, and without a particularly effective cooling system (such as Boreas' particulate heat sink), a 'zero cannon' may end up being just as lethal to the one firing it as it is to the one being fired at.
There's still a lot of possibilities, and those being listed are really just examples.
===
And thus, the week ends.
I'm not entirely satisfied with some of this stuff, but it's taken long enough to get done, and overall I think the results are good enough. So, here you go; the finished downtime.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
*Giggles in evil glee*
You also have a bitchin name.
*has a thought*
I wonder if we can dump energy into a breach storage. And basically treat it something like a "reverse magazine" or sink, for a Zero Cannon.
Well, sounds like they had some fun. Good for them! Makes Poker Night more interesting.
*judging stare at our naval-tech department*
Exxxxxxxxxcellent.
Oh hello there. Ain't you pretty and shiny. *cackles*
You also have a bitchin name.
Uh? The fuck? What the hell happened to you Mr. Ugly?
Teh. Could be better, probably deserves another go round.
Intriguing... and useful in all three of these things, Fang and Redmond Tokens.
Pretty spot on. More pricy than I wanted but eh, I honestly don't think there's anything we can do about that. Well, time to plan which Kaiju we want to hunt I think.
Ice beam? More seriously this entire tech line screams Limbo Blue to me.
*has a thought*
I wonder if we can dump energy into a breach storage. And basically treat it something like a "reverse magazine" or sink, for a Zero Cannon.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Give it heat sinks and a mechanism that lets us shoot the heatsinks as bullets. Then we can freeze their face off and then thermal shock it to death with flaming bullets.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yes. I fully support this plan.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Another thing to wonder about: can we reverse the polarity of the ED Field and instead of draining heat, add it? Basically teleport fire into the other guy?
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Oh sure, but then I can't link the two systems together to make a self-stabilizing thermokinesis machine.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
*raises finger*
This made me think of a completely different weapon system which uses exotic Meson particles as munitions. Mostly cause in Aurora 4x they are stupidly short range, but skip through all armor to hit the squidgy internals.
Highwind
To Rise From The Ashes
- Location
- Brazil
I guess figured out how to summon something, just not exactly what we were after.
Well, I guess we'll just have to try again.
On the other hand, roaring is much harder when you don't have a mouth. And breath weapons are sadly off the table too. Oh well, some things have to be sacrificed for the sake of not having the bio-mechanical giant robot from going berserk.
I guess we'll have to look for those gametes next.
Hmm... I think we could research a new effect for the Tyr with this. Something to boost Drone effectiveness, or allow the Tyr to control them of the piloted unit is destroyed.
Looking at the bright side, at least no one approved the sillier refits like the one that added battleship cannons to the submarines.
That's something at least. I hope to get these and the Drakons ready before the next Cat 0 incursion.
Whew. *wipes forehead* That's some great stuff right there. Tacit would get an effective 8 Agi while using this, while Jagdhund gets 5. Phenom would get only one extra point, which really isn't much of a difference, so he should keep the SFTs for now because the Sound Breaker offers an equal or even better boost, though with different drawbacks.
As for the possible Ice damage, 1d5 damage can't inflict anything nasty aside from one or two strikes. Bad, but not immediately crippling. And we'd have to be pretty unlucky to get hit with that damage in the forst place, provided we don't try keep it up for more than 3 turns. According to Anydice, the chances of rolling at least a 6 on 2d5 is 60%, so we have decent odds of passing that test.
At any rate, there really isn't much room for improvement here aside from making variants that improve different stats or somehow reducing the Ice damage so we only take one strike. We really should build and install this on Tacit ASAP.
Yeah, even I am getting tired of this. One more try, then we make our own almost-sniper high-damage gun! With blackja- I mean, HESH shells and a bayonet!
Roughneck seems like a more conventional fight, though I wouldn't underestimate the effectiveness of something that is just really strong.
We should Hunt Tara next week and Bristlethorn the one after.
I am tempted to set aside a week just for Hunting, with two Hunt Actions and Four repair actions, but that sounds... tiring, really. We'd essentially have three back-to-back fights, and that doesn't seem like a good time for us or for the Rangers.
This is actually an amazing piece of equipment. Makes it harder to disarm Jagdhund, makes it easier for her to switch back to Ranged combat and applies to pretty much all carried guns. And we got one for free!
Well, all that's left is the putting it together, buying one and installing it. I can't help but wonder how it'll work mechanically aside from "extra inventory space", but that's for next week.
Pretty good. True, the shielding can be disabled, but it's also true that getting a Major+ wound to the chest means we have bigger problems to deal with. I guess all that's left is refining the production process and whatnot so it becomes cheaper to build.
Clearly we need to Research Magic again! No, really, we should get back to that at some point. Spending an action to look into possible methods of getting a team there and back, then Joint Research to act on the best option should do the trick.
Anyway, back to the almost-possibly-magic we have here.
This seems to me like the most promising use for this tech. Even if we end up not using it, having the option of building one is always good and the knowledge gained from its development would help with pretty much every other application we decide to pursue.
Hmm. This makes me wonder what mechanical advantages we could gain from having advanced computer banks. A bonus to Scanning and/or Comms rolls, maybe?
But anyway, cooling things would work, and the excess heat can still be used to power something.
Now this is interesting, because Superconductors have all sorts of interesting applications, the most basic of which would be making DEWs and railguns way more efficient.
Another option would be piercing the enemy with one blade, instantly sapping all the heat in an area around the blade to freeze it, then using the other Fangblade, superheated by the sapped heat, to deliver the coup de grace.
Store all the heat into a Breach pocket, then release it on the enemy's face once it closes in. Pyromancies are fun.
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
Okay, you know, the Zero Cannon as it is right now seems like something great for use by a 'suicide drone' against extremely dangerous targets, like say, a Blade class.
By which I mean we design a drone to move the Zero Cannon around and aim it, not sure if it would be land, air or sea, and in exchange for only getting one shot, we make it as accurate as possible and also have it be able to be salvaged mostly intact after firing. By which I mean, the drone takes itself out of operation upon firing, but we can repair it for much cheaper than building a new one.
All this requires the device that causes the effect of the Zero Cannon being too large to just mount on a missile of course, because that would be a better method if we could do it. Have an alternate ammo type for anything capable of using a Sunfire warhead. The Sunfire being AoE and mook-slaughtering, whilst the Zero Blast warhead is the anti-large/elite variant.
By which I mean we design a drone to move the Zero Cannon around and aim it, not sure if it would be land, air or sea, and in exchange for only getting one shot, we make it as accurate as possible and also have it be able to be salvaged mostly intact after firing. By which I mean, the drone takes itself out of operation upon firing, but we can repair it for much cheaper than building a new one.
All this requires the device that causes the effect of the Zero Cannon being too large to just mount on a missile of course, because that would be a better method if we could do it. Have an alternate ammo type for anything capable of using a Sunfire warhead. The Sunfire being AoE and mook-slaughtering, whilst the Zero Blast warhead is the anti-large/elite variant.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
At this point, as I mentioned, I don't think cost reduction is feasible anymore given that I think we ran through it once, and it feels like something of a hump in place for sanity reasons. With how many design phases we've put this thing through, I'm also growing concerned that it is approaching a state of hyper optimization where if we cut anything out or somehow try to apply cost cutting measures we'll lose some feature or other. Plus when you consider that once we unplug Tacit's main reactor we can put it in Phenom that saves a lot of costs in a way.
Which is why I'm fond of a Big Hunting Week to be honest.
E: Though, it just occurred to me that in theory we may be able to ask our "researchers" outright how feasible they think lowering the cost is without spending an action.
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LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
I feel like the Zero-Point devices are gonna be too complex to really make them cost effective for throwing away every time we shoot it.
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
Well, at least we won't have to worry about starving our Raubtiers now. Scratch another research project off the list (Raubtiers being made up of multiple related projects).
I don't think the "piloted unit required" thing will be much of a drawback for the drones; after all, not only are there several units not included in the drone list which could take command (our superheavies among them), but presumably our Jaegers qualify as well. And it doesn't specify that we'd need special equipment for it, so the only thing we'd need to research for the Tyr would be the ability to make them smarter somehow.
The navy guys should be ashamed of themselves for this utter failure to accomplish anything useful (on a fairly simple project at that, from what I can tell- I mean, they've got hulls right there to serve as reference material). At least we've got a potential ranged delivery system for the Sunfire warhead now; maybe it'd be worthwhile to research a different unit to mount the launcher (or mount the launcher to a different, pre-existing unit, if you prefer)?
What would happen to our rolls if we decided to dropkick a Kaiju with the OMEN system active? Or, well, any kick-based attack, really. Would the OMEN boost HtH?
Would it help to bring in a new team to work on the Jagdgewehr? It seems like these guys don't know anything about gunsmithing.
Roughneck... my first impulse is to say "he doesn't look too bad," but we have no idea what his arms do, which is making me paranoid now that I've factored them in. At least we can pretty much guarantee it'll suck at grappling. If we do decide to hunt it, Phenom's probably our best Jaeger for the job (unless the arms are, as I suspect, guns on a "kiting" build).
Basic Shatterdome Cells are quite obviously placeholders (both in-universe and out), but considering Phenom's last fight probably worthwhile ones while we work on planning a full Shatterdome there.
And while it's not reloading, giving the Garnele more ammo capacity is great, especially since I doubt we're gonna run through three clips per Garnele in one fight very often and thus the new capacity will be roughly equivalent in utility. In other words, Garneles still can't reload themselves, but with that much ammo do they really need to?
Not sure what to do with the Redmond tokens, but I'm sure the other players can find a use for them.
The sling's nice, especially since it seems to be pretty damn durable if it'd take a Difficulty 8 test to tear it (the extra advantage point, I'd assume, being used to either detach it or non-destructively remove the sling from its wearer). Good work for your first(?) solo research project, Everett (even if it was a simple project; sometimes simple is best, though, as the sling and upgraded Garneles prove).
We can probably just use our free Breach research action to finish the storage project next turn, since just drawing up a blueprint for what they've researched doesn't sound too hard.
The shielding on the Polaris is probably the best we're getting, really. I think we've got Mark IV Tacit's reactor ready for use now; we just need to save up the resources to build it.
You know, somehow using the heat-drain thing as a power source hadn't occurred to me. It really should have, though. Anyway, I say that we should aim some research that way and see how strong of a power source we can make with it... though I'm kinda suspecting first-gen'll be something roughly equivalent to the Ultracompact Nuclear Reactor in output, if only because it'll be more proof-of-concept. It'd probably give us more resources to play with somehow, though; either being outright cheaper than the nuclear variant, or giving a small bonus to after-combat revenue, or maybe slightly cheaper repairs (due to not needing refueling, except maybe water which is incredibly plentiful). This is all speculation, though; we'd have to research it to find out what the relative benefits and drawbacks would be for an EDF-based reactor.
And I still stand by my desire to somehow use the heat the EDF gun drains to power a secondary attack from the same weapon (the form that secondary attack takes is meaningless to me); all we need to do is figure out how to transfer heat from the EDF core to the secondary emitter at just the right speed to keep either one from overloading and melting. Mechanically, I'd assume something like "firing it in EDF mode generates ammo for use in alt-fire mode." Possibly with the opposite being true as well, since it wouldn't be safe to just keep sucking up heat endlessly (except in outlier cases like Boreas, which was designed from the outset with perpetual activity in mind).
I don't think the "piloted unit required" thing will be much of a drawback for the drones; after all, not only are there several units not included in the drone list which could take command (our superheavies among them), but presumably our Jaegers qualify as well. And it doesn't specify that we'd need special equipment for it, so the only thing we'd need to research for the Tyr would be the ability to make them smarter somehow.
The navy guys should be ashamed of themselves for this utter failure to accomplish anything useful (on a fairly simple project at that, from what I can tell- I mean, they've got hulls right there to serve as reference material). At least we've got a potential ranged delivery system for the Sunfire warhead now; maybe it'd be worthwhile to research a different unit to mount the launcher (or mount the launcher to a different, pre-existing unit, if you prefer)?
What would happen to our rolls if we decided to dropkick a Kaiju with the OMEN system active? Or, well, any kick-based attack, really. Would the OMEN boost HtH?
Would it help to bring in a new team to work on the Jagdgewehr? It seems like these guys don't know anything about gunsmithing.
Roughneck... my first impulse is to say "he doesn't look too bad," but we have no idea what his arms do, which is making me paranoid now that I've factored them in. At least we can pretty much guarantee it'll suck at grappling. If we do decide to hunt it, Phenom's probably our best Jaeger for the job (unless the arms are, as I suspect, guns on a "kiting" build).
Basic Shatterdome Cells are quite obviously placeholders (both in-universe and out), but considering Phenom's last fight probably worthwhile ones while we work on planning a full Shatterdome there.
And while it's not reloading, giving the Garnele more ammo capacity is great, especially since I doubt we're gonna run through three clips per Garnele in one fight very often and thus the new capacity will be roughly equivalent in utility. In other words, Garneles still can't reload themselves, but with that much ammo do they really need to?
Not sure what to do with the Redmond tokens, but I'm sure the other players can find a use for them.
The sling's nice, especially since it seems to be pretty damn durable if it'd take a Difficulty 8 test to tear it (the extra advantage point, I'd assume, being used to either detach it or non-destructively remove the sling from its wearer). Good work for your first(?) solo research project, Everett (even if it was a simple project; sometimes simple is best, though, as the sling and upgraded Garneles prove).
We can probably just use our free Breach research action to finish the storage project next turn, since just drawing up a blueprint for what they've researched doesn't sound too hard.
The shielding on the Polaris is probably the best we're getting, really. I think we've got Mark IV Tacit's reactor ready for use now; we just need to save up the resources to build it.
You know, somehow using the heat-drain thing as a power source hadn't occurred to me. It really should have, though. Anyway, I say that we should aim some research that way and see how strong of a power source we can make with it... though I'm kinda suspecting first-gen'll be something roughly equivalent to the Ultracompact Nuclear Reactor in output, if only because it'll be more proof-of-concept. It'd probably give us more resources to play with somehow, though; either being outright cheaper than the nuclear variant, or giving a small bonus to after-combat revenue, or maybe slightly cheaper repairs (due to not needing refueling, except maybe water which is incredibly plentiful). This is all speculation, though; we'd have to research it to find out what the relative benefits and drawbacks would be for an EDF-based reactor.
And I still stand by my desire to somehow use the heat the EDF gun drains to power a secondary attack from the same weapon (the form that secondary attack takes is meaningless to me); all we need to do is figure out how to transfer heat from the EDF core to the secondary emitter at just the right speed to keep either one from overloading and melting. Mechanically, I'd assume something like "firing it in EDF mode generates ammo for use in alt-fire mode." Possibly with the opposite being true as well, since it wouldn't be safe to just keep sucking up heat endlessly (except in outlier cases like Boreas, which was designed from the outset with perpetual activity in mind).
Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
...Well. That's concerning.
Excellent. Glad we used Ridgeback as a source, even if they might have dug that data up anyway.
Seems like, while drones are useful, they aren't universally better. Elites can be what allows us to win some engagements.
More than I expected, honestly. Kinda glad to hear some progress got made, even if it was the result of a completely separate bit of research.
Sweet. This is exactly the sort of thing I'd love to use for Titan Exalt.
Hm. Not a whole lot of data on the new guy, it seems. But Bristlethorn probably needs to be dealt with soon. Maybe next round.
Better than I expected, given the roll, but it could still use work.
Pretty much what I had hoped for. This should do wonderfully, at least for the moment.
Excellent. Those tokens have a lot of potential applications, the first me ranging from AI stuff, to Tyr upgrades, and the second being potentially useful for improving the OMEN, or anything else that risks frying our electronics amongst many other things. Hell, they're probably usable for a lot of just straight-up upgrades, to things like targeting computers or servos.
Not quite as out-there as I dreamed it might be, due to the high roll, but not too shabby. And getting a free one is a nice bonus.
To be fair, Breach Storage has a lot of possibilities. Having us narrow down what we're after seems Iike a wise idea.
Seems like a fine solution to me. I think, barring possibly cost reductions, this seems like it's about done. Now we just need to save up for it. Anyone else up for a metaphorical orgy of hunting and looting next turn?
So, it basically just concentrates or transfers thermal energy over a given, variable area? Well. That does bring up some interesting ideas. Fyr's hit most of the good ones, but we could also potentially create ice platforms on the surface of the ocean for our land-based conventionals. Or for some other purpose. Ice is pretty multi-functional, especially when you use it on the ocean.
Nah, next we get invaded. No room to hunt, this week, sadly. On the plus side, the hunts have been making turns last significantly longer, so there's a silver-lining in that respect.
Could be useful. Alternatively, putting that heat to use doing something else might pull double duty in cooling the heat-sink down.
Creative. Difficult, but creative.
If they've actuallt managed to summon anything, I'd call that a success. I was just hoping they'd tell us how the Kaiju do it. Figuring it out for ourselves, even if flawed, would exceed my expectations.I guess figured out how to summon something, just not exactly what we were after.
Well, I guess we'll just have to try again.
Oh, hell yes. This is totally the sort of thing the Tyr is useful for.
"Oh, that wasn't the worst. Not by a long-shot. No, that goes to the guy who wanted to mount a Positron Cannon on a submarine. I am genuinely confused as to how he manages to tie his own shoes, given the amount of intelligence that suggestion seems to indicate."
I think we could potentially lower the initial check a bit, with some effort, maybe a few other things. That doesn't do much that completely unbalance it, since the main balancing factor is how we can't use it consecutively for long, and that stays the same.
Not sure why Tara has the priority over the Kaiju putting out an ominous vibe like he's in Jojo. Bristlethorn definitely seems like the bigger threat, to me.
What is it going to power, though? The more things we power like this, the less thermal energy in the area around them. Basically, this tech doesn't necessarily scale well. I think we're probably best off restricting the area covered to a heat sink, and using them for cooling and power simultaneously.
This actually solves some of the issues nuclear power, come to think of it. No need for a coolant, which means you can use a solid reaction vessel. If Barriers can act as light-weight shielding, and we can miniaturize both sorts of tech enough, we could potentially power our Cons with it. It would be vulnerable to damage, but you could probably work on that.
Definitely an interesting idea. We'll probably need to work on miniaturization for that.
Oh, I like that. I am definitely adding that to the research doc, if it's not there already. Amongst many, many other ideas.
"Honestly, the issue is less incompetence, and more a lack of control to curb their...enthusiasm, shall we say. Basically, the suggestions were all cool, but wildly impractical, or way over budget. Combine that with recovering from the excessive drinking they ended up doing during their brainstorming sessions, and you begin to see why they didn't get very far. There are good ideas scattered throughout to crazy designs, and I've got my more balanced engineers working on sorting them out. But they got swamped, frankly. I think they, and I, underestimated how many designs there would be."
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
My opinion is that we should restrict the EDF Reactor to Jaeger usage only; that way we don't run the risk of military-wide hypothermia or a perpetual winter (neither of which would be good for us). I have no idea what benefits it'd have over the standard nuclear power source (aside from less environmental damage in the event of a breach), but I'm sure it'd have some.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Honestly my only real gripe with the drones is we can't get elites out of 'em. Then again we weren't really getting elites anyway, so...
...I'll be honest I don't see the issue there. Battleship cannons flat out wouldn't work on a sub, but aside from being a massive power hog I don't see why the PC wouldn't.
Does that sound like dual core reactor to you? 'cause it does to me.
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LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Honestly the thing is I want to make it ranged viable, and there aren't that many ways to use raw thermal energy for range unless you're A) using it to power some other type of weapon, or B) pouring it into some kind of physical medium and using that as the range attack.
Option A loses the fire/ice thermal shock thing I want here, so Option B. First thing I thought of was basically how some settings with handheld energy weapons basically use heatsinks in place of ammo magazine, so I thought "why not make the heatsink magazines also literal magazines so we can shoot superheated bullets".
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
Option A doesn't seem as likely to lose the "thermal shock" thing as you seem to think; it may be somewhat less efficient than finding a way to directly send the heat back into the target we drained it from, but there're several ways we could use that heat to power a Fire-damage weapon (such as draining it into a thermal generator that powers a more traditional laser). We just have to come up with the concept, then assign the research team to develop it.
Really, firing the heat sinks as ammunition seems kind of wasteful to me, which is a large part of why I don't support that idea.
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
Certainly seems like a viable concept for a Superheavy to me. Or a Jaeger gun, as I've already discussed. Definitely not a conventional, though; I doubt we'd even be able to fit the Zero Cannon alone in a conventional.
Highwind
To Rise From The Ashes
- Location
- Brazil
Tara's fortress or whatever the structure actually is is almost finished. I'd rather kill her now, while there might still be some holes in the walls or places to make those holes.
I was thinking a Jaeger reactor, actually. Just figuring out how to build a useful high-power reactor out of it would help our understanding of the tech, since it would involve learning how to create the field, how to control its size and drain rate, and possibly its shape as well. It's the most basic application of anything that generates a lot of heat, really.
I know you can use thermoelectric generators to transform heat directly into electricity, without moving parts, though they have terrible efficiency. Maybe we can use those and offset their inefficiency with the EDF's own insane efficiency to make something small, rugged and potentially cheaper?
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
Wasteful how? I mean, maybe if they were super optimized heatsinks, sure, but the idea here is heatsinks that are also designed to be bullets, or to put it another way, bullets that pull doubletime as heatsinks. Expendability would be part of the design.
Sir Plusse
Overly Vicious Quester
- Location
- Kansas
I was just approaching from the point of view that there's no reason to deliberately design them to use expendable ammo when we already HAVE pure-energy weapons researched. Sure, it probably wouldn't use many resources (assuming our munitions factory can't just churn them out for free, but even if they can it brings up the issue of it competing with ammo for other guns for factory time), but if the lasers don't use any apart from the initial construction... well, blame my inner miser.
Actually, I think a laser (or other pure-heat attack) would be more efficient on the "thermal shock" front as well; your "bullets as heat sinks" thing strikes me as more of an Impact/Fire attack rather than the thermal shock you're aiming for. Plus it doesn't really sound all that effective at its intended purpose- reinforced heat sinks don't sound like effective bullets (partly aerodynamics, partly the likelyhood of them just splattering across the exoskeleton without actually scratching it), while using bullets as heat sinks doesn't sound very good at keeping the EDF from overheating; either way, I feel they'd be more expensive than you'd expect, and there's basically no way the munitions factory would be able to mass-produce them very well compared to other guns.
I'd expect weaponized heat sinks to cost at least as much as fuses for the Schwert Gewehr on a per-shot basis; anything less and you'd be looking at an EXTREMELY large damage penalty (like, -5 damage per hit, which would make it basically impossible to do any damage) and literally no AP. And I doubt bullets could serve as heat sinks at all without relatively-expensive modifications which would, again, cost us hundreds of Resources per shot (before any discounts that may apply).
Basically: Cheap, heat sink, bullet. Pick two.
Sorry, got a bit ranty and soapbox-y there. I just want you to consider the fact that, while we're ALLOWED to research anything in this game, it isn't always a good idea to do so. In this case, that means "if an easier project gets better results, why bother with the complicated stuff?"