The problem is that two components require attention of people that number in low tens and those cannot be increased no matter what facilities you built. More rollouts does not mean more waystones made in this scenario. Which I guess means that we should do the second simpler waystone.
That just means we need to come up with waystones that can be built by more people.
Yeah I have alas come to that conclusion in the response to Boney. But that tbh still means that the vanguard type waystones would be better to roll out in Kislev ngl.
A thought: It might be possible to convince Ulthuan to help construct Waystones, if we feel that relying on Laurelorn alone wouldn't be fast enough. Ulthuan-standardized Waystones might take tons of time and resources, but even our current expensive design is way cheaper and faster to make.
I feel like there is a point that going too low is not worth it since it would just introduce weaknesses to chains we aim to build and that might cause more trouble than it is worth if that causes all the upsteam waystones to turn to Dhar fountains.
You'd have to give their Archmages a reason to look into simplifying the component beyond 'reclaiming the glories of the Golden Age.' You could convince them with gold, but it won't get as much effort as a waystone that they can use. They can't use the waystone we designed. The Runesmiths' Guild will never sell runes to them. Even the Engineers won't sell products directly to Ulthuan.
I think we should test Kislev network, try assembling cheaper waystone and deploy the current one conditionally. Something like Laurelorn [Frontier]. The places that are really unwholesome. There is bound to be a few. Then, the turn after, if the cheaper waystone pans out, deploy both Kislev and Laurelton with mix and match. Chains of higher tier waystones for egregious Dhar dense areas, with cheaper ones in more benign locations.
I think we would do better to not use the reverse engineered storage. From what we were told, Ulthuan has archmages that can rebuild lost waystones given enough time; what they lack is a "quick-and-dirty" design that gets the job done good enough and can be put up on every hilltop in the kingdom.
That's what Eltharion took the tributary for. Ulthuan can build waystones, but it's a pain in the ass for them because it upsets the ego of Caledor. In comparison, working together with the Old World to simplify an enchantment from the Golden Age is rather simple.
I was actually referring to this passage:
The Titanmetal caps would be expensive, sure, but I read the key bottleneck as Archmage Hours, whether because they're always in demand or because it's just politically useful for Saphery to artificially increase scarcity. Giving them another design that requires an Archmage doesn't actually solve Yvresse's problem in the short term, the way a design they can do totally in-house does.
All of the Ten Kingdoms have Archmages and archmage/Von Tarnus-equivalents. The White Tower is not the only magical tradition on Ulthuan, simply the most famous. And neither is the White Tower unified to the extent that all their archmages would be unwilling to work on it. Cothique, Lothern, Nagarythe, and Yvresse, all of the kingdoms have their own traditions. Ulthuan is large enough that even if half of the elves capable of working on it refuse on principle, that's probably still more than the what the Old World can put together combined.
Ironically, putting aside their pride to survive is quite an Ulrican thing to do.
To take this to the extreme;
Wait, really?
Top 10 phrases I'd never expect out of Boney.
We don't actually know how expensive or how long it takes Ulthuan to make waystones. We can only speculate. But our first prototype took 6 months to put together, and its main cost is in mage hours, not any limited resource like Old One monoliths. So, I'd guess ours is significantly cheaper and faster to make.
Using the Old One monoliths was specifically for replacing nexuses iirc.
Ulthuan's nexuses require Old One monoliths. Their waystones do not. They just require the expertise of Saphery and massaging Caledor in the ego. While massaging the Kingdom of Caledor's ego is probably more tedious and painful than finding Old One monoliths, Ulthuan's waystone's don't have a limited supply.
Boney's shitposting, when he bothers to, is legendary. We are merely lucky that he is merciful and restrains his power most of the time.
Speak for yourself I want to see Boney's gyatt rizz (idk what either of those words mean).
You can't handle the rizz!
