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[Chiefwaffles]

It is just combiningthe two, in a fashion that is plausible. We have never explained what happens to whatever is in the place that a summoned thing is summoned into. This just places something other than air where the crystal is summoned and has the crystal summoned around it. Normally this would just be heavy crystals, as lead doesn't really do anything to improve crystal other than maybe increase its shock resistance, but in a very very much less weight-efficient way than you would get from just adding more crystal. What it does achieve, however, is making the lead rigid until it impacts, which is pretty much the only thing that matters. Hardness is basically irrelevant in such forces and structure generally loses out to things like blast-waves. This just holds a liead-projectile's form so that it all piles onto a single point instead of behaving like a liquid and spreading out.

You want to make a crystal-lead alloy.
We have never done anything like this before. At best this is a revision of its own. You're seeking insane overcomplication here and I frankly don't know why.

Um, no? It is a pretty tiny spell. Smaller than an axe or a full load of caltrops, more temporary than, basically anything. It should be easy for a magem to do this. And we have summoning spells, so that is a non issue. And the crystal works shapes crystal. Now, with all our expertise, this should again be a non-issue to just summon the thing directly, but a crystal-works crystal manipulator should work if necessary. And the duration is a non-issue because we will already have an ammunition handler, and the circuits can presumably be automated if we are to do half the things that you want to, so none of this is any sort of issue. We are already doing all of the things that this proposes, just not in this specific configuration, but we have enough different configurations of these mechanisms that one more should be an afterthought. So once the device is don with it should be an insignificant addition to the existing magical requirements of the cannon. No direct wizard interaction required.

Crystal Caltrops: [3-1, 4+1, 6]
With their new training, our apprentices can now handle more spells than the basic Conjure Mist.  With this in mind, we begin development of a spell purposefully designed to be easy to cast while still maintaining usefulness - ideally doing something to combat the Moskurg Calvary that swarms our lines like overgrown rats.  Working diligently on some of the more basic principles of magic, our mages have developed a relatively simple spell that spawns dozens of randomly-shaped crystals at a time.  Without relying on a uniform shape these crystals can be cast into being with minimal effort by our esteemed wizards.  These caltrops are random, jagged needles of crystal glass that are nearly invisible at night, sharp enough to pierce the hoof of an unsuspecting horse...most of the time.

The only reason crystal caltrops are cheap is because we don't actually need to pay attention to the shape.
Our shells have to be a very uniform shape. We have rifled barrels. It'd take a very long time to summon something to the level of precision we need for shells.

Crystalworks crystal very explicitly does not dispel. That's half of the point of the Crystalworks. It makes non-dispellable crystal.
I have no idea what you mean by "our circuits can be automated". I actually don't understand a lot of what you're trying to say here.

The shell has no gems or circuits. There is a separate device that adds a normal-crystal case. No gem or circuit is ever included in the shell itself. And there should be basically no more wizard intervention required for this than a normal cannon. It is just one gem-powered device to place cases around the shell. We have devices to summon crystals in the crystalworks, and we had crystals bound to gems ages ago. Crystal-summon + device is the simplest thing we could do and circuits are exactly a thing that does this now.

Oh, now you want to make a field crystal summoning tool? That's its own design.

There is almost no "new material" aspect asit is just summoning a crystal over lead instead of air. What remains is pretty much the whole difficulty of the revision.

You're literally making a crystal-lead alloy. No amount of wordplay can change that. You want to combine lead and crystal. And you want to do it using this extremely strange method that'd likely just result in "okay you have blobs of lead embedded in crystal" at best.

It is just one more type of device, like the horde of devices in the crystalworks, steam engines, cannons, towers, and basically everything now. So yes, wizards may be involved in building these devices, and may be involved in charging them, but not in operating them so it is completely irrelevant.

A steam-powered helicarrier is just one more type of device, like the hordes of devices in the crystalworks, steam engines, cannons, towers, and basically everything now. So yes, wizards may be involved in building these devices, and may be involved in charging them, but not in operating them so it is completely irrelevant.

The design is easy, we just cast a bolt and then summon a couple of crystals. Not a big deal.

Except that we also have to make an entirely new alloy when we've never made an alloy using crystal before, and we have to spend large amounts of time (see my point above regarding summoning times) to summon the crystals for every single shell. A very big deal.

The effectiveness is the only viable way to see any effectiveness without magic bullets or explosives. We cannot currently make magic bullets unless you want to try wasps or solidified fireballs or compressed spiderwebs or something... Explosives are right-out because not magic. We could start material sciences from scratch and attempt to imbue fireball into wood or something but basically no. This is large calibre force in small calibre impact, that is by far the best way to make a penetrator given our materials. It is basically the only way to see any effectiveness at all.

AkA "My design is the best because I say it is! I say it's the best armor piercer, so therefore it must be!"
Also, we can easily do explosions. Magegem + Circuit = Fireball.

I was quite clear that this could help, but also that our previous efforts diminished the ability to improve. We may well get something better from this, but not better enough to see a significant improvement, nor even better enough to counteract the smaller calibre.

I was quite clear that aerodynamics was just one part of multiple.

... there is no reason to believe that the energy is being transferred into the fragmentation of the bullet and thus failing to be transferred into the target. It is not obvious that this is important. But it is plausible that they might notice it and I noted that. A heavier bullet at a smaller impace makes sense. It is why maces have spikes, and lances have points, and axes have blades, and needles go through fabric. That heavy-shots work better than light shots is also obvious, just as it being difficult to launch a heavy shot from a light cannon. This is the obvious extension of trying to launch a small projectile with the force of a large cannon. You make the heavy part small and the rest of it light.

An armor-piercing shell must withstand the shock of punching through armor plating. Shells designed for this purpose have a greatly strengthened body with a specially hardened and shaped nose. One common addition to later AP shells is the use of a softer ring or cap of metal on the nose known as a penetrating cap, which both lowers the initial shock of impact to prevent the rigid shell from shattering, as well as aiding the contact between the target armor and the nose of the penetrator to prevent the shell from bouncing off in glancing shots.

That and again, velocity matters more than mass in terms of kinetic energy. Increasing the mass of our shells doesn't magically increase the power of our cannons. The shells will be fired with less power and will impact with less speed, resulting in less energy being transferred to the target. This is hyperbole, but someone getting hit by a 1 kg projectile going 100 m/s is going to be hurt a lot more than someone getting hit by a 100 kg projectile going 1 m/s.

Which is pretty much exactly what I said. This reasoning applies to both our proposals. Both are generally easy but have some complications, one is armour-piercing and the other is aerodynamics and likely some sort of hollow-point with the soft crystal centre. Certainly ueful, but not armour piercing.

And I was pointing out how ridiculous what you said was.

DESIGNS
2 - AP Shells: FallacyofUrist, Chiefwaffles
0 - No More Hinges:
1 - Giant Mutant Falcons: Kadzar
0 - Discarding Sabot rounds:
1 - Sliding-Hatch Breech Loading: Helmacon

Putting the author of the design in the votebox makes zero sense and just adds bloat, by the way.

And I'm done trying to prove the validity of my design. You'll continue pointing out inconsequential usually-not-even-true "flaws" in my proposals regardless of what I do, and I'd rather not argue some more. I'll let others see the merits of my stuff.

[helmacon]

How about everybody just take a breath and drink a bit of water? We need to dissolve a bit of this salt. It's just a game people. There's no need to get upset at each other over this.

[RAM]

You want to make a crystal-lead alloy.
We have never done anything like this before. At best this is a revision of its own. You're seeking insane overcomplication here and I frankly don't know why.

An alloy is acombining two materials to make a new material. This is different. Crystal is low-density, it has space inside it, the crystal is completly normal crystal overlayed with lead, which occupies the space within the crystal. Calling this an alloy is a falsehood.
We have done exactly this before, since we first made crystals. Crystals have always been low density and always had space within them. It is one of their defining traits. In fact their primary defining trait, given that low-weight is what made them special. I am assuming that the empty space is occupied by the air that was previously in the space that it now occupies. I am assuming that if lead were there instead it would work the same as air, just summoning a crystal that has a lot of non-crystal space occupied by whatever had previously been there. This is a normal crystal summoning, just with unusual circumstances. We have done normal crystal summoning before.
As for why? Well, lead is soft, it would be more effective if it were harder. A crystal coating would still work, but less effectively. I still dare say that if the speed is high enough lead would be more effective than steel, but we are probably not quite at that speed yet. A steel bolt would be preferable if the crystal-lead process fails.

The only reason crystal caltrops are cheap is because we don't actually need to pay attention to the shape.
Our shells have to be a very uniform shape. We have rifled barrels. It'd take a very long time to summon something to the level of precision we need for shells.

Crystalworks crystal very explicitly does not dispel. That's half of the point of the Crystalworks. It makes non-dispellable crystal.

Crystalworks is composite spellcraft. Taking out the permanent element is easy. We just take out the crystalworks permanent summoning and put in the EXTREMELY FAMILIAR basic crystal summoning. The crystalworks operates based upon templates, we just have to make up a templae and it is good to go, and given the low power requirements to maintain a brief spell, it is not an issue to power it. I think that you are massively underestimating our crystal experience and don't know how the crystalworks works. It ended up being a template deal which works perfectly with making a field template, which would be for a tiny little shell, so ought to be much smaller than a cannon.

I have no idea what you mean by "our circuits can be automated". I actually don't understand a lot of what you're trying to say here.

That would pertain to autoloaders in the future, so is not important in the present. It is just pointing out that it would not add much to the hassles of future-proofing.

Oh, now you want to make a field crystal summoning tool? That's its own design.

If we did not already have ALL of the parts then it might be. That is not the case. Using existing elements to get an existing result with a slightly different outcome is normal partial-revision stuff.

You're literally making a crystal-lead alloy. No amount of wordplay can change that. You want to combine lead and crystal.

You want to combine steel and crystal. I am not trying to mix them, just overlay them, they would still maintain their separate compositions. Bringing up the word alloy is the only wordplay here.

And you want to do it using this extremely strange method that'd likely just result in "okay you have blobs of lead embedded in crystal" at best.

Extremely strange methods are the whole point of this game, and this specific one is just a logical putcome of realising that crystals are so light because they are filled with air. It is not even that strange honestly. On the other point, it is an arrow-shaped blob of lead ebedded in crystal, which is exaclty the aim of the effort. It is a win condition and gets us the mass of lead with enough rigidity to be a functional penetrator. Heavier materials would be nice but it really doesn't matter.

A steam-powered helicarrier

-_-
It is just a crystal summoning template, that is exactly what the crystalworks is. And I would power the helicarrier with fireball-derived Orion-drives, not steam...

Except that we also have to make an entirely new alloy when we've never made an alloy using crystal before, and we have to spend large amounts of time (see my point above regarding summoning times) to summon the crystals for every single shell. A very big deal.

Not an alloy, just summoning a crystal where lead already exists instead odf sumoning a crystal where air already exists. And ending with a crystal that is filled with lead and thus heavy instead of a crystal filled with air and thus light. And if it is impractical to make shells with the crystalworks magic then it is impractical to have crystal in shells. these devices barely need to be manned, assuming that they take a full hour just for a little cover for shells it is still not a problem, we can use other ammunition and operate them in parallel

AkA "My design is the best because I say it is! I say it's the best armor piercer, so therefore it must be!"
Also, we can easily do explosions. Magegem + Circuit = Fireball.

Explosions are tough because they need a trigger. And they would be vulnerable to antimagic because the spell would activate at the destination. It is something that we do not yet have. I expect that we could do it easily as a design, but it would need some creative justification. I would like to try something with living spells for it...

And the physics involved is not really up for debate. More concentrated energy is the way to penetrate. You can also try sustained energy or something but it still comes down to concentration of energy. Yours has a low energy crystal in the middle, ow energy because it is low mass and the whole bullet is moving at the same speed so mass is the only factor. Now, if your bullet remains intact and rigid then maybe you can focus that energy on a point, until the area widens and you are back down to having to push the back of the bullet through the hole, so you gain nothing except to weaken the defending structure. This is a pretty big assumption though, it is almost certain that your bullet crumples and your shaped-penetrator is meaningless. It is a simple fact that a big bullet is a big bullet and without a new allow that won't change. You want to magic up some hardened steel that will withstand a cannon impact with adamant, which is not likely, and would achieve very little if it did. It still all comes down to the "AP Shells" having to make a large hole when hole-size is the important factor. If we were trying to do more damage in total then your idea might well have merit, but armour-piercing is not achieved by fragile hardness and microscopic speed increases.

... there is no reason to believe that the energy is being transferred into the fragmentation of the bullet and thus failing to be transferred into the target. It is not obvious that this is important. But it is plausible that they might notice it and I noted that. A heavier bullet at a smaller impace makes sense. It is why maces have spikes, and lances have points, and axes have blades, and needles go through fabric. That heavy-shots work better than light shots is also obvious, just as it being difficult to launch a heavy shot from a light cannon. This is the obvious extension of trying to launch a small projectile with the force of a large cannon. You make the heavy part small and the rest of it light.

An armor-piercing shell must withstand the shock of punching through armor plating. Shells designed for this purpose have a greatly strengthened body with a specially hardened and shaped nose. One common addition to later AP shells is the use of a softer ring or cap of metal on the nose known as a penetrating cap, which both lowers the initial shock of impact to prevent the rigid shell from shattering, as well as aiding the contact between the target armor and the nose of the penetrator to prevent the shell from bouncing off in glancing shots.

That and again, velocity matters more than mass in terms of kinetic energy. Increasing the mass of our shells doesn't magically increase the power of our cannons. The shells will be fired with less power and will impact with less speed, resulting in less energy being transferred to the target. This is hyperbole, but someone getting hit by a 1 kg projectile going 100 m/s is going to be hurt a lot more than someone getting hit by a 100 kg projectile going 1 m/s.

The wikipedia quote is misdirected. My quote was referencing what our designers could reasonable think of. It IS useful, but it applies more to my design than yours, with a rigid-lead pole being much more fitting than a steel tip against adamant. Mine does shatter as it hits, but only at the point of impact, the back is still a line of rigid heavy material. Yours bends open as the heavy outside strikes and deforms because of the open structure.

You are trying to magic velocity out of nothing, and we do not have that magic. Your projectile will move slower than mine because your projectile is heavier because it is wider because its weight is distributed to the outside. A tiny dash of aerodynamics will lose to my thinner, longer projectile, aerodynamics is very kind to long thin things. Both designs get shot out of the same cannon, mine has a more concentrated projectile, concentration=penetration.

How much energy does it take to get those wieghts up to speed?

The fundamental point of discarded sabot is that it applies the full force of the shot into a smaller projectile. Smaller projectiles displace less air, so are more aerodynamic barring extreme problems. smaller projectiles have a smaller impact area, so have much more penetration per unit of energy inserted. My projectile's impact area is smaller than its launch area. discarding sabot can be lighter to launch and heavier to hit because iof this. Discarding sabot has a higher launch-velocity from being lighter, and a superior penetration from being heavier. It uses almost the full force of the cannon because it is the same calibre and only discards the minority of its mass, and hits with that same force at a much smaller clalibre, because it is both an unusaully light round in a heavy calibre and an impossibly heavy round in a small calibre.

Honestly, we are already using aerodynamic hardened steel. These "AP Shell" are not armourpiercing, they are just an upgrade. nice, butdo not address the current issue.

DESIGNS
2 - AP Shells: FallacyofUrist, Chiefwaffles
0 - No More Hinges:
1 - Giant Mutant Falcons: Kadzar
0 - Discarding Sabot rounds:
1 - Sliding-Hatch Breech Loading: Helmacon

Putting the author of the design in the votebox makes zero sense and just adds bloat, by the way.

I did that last turn, but  idid not start it this turn. Someone else did that all by themselves for the revision phase. And I find it to be useful because I would rather not vote for my own designs if I can help it. Meanwhile it is basically devoid of clutter, I mean, really, ar you honestly having trouble with the complexity of the vote list? I am being honest here, I really don't know. I can't see it happening myself but it is perfectly normal for people to vary in this sort of thing. On the other hand, I will go so far as to say that the dashes add nothing but busiwork to people adding new entries. I find the numbers with just a single space to be abundantly clear in their meaning. and requiring of no further demonstrations. But, unfortunately I have a strict "no lost data" policy. But i will refrain from adding them in the future, if it occurs to me, and someone else agrees. Oh, I am putting them in order of when they were submitted, which is very easy by referencing the links. Again, lost information as far as visibility goes.

And I'm done trying to prove the validity of my design. You'll continue pointing out inconsequential usually-not-even-true "flaws" in my proposals regardless of what I do, and I'd rather not argue some more. I'll let others see the merits of my stuff.

Thankyou for giving me the last word, it is nice!

DESIGNS
0 - (Voidslayer) No More Hinges:
1 - (Kadzar) Giant Mutant Falcons: Kadzar
0 - (RAM)Discarding Sabot rounds:
1 - (Chiefwaffles)Sliding-Hatch Breech Loading: Helmacon
2 - (Chiefwaffles)AP Shells: FallacyofUrist, Chiefwaffles

[evictedSaint]

Guys, please keep it civil.  You've both stated your arguments, move on.

[VoidSlayer]

I am going to go for No More Hinges 2: Sliding-Hatch Breech Loading.  Since it is mostly my idea and I think it would dramatically improve the reliability of at least the mini cannons if not all of them. 

DESIGNS
0 - (Voidslayer) No More Hinges:
1 - (Kadzar) Giant Mutant Falcons: Kadzar
0 - (RAM)Discarding Sabot rounds:
2 - (Chiefwaffles)Sliding-Hatch Breech Loading: Helmacon, voidslayer
2 - (Chiefwaffles)AP Shells: FallacyofUrist, Chiefwaffles

Really I think either one will help, just like the fire rod vs minicannon debate.

I REALLY think we should make a flare rod next round though.  It is the only place our apprentices are still getting killed consistently.

Then we can grow the falcons bigger.

Then make killer wolves.

Then make the wolves humanoid and able to use the flare rods and cannons.

Then make a cloning factory...

Okay too many steps ahead!

[Chiefwaffles]

Eeh. I think we should just bother with crystal optics instead of flare rods. With crystal optics, we can start making scopes for our future weapons, and we can just cut out the middleman entirely and not need spotters in dangerous areas.
I'm myself waiting for the combat phase/others' ideas before thinking of a design next design phase, but right now I tentatively want an APC. It'd really help make our infantry relevant again.

[RAM]

I doubt that an A.P.C. would help that much if they move entirely to the air. Andthey will keep increasing their altitude too.

[Chiefwaffles]

An APC is just to bring our troops to the front line. No matter how powerful they are air-wise, they still need to protect and hold ground. That's the entire point. Our soldiers are at the moment, largely useless in large-scale combat (one of the three combat stages!) because their _pathetic ballistae annihilate our troops before our guys can get into range.
Sure, right now our artillery is taking care of that, but it would still be nice having an APC that could make our troops relevant again. So we would both have an infantry advantage and an artillery advantage.

They can go as high as they want, but ultimately air's just support for the ground.


That and an APC would protect against ballistae and firebombs, their two competent ranged weapons. Remember when last design phase, Evicted accidently thought the train design was a tracked APC? With an effectiveness of 2, we had armor that could reliably stop ballista bolts. Hell, the APC wasn't even that bad.
So with an APC, our troops would be protected from air and artillery bombardment alike as they advance and gain land - the entire point for fighting.

[RAM]

Back before there were any new boats and we were trying to take the sea, they could stall forever because they were faster and could avoid combat. The rules did change at some point, so that may no longer be the case, but if things are still like that then it would be enough for them to be able to avoid combat. A standoff where neither side could exterminate the other would be a draw. II suspect that it would still be the case honestly. What would be the alternative? We both bypass each other completely and attack one another's capitals?

[Chiefwaffles]

It's simple. Ground > Air.
If they have control of the air and we have control of the ground, then we win. We're fighting over the ground here, after all. And it's not like we don't have any control over the air. We have Falcons and also, now the AS-HAC-1. So wherever our soldiers are, we have anti-air.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. If/when we do an APC, we should incorporate the AS-HAC-1 (or 2, if we ever do that) into the design. It's simple and already exists. If there's too much potential of enemy fire it can just not be used, but otherwise allows for the AS-HAC-1 to be used on the move, offensive, and as anti-air without the fear of getting blown up by lightning. It's small enough that the design doesn't have to be built around it, its breech-loading means it's easy to reload from a static position, and its swivel-y nature means it'd be great for a mobile emplacement.


But yeah. Let's say there are two zones. Zone A and Zone B. Two opposing sides control one zone. Both sides want Zone A, but their weapons and armor mean they're at a stalemate. Even though they're at a stalemate in terms of combat, the side with Zone A wins. And that's not even factoring in the part that we have anti-air: Falcons and the AS-HAC-1.


EDIT: Because apparently I have nothing else to do with my time.

Future Design: AS-APC-1 "Protector"

The Protector is, in a way, a Restless' main wagon adapted to work on land.

The body of the vehicle is entirely crystal, thick enough to stand up to any of Moskurg's weapons. Be it firebomb, lightning, bolt, or arrow. Along the vehicle's center, inside the cabin, is the steam engine. This steam engine is the same one we miniaturized in the Restless design, and is thus already (relatively) small and light enough to fit in a vehicle of this size without sacrificing speed or space.
At the front is the driver's seat. Small portholes - small enough to block the luckiest of arrows - are scattered across the front here to allow for visibility without compromising the safety of the driver. Using our experience of this mechanical control system from the Restless, we have a series of levers in front of the driver's seat that control power and steeling in the wheels.

Between the driver's seat and steam engine is a relatively small crystal hatch and risen "pedestal" for someone to stand on. On top of the hatch, a AS-HAC-1 is attached to a small swivel mount. A person can stand out the hatch and operate the AS-HAC-1 when needed. In the case of an impending attack (such as a carpet getting dangerously close or seeing a ballista about to fire), the weapon operator can quickly lower themselves into the cabin and close the hatch. The AS-HAC-1, being made out of crystal, should survive most attacks (other than a direct ballista bolt or something similar), while the hatch should keep everyone in the cabin safe.
Water and ammunition is given small amounts of dedicated storage space in the standard configuration of the AS-APC-1. There's not a large amount of ammunition, but seats can be replaced with boxes/tanks for storage of additional ammo as needed. Without sacrificing space for personnel, an AS-APC-1 is still a formidable foe, but its cannon is best used in a support role. The optimum use of the cannon is to aid large-scale assaults, defend against the rare actual threat to the AS-APC-1, and when supplied with enough ammo, as essentially a small motorized cannon.

Without giving up any space to store additional ammunition, the AS-APC-1 can safely and securely bring 10 soldiers (and 1 driver) to any destination. Its AS-HAC-1 cannon is formidable for aiding in assaults, self-defense, and as anti-air. It can cover infantry assaults, individually transport squads to prone striking sites for skirmishes, and act in large-scale assaults where it safely brings our soldiers to a front-line melee without having to worry about enemy bombardment. It's practically invulnerable to firebombs, lightning, and ballistae too!

TL;DR: A 11 (including driver) person APC equipped with an AS-HAC-1. Very multi-use - thanks to the nature of crystal and their weapons, it's even kind of a tank! It has a (small) cannon and armor thick enough to block pretty much anything they have.
Just imagine it! Rolling through their fortifications without so much as a scratch. Allowing our soldiers to practically ignore their artillery. Serving as a motorized cannon. Serving as a cannon practically invulnerable to their weapons. Supporting our troops in combat with its cannon. It can do so many things!



...And this design is simply because I feel we maaaay be getting a little too non-magical. I still prefer the AS-APC-1 of course. It's not particularly relevant to anything that's happening right now, but at some point we should start doing new things instead of constantly countering. We'll see how next combat phase goes then we can go from there.

Design: Summon Shade
A Shade is a being made out of mist. It being made out of mist, it tends to be hard to detect. In its normal form, it's not particularly noticeable. However, it can also disperse itself temporarily to practically become invisible.

We've had plenty of experience with summoning and a decent amount of experience with summoning living things. Of course, we aren't really near the ability to summon a creature of substantial intelligence, so in order to allow a shade to be useful, we must go around our little inability to summon intelligent creatures.
Instead of being an independent creature, the Shade is more-so an extension of the casting mage. The mage in a way, gives basic directions ("go here", "do this") across an Aether link to the shade and its more basic intelligence handles the finer details. The Mage is partially aware of what a Shade senses, but can't directly interpret the senses of a shade. If a shade sees an enemy, the mage will know that there's an enemy near the shade, but not who the enemy is exactly.
A Mage can have multiple shades active at a time, but our mages only have so much willpower and mental capacity, so most can only have 2-3 active at a time, and that tends to occupy them while doing it. Mages can typically have one shade active and do other more numbing tasks such as powering our magitech at the same time.

The Shade is primarily designed for use in a scout/spotting role. A mage near artillery can have a Shade active to spot, and because of the mage's awareness of the location of the shade, things such as flares aren't needed and the artillery can be much more precise. The shade can be used for other roles too. Scouting out enemy squadrons and camps prior to an ambush, scouting for an ambush, distracting an enemy, spying in their camps, and more.
In fact, a shade does have limited environmental manipulation. They can "hold" lightweight and small objects, and thus can be used for limited theft and sabotage of enemy objects. They also have the aforementioned ability to temporarily disperse themselves for minutes at a time, but if they're dispersed for too long the strain on the magic binding the mist together becomes too great and collapses the link.

The shade is dispellable by anti-magic, but given that their mages have to explicitly cast their anti-magic spell in a given location, our shades shouldn't be affected by their anti-magic.

UPGRADE POTENTIAL:
1.) Dispersment. Basically a short-range """teleport""". The mist making up the shade disperses and forms together in another nearby area.
2.) Mimicry. Let it mimic the forms of enemies.
3.) Flying. ehehehehehe
4.) Lethalness. It could be an amazing soldier.

It serves as a very stealthy scout/spotter as well as a pseudo-spy. Has lots of potential in the future. And before you say "no experience!", I feel we're allowed a little bit more leeway here given it's based entirely on our Conjuration Spellbook and that we've been using conjuration/summoning for a very long time. That and I want a break from typing needless fluff logic to rationalize why we should be able to do this. Really, I feel like we could have even done this spell at the very beginning of the game. Roboson even suggested a Shade spell nearly immediately after the game started.
Just wanted to make a design that isn't magitech.

[evictedSaint]

Seems like a tie between sliding breeches and AP shells

I will flip a coin here in an hour or so, if the tie isnt broken

[andrea]

DESIGNS
0 - (Voidslayer) No More Hinges:
1 - (Kadzar) Giant Mutant Falcons: Kadzar
0 - (RAM)Discarding Sabot rounds:
3 - (Chiefwaffles)Sliding-Hatch Breech Loading: Helmacon, voidslayer, Andrea
2 - (Chiefwaffles)AP Shells: FallacyofUrist, Chiefwaffles

TIE BREAKER!

good breechloading will help with rifles, and hopefully with higher rate of fire.

[Chiefwaffles]

Peooople, please vote.
I tried assembling a list of pro/cons for the two tied proposals.

AP Shells
+ Applies to future cannons
+ Makes our HC1-Es and thus Crystalclads much more effective against their armored boats.
+ Makes our cannons on the field able to pre-emptively counter any future Moskurg armor designs.
+ Makes our HAC-1s truly effective against their airships.

Sliding-Hatch Breech Loading
+ Improves the RoF of our HA1 and HC1-E.
+ General improvement to all our cannons, making them even more powerful. (High RoF can trump armor piercing)
- Somewhat difficult (We know how to do breech-loading but it may be difficult to implement it globally.)


EDIT: Got ninja'd by Andrea but I'll post this anyways.

[evictedSaint]

Locked for breechloading

[evictedSaint]

Revision: Sliding-Hatch Breech Loading [6]

Using a normal hatch was a silly idea. 

In order to make a hatch that can withstand the pressure from the cannon ignition, we develop a new type of hatch that's an actual block that slides and locks into place. Modeled after a lock on a door, this "bolt action" hatch relies on tight tolerances to maintain a tight seal.  The lever arm locks into place when firing, and can be rotated and slid back to reload.

We apply this new method of breech-loading to our existing cannons, allowing slightly faster load times - but more importantly, allowing the barrels to remain elevated and on-target without requiring them to be lowered for reloading.