IC: New Weapons Systems

[sythyry]

I am in need of new weaponry and defenses for Strayway! There are many choices. I come to you, O monsters, for stylistic and tactical advice. (I do not consider myself honor-bound to take the advice, but if it's sensible and not too inconvenient, I probably will.)

Since this is a free-form poll, limited mainly by the imagination, I will run a second-round poll for voting on some of my favorite and more plausible answers.

[Poll #1590485]

Comments

Do I need a livejournal account to answer these polls?

[(Anonymous)]

Because I can only see the results. :(

Re: Do I need a livejournal account to answer these polls?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid so. Basic-grade LJ accounts are free,and you don't need to do anything else with it.

[dracosphynx.livejournal.com]

You probably should consider of specify the nature of the defenses a little. For instance, a defense which creates a wall of fiery manta rays which burn anything which comes near might be a little problematic to use when docked or near something friendly. A reasonable defensive mechanism is something which lets you flee quickly, but in the case where you might not want to flee, such as protecting or aiding something else, then the defense is not very useful.

Also, given the broad nature of potential threats, it is hard to address all of the possibilities for both offense and defense, particularly lethal vs. non-lethal. In the instance of minor defenses to deal with annoyances, you do not necessarily want something that will injury small children who happen to wander into it, but still discourage annoying teens.

So, my suggestions for defense are Tempador-based, since that seems to apply relatively universally, short of Tempador elementals. Allowing the Strayway many extra actions would allow for it to both flee, plan, or attack. (And may even be useful in cases of needing extra time to find paperwork.) Also, you have experience using such Tempador spells on yourself already, so have some idea of how to best make use of the situation. It is not lethal in itself, which means you can probably use it mostly safely to intimidate folks. There do not seem to be many who have done deep studies of Tempador, so the likelihood of people having sufficient counters seems rare.

I must even choose Tempador over Mentador(!), because there are things without minds which might be a threat (big falling things, environment, etc.) which must still be defended against. Also, a defense which hastens the Strayway rather than directly affects attackers means it does not have to overcome the attackers' defenses against magic.

For major protective elementals, I, of course, am compelled to suggest the wonders of Mentador! You probably do not want everything to be Tempador based so as to have some variety. Giant Mentador elementals would also be intimidating! What? You still don't like Mentador? Hmf. Okay, Magiador elementals. Most major threats seem to have at least a partial magic component or ability, plus your peer group (i.e. adorable evil wizards) is heavily magic-based, other skyboats are magical, and probably most monsters of any threat. Big, nasty, Magiador elementals which twist, reflect, or counter magical spells and abilities would be useful for extra defense against scrying and might also be used to removing any hostile spells trying to disable the Strayway, or be used to disable sky pirates.

Unless you want something as destructive as the seven-winged burning thing! Hmm... destructive. I'd probably go for a summoned Corpador elemental, actually, or possibly Herbador. For Corpador, a *big* swarm of tiny, biting, burrowing insects that wriggle through cracks in ships and buildings, get inside armor, then get inside flesh. Yum. Oh, and also eat any food and supplies. And it might get bigger and more useful the more it wins! For a Herbador elemental, mushrooms or flowers with spores that cause allergies and also sprout inside lungs and sinuses and ears, and break down wood and stone.

I suppose a Durador elemental would have some points in that people might not be well-versed with Durador to counter much of it, but giant metal humanoids are so overdone. Also, it might have problems flying.

For major weapon, I essentially suggested a freeze ray, just with magic, as it allows for various levels of distressing. At minor uses, it could burden or slow down or disable aerial targets, and with stronger (or perhaps repeated) uses it could load and encase them in enough ice to suffocate or at least ensure a very, very long drop. For targets that are resistant to direct application, it could be used to create a very large chunk of ice above the target and drop it on them. If there was enough subtlety in its construction, such a weapon might allow for snow storms, which could be a relatively gentle way of dissuading annoyances.

[dracosphynx.livejournal.com]

(Continued from previous post because I exceeded the character limit!)

For maximum combat potential, the various systems should be able to interact to some degree. The Tempador defenses should slow enemies and speed up the Strayway, allowing the Strayway crew to make plans and position themselves to use the weapons. The Magiador elementals could be used to weaken enemy defensive magics or divert them so that they were vulnerable to the Strayway's weapons and offensive magic. Alternatively, the Magiador elementals could be used to alter the Strayway's offensive magics to create alternative or additional effects. (So instead of the major weapon freezing enemies with [Creoc Aquador], the Magiador elementals change it to [Destroc Aquador] and you freeze-dry/dehydrate the targets.) A synergistic Tempador/Magiador pairing should be discouraging for most annoyances.

Unless you want to get into psychological warfare. Then definitely Mentador and Spiridor! You simply must consider this!

[galis.livejournal.com]

Go with what you're good at for now. So something that inflicts unreasonable and random doom seems appropriate!

[striderhlc.livejournal.com]

Some variety of catapult large enough to launch Vae?

- HC

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Protecting against teleportation and shapeshifted intruders seems problematic, since you need to be especially careful not to accidentally protect against Vae. Because it would make her mad, and then despondant, and then helpfully try to fix whatever she broke.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

My major point is that defences should also be a major, major deterrent. They should LOOK mean, they should definitely have a BUSINESS END, and they should be the sorts of things that anyone who would want to do you harm would NOT at all want to get near, AND they should, if possible, be intimidating to things of various levels of mental competence and various types of senses.

Let me take an example from my world, forgive me for a moment while I show some pride in my nation's military, technology, and awesome firepower, and maybe neep about one of my favourite favourite weapons that I would give body parts to see in action in real life, as long as it wasn't pointed at or near me.



See that top image? that is the inner workings of the GAU-8. See that bottom image, and the item the cani-sized creature of my race is holding? The top half of that item is a durudor spike, the bottom half contains the propellent to move that spike at speeds much higher than the eye can see, and the device in the top image propels over three thousand of those a minute onto targets 4,000 feet (1,200 meters, I think maybe that will be translated to your distance units somehow? Regardless, very very very far) away. Of course these spikes are hard, heavy, and tough enough to go through almost any sort of armor... My country had to specifically design a flying vehicle whose main purpose was to allow this incredible weapon to be used offensively... needless to say, the whole thing is INCREDIBLY intimidating. My nation has had the experience that, in some wars, when the enemies of my country saw the vehicle that contains this weapon come near them, instead of trying to destroy it, they got out of their war vehicles and simply surrendered -- which is part of the point, isn't it?

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I fantasize about using a GAU Avenger on the enemies of the Republic!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Oh by the way, it will go through ALL people armor, of course. By "ALMOST any sort of armor" I am referring to, you know, building armor, vehicle armor, things like that, which it will just go through "most"... but it won't get to buildings deep underground when fired at them from aboveground, for example...

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

And suddenly, world amber plate and other armor 'impervious to physical manipulation' is much more valuable...

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Well, I am quite certain we couldn't get one to the Tree, of course. And besides, it'd be useless, because you need a large amount of support material and infrastructure and experienced people to keep a pilot flying an A-10. It was just an example that says, 'Intimidation is worth something'.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Also, assuming that someone was wearing armor that couldn't be gotten through with ammunition. Even a normal spray of 5.56 bullets should still knock them and cause massive bruises, and EVERY armor has vulnerable spots! Bigger ammunition would just be better at it! You don't always have to penetrate physical armor that someone is wearing to kill them! You just need to bang them around enough to cause lots of shock to their system. Of course I am sure there is some terrifying magical items on the tree that basically makes folk "Impervious to physical damage", but even that has counters, you don't always need to INJURE someone to incapacitate them and make them incapable of doing their job...

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Would it be possible to use tempador to create a sort of hollow stasis shell around Strayway? Imagine a sort of eggshell, perhaps only an inch or two thick, with a very small opening somewhere on it so that the volume enclosed by the shell would be topologically part of the outside world's time flow. Within the thin space defined by the walls of the shell, time would stop or move very slowly indeed. The shell would be anchored to the ship, and move with it. A stasis wall would stop most physical attacks, and perhaps magical ones as well, assuming that they propagate, and do so in a line of sight way. Additional carefully-placed holes could perhaps be left in the shell to allow defensive fire, or sallies by defending elementals. The downside to such a scheme is that it would add considerably to the drag of the ship, and it wouldn't much help if you got hit by something really massive or travelling at really high speed, since the shock would transmit to the ship. On the other paw, you'd be toast anyway if that happened, so...