Space Wizards Game : OOC Thread

Just yesterday, in science's endless poking at the universe they found... Well, you can basically sum it up by understanding that someone marched out of CERN wearing their labcoat over a wizard's robe and announced that it turns out magic is real.

Not only that, but it seems they also just posted the basics they found on how to use the stuff up on the internet, open source, and here's the address.

This caused some chaos of course, but you? You have a bigger dream. You dream.. of space. And you've taken a look at this 'how to do magic' stuff, and it makes sense to you. In fact, you could well say that you're a wizard. Or at least as close as anyone else is to being that right now. And being a wizard, you intend on using the magic to achieve your dream. And that's why you just registered yourself as a Space Agency...

In this game, you are the pioneer, the visionary, the very first expert in a new field. Magic is new, young, fresh and vibrant. This is the dawn of a new age, and the trailblazers are you.

Do not accept your due. Reach for the cosmos. Walk among the stars. Sing the light fantastic, and witness with your own eyes the dread beauty of the black hole. Your ancestors inherited the earth. Now the rest of existence is out there for the taking.

This world is not enough.

Players 5/X

kinglugia : Life Energy Manipulation
The practitioner of this school taps into the collective life force of living beings around himself, thus converting them into various states in which he can use to create miracles and construct potent magical devices.

emeralis00 : Neural Runes
Practicioners can, with experience and training, create three dimensional runes out of their own personal energy. These runes can be linked to each other to form larger, more powerful and complex arrays, and can then be impressed upon an object to create an enchanted item. Each runesmith's runes are unique, as they are formed from each runesmith's mind independently. With each rune being a representation of a "Master Rune" of the concept, filtered by the runesmith's understanding of it, forming a pattern within their head like a blueprint.

Enthalpy : Mathamagics
Using special math to control mystical energy, it is possible to create effects without associated causes, allowing any result within the laws of physics to be generated, assuming you have the proper math and enough energy.

ReinZero : Informational Manipulation
The belief that everything exists due to specific composition of information, which, if altered, manifests change and differences. Certainly things like the laws of physics hold true, but such laws themselves are information that can be applied to anything else to bring about otherwise impossible things and occurrences. Of course, it is not merely limited to physics, as that is but one of many types of information that can be used to do so. With the right application, even a person can fly like a bird without outside, additional assistance

Darkened : Animism
Treats the world as if everything is alive and possessed of a will. By awakening, empowering and bargaining with the spirits of things he can animate and empower objects. Alive, the resulting existences can grow and evolve on their own. By manipulating spirits changes can be enacted on the objects themselves. However as each object is an individual, compliance cannot always be guaranteed with this style.



This thread is for all out of character discussion, as well as questions for the DM. Like 'how much budget do I think the Fireball Cannon needs to finish being researched' or 'Can I use method Z to throw black holes at people'.

You can also talk to each other about whatever such powerful wizards may have to discuss.

 

Reserved.

 

Alright, Happerry, do the players know of each other IC in the start of the game?
Because some of us want to co-op with each other in the start.
And Darkened and I, for one, want to become allies instead of rival organizations.
After all, when we are pioneers, it is sensible for us to ally ourselves and pool our knowledges to make stuff instead of fighting against each other.

 

I'm going to say you know of each other IC for reasons of not making it hard on myself, and the fact that you all publicly registered as a space corporation/agency thing.

Of course, you don't have to answer any emails that you don't want to~

On another subject, the three basic systems a ship needs before it can do anything/be designed is a life support system, a drive, and a power source. A navigation system would be nice too, but isn't strictly speaking absolutely needed as long as you stay within the earth moon system. (And have a GPS thingy. Or are will to land and ask for directions.)

Weapons, shields, and other funtime things are always an option as well of course...

And if you want to make a colony or a moon base or a space station, you probably want to design one of those, and figure out some way to store, move, and deploy them as well.

(Also, while teamwork is nice and good, there will be missions being provided (Or at least things that people are willing to pay you to do/have a reward stuck on them for the first person to do something) so better ask yourself how much you want the shiny payouts)

 

From questions, here is an example/some information on/of the ship design process.

Ships are made out of Systems.

At the very least, a ship needs an Engine, a Power Source, and a Life Support System. But a ship with only those will only be useful for carrying people/things around, so I'd advise doing more research then that.

Some basic systems can be enabled just by use of mundane earth tech. For example, you do not need to research passenger quarters, because as long as you have life support and some space it isn't that hard to stick a bedroom somewhere, and basic cargo transporting just needs some empty space. And you don't need to research cameras to give your ship a video camera.

But researching, say 'Stasis Cargo Chamber', would give you a better cargo system, and if you try to move livestock to mars without researching something for long term animal containment you are likely to have issues. Or researching actual dedicated space navigation systems to be able to make your own maneuvers without getting lost.

Please remember to use common sense.

So, for an example of research and ship design, I will use an Elemental Magic System that focuses on tapping into elemental planes and summoning elementals.

The Goal is to design an armed cargo vessel able to service a Mars Base while warding off space pirates. For whatever reason, there is no research done before this.

First off the player researches the Lightning Dynamo, which taps into the electricity of the Elemental Plane of Air using a lightning rod for power. This will be his power source for the ship. Now that he has researched it, he can use it for any ship he designs. He can also try to research Lightning Dynamo II, or switch to researching ways to tap into the Elemental Plane of Fire for a steam power plant if he wants to. Or make something else up.

Secondly, the player researches the Flame Portal Drive. Which is a portal into the Elemental Plane of Fire that uses the fire that explodes out of the portal as thrust. While a brute force solution, utterly lacking in stealth, and not especially powerful, it also is independent of fuel, only needing to keep the portal open. This will be his drive, as he has decided the cheapness is worth the other issues, specially for a cargo ship.

Thirdly, the player researches Bound Elemental Purification, which binds an Air Elemental into purifying the ship's air, and a Water Elemental into dealing with the water. While not effective for larger crews (Until the player researches how to bind more elementals without interfering with each other), it is sufficient for the cargo ship.

Being as the cargo ship does not have to carry anything exotic, merely food on the trip to mars, and stuff mined on the way back, the Player asks the DM if he can just use a mundane refrigerated container for the food transport, being as raw iron should not require a specially designed cargo container. The DM ponders, and then says yes, but warns that it will not carry large amounts of food. But since the Mars Base only has twenty people it'll work.

Thus, with all the things needed for a cargo ship done, the player looks into anti space pirate tech.

First, the Player researches Elemental Reinforced Armor, which binds an Earth Elemental to the ships armor to make... well, better armor. This will prevent the pirates from easily being able to force it to surrender.

But to make an armed cargo ship you need weapons, so then the Player looks at his tech and goes hum. "DM, can i do a project that uses the Flame Portal Drive as a base for researching how to open up portals to the Elemental Plane of Fire and using them as giant flamethrowers?"

And the DM says yes, so now the player has a close in weapon system for dealing with attempts to board. But the Player wants something longer ranged too, so goes back to thinking.

Eventually the player decides to research a way to summon lightning spirits, and order them to shoot enemies with.. well, lightning. So the Player researches Lightning Cannons.

Lastly, the player describes the ship he wants to make to the DM, and gives it a name.

"I want to design a cargo ship for the Mars run. It will be the Big Beetle Armed Cargo Transport. It looks like a giant beetle, with fire coming out of its butt as the drive. The mouth serves as a flamethrower, each antenna is a lightning cannon, and the eyes are sensor nodes (Just mundane cameras and radar since I haven't researched anything better). The crew quarters and command deck are in the head, where the main body has a single primary cargo chamber down the middle. The wings are actually two separate cargo containers, each refrigerated. The Legs are controllable, and part of the Big Beetle's landing system for when it has to land on a planet. The power source is a Lightning Dynamo located between the crew quarters and the main cargo hold."

The DM then gives a cost to the project designing the ship, and once that project is done gives the ship a cost.

And then, whenever the player wants to build that ship, the player just pays the cost. (Common sense may apply. Shipyards will be needed for things to big to make on planet. Going for ten turns not making anything and then trying to make fifty ships at once may have side effects)

 

Alright, I would like to make a Plant-based Aura Generator that will work as a form of power source, and a Plant-based Life support system as well.
How much do they cost in total?
Because I'm thinking of putting 500 to each.

 

A set of magical plants that can fix an atmosphere fast enough to support a small ship... will probably take around 1000 MSB to design.

A literal power plant, on the other hand... A plant that produces Aura rich fruit should be relatively straightforwards, however annoying it will be to make sure it produces enough and can survive out in space. Probably 1000-1500ish. A plant that generators Aura and then converts it into electricity naturally... and not only does it naturally, but does so consistently enough to be able to power electronics, in large enough amounts to power a ship, and in a manner that can actually be plugged into a ship's power network... That is harder. 3000-4000.

Thinking about it though, it'd probably be simpler to design a machine that converted Aura into electricity, and then simply feed it with Aura Fruit. Such a machine would be less powerful and efficient, but would also be much easier to design. 1000-2000.

 

Okay first goals of research. Presumably I can awaken spirits. I'd like to look into these things. Well aware that I can't budget for all of these at once. The ones earlier on are short term goals. Later ones are long term research projects.

Spiritual Animation: (Crew) Have a spirit directly control the functions of its body. A ship spirit with arms can move the ship's arms, furl and unfurl sails and basically crew itself.

Direct spiritual locomotion: (Drive system) Extending from the former technology, create a form of movement that replaces gentle control and refinement for pure velocity, creating long distance movement in space.

Grand Spirits: (Power source) Learn to awaken the spirits of natural forces such as large storms and powerful natural disasters and landmarks and move them into unawakened ships, transfering their greater power and energy into the ship itself as well as changing the ship's nature.

Autonomous Self-animating tools: (Construction) Learn to animate the spirits of small tools such as brooms, hammers, etc to function autonomously. Differentiated from the former technologies in that these spirits would be of objects individually too small to achieve independent sapience. Instead by linking several smaller spirits together the requisite intelligence can be granted to animate several parts. Unfortunately the tools tend to function in discrete clusters of grouped teams who cannot be separated. However, grouped tools demonstrate perfect team work and tireless functionality so long as the spirits in question have the power to keep them moving.

Enshrining Spirits: (FTL Communications) Learn to grant a spirit the quality of a deity by constructing a small shrine to a fetish or model or part of that spirit's 'body'. In doing so grant the spirit the ability to hear prayers directed at its shrine and respond telepathically to such regardless of distance.

Living Spirits: (Power source, other) Create spirits that can naturally generate aura (of the type used with Lugia's magic) as living beings of a similar scale.

Awoken Astrolabe: (Navigation) Learn to awaken the spirits of astrolabes and to empower them in such a way as to magically locate themselves and a ship's destination.

Awoken air: (Life support) Learn to awaken the spirits of a large quantity of air and empower it to hover around an area, replenish itself and maintain temperature within.

Life Extension Transfer: (Get rich quick scheme) Transfer the spirit of a human being into a man sized doll, animating it as per spiritual animation, effectively granting the ultra-rich immortal untiring bodies designed to their own specifications.

 

This is both simple and hard. It is simple because it is the spirit's body, but merely giving the spirit control over a body made from a standard space ship would be useless. This will not only involve teaching the spirit how to actively manage its body, but will also require research into designing a body that will be able to undertake all needed tasks without aid.

Basic Spiritual Animation : 500-1500

While it would be quite nice to extend this from Basic Spiritual Animation, you do not actually have that project done. Still, the basic idea seems simple enough. You just need to get the spirit to either emit force in a manner which causes the body to move. Of course, the hows will be more interesting...

Basic Direct Spiritual Locomotion : 1000-1500

This is... You have no idea at all about how to do this. How do you even awaken the spirit of something that big, much less things that often don't have an actual physical form? Much less the issue of moving a spirit out of its natural body. You'll have to do a good bit of studying before this is possible to even try at.

Natural Spirits Study : 5000-?
Basic Spirit Transfer : 3000-?

Well, this isn't impossible... but animating a collective will be different then anything you have tried before. The whole not one joint thing issue and all that.

Basic Collective Spirits : 1000-2000

While you are sure there are ways to get spirits to communicate over long distances, the simple fact is that you don't know how prayers work. This will have to be fixed before you can see about using prayers for anything... assuming the ability lies within your paradigm at all.

What is Prayer? : ???

Well, the first step for this is finding out what Aura actually is.

What is Aura? : ???

An Astrolabe is a tool for finding out where the user is. Being able to figure out where other things are is much more difficult. Actually, you really aren't sure how it is supposed to do that at all. Granted, given having good maps you can figure out how to go to other places once you know where you are, but how do you find where other things are just by knowing where you are? Still, being able to figure out where you are is the first part of not getting lost. Now to redesign the Astrolabe so it is effective in an entire solar system...

Solar System Astrolabe : 1000-3000
Astrolabe Scrying : ????

Wait, how do you awaken the spirit of something that isn't a fixed object?

Natural Spirits Study : 5000-?

Well, first off... how do you move spirits? Secondly, what kind of spirit does a human have?

Basic Spirit Transfer : 3000-?
What is a Soul? : ???

 

Directional Gravity - By applying a direct shift in the direction and position that gravity originates from, one can utilize gravity as a method of movement, one that is also not particularly bound by a/the planet's gravity. Likewise, in absence of a source of gravity, it applies the concept of gravity in a direction to replicate the effect.

Carbon-Oxygen System - Overwriting existing CO2 in the air with Oxygen molecules, mostly, through the compilation of carbon into pure carbon structures.

Light Refraction Generator - By taking in light from the sun, one employs the same concept used by solar panels, though unlike those alone, the Generator simultaneously bends light within its array, thus allowing for it to continuously generate power from a single source of light. However, its power density and output is affected by size and density/amount of its original source of light.

Stellar Array - By matching the information and data of the stars, one can correlate the distances/coordinates while simultaneously gauging one's distance. However, it's limited by information available.

 

Alright, I have an idea on how to go for this.

Power source (for now): Supercell Fruit. A special tree which, through a more specialized form of photosynthesis, bears large fruits the size of a water drum in which works the same way as the batteries for the Supercells (Pacific Rim).
- Supplementary: Supercell Reactor. A machine made of solid Ectoplasm in which one places the Supercell fruits in order to power up something.

Wraithbone: Solidified Ectoplasm which can be made as a form of building material, superior in all ways to modern alloys, even experimental titanium alloys. Likely another way to increase income through selling such materials and machines that make them to construction companies.
- Supplementary: Specialized Wraithbone. If I can develop variants of Wraithbone to be specialized in one field, such as Wraithbone that is more suitable for conducting electricity or insulate against heat loss, I believe that the space industries, as well as mundane ones, can be revolutionized immensely.

Life Support: Aura Fruit and Tree of Life. The ToL is a tree specialized to process vast amounts of air to make an environment hospitable, while the Aura Fruit can be ingested to greatly boost the body's healing factor. The AF can probably be sold to pharmaceutical companies to make healing salves and other such healing stuff for general healthcare?

Hull Plating: Solidified Ectoplasm laced within plant materials (cellulose) to form bio-organic plating which is capable of regenerating itself, as well as providing highly powerful defences without losing speed and manoeuvrability.

Specialized Aura/Ectoplasm: Should specialized Aura and Ectoplasm be successfully researched, one can vastly improve current technologies by a lot. Examples would be Ectoplasm specialized for construction purposes, Aura specialized to be converted into electricity, etc.

Heat Generator: Also under Life Support, this uses specialized organs which is fed Aura Fruits, in which it will then metabolize into body heat. Likely used in tandem with Wraithbone-based structures to insulate the heat from escaping into the coldness of space.

 

This is a basic outline of what I want to do until I have more concrete information.

Runes to try and develop soonest:

Anti-gravity: make the scribed object weightless
Wind: move and control air around the scribed object
Air: create air (air being the standard oxygen/nitrogen mix on earth)

The idea being, I create a mundane hull, make it weightless, create an atmosphere of air, and use wind to push attached sails around, as well as create a limitless supply of new air, while ejecting co2 away (as reaction mass).

Assuming those things are cheap enough, I want to also develop:

Inertia control rune: Getting going is easy, stopping is harder.
Electrical rune: power!
Strengthening rune: improve the durability of items
general runic knowledge: The upper boundaries of what a rune can do, as well as who has the capabilities to make them. Basically, stuff about the magic itself.
Repairing rune: Micro-meteors tearing holes in the sails is probably going to happen.

I'm probably missing something, but it's late.

 

Molecular printing: With the correct feedstock, it should be possible to rearrange atomic structures such that a compound of the desired molecular structure can be created.

Whipple shield regeneration: One major problem with space travel is the slow erosion of the shielding used to protect the main body of the spacecraft from micrometeorite collisions. If we use the meteorite's matter to repair the shield, it should greatly reduce maintenance needs.

Basic heat pump: If we can efficiently transfer heat against thermal gradients, it should make heating and cooling needs in complex systems much simpler to meet.

 

Hmm, thinking more clearly now, I still have several ideas for this.

Water supply: Perhaps, converting Aura into water is a viable way to go, though it might require conversion of Ectoplasm into such so that the Aura supply doesn't run out. Perhaps another plant-based mutated organism is a go? This needs research.

Drive system: I'll have to work alongside Darkened's character to create something that helps, but if I, for some reason, have to go solo, perhaps making it so that my vessels utilize the Ectoplasm in the environment to "surf", ala Eureka Seven? After all, Ectoplasm exists in abundance, everywhere, more so in space.

 

Oh yes, and a control rune to control nearby runes, because it's kind of hard to develop a ship based on using a wind rune for motion, when you can't tell it where you want it to go.

Relatedly, have a basic drawing of my ship plan.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/10TjOEKIQucm5b0ckoURlIqiYA09HXpSkYzNB9I_7KIY/edit

 

It will take some experimentation to insure that the lessened weight won't cause design issues, and a bit more experimentation to figure out how to get it to properly effect multiple objects with different innate weights, but this doesn't seem too hard to get started on. Total weightlessness will take more work though.

Basic Lightening Runes : 500-1500

While figuring out a rune which causes air to move isn't that hard, figuring out a rune which causes air to move with enough energy to move a space ship at any useful speed is more difficult, as is designing sails which will not rip under the pressure, and insuring that the wind will not be at risk of damaging said ship is more difficult. Not to mention the fact that it is desired to only eject bad air, not the breathable stuff. But it is not impossible.

Basic Gale-Sail Propulsion : 1000-2000

This is a relatively straight forwards project. If it was necessary to purify the air it would be much harder, but as all bad air should be being ejected the biggest issue will be filtering it out for use as propulsion.

Basic Life Support Air Rune : 500-1000

Figuring out how to dump energy is harder then figuring out how to make it. Currently the best solution seems to be to use the atmosphere generated around the ships to air brake. This causes some unfortunate issues with 'the sails suddenly being ripped off the test model' however, so more research will be needed.

Basic Brake Runes : 500-1000

A rune that makes lightning isn't hard. A rune that makes lightning that you can plug into a power grid is harder.

Basic Lightning Rune Power Generator : 1000-2000

Another simple project, increasing an objects durability isn't hard. Increasing it by useful amounts for space travel will simply require more refinement.

Hull Durability Rune : 500-1500

The only way to do this is with study. Much, much study.

Basic Runic Knowledge : 3000-?

While getting something to be self repairing in speeds useful for combat would be very hard, figuring out ones strong enough to help with maintenance is a lot easier.

Basic Sail-Patching Runes 500-1000

While simple to imagine, to actually accomplish this takes the account of a multitude of details for each part of the vessel that is to be effected. Much number crunching will be needed.

Basic Gravity Propulsion : 1000-1500

For the other hand, however, while within Earth's gravity envelope, there already is an ample source of gravity to use for propolsion with just a littttttle bending of where it is pulling you. Of course, such a thing would only work in close earth orbit.

Earth Grav-Envelope Propulsion : 500-1000

On the third hand, to buffer against foreign sources of gravity without nasty side effects requires other alterations to be developed. You know, after the test device for the first attempt exploded when it ended up ramming into the atmosphere in a perceived speed that is best described as 'a really big boom'.

So, in reality, the proper thing to achieve the goals is a selective nullification of other thing's gravity.

Basic Gravity Nullification : 2000-3000

Everyone needs to breath. Making sure that the air lets you breath isn't hard, but doing it constantly, in a scale large enough for a whole crew, will take more work.

Basic Air Purification Device : 500-1500

This isn't hard to do at the base. The bending is harder, but really that's just trajectory realignment. Of course, solar power has never been the most efficient power source. Telling entropy off by making sure you use less energy maintaining the light then you get from the solar panels will take a bit more work.

Basic Light Refraction Generator : 1500-2500

When it comes down it this is just a good map. The first step it to identify all the really bright objects in the sky.

Basic Stellar Array : 500-1000

Well, basically, this comes down to 'having really good batteries, and a power plant that uses them.' So attempts to massively condense the power are ongoing. It will just take some experimentation.

Supercell Reactor : 1000-2000

Supercell Fruit Tree : 1000-3000

While Ectoplasm can already be solidified, it isn't much better then normal materials. (Besides being easier to work with for enchantments) Of course, with study, this might change...

Better Solidified Ectoplasm I : 2000-4000

This is impossible without more specification in how it is to be specified.

A magic tree that purifies the air and produces water rich fruit packed with Aura is currently under mutation. It will just take time to stabilize. Time and attention.

Basic Tree of Life : 1000-1500

Convincing a hull to repair itself isn't the easiest thing to do. It will require some specialized Aura treatments to be developed.

Basic Self-Regenerating Hulls : 1000-3000

Originally you were planning some highly complicated devices to generate heat and evenly spread it out through the ship. And then someone pointed out that a Super-Cell Reactor could casually power some space heaters. After that it's simply designing your ships properly to contain heat.

This isn't impossible. But it is very finicky and not useful for anything that happens to not be tiny. Perhaps that could be improved? Not that it's actually needed for anything in specific right now.

Basic Molecular Printing : 2000-?

Originally, you were planning on some highly complicated and calculation heavy repair protocols. And then someone pointed out a magical barrier could do the same job, was much easier to repair, and would be a lot less expensive then any advanced self repairing whipple shields. And you could always leave the basic whipple shields there in case of a power shortage. Not that this kind of thing is a big concern. Basic maintenance should have been more then enough.

Basic Navigational Deflectors : 500-1000

As with the most of the rest of the ideas here, this is highly complicated and much easier done by paying attention to basic maintenance or with a simpler spell. In this case, a cooling enchantment. And besides, any tests tend to generate just as much heat in anything they are effecting as they transfer out.

Heat Transfer : ???

Getting the Tree of Life to create large harvests of water rich fruit is much simpler then getting it to purify an entire ships atmosphere. This is casually rolled into that project.

While not impossible, tests show this idea to be highly energy inefficient.

Basic Spiritual Surfing Drive : 3000-5000

 

After discussion, considering researchness, and so on, I'd like to announce that starting next turn everyone is going to get a temp cash boost to get them going faster.

 

Optimized Panel Array - As both hypothetical and theoretical maximum capabilities of a Solar Panel are known, the only issue then before is 'technological' constraints... through mundane means. But as the general functions and capabilities are the same, with primarily difference in specs and pieces used, by rewriting the information of a Solar Panel, one can achieve such maximum already. Of course, exceeding that is another matter entirely.

Solar Imitation - Due understanding behind stars, one could consider the possibility of creating one... except, through mundane means, there is no such capability. However, as the information exists, one could do so with magic. Of course, creating an actual miniature star would pose significant problems still. But for the use of creating a on-board power source that a generator draws from, replicating the sun's heat- and thus sunlight, is sufficient while removing the problems of having an actual sun on board.

---

Basic Metal Manipulation - By manipulating the information that a piece of metal is comprised of, one can simply restore it to a previous condition, shape it, or change it. As in space, and in the event of a breach, one must be able to quickly repair such damages. And effectively. With due consideration of the nature of metals used, controlling its information would enable one to do so safely without risk to personnel, likewise, it aids in the construction and development of ships. However, it does not contribute towards structural integrity outside of the information of the metals.

 

When it comes down to it, this mainly comes down to a lot of fiddling and testing of the results of said fiddling. Time consuming, but not actually that hard. Of course, it doesn't do anything besides help optimize already existing types of solar power...

Optimized Panel Array : 500-1500

Just like the last project, this mainly needs a lot of fiddling and testing to get all the details right, as well as being as cheap and energy efficient as possible.

1000-2000

This is a big complicated field. Fortunately, the project has much smaller goals then potentially possible. The theory is solid, but the testing hasn't yet been done, and neither has all the needed informational gathering.

Basic Metal Manipulation (Self Repair and Maintenance Focus) : 500-3000