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[✗] [Invention Lore] "The Thumper"


TryaxReck
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ORIGINS:

After the disastrous attack on Millstone and the subsequent destruction of their main base of operations, the revolution was on its back foot. It seemed that this might have been the end for the Chelovek, with their numbers at their absolute lowest, perhaps only fifteen or so strong. However, if there was one thing a Chelovek was known for? It was for its tenacity and resilience. So instead of kneeling to the Imperial yolk once more, they reorganized. Hid away in the corners and back alleys, working from the sidelines, awaiting for a  time when they may strike back as a singular entity once more. So when the last brick was laid for the new hub for the Union, many made their way back to what they considered their only true home, bringing their Minae, supplies, connections and information with them. And once more, the Chelovek Union was rising quickly, everyday becoming exponentially more powerful. And this time, they were prepared for whatever could be thrown at them.


The biggest addition to this restructuring would’ve been the clockwork division, a group of engineers, scientists, and mathematicians tasked with the development of weapons that help turn the tide in a war that surely would have been lost if fought conventionally. They created tactics, reverse-engineered armor, created firebombs and thought up plenty of outlandish new weapons, many of which fell short of usefulness. However. With every failure one builds the path to success, that success being shown in the Thumper.

DESCRIPTION:

 

The Thumper in its simplest terms can be defined as an immensely powerful arbalest, though it looks more akin to a speargun than a crossbow. The most defining trait of the thing is its projectile; a large cylinder measuring about a foot long, with the frontal surface area of a thumb. Built from either blister steel or a medium quality iron, this design severely weakens and/or punches through armor up to 6.6mm, or a quarter of an inch, of thick plate (though it should be noted that this is the absolute upper limit, and only possible in theory.) Upon impact of the projectile the armor will crumple, collapsing into the wearer, most likely causing massive trauma to not only the directly penetrated area, but the rest of the armor, usually resulting in asphyxiation or loss of blood flow to vital areas due to constriction. 

 

    The crossbow itself is built of a Buloke wood, some of the strongest available to man, only found in the harsh Savannah. From this wood, the body of the Thumper is constructed, hollowing out the grooves for the cylinders to lie in, as well as carve holes for things such as the exposed gear to lay. After, two holes are carved in the back where two supports for the stock are put in place and affixed using Jailer’s Moss, a powerful adhesive. The stock is then introduced into the design, padded with a somewhat thin cloth padding meant to lessen the powerful recoil the weapon produces. As expected, the recoil often causes bruising to the shoulders, even with the protective padding. 

    In order for such a contraption to give the projectile such terrifying speeds, a series of tight ropes and pulleys are put in place, tightened and made taut by a detachable hand crank, which although not particularly hard to reel, requires a lot of time to fully ‘wind up’ so to speak. This part of the process would be easiest for fishermen or experienced arbalest users.

 

CAPABILITIES:

 

Generally, the Thumper is able to shoot steel rods a foot in length at speeds high enough to punch through armor and weaken the rest of the plate pieces considerably due to the miniature shockwave produced from the cylinder's sudden stop. It has an effective range of around 10 meters, anything past that being wildly inaccurate. As previously mentioned it also has the capability to stop blood flow to certain areas if the armor crumples against itself into the wearer.

 

REDLINES: 

 

-The Thumper cannot exceed 10 meters of effective range, 15 meters halving the power/penetration, and 20 meters negating it entirely, with the victim probably feeling at most a hard thud, like a small child ran into them. 

 

-The Thumper is ground breaking technology, requiring extensive knowledge of the parts involved, as well the composition of the crossbow itself. The projectiles it uses can be replicated with a low to moderate effort, however. This basically means you must either learn of the components ICly via someone familiar with the item, find schematics (a lored paper item that is SIGNED) by someone familiar with the item, and/or reverse engineering the item (leaving you with a lesser quality and overall inferior design).

 

-The Thumper requires three emotes to fully crank, two if your character is experienced or otherwise well versed in the mechanics of the item. (this means only for reloading. Aiming/Firing still need to be emoted as well.)

 

-The Thumper can only use the projectiles it was built for, that being the steel cylinders.

 

This weapon is able to punch through A MAXIMUM of 4mm of steel, 20mm of wood, and around 40mm of human flesh (though it shall be noted if it hit a bone, the bone would break, and stop the projectile from going any further.)

 

- IF rolling is agreed upon, one should roll the following for effectiveness of penetration. 1-8 penetrating only a third of its maximum, 9-15 penetrating half, 16-19 being three fourths, and a 20 being the maximum allotted potential.

 

-This weapon is high maintenance due to the innovative design and amount of complex moving parts. High amounts of cleaning, oiling, and general fine tuning would be necessary to keep the thing in working order.

 

-The “crushing” effect will require the victim to be wearing metal armor on the area shot, as well as a roll of 14 or higher (unless it is agreed upon to not use rolls.) A detailed description needs to be given.

 

PURPOSE:


The purpose of this invention is to introduce a new balanced weapon into the playing field, while at the same time retaining the distinct medieval aspect and fairness of ballistic weapons on LOTC. A lot of people have spent countless hours researching this IC and OOC, and many  are quite excited to see if their characters labor bear any fruit.

 

Spoiler

OOC REFERENCES

https://kenshi.fandom.com/wiki/Spring_Bat

https://bowarchery.com/crossbow-vs-speargun/

https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/170472/could-a-steel-cylinder-punch-through-plate-armor

https://www.wood-database.com/australian-buloke/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_(firearms)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush_syndrome

https://www.allenantiques.com/Breastplate Thickness Study.html


PICTURES (Modeled using CAD)

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Thumper2.PNG

Thumper1.PNG

Thumper3.PNGThumper4.PNG

 

LESS PRETTY DESIGN BASIS
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maxresdefault.pngaa953fd8246a33cb60ec6008f847b1cc.png6d35e7df28ef416fcfbdf692bc1a158c.png


 

 

 




 

Edited by TryaxReck
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40 minutes ago, TryaxReck said:

The most defining trait of the thing is its projectile; a large cylinder measuring about a foot long, with the frontal surface area of a thumb.

 

Firing a length of rebar from a crossbow seems kind of silly, but okay.

 

40 minutes ago, TryaxReck said:

Upon impact of the projectile the armor will crumple, collapsing into the wearer, most likely causing massive trauma to not only the directly penetrated area, but the rest of the armor, usually resulting in asphyxiation or loss of blood flow to vital areas due to constriction. 

 

40 minutes ago, TryaxReck said:

shoot steel rods a foot in length at speeds high enough to punch through armor and weaken the rest of the plate pieces considerably due to the miniature shockwave produced from the cylinder's sudden stop.

 

Armour’s created to not kill you when it breaks. Like even assuming there’s some sheared edges, you’re wearing at least gambeson underneath the platemail, which would mitigate this ‘shockwave’ which(correct me if I’m wrong, I only got a C in high school physics) doesn’t seem like it’s actually a thing based in reality. Also steel is usually springy to some degree, so even with this ‘shockwave’ it’s not going to destroy the integrity of the plates.

 

40 minutes ago, TryaxReck said:

-The Thumper requires three emotes to fully crank, two if your character is experienced or otherwise well versed in the mechanics of the item.

 

Bows, crossbows and slings etc. all require three emotes to use. Shaving off an emote on a crossbow that can supposedly penetrate through platemail is unreasonable.

 

Edit:

  

40 minutes ago, TryaxReck said:

-One should roll for the effectiveness of penetration. 1-8 penetrating only a third of its maximum, 9-15 penetrating half, 16-19 being three fourths, and a 20 being the maximum allotted potential.


Rolling for this is silly. Rolling is lazy RP and even if you’re going to use it, the other combatant should agree, you shouldn’t force it on them.

 

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1 hour ago, Aethling said:

Armour’s created to not kill you when it breaks. Like even assuming there’s some sheared edges, you’re wearing at least gambeson underneath the platemail, which would mitigate this ‘shockwave’ which(correct me if I’m wrong, I only got a C in high school physics) doesn’t seem like it’s actually a thing based in reality. Also steel is usually springy to some degree, so even with this ‘shockwave’ it’s not going to destroy the integrity of the plates.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush_syndrome is what I based it off of, as per recommended to me by a LT member that helped me develop this invention. 

 

Quote

Bows, crossbows and slings etc. all require three emotes to use. Shaving off an emote on a crossbow that can supposedly penetrate through platemail is unreasonable.


Sorry, this wasn’t clear! I meant 3 emotes to fully crank it, not counting aiming, and firing alongside. This bow would in TOTAL require 5 emotes to fully use, with the ability to change it to 4 if you decided to specialize in the weapon.

 

Quote

Rolling for this is silly. Rolling is lazy RP and even if you’re going to use it, the other combatant should agree, you shouldn’t force it on them.


I myself am an advocate for honor based CRP, but I do not want to have people the ability to powergame. If both parties agree, then yes it should be honor based, but if not, the roll system put in place should be used to offer a fair and standard way to go about things. A big complaint i’ve had about this before I officially submitted it was power, which is why I wanted to ensure it was balanced, capable, but not guaranteed CRP ending shots in the first round. I apologize for this oversight however, I will be adding a caveat stating that “IF ROLLS ARE USED” to allow people the ability to use honor based combat.

 

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Me like, Me want, Me needs, Me must haves its, Me wants it, Me aproves of its, Me plus ones it, ME LOVES ITZ!

+1

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Hi, so I'm writing this with just first impressions I'll probably go back and make edits over the next 24 hours. That stated let's get into it.

 

Firstly from your presented design of the object I'm left with the impression this is working like a strange spring based compound bow. My physics I'll admit I'm a bit rusty on but I'm struggling to imagine this generating the force needed to send a blunted cylinder (basically rebar as stated above) through metal that would naturally have curves in it to allow and encourage deflections.

 

Getting into the materials aspects I'm hoping you only picked that wood choice for the fact it is hard and exists in your rp region. The pulley system you have drawn here has it as constantly taunt with just how the pulley arms are presumed to operate. I would then presume the same issues that come from keeping a bow strung in a wide range of environmental factors would also happen to this weapon. Lastly on the material side of things, the spring isnt even mentioned in the design it's just the the cad blue prints below it (which are nice btw please tell me what you used).

 

General use in combat stuff kind of has this as a foot note. Requiring rolls when people do not wish to as a collective is terrible. That said if roll play is picked having these rolls stated help so maybe just specify these roll red lines are for if roll play is picked. Limiting it to steel cylinders also seems a bit forced to me as crossbows just have the groove to hold the projectile, if it fits in the groove the bow can shoot it albeit probably not as well. As a personal note have you considered just the thumper arrow design that already exists in modern hunting and just asking for a minor suspension of disbelief in letting it do more transfer blunt damage instead of armor damage due to this modified bow design?

 

Still I think it's a cool enough concept and I'd love to see a pully based projectile system added to lotc so I can use it in a few designs I've got coming up. Just think it needs some polishing

 

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This lore has been denied. You will be sent a forum PM regarding the reasons for denial within the next 24 hours.

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