Thursday Knights

[Greg]

The time has come to design Thunderstrike 2!

Yeah sure, Stoyla is designing it in fiction but let's use this thread to actually design it!

No longer bound by the limitations of building around the foundations of Airship Yargo, Thunderstrike 2.0 has the potential to be anything.

[Cailin]

I really like the Final Fantasy airships. This is what popped into my head first:

[Sam]

just covering the basic options.

Death Star


Borg Cube


Flying City


Flying Citadel


Tardis (more like a really small thing and everything else is inside, that idea to the extreme, like a city in there)


Flying Aircraft carrier


Steam Punk airship


Final Fantasy stuff (some very nice options)

[Kevin?]

CLOUD CITY. We should just have a big, moving city in the sky.

It fits perfectly! Think about it, we've already got:

Brandis:


Hugh:


Aurora:


Wrenn:


Pinter:


And, of course, our faithful servant Lobot:


Now all we need is the city!

[lincoln]

I agree with the Final Fantasy ships... they are freaking sweet. I always liked this ship from FFX, but it might be because that was my favorite game of the series. I think I like Cailin's example from FFXII more...

ffx-ship1.jpg (44.72 KiB) Viewed 1487 times

[lincoln]

Also, there are a few upgrades I want...

-Forget the one massive solar cannon... I want cannons that are capable of unleashing many different damage types. Like, we load charged crystals into it and it shoots a corresponding damage type.
-Thousands of portcullises in the hull that open with spikes that pop out (no more sea beast wraps)
-Cloaking devices that make the entire ship go invisible (along with invisible planes and uniforms that can be used for stealth missions)
-Wrenn will no longer settle for a room... he is going to need a wing (pun intended)
-A great domed greenhouse to grow a grove of residium trees

The list will go on...

[Greg]

Yeah, as Linoln has brought up, there are two main discussions here: What should it look like, and what are its capabilities? In my mind the two are almost unrelated.

My opinion on the FF airships is that most of them are overdesigned messes. They feel more steampunk or Eberron than high fantasy. There is elegance in simplicity! Of the FF ones this one is my favorite:


For some reason I really like the Flying Aircraft Carrier, but I'm having trouble imagining that in our fiction without it feeling really wrong. It's not impossible though!

[imafrog29]

SDF-1 Macross (Robotech)




Pegasis Class (Gundam)


Black Omen (formerly Ocean Palace - Chrono Trigger)


SR-2 Normandy (Mass Effect)


Reaper (Mass Effect)


I realize most of these are highly implausible in a fantasy setting, but I think some of them if remade ye-old style would have nice aesthetics.

[Sam]

Yeah, as Linoln has brought up, there are two main discussions here: What should it look like, and what are its capabilities? In my mind the two are almost unrelated.

My opinion on the FF airships is that most of them are overdesigned messes. They feel more steampunk or Eberron than high fantasy. There is elegance in simplicity! Of the FF ones this one is my favorite:


For some reason I really like the Flying Aircraft Carrier, but I'm having trouble imagining that in our fiction without it feeling really wrong. It's not impossible though!

That's the one from #7. Soft spot in my heart for that one.

[SWMadness]

This is the first thing I thought of, actually.



Although all silliness aside, I really love the Final Fantasy airship designs, especially the one from XII. My favorite airship is of course the Falcon from FFVI because it has the best music, but I think it'd be too small for our purposes (it's more like a blimp anyways).

[Sam]

Skies of Arcadia was a fun RPG I played once that was all about sky pirates. Some images:

[Sam]

These ones are from D&D online:



and a couple from the Eberon setting:

[imafrog29]

[Thoth]

I said it last week, and I'll say it again this week: Super Dimension Fortress Thunderstrike (Stoyla's already even been working on a space fold drive). All your fancy airship designs with their wacky magical engines cannot possibly compete with a ship so big it has an entire city inside it (Thunderstrike could actually be a nation with its own sovereign 'land'), a gun that annihilate damn-near anything, and the ability to transform into a giant bloody robot.

[MikeD]

I support the idea of making Thunderstrike 2 look like the SR2 Normandy

[Cailin]

Yeah, as Linoln has brought up, there are two main discussions here: What should it look like, and what are its capabilities? In my mind the two are almost unrelated.

My opinion on the FF airships is that most of them are overdesigned messes. They feel more steampunk or Eberron than high fantasy. There is elegance in simplicity! Of the FF ones this one is my favorite:


For some reason I really like the Flying Aircraft Carrier, but I'm having trouble imagining that in our fiction without it feeling really wrong. It's not impossible though!

I could get behind something more like the photo here... but I like the ship has to be huge. We've outgrown "ship" sized vessels. It's time for a ship made of other ships that can't land anywhere because it's enormous.

[Jakedog]

No one should forget about some good old Warhammer 40k.

[imafrog29]

I could get behind something more like the photo here... but I like the ship has to be huge. We've outgrown "ship" sized vessels. It's time for a ship made of other ships that can't land anywhere because it's enormous.

So something like this.....

[Jakedog]

Which are as Cailan requested huge fitting up to 100,000 people per ship.

[happyelf]

I think you guys need to upgrade to a battlegroup.

Kaz and others each piloting their own smallish ships, going off on their own missions, and acting as a skirmish screen for thunderstrike so giant monsters can't just jump it out of nowhere. These ships would be built small, tough, reliable, but also cost-effective, which means they'd need skilled airship captains to pilot them, rather than just using huge amounts of brute-force magic. They'd be designed to ram and even be lost if need be- with escape pods for the crew in the event of such, assuming they aren't . busy boarding whatever beasty they've collided with.

Another idea was multi-configuration sails- the airships unfurl different kinds of magical sails, at different angles and configurations, based on how they're traveling.
In the sky over faerun, they could have 'wing sails' on either side of the ship, which angle back during combat maneuvers. When they Teleport, they pull the sails up into a 'seaworthy' vertical formation, and then drop hull-first down into a portal. In the elemental chaos, they pull in their normal sails and spars, and unfurl a huge trailing tail, like the tail of a kite, or a chinese dragon, as they twist and burrow through the elemental layers. In the shadowfell and the lands of the dead, the masts are mounted forward, and the whole ship is wreathed in a shrowd of cobweb-like sails which cocoon it and protect against unfriendly incorporeal creatures.

[imafrog29]

Ideas about capabilities:

Hanger: if your going big then there will be room for other people to have airships or flying mounts, have your own fleet of ships for defense and trade

Cerebro: or some other sort of massive scrying device. Try to replicate the Planar Observatory.

Communications: Have some 'big red phones' to all of the other major nations. Instant communication via overpowered communication stones.

Human Resources: Maybe its time that stoyla gets her own team of artificers, all your major guys should probably be heading up large groups of people

Admiral Caz Dunland
Chief Artificer Stoyla
Commander Rowena

Also...
Sky fortress

Skyfort


flying citadel

[lincoln]

Ohhh, I like the idea of having a Cerebro equivalent on board. I also like the image of the Sky fortress Imafrog. And I think it is a must that each of our major NPCs should be given their own specialized teams to head up. And judging by the titles you gave the NPCs in your post you are in for a surprise when you listen to episode 106 (assuming you didn't see the live broadcast on 03/08/2012).

[DoomIslands2ndCousin]

Whatever it ends up being, I think Thunderstrike 2 should have something to light the area below it. If it's a huge ship, you don't want people associating Thunderstrike with "covering the lands in darkness". Either have some artificial lights, or have the ship be translucent or broken up into smaller areas (many connected "islands").

[imafrog29]

The "connected islands" build would be pretty easy. There are a bunch of places in Faerun that have skies filled with earth motes. I'm sure Stoyla could cobble together some of the bigger ones to create a floating archipelago fortress. Certain motes might even be able to split off for independent missions.

On a side note. I was thinking about the "nation" of thunderstrike and how that works. It would makes sense that with this new big fortress/ship/city that the group could really start to embrace the "nation" aspect. I imagine townships that pay an annual tax which gets them a portal directly to a designated space on the ship for their town. Through this connection they would have instant access to the extensive markets and trade centers of the ship and a guarantee of quick military support in the event of attack. Essentially Thunderstrike would be like a mini Sigil except that most of the places directly connected to it would be townships, homesteads or minor kingdoms under the direct governance of the Quorum. Despite the fact that the "nation" might be spread all over Faerun in little chuncks, it could operate as one entity via the instant travel and communication provided by portal magic. Other groups that wanted only access to Thunderstrike might have to pay a lesser annual fee for their portal, but wouldn't have the rights of "citizen" members.

Also, also. With the changes I think we need to come up with a better name than Thunderstrike 2. Perhaps the Fortress of Thunder or Strike Carrier Thunder Craft?

[Thor The Crusher]

Fortress of thunder has a nice ring to it.

[Kevin?]

Our viewers have the coolest ideas.

[Cailin]

And we can put a big magical shield over it. Like a... dome.

A Thunder Dome.

[Thor The Crusher]

and it shall host the new Uchehi-kai, and it shall be glorious. Anyone shall be able to challenge Brandis on a daily basis for the Blade of Souls.

[Dan]

and it shall host the new Uchehi-kai, and it shall be glorious. Anyone shall be able to challenge Brandis on a daily basis for the Blade of Souls.

We'll sell tickets, and the proceeds will go to children who became orphaned when their parents challenged Brandis.

[IMChaos]

With it being the Nation of Thunderstrike, I like the Flying Citadels from Dragonlance, as Sam presented in his pictures in an early post.

[imafrog29]

Another thought, I know the wind crystal was originally going to be another piece of the shard of evil. Not sure how this is going to play out now with Deomin gone, but if it turns out that the wind crystal is not actually necessary for the shard stuff it would provide a great power source for new thunderstrike's core.

[Tu'Binh Kimquanan]

I always thought that Thunderstrike should have been based on the Garden school from Final Fantasy VIII - if you see the scene where it... well, I won't spoil it for newbies who didn't play that game, but here's a screenshot of Balamb Garden.

[happyelf]

If you wanted to go super-big, you could cross Sigil with the designs for the Eberron airships.

Imagine a ring spinning slowly around a central spire. The ring would be like sigil- buildings or structures on the inner surface. The spire would be the ship- sleek and heavily armored. It could leave the ring-bit hovering over a friendly city when it goes off to fight- kinda like the Enterprise separating the saucer section, I think somebody mentioned that? This wouldn't even have to be that large- from how greg described thunderstrike, at times its sounded enormous, or at least Tardis-like.


I came up with another really weird idea based on thunderstrike being a nation. What it doesn't just visit cities- it merges with them?

A ship which sails through matter, even reality, like a normal ship sails through water. Whatever comes into contact with it just flows around it, then come back together behind it, unharmed. Air, water, stone, cities- it just slides through everything, It's bow splitting the buildings from another, becoming part of whatever landscape it's in- with no harm to those structures. When it docks at a fortress, it merges with it- rooms and passages naturally melding together into unique, perhaps unpredictable forms.


A lower-fantasy version of this idea would be if each outpost could be docked with and plugged in to. The fortresses in various lands would have a unique 'cradle' structure where thunderstrike can set down and plug into various passages, store-rooms, ect. When thunderstrike is present, these fortress towns would become a teeming city for a time.

[lincoln]

I came up with another really weird idea based on thunderstrike being a nation. What it doesn't just visit cities- it merges with them?

A lower-fantasy version of this idea would be if each outpost could be docked with and plugged in to. The fortresses in various lands would have a unique 'cradle' structure where thunderstrike can set down and plug into various passages, store-rooms, ect. When thunderstrike is present, these fortress towns would become a teeming city for a time.

These are two very cool ideas. I really like the idea of having each of the Thunderstrike "embassies" throughout Toril able to "connect" to the ship when we come to visit. It makes me think of the pyramid in Star Gate...

[theamazingphilou]

I like the Sigil-like idea, specifically the multidimensional presence. Kind of like how Ikemmu was both in the material world and the Shadowfell. When on Thunderstrike, you could enter the plane that you wanted simply by crossing through the right door (or wrong door in some cases). Thunderstrike would be simultaneously present in all planes. I don't know how this would be (balance-wise), but it certainly feels epic to me (flavour-wise).