How to make simple weapons that cooperate with a surge

[DiePie]

6 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

That does not safe you. You have an armored platform. That is a lot heavier than a few people. Even dozens of people.
If the platform itself were weightless, you would be right. But it isn't, the vector is just altered. Suppose your platform is heavier on a side off the center line with respect to your gravity vector, and it will be. Your mobile platform will immediately start spinning, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky, it will flip over. That will happen if you ever get top heavy. That can happen if you hit a bump or a ditch.

quote from the coppermind:

Quote

This ability alters an object's or being's spiritual gravitational bond to the planet below, instead temporarily linking it to a different object or direction.

first and foremost it would be pretty easy to make it weightless (just adding 2 opposing lashes), but that won't be needed. 

second, the entire fortification (which isn't just a wall or a platform, most likely a combination of both so people can stand on it) would be falling for a few seconds to accelerate it in its entire length. This isn't something pulling from the middle, the force is coming from the entire length of the fort. We would use abrasion to make the bottom of the fort completely slick, no friction whatsoever. So once the fort is up to speed, extra weight won't slow it down since it will have no friction to the ground. So that means that extra people on one side or another will only matter during accelerations, when they are not falling forward. It would be so easy to use basic lashings to rotate it back, so long as its not spinning like 45 degrees in either direction, which, again, won't happen because as you pointed out, the fort is so much more massive than the people on top of it, so they proportionally weigh almost nothing compared to the structure (which is the thing accelerating here, since gravitation accelerates entire bodies evenly)

[+Oltux72]

23 hours ago, DiePie said:

first and foremost it would be pretty easy to make it weightless (just adding 2 opposing lashes), but that won't be needed.

Well, no. That works for a person, because people are active. Unfortunately, if you actively eliminate gravity, buoyancy is still there. Hence if you do this to a sufficiently large structure, you have built an airship.

23 hours ago, DiePie said:

second, the entire fortification (which isn't just a wall or a platform, most likely a combination of both so people can stand on it) would be falling for a few seconds to accelerate it in its entire length. This isn't something pulling from the middle, the force is coming from the entire length of the fort.

Right, but that does not matter. Normal gravity also works on everything. Yet things inevitably orient with the center of gravity down, whatever be down. You have people on these fortifications they move. The platform will shake.

23 hours ago, DiePie said:

We would use abrasion to make the bottom of the fort completely slick, no friction whatsoever. So once the fort is up to speed, extra weight won't slow it down since it will have no friction to the ground.

Again, no. Your ground will hardly be level. You'll need to correct course.

23 hours ago, DiePie said:

So that means that extra people on one side or another will only matter during accelerations, when they are not falling forward. It would be so easy to use basic lashings to rotate it back, so long as its not spinning like 45 degrees in either direction, which, again, won't happen because as you pointed out, the fort is so much more massive than the people on top of it, so they proportionally weigh almost nothing compared to the structure (which is the thing accelerating here, since gravitation accelerates entire bodies evenly)

Gravity is not the point. Besides that not being true. Tides prove the exact opposite.

[ArcticWindrunner]

This is a very interesting discussion. I think that it is possible that this could work. You wouldn't even need to be on the ground, but if you would want to be on the ground, you could always put a lashing to the ground, than make a stronger lashing in the direction you want to move. If you did add abrasion, though probably unnecessary, you wouldn't need any pike or spear-men, just let the weight of a hurtling mobile fortress smash into them. You'd probably need to add some sort of straps or something to make sure any Archers or control crews didn't go flying back. Imagine having these protect blocks of Infantrymen as you go up a hill! Or transporting troops across great distances in giant blocks. If this actually could work(which seems plausible), think of the tactical advantages!