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Voting closed: April 07, 2013, 10:34:35 am

[Caellath]

"I dunno. Just a guy. He's afraid of cotton balls and has a fetish for PVC body suits."

((Quality blackmailing information.))

[piecewise]

End Simulation.

Simulate an all-out match with the 5 inmates with highest overall stats.

In the end I think it would probably come down to Jim vs milno. In terms of stats, the highest ones are probably concentrated in ye olde veterans with several missions under their belt, but of them only really Jim and Milno are real combat powerhouses. And of them, in a best of 10 fights, I think Jim would win. Milno has a great suit, but his offensive power isn't as great as Jim's with all his synth-flesh and psychic powers. I feel like Milno's victories would come as part of a long strategy to use his speed and evasion to drain jim's mental stamina and attack him while he's weakened, and as such would be more prone to failure if the dice go bad somewhere along the line. Now, if you gave milno something with some real kick behind it, or made this a more long distance engagement, I think he would have a better chance.

Thank Armory Master.
Locate bedrooms/quarters/dormitory/whatever you want to call it. See if I can figure out which one is Miss Feyri's.

Well, considering Feyri is laying in one of the bunks, you're gonna assume that one is her's.

well, blast. that limit on automanips is a major problem, although workarounds are still possible.
((and i knew Nyars would refuse, it just was the logical follow up so...))

plan 1) the hard way
look up various forms of immaterial containment and/or shielding fields developed. particularly look for methods of containing either heat or plasma effects that do not require surrounding the effect but instead curve their shielding around it, probably by having an array of devices clustered together, a few forming the shield itself, initially aimed mildly off-center, and the rest forming modifying fields that act similarly to prisms upon the shield effect, causing it to curve  as it passes the target area, forming a hollow sphere.
attempt to either duplicate or develop such a device, activate it, then have a dedicated automanip cause there to be a specific heat level or plasma ball inside the shielded sphere.
create a program to adjust the angles, shield strength, and prism strengths, to automate the process of moving the sphere around so that all it needs is directional input.
test the maximum range the device can handle the sphere being from the emitters before the containment shields are too diffused to be functional, and make the program not allow moving the sphere that far from the emitters. also disallow suicidal fireball placement, such as on the user or on the emitters themselves. teach it that the initial fireball position must be a fixed direction and distance from the device array, to allow the automanip to function. treat this position as the default position for the fireball to go throughout design.
check size, price, and power constraints, and attempt to remove excess and specialize the device array to make more portable and cheaper to produce, reducing fireball size as needed as well, and updating the program as needed to compensate for this process.
do not stop downsizing until it either stops working or is both realistically man-portable and cheap enough in materials i think it would cost about 5 tokens or less. check how much this has reduced performance, and note exactly when it became man-portable, and when i think it would only cost about 5 tokens, if either point is reached during this downsizing and efficiency work.
((i'm assuming here that the field itself will keep the fire/plasma ball going through simple conservation of energy, since it doesn't have anywhere to go to dissipate itself. also since the automanip is set to cause there to be a specific amount of heat/plasma in the area, instead of adding a specific amount of heat/plasma to the area, it should be able to simply be triggered again to bring the fireball back to full strength))

refinements:
if the device takes significant battle damage, make it refuse to activate the automanip anymore for any reason, set the shields on a middling-strong setting, and turn off the prisms, reshaping the shields into an outward facing cone, and expelling the fireball away from the user. after the fireball has had three times the time normally needed to dissipate,the rest of the device turns off and stays that way until repaired.
attempting to trigger the automanip causes the shields to return to the default position, then triggers it. the automanip will not trigger if the shields are out of position.
give the device a physical switch on it, which is covered and latched to prevent accidental use, which will disable the safeties with the exception of the auto-shut-off listed above. it defaults to have the safeties on, is a toggle, and if damaged (without the rest of the device being damaged) locks itself with the safeties on.
make the device compatible with prosthetic limb inputs. (remember it only receives directional movement input, and the automanip trigger request, there is no other input to this device)

plan 2) stupidly expensive
first, test each of the various amps, manips, and automanips. find which ones can make the fireball, and which of those have the longest battery life when set to keep it going as long as possible.
next, go through the amps, manips, and automanips again, take the longest lasting result from the above test, and see which amps, manips, and automanips can move it around. for now ignore practicality (if necessary use 6 automanips (one for each dimension) to move it for example).
next, attempt to find a way to reduce the price tag of the system by specializing it to this one purpose, removing unnecessary versatility options, unneeded inputs, etc.

Hmm, well theres a gun in the armory called the Plasma Projector that fires big old balls of plasma contained in magnetic fields. SO what your doing here is by no means new or out of the question. However, out still have the problem that if you do such a thing with a automanip it would basically just project this ball of plasma x feet away from itself at Y angle and have it stay there in relation to itself. And maintaining the ball would still drain battery power over time, so it's not like it would be a permanent solution.

Radioactive lesbian prostitutes it is!

You go to the Rings of saturn; ironically the name of a rather massive pub on Europa. It's a rundown thing, the squat shell of a former colony retrofitted with neon signs and racks for space-cycles out front. The signs declare it to be home to "Live" nude "Girls", and the clientele seems to consist mostly of giant anthropod's in leather and the occasional sentient cloud of sulfur with a gaudy lower back tattoo. You head inside and take a seat at the bar. Behind you, on the stage, a giant cockroach is gyrating around a pole underneath flashing blacklight and a cloud of cigarette smoke. The robot bartender asks what you want to drink.

Nothing
or
Anti-freeze on the rocks
or
Jovian rum
or
Warm Milk.

Go to and start up computer. Search 'Battle of Hexbarax'.

You search battle of Hexbarax on the Interent. It brings up several trillion articles, the first several of which are on user contributed encyclopedia sites, and the next several of which seem to be reputable historical sites. There are a few conspiracy sites as well as what look like reenactment enthusiast sites.

"Ah. That is quite the problem. Any idea why black people are so bothered by manipulators? Why couldn't they just be chill about them, you know? For that matter, what else bothers them that is in ready availability? It's good to know these things, after all."

Ask.

"Mostly just the amps and manipulators. Don't mess with them. Also don't try to blow things up on board. That is also a poor choice. As per why it bothers them, just think about it for a moment. Just think about what happens when you overload an amp."

"Well, that was... rather awkward. Hrm."

>Dust self off, retrieve rifle and place her safely in my locker, then go use the bathroom.

You stow your gear and then go to the bathroom. You're not quite sure what to do in here.

"It's funny...I know what this place is but I don't remember ever seeing one before..."

In, that case, can a book an appointment? I currently am hallucinating a talking sheep with seven horns and seven black eyes with a melting face. It mentioned Bishop even though I never heard of him until now.

"What did he get sent here for anyway? Was it his odd, uh, preferences?"

You can get some anti-psychotics from one of the nurses.

"I dunno. Probably something silly. Did you know one girl got sent here for jaywalking and is now infatuated with robo-dick? This whole place is quite silly, really. "

[Harry Baldman]

"Wait, what does happen you overload an amp? I can't say I've ever done it before. How do you do it, by the way? Just curious and all."

Ask Sandy.

[Radio Controlled]

In the end I think it would probably come down to Jim vs milno. In terms of stats, the highest ones are probably concentrated in ye olde veterans with several missions under their belt, but of them only really Jim and Milno are real combat powerhouses. And of them, in a best of 10 fights, I think Jim would win. Milno has a great suit, but his offensive power isn't as great as Jim's with all his synth-flesh and psychic powers. I feel like Milno's victories would come as part of a long strategy to use his speed and evasion to drain jim's mental stamina and attack him while he's weakened, and as such would be more prone to failure if the dice go bad somewhere along the line. Now, if you gave milno something with some real kick behind it, or made this a more long distance engagement, I think he would have a better chance.

((This makes me wonder though, what is Milno's most powerful weapon? Just wondering if it could penetrate my battlesuit's armor. And yeah, Jim (or any experienced amp user) would probably win in any 1 vs 1 fight due to the nature of amps. They're great weapons for short usage, and there isn't really any way to defend against them apart from stay mobile/hidden/far away or striking first.))

[Xantalos]

Go to the first link on the results page.

[Lenglon]

it shouldn't have to do any maintenance work actually. the only reason for the automanip was to insert the heat/plasma into the containment sphere, maintenance and movement is handled by the sphere itself. the automanip only has to turn on for a single burst. the reason i needed an automanip for it was to be able to generate it is because the way i was building the containment sphere, there wasn't a safe way to insert the plasma into the containment field.

i had forgotten about the plasma projector over there, that actually makes things a ton easier. i noticed that the plasma projector's problem isn't maintaining the plasma over distance and time, but getting it to hit the target at long ranges because of the slow speed it has for a projectile. essentially the system i'm trying to build could piggyback off the plasma projector tech and is basically using a plasma projector plasma ball with an immaterial leash on it. the low end speed mentioned in the plasma projector entry (90 MPH) is plenty fast for my purposes.

and i do expect the fireball to degrade over time, but since i'm keeping a permanent leash on it. i'm pretty sure the aforementioned leash will help reinforce the containment field and keep the loss to a minimum, and even without this reinforcement the plasma projector's field listed in the armory was able to keep the plasma ball effective for extended periods (90 MPH + extreme range means signifigant travel time means long duration).

also, i'm fine with a much smaller fireball than the plasma projector, reducing it from basketball sized to a simple 5 inch diameter, or possibly smaller (down to a minimum of 2 inches, although 3 is much preferable) if necessary. that has got to greatly reduce the demands on the system. i also dont need the extreme range of the plasma projector, limiting it to a maximum of medium range is just fine with me. additionally the plasma projector is capable of having multiple shots in the air at one time, i only want one fireball active at a time.

also, now that you pointed that out (seriously, thank you so much for pointing out the plasma projector, that's a major help here) i'd like to look into using the plasma projector's firing mechanism to generate the ball, instead of an automanip, and see if that reduces size/price/power requirements, if it is the more efficient generation system, use that instead.

i do expect this system to drain power over time, the projectors for the containment field / leash are going to be pretty much constantly on after all. so:

test the maximum duration of a single fireball under this system, assume infinite power available to the containment field but no additional power to the automanip/plasma projector firing mechanism after the fireball has been generated.
test power drain rate of the system, look into a generator/battery system that starting from a fully charged state can generate and maintain a constant state of having one fireball active, replacing them as they dissipate, for 1 hour, then 4 hours, then 12 hours. (i think this system will be most efficient with a generator attached because of the long duration i'm working with here, if not, just use a battery and list the price tag and normal recharge time please)
test how long it takes for the generator part of the power system to fully recharge the battery from a fully drained state, without outside help.

oh, and what color is the plasma ball? can i make it blue?

[anailater]

"Milk thanks."

[TCM]

For old times sake, start up a new game of "Punching Many People".

[GreatWyrmGold]

Spontaneously hope Ms. May is nowhere near me.

"Hi, Miss Feyri! Look what I made!"

((Hm, what's the chance of that?))

[Empiricist]

"Huh, I never knew that. How long have you been on this ship anyway? Also, would you happen to know much about the Doctor and the Armory Master? The former seem rather mysterious and I've never actually seen him yet, the latter has much more experience that what her appearances indicate."

[Grunhill]

Avoid his attack. Then aim a slash at his arms again.

[Spinal_Taper]

Fire on a new target.

[Tiruin]

Spontaneously hope Ms. May is nowhere near me.

"Hi, Miss Feyri! Look what I made!"

((Hm, what's the chance of that?))

Feyri turned to see Grate, holding some kind of...picture? in his hands. He was particularly beaming at the output of his product.

"Hi Grate, what's that you've got there?" And it showed. Her eyes studied the painting just like it was one of those long lost artifacts of reknown -- you couldn't take your eyes off em and just bask in the way they surprised you -- just like those simple and yet astounding paintings back in the day made by kids.

"Wow Grate! This is amazing! You did this all by yourself?" Feyri replied. It was amazing in the way that he got the details correct...despite using MS Paint 6K. Those things don't handle curvy lines like they always did. But the darned pixels.

It was beautiful.

Appreciate art.

[piecewise]

"Wait, what does happen you overload an amp? I can't say I've ever done it before. How do you do it, by the way? Just curious and all."

Ask Sandy.

"Nope. Nope nope nope"

She picks your still dancing ass up and floats it out of the room.

"Not giving the "Kill everyone" button to more idiots. Nope."

it shouldn't have to do any maintenance work actually. the only reason for the automanip was to insert the heat/plasma into the containment sphere, maintenance and movement is handled by the sphere itself. the automanip only has to turn on for a single burst. the reason i needed an automanip for it was to be able to generate it is because the way i was building the containment sphere, there wasn't a safe way to insert the plasma into the containment field.

i had forgotten about the plasma projector over there, that actually makes things a ton easier. i noticed that the plasma projector's problem isn't maintaining the plasma over distance and time, but getting it to hit the target at long ranges because of the slow speed it has for a projectile. essentially the system i'm trying to build could piggyback off the plasma projector tech and is basically using a plasma projector plasma ball with an immaterial leash on it. the low end speed mentioned in the plasma projector entry (90 MPH) is plenty fast for my purposes.

and i do expect the fireball to degrade over time, but since i'm keeping a permanent leash on it. i'm pretty sure the aforementioned leash will help reinforce the containment field and keep the loss to a minimum, and even without this reinforcement the plasma projector's field listed in the armory was able to keep the plasma ball effective for extended periods (90 MPH + extreme range means signifigant travel time means long duration).

also, i'm fine with a much smaller fireball than the plasma projector, reducing it from basketball sized to a simple 5 inch diameter, or possibly smaller (down to a minimum of 2 inches, although 3 is much preferable) if necessary. that has got to greatly reduce the demands on the system. i also dont need the extreme range of the plasma projector, limiting it to a maximum of medium range is just fine with me. additionally the plasma projector is capable of having multiple shots in the air at one time, i only want one fireball active at a time.

also, now that you pointed that out (seriously, thank you so much for pointing out the plasma projector, that's a major help here) i'd like to look into using the plasma projector's firing mechanism to generate the ball, instead of an automanip, and see if that reduces size/price/power requirements, if it is the more efficient generation system, use that instead.

i do expect this system to drain power over time, the projectors for the containment field / leash are going to be pretty much constantly on after all. so:

test the maximum duration of a single fireball under this system, assume infinite power available to the containment field but no additional power to the automanip/plasma projector firing mechanism after the fireball has been generated.
test power drain rate of the system, look into a generator/battery system that starting from a fully charged state can generate and maintain a constant state of having one fireball active, replacing them as they dissipate, for 1 hour, then 4 hours, then 12 hours. (i think this system will be most efficient with a generator attached because of the long duration i'm working with here, if not, just use a battery and list the price tag and normal recharge time please)
test how long it takes for the generator part of the power system to fully recharge the battery from a fully drained state, without outside help.

oh, and what color is the plasma ball? can i make it blue?

Well, the plasma projector uses an automanip to maintain the magnetic field, which is the problem. Pretty much the only way to have these free floating balls of plasma is automanip usage, and in that case they're not very maintainable. If you, say, were ok with it being on the end of a staff, then it could be done with more simple means, but just having it float around like you want is hard.

As per color, the plasma projector's spheres are many colors at once, most of them blinding. Not sure if we could get pure blue unless from plasma-fying a specific substance, like how neon lights work.

"Milk thanks."

The entire bar stops what it's doing and turns to look at you.

"What did you say?" Asks a cephalopod with particularly muscular hydrostats.

For old times sake, start up a new game of "Punching Many People".

You start the game up and are immediately confronted with the dreaded first boss: The little girl

"Huh, I never knew that. How long have you been on this ship anyway? Also, would you happen to know much about the Doctor and the Armory Master? The former seem rather mysterious and I've never actually seen him yet, the latter has much more experience that what her appearances indicate."

"Neither of them are all together human. Neither should really be alive." The lamb tilts it's head. "I wonder if they've seen him yet? No? Oh well." The lamb shakes it's head and walks away, fading into nothingness as it does.

 

Avoid his attack. Then aim a slash at his arms again.

[dex:1+2]
Even with all your speed, you can't dodge it entirely. You manage to put your blade between his strike and your side, but his broken arm cracks like a bullwhip, his blade moving so quickly you could swear it's breaking the sound barrier. You block the blow but are hurled backwards, both arms completely numb from the force. You get back up, barely keeping hold of the blade in shaking hands.

"He's quite a thing, isn't he?" The doctor says, stepping over to the Gimp and patting him on the top of his helmet. "What do you think of him?"

Fire on a new target.

You focus your sights on a new man, one of the other archers, who is now looking around in a panic after what just happened.

Spontaneously hope Ms. May is nowhere near me.

"Hi, Miss Feyri! Look what I made!"

((Hm, what's the chance of that?))

Feyri turned to see Grate, holding some kind of...picture? in his hands. He was particularly beaming at the output of his product.

"Hi Grate, what's that you've got there?" And it showed. Her eyes studied the painting just like it was one of those long lost artifacts of reknown -- you couldn't take your eyes off em and just bask in the way they surprised you -- just like those simple and yet astounding paintings back in the day made by kids.

"Wow Grate! This is amazing! You did this all by yourself?" Feyri replied. It was amazing in the way that he got the details correct...despite using MS Paint 6K. Those things don't handle curvy lines like they always did. But the darned pixels.

It was beautiful.

Appreciate art.

Feyri has admired a masterful drawing lately.

[Lenglon]

WAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT...
the automanip on the plasma projector for the containment field works on a Moving Target?!?
how??? it's not like the user of the gun holds perfectly still while the plasma ball is in the air after all.
shouldn't it run into the same problem i did when i wanted to be able to maneuver the plasma around via automanip?


ok, since the plasma projector uses a variation of automanip for the containment field, and those have a lifespan problem, i'll simply use the directional containment field/beam + prism field/beam from last time, quoting the relevant part for convenience:

look up various forms of immaterial containment and/or shielding fields developed. particularly look for methods of containing either heat or plasma effects that do not require surrounding the effect but instead curve their shielding around it, probably by having an array of devices clustered together, a few forming the shield itself, initially aimed mildly off-center, and the rest forming modifying fields that act similarly to prisms upon the shield effect, causing it to curve  as it passes the target area, forming a hollow sphere.

here, let me give you a visual, although i'm not any good at drawing:

Spoiler: ugly image (click to show/hide)

the more traditional repulse field (aka, a simple directional magnetic field) is optional if the shields can be crossed as shown in the image, however if they interfere with each other then uncrossing them and having the repulse field in the middle will be needed to protect the near side.
the prism is actually the entire area between the brown lines, i left them open to show what happens inside that area.
as shown, the far side will in general be much weaker, and this setup will have a lot of leakage into the area behind the fireball, probably interfering with electronics in the area.

this kind of design will have a significant problem traveling long ranges, but i'm not trying for anything like the long-range-artillery the plasma projector qualifies as. the nice thing about it is it shouldn't require any automanips to maintain the plasma ball, and it should be able to be moved in any direction by slowly adjusting the emitters' angles. it also simply uses a conventional power supply instead of needing the special batteries of manips, although it will probably be a bit of a power hog.

the plasma itself will be generated via automanip, but will not be contained or controlled by it.