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[Sean Mirrsen]

Aww c'mon now Sean, where's that can-do attitude I've come to expect from you? Just because it's not your strong suit means you'll never even try it? After all, practice makes perfect.

Anton was always a somewhat... for lack of a better word, conservatively minded scientist. Not in the sense that he's unwilling to try new things, but in the sense that he is sticking to the parts of science that he can make sense of. He excels at finding new ways to use the physics he knows, and finding new ways to break the physics he knows, but not being faced with whole new physics that he can't find a way to know.

This is why he's been avoiding manipulators despite good intelligence, and why he never purchased a Nyars artifact. He's not the kind of scientist who can take an artifact like Milno's pyramid and figure out what it does - but he's the kind of engineer who could find a way to contrive known physics into a High Energy Projector if given the knowledge of what the pyramid does, and the right tools.

Grate's little big episode was kind of spectacularly ill-timed, as he'd just tried his hand with an MFM. The total meltdown of physics, as well as the exchange with Steve where he'd been told he's not allowed to know the nature of the effects that caused it, pretty much cranked his abhorrence of space magic into overdrive. The only space magic thing he'll willingly use right now is the kinetic amp, which he's come to see more as a tool, with a specific trigger and a quantifiable effect that can act in a predictable manner.

So no, he's not likely to try working with the alien artifacts in the near future.

[Xantalos]

I'm guessing that his thing he made that got him into the HMRC didn't help.

[Radio Controlled]

So no, he's not likely to try working with the alien artifacts in the near future.

Ok then, sure, why not, lots of other stuff. Go interrogate one of the prisoners. Go plan out all the steps for amp factory. Go search for ways to buy ships and the special manips needed for the amp plant somewhere.

There is plenty work to be done.

[Lenglon]

Aww c'mon now Sean, where's that can-do attitude I've come to expect from you? Just because it's not your strong suit means you'll never even try it? After all, practice makes perfect.

Anton was always a somewhat... for lack of a better word, conservatively minded scientist. Not in the sense that he's unwilling to try new things, but in the sense that he is sticking to the parts of science that he can make sense of. He excels at finding new ways to use the physics he knows, and finding new ways to break the physics he knows, but not being faced with whole new physics that he can't find a way to know.

This is why he's been avoiding manipulators despite good intelligence, and why he never purchased a Nyars artifact. He's not the kind of scientist who can take an artifact like Milno's pyramid and figure out what it does - but he's the kind of engineer who could find a way to contrive known physics into a High Energy Projector if given the knowledge of what the pyramid does, and the right tools.

Grate's little big episode was kind of spectacularly ill-timed, as he'd just tried his hand with an MFM. The total meltdown of physics, as well as the exchange with Steve where he'd been told he's not allowed to know the nature of the effects that caused it, pretty much cranked his abhorrence of space magic into overdrive. The only space magic thing he'll willingly use right now is the kinetic amp, which he's come to see more as a tool, with a specific trigger and a quantifiable effect that can act in a predictable manner.

So no, he's not likely to try working with the alien artifacts in the near future.

...
Anything against completing Lyra's "Blue" fireball system?

[Sean Mirrsen]

That thing he made wasn't in any way connected to space magic. It was just his attempt to figure out the new physics that he thought he knew.

Also.

((I'd tell them they can count on our support. Seeing as how, if Steve's briefing is to be believed, they are going to be an important partner, then I think defending them would have been something we'd try to do anyways. Still, kinda wondering what Steve will have to say.))

On a private line, inquire Steve to our capacity of defending them. And would defending them mean not being able to defend other worlds?

I suppose it's not impossible for us to find a bit of footage of one of our completed defense ships zooming off into the mass driver tunnel, for use as proof that we can provide them with ships?

Hopefully they can't see that the ship in question is not FTL-capable.

We're also making new weapons and designing new ships for this exact purpose - at least we would be by this point in the timeline, as the high-energy lab would have been completed by the time the Sword got to its destination if we weren't doing the "simultaneous nonrelativistic time" thing.

...
Anything against completing Lyra's "Blue" fireball system?

Not as such, no. What's it do?

[Radio Controlled]

Spoiler: Artifacts to research (click to show/hide)

Mission 14:
Termite gun
Headless
Burnout amp
Cultist leader corpse (likely the UE from mission 5)
Scuba gear
Data from eggs

Gratesplosion:
Flaming golden rebar surrounded by forcefield
Hexagonal spike, glows blue with black swirls
Blackish gray crystals
Piece of staircase railing with a thin coating of moving black stuff. (warning, may cause tissue damage and massive shadowy tornadoes)
Giant lump of spiky pollen with red glow
Metal cylinder. Resonates dangerously well.
Neon green humming spikes. Explode when struck
Feather shaped rod with yellow glow. Broken in half. Used to project much heat before broken.
Extremely corrosive gas

Thank you Nav, you are a fine researcher.

[syvarris]

Doing these things are your job, and of your fellow Hephaestians. Sure, it's not as fun as tinkering, but did you ever suspect that there would be no boring administrative duties with an operation like running a factory planet?

I'm sorry, I never signed up to run a planet.  I signed up as a researcher that would be given nigh-infinite supplies to use for experiments.  Yes, I was the only person who decided to put any work into sods, I'm the guy who actually started building the SM facility, and I maintain the wiki page.  That does not mean I wanted to have the job of running an entire planet because nobody else wants it.  I'm pretty sure the same goes for Sean, despite the fact that he adopted our ship construction facilities.

And FYI Radio, I play this game because I enjoy playing this game, not because I feel like it's my job.  If the game stops being fun to play, I will stop playing it.  Therefore, I'm not gonna do the stuff that I have no interest in, regardless of how important it is to the game.  If that's a problem, kick me off of Hephaestus.

And what, exactly, is stopping you from checking it yourself?

Nothing.  Yes, I could go research what's there, and might do so if nobody responded.  However, I'm not the guy who really wants to experiment with weird stuff- it interests me somewhat, but it isn't a priority.  If somebody else, who really wants someone to work on that stuff, gives me a list, then I'm more likely to work on it. 

Mostly it's because we don't have the resources to do it. We don't even have the resources to build another construction ship right now, much less a whole orbital facility.

Okay, I'll admit that I've generally been pretty busy recently, and may have missed PW saying something like this.  That said, I don't remember PW mentioning our resource limitations applying to anything aside from the production expansion, and I already said to shut down sod production so we could do that.

Also, in the future, don't hesitate to ask me to shut down sods, or refrain from building related stuff.  I'm only doing it so that we're using our production ability for something useful. _{Also because I like watching the numbers go up.}

@NAV

Thank you for that.

What's it do?

If memory serves, it's a glove-ish device that uses automanips to summon a little blue plasma ball that you can move around.  Since the automanips are so small, it's probably unworkable- they'd run out of juice.



Here's a general question to anyone interested: Since we now have a nice little list of artifacts, why don't people propose experiments to use on something?  Preferably with actual hypotheses and purposes.  If people come up with good ideas, I'll try them.

Quite frankly, I don't have too many ideas for experiments to do on this stuff.

[Radio Controlled]

I'm sorry, I never signed up to run a planet.  I signed up as a researcher that would be given nigh-infinite supplies to use for experiments.  Yes, I was the only person who decided to put any work into sods, I'm the guy who actually started building the SM facility, and I maintain the wiki page.  That does not mean I wanted to have the job of running an entire planet because nobody else wants it.  I'm pretty sure the same goes for Sean, despite the fact that he adopted our ship construction facilities.

And FYI Radio, I play this game because I enjoy playing this game, not because I feel like it's my job.  If the game stops being fun to play, I will stop playing it.  Therefore, I'm not gonna do the stuff that I have no interest in, regardless of how important it is to the game.  If that's a problem, kick me off of Hephaestus.

Oh sure, I understand that. I'm not asking that you put all your effort into things you don't like, but a little more balance would be nice. The fact you and Sean have done some other (non-tinker) work is very good, and I thank you for that. But you can't exactly say people (either Miya or Simus) have been very demanding. You've both been given a lot of time for pet projects, but did you really think that you'd never have to do anything that's not your immediate interest when coming to Hep? If anything, getting some of these things done will mean more options in the future (eg once amp factory is done, new flavors of space magic can be invented). For comparison: on my mission, most of the players cannot do anything but sit and wait. Fun? Perhaps not really (though I personally aren't bored, lots of research to do). But necessary, in order to get to the funner parts later on.

Look, I'll admit I may have been coming on a bit too strong here, and I'm not saying either of you are useless or haven't contributed. Just that there isn't a good balance right now between things that are fun to do, and things that need to be done in order to advance the game/Hep capabilities.

Here's a general question to anyone interested: Since we now have a nice little list of artifacts, why don't people propose experiments to use on something?  Preferably with actual hypotheses and purposes.  If people come up with good ideas, I'll try them.

For glowworm weapon: shoot at empty container, let ARESTEVE do tests on what it shoots to see what it is.

Shoot at robotbody and observe in detail what it does, can use scanning techniques to find out more.

Research the weapon itself using non-destructive methods, eg scanning, whether it needs ammo, if there are dials or anything, ...

[Beirus]

Hey, if we get the pill machine on ship, maybe we can just politely ask Miya to make some materials for it. Solves the lack of resources problem as long as we don't over tax Miya.

[Radio Controlled]

Hey, if we get the pill machine on ship, maybe we can just politely ask Miya to make some materials for it. Solves the lack of resources problem as long as we don't over tax Miya.

Sure, why not. As long as it's isn't spess mahgick or i need mind points for something else, ask away.

[Unholy_Pariah]

If you heph guys wanna just be lazy and fuck around prototyping becaise your responsibilities are boring i dont actually have a problem with that, just make the QEC droids so we can bring in someone who will do the boring shit.

[Lenglon]

...
Anything against completing Lyra's "Blue" fireball system?

Not as such, no. What's it do?

((incomplete design, I have some options for how I want to go to handle the token costs, my current plans involve removing the automanip and making having a microwave amp/manip mandatory for useage. here's the relevant quotes from a notepad doc I keep around:

Spoiler: Wall of Old Tinker Posts (click to show/hide)

ok, plan 1) try to just take a microwave amp and modify it, when this raises red flags message the AM and Steve

How can I make a microwave amp have continuous output without killing the user?

if i get useful advice, follow it. if not, next plan.

plan 2) automanip wired to accept input for position (forbid positioning it where it touches the user), size (with limits on the max size), and (if possible) color, from standard prosthetic inputs. attempt to add a input port to the automanip so that it can be hooked up to a small generator for periodic recharging. attempt to add a battery life display to the automanip. if the automanip cannot be rigged up for recharging then attempt to configure the design for easy battery replacement.

message the Doctor to ask for help with this design, attaching a copy of the work i've performed to the message.

((no, Lyra doesn't know how bad an idea this is))

How should I configure prosthetic controls for this design? Is there a form of training control already designed to teach the user how to handle this new "limb" with something less lethal than a fireball?

if this doesn't work or is impratically priced, on to plan 3.

plan 3)

break the task down into subtasks and attempt to solve each problem individually.

subtask 1: generation of fireball

potental inital sources of the fireball: electric sparker, microwave amp, microwave manip, automanip, CLF3 (i'm pretty sure all of these will work, just use whichever is needed for compatability with later tasks, if several are compatible, use the one that is least likely to kill the user.

subtask 2: maintaining fireball

amp, manip, automanip, seem like the three most viable options. a robot would melt itself if surrounded by real fire, have scout eye maneuvering problems, and probably be to expensive to be viable if armored enough to avoid the above two issues.

subtask 3: controlling fireball

input from standard prosthetic systems seems likely, if nothing else the Doctor has shown that he is very used to adding additional limbs to people and would know how to configure input for something like this. if not viable for some reason then my best bets seem to be either a microwave amp or vector amp, depending on the other systems.

attempt to find viable methods for each of the above subtasks and then attempt to find a compatible combination of the above. if several options are available attempt to minimize price and risk to the user. if this is going to be in continuous use then it needs to not kill me every 3rd turn.

if none of the above ideas boil down to something usefull message Nyars with my failed designs attached, noted with why they will not work:

Do you have a device that would perform similarly to these failed design's intentions?

Plan 1
The armory master basically tells you that you can't have continuous output, that there is always a limit to how much a manipulator or an amp can throw out before the batteries or user is drained.

Plan 2
Automanips never except anything but an activation and deactivation signal. Their actions cannot be altered.

plan 3

This all depends on how strict you are in how it looks. I mean, if all you want is a flying fireball we could just do the equivalent of duct tape a Bunsen burner to a quad-copter and call it a day.  But if you want to actually look like a free floating fireball then it's gonna be more complex.

Also, nyars doesn't know whats in his capsules, or at least he's not telling anyone.

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.

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.

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}{/spoiler}
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.

Well, in that case the automanip create the field and then propels it forward. It doesn't continue to maintain it after that so the field degenerates quickly.

This was pretty much what I was talking about when it comes to putting it on the end of a stick or on top of a drone or something. You can contain the plasma but you need a physical base for these magnetic field emitters to sit on. And they need to be close to the ball itself. So with a staff or a drone you can have that. And in that case you can have the plasma ball and maintain it for relatively little energy, though you will need to keep it supplied, since the plasma will lose energy via heat and light, regardless of how shielded it is.

hmmm, how far away can i get it to go? for example if i placed the emitters on a belt could i get it to go anywhere within 5 feet of me or so? or are we talking more in inches than in feet? it seems like the range would be variable, based on how strong the emitters are. and like i said, i'm using a MUCH smaller amount of plasma.

EDIT:

what i'm thinking of here, it is seems the power drain rate would be variable depending on the distance the fireball is from the emitters. if i keep the fireball very close normally (maybe carry it directly above my hand? the same way i was carrying it most of the time in the illusion?), and only move it away from my person for short time periods (generally to either illuminate or ignite something), i think i'd be able to maintain the fireball a lot of the time without having to have a drone or stick or whatever.

The drone or the stick is where the emitters will be placed; you need some sort of physical base for them to be put onto. Thats not a matter of lowering power drain, thats a matter of it working at all. You could have the emitters in a glove, for instance, to just keep it above your hand. Although it's gonna be a pretty big glove. And one that fucks with electronics around it since it's spraying concentrated magnetic fields around.

hmmmm...
ok, from your description i'm guessing the glove version would end up looking less like the nintendo power glove and more like the warhammer or fallout power fist?
unless...

test idea)
a backpack-style setup for the emitters. that should be a far more stable place to have them, and keeps me more weight-balanced, as well as allowing me to move my hands freely without moving the fireball with them.

test specific problem areas:
1)
identify which parts of the the suits have significant problems if i have the emitter's fields pass through them, which simply are disrupted but have no long-term effects, and which function normally.
2)
identify if there is danger to a human that stands between the emitters and the fireball itself, assuming the fireball is far enough away to not pose a burn risk.
3)
test power drain rates over distances, determine how close the fireball needs to stay for acceptable drain rates long-term, how close i can let it wander around short-term without issue, and at what point the power drain rate becomes exorbitantly high, such that i can probably only move the fireball out that far a couple times before the battery will be completely drained.

((hopefully these tests will put us on the same page, and let me finish the core design work and get more into finalization work (safeties, interfaces, etc)))

missed me, although i didn't use bold at the time i guess

sorry about that.

Yeah, the glove would be pretty big.  Even bigger if you want the power supply in it rather then on your back or something.

1.
Anything electronic and not shielded might get fucked up, though not permanently.

2.Nah. Magnetic fields of this magnitude won't hurt anyone.  Well, unless they're a robot.

3. Oh, foot or two shouldn't take too much energy. Anything beyond that though and it's gonna go up exponentially.

ok then, Still tinkering to make my floating fireball

physical design and appearance:
place all the parts for this into a backpack design, batteries, emitters, the works. I just need to keep the fireball near the emitters, right? if i want it to float over my hand that's still within a couple feet of the emitters, and it doesn't force me to wear a "glove" bigger than my head. something as big as a power fist is way too big for me to use at my size. the emitters themselves need to be in a sphere of sorts, that rotates to allow it to be aimed at any angle, and the casing needs to include some stabilizers and shock absorbers, to protect the equipment from the inevitable large amounts of vibration this device will  encounter in normal use.

power:
use an integrated pair of batteries for power, on opposite ends of the device (so if the fields have one temporarily disabled, the other works just fine), include some retractable recharging/power cables for the various standard generator/battery designs, and a battery indicator both on the device itself and on a connected suit's HUD.

control:
message the doctor for help with this. design it to use prosthetic limb inputs, so that creating, dismissing, and moving the fireball around is done as an extension of the user's body. the user does not manually handle each of the emitters separately, but simply controls where the unit as a whole aims them. assume the device will be attached to the user's back, but that it (like other prosthetics) can be removed if detached properly. if at all possible, i want the user to have the same kinesthetic sense of the fireball's location that people have with any other limb. if the doctor gives advice on how to refine this control scheme, take it.

Could you please help me refine the control scheme for this device?

safeties:
if the device takes damage that might compromise the emitters, it immediately begins the shut-down process, and will not restart until repaired.
the device will not trigger the automanip if the emitters are not in the right position to contain the resulting fireball, and will attempt to move the emitters to the proper position if this is attempted.
when the device is shutting down, it turns off the prism emitters first, then waits a few moments for the fireball to dissipate, before shutting down the rest of the emitters. this will result in the fireball dissipating in a cone of flame directly away from the emitters.
the device outputs to the user's suit the location the fireball is currently at, which the suit then uses to darken a small section of the user's visor anytime the fireball would be visible, protecting the user from blinding themselves.

give the device a physical switch on it, that is encased and latched down normally to prevent accidental changes to it.
the switch is a "training mode" switch, that limits the device's permitted movement area such that it cannot get within arm's reach of the user, except to create a new fireball. it also does not permit the fireball to go directly beneath the user. when a new fireball is made in "training mode" it is immediately moved outside this safety radius after it has been made, and without the control of the user. i am fully aware this will drain power much faster, but when working with a new prosthetic you need to have an acclimation period where you can't kill yourself with it. if the switch is damaged, the device disables training mode rather than risk locking it in training mode.

assuming all the above design steps go well, message Steve and the AM:

I would like help building this design. I believe it would be more versatile than most currently available equipment. Is there a way to make this? I do not have the skills to assemble the pieces.

All This looks fine and dandy, although you may want to consider shielding the electronics of your suit, since you're basically gonna be waving those fields around willy-nilly.  And yeah, you can get the armory master to make it for you, though you'll still have to pay for everything. But hey, thats what missions are for.

how expensive would this be?

price check?

((shielding isn't free, and i'm trying to keep the price as low as i can. i'll just suffer with it while i'm in a MK1 suit, but i know i'll need to do something about it if i get a MK2 or MK3))

Well, here's the thing Automanips have a low end cost of about 5-6 tokens. And then there's the 3 or so for the power system, the 3-4 for the magnetic field projectors, and the 2-3 for assembly and misc parts. So it's already not cheap.

((Objective: hands-free device that re-creates "Blue" - the fireball Lyra summoned during anti-mindfuck training with the AM. Probably uses EXO, but was that was never nailed down for sure.
note the dates: it's been a long time since this was mentioned, I'm not at all surprised it was forgotten.))

[kj1225]

I wish I had a reason for my character to dress up as a pirate for the next batch of missions. You know, like a belated Halloween celebration.

[Gentlefish]

@Lenglon: Was this back when the altered-bug-someone was tearing up the wreck room? I remember catching bits of it between arthropodic gruesome goodness, and it seemed really cool but it was hard to follow.

[Lenglon]

@Lenglon: Was this back when the altered-bug-someone was tearing up the wreck room? I remember catching bits of it between arthropodic gruesome goodness, and it seemed really cool but it was hard to follow.

((basically, yes. it started slightly earlier, and ended later, but not by much in either case.))