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[syvarris]

So, I had a dream about ER last night.  It's not really interesting, but I kinda want to share.

Spoiler: Plus I know half of you people read everything anyone posts regardless of it's quality (click to show/hide)

I was an amp-specialized ARM operative, apparently trying to infiltrate a UWM stronghold of some sort.  Since I was infiltrating, I didn't have any equipment, except for an organo-amp which had the mind meld AND fleshwarping powers, somehow.  But for whatever reason, my subconcious thought I had to hide that too.  So it decided to hang it from a string and put a bunch of decorations on it to make it look like some weird necklace.  No, that doesn't make any sense in any way, but hey, dream.  It ended up looking like a large gray box with feathers and fake plastic gems glued on it.

Anyways, the initial infiltration went smoothly, up until some woman stopped me and started looking really close at my 'necklace' (kinda amazing that it didn't happen sooner), and I got worried that she was an amper herself and knew what it was.  So I turned to the side a little, enough to obscure my face and an arm, and started gesturing frantically to my team leader that something was really wrong.  The team leader, who was either Jim or Milno, had not existed prior, or after.  And pretty much ignored me while they did exist.

My memory gets really fuzzy here; I don't really know what happened.  I think I tried to mind control the woman, but it didn't work.  Anyways, the next part I remember has me chasing the woman, who is now carrying a baby (wut?), through the base which is now inexplicably filled with corpses.  And I am being chased in turn by people in battlesuits.  This leads to several minutes of frantic runnning, during which I turn some corpses into trip mines that are somehow effective enough to hurt a battlesuit, and using biomass kind of like the tentacle arm thing in prototype, to launch myself forward.  And at one point I turned several corpses into what amounted to a giant rubberband, and shot myself forwards.  Yes, really.

Despite my... creative attempts at catching up to the woman, I didn't reach her in time.  She got picked up by an XCOM skyranger, which deployed eight UWM personnel that looked just like XCOM personnel armed with plasma weapons.  I was joined by a massive ARM squad, all equipped with ghost armor (even the three battlesuited people), and we slaughtered the 'UWM' troops pretty much instantly.

And from there the dream turned into XCOM stuff.  I don't remember too much of it afterwards.

Spoiler: Also, I started reading Gantz for god knows why. (click to show/hide)

"Gantz is quite possibly the most offensive anime you can get outside of the hentai section. Certainly it's the most transgressive made-for-TV anime to emerge in recent memory..."
—Dan Barry of animeondvd.com

Right. Imagine the bastard offspring of Elfen Lied 's wanton gore and nudity with Neon Genesis Evangelion 's disturbing nature and outright insanity. Then put that on crack and toss it in a septic tank. That's Gantz.

Yep.  Sounds about right.  I've only gotten to the fifth volume, but here's my opinion.

I... actually like it, for some reason.  The gore is irritatingly stupid and overdone, the rampant fanservice is annoying, and doesn't really fit, but the characters are surprisingly believable.  They react... about how I'd expect people to react when thrown into an absurd world ruled by an insane and sadistic god.  It's kind of sad that I'm desensitized to this stuff enough to say all that.

Despite what PW said, I'm really hoping it doesn't descend into idiotic drivel like homestuck or minimalist RTDs.  Foolish of me, I know, but I can hope.

...Also, aside from the utterly bleak, terrible, and horribly depressing setting and story, I don't see much of a resemblance to PW's stuff.  I mean, they play to the same base instincts, but their methods and stories seem very different to me.

[GreatWyrmGold]

That dream was absurd. You can't fit more than six operatives into the XCOM Skyranger!

And that review has turned me off of Gantz and Homestuck alike. Not that I was reading either, but I've considered both.

[Empiricist]

I wonder if killing Xen using Xan is an option...

[Xantalos]

Time travel.

[Tavik Toth]

That dream was absurd. You can't fit more than six operatives into the XCOM Skyranger!

And that review has turned me off of Gantz and Homestuck alike. Not that I was reading either, but I've considered both.

You can carry more than six in the original Xcom. Probably because of the crazy casualty rate in old!Xcom.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Well, yes, but two considerations:

1. He clearly said it was an XCOM Skyranger. OldCom is "X-COM", not "XCOM".
2. It's not as funny that way.

[Parisbre56]

Yes, but you can also fit 6 mech troopers or drones in a skyranger which are larger than a human. So you could, theoretically, fit 8 people in it. It's just a gameplay limitation.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I imagine that part of the reason space is so cramped in the Skyranger is that you need a lot of safety equipment to safely transport the troops across the world so fast. MEC troopers have that built into their bodies, so they can just pop out the seats like when you need to transport something big in a minivan.
And, again, joke.

[Parisbre56]

Well, there's the solution to that problem. HMRC wouldn't worry about safety and would probably just stuff as many people as they can in it. 

[GreatWyrmGold]

Good thing the HMRC didn't run XCOM, then.

Anyways, they'd probably stop once they realized it brought the number of living troopers down significantly.

[syvarris]

That dream was absurd. You can't fit more than six operatives into the XCOM Skyranger!

That wasn't the worst part; see, they didn't deploy all the troops.  There were at least four in the skyranger when it left, which means they could transport twelve or more.

And that review has turned me off of Gantz and Homestuck alike. Not that I was reading either, but I've considered both.

That's probably a good thing.  It got worse.  And it continues to get worse.

You know that theory about how maybe black holes are a portal or something, but we can't tell because of the event horizon?  Well, Gantz is crossing enough event horizons at such a clip, it might just solve that mystery.

Anyways, they'd probably stop once they realized it brought the number of living troopers down significantly.

*Ahem*

Hotdrops.

[Nikitian]

((So, finally trying my hand at a Mk-IV-something-suit. So far, what I hope to include:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

+2 Str/End
+1 Dex
Improved flight capabilities
Improved medical system
Improved hazardous environment resistance
Improved communications
Lots of useful software (Aux substitute rolls, HUD & map, etc.)
Support AI
Extra limbs (including standart-poking-metal-pole substitutes)
Surface-scaling ability
Brain-Computer Interface
Cam-eyes
(Possibly) In-built light/medium flexible armor
(Possibly) Something else I forgot

(As things tend to be cheaper when purchased together rather than apart, I intend to include as much as possible and get industrially-produced price somewhere around battlesuit or cheaper)

Now, many of these have been worked on before by other people as well, so I apologise for possible infringements in advance. All in all, I intend this to be more of a compilation project rather than pure prototype, tinkered into being for the good of community. Anyone up for a joint project, perhaps?
I also ask what you would like to see in a hypothetical Mk IV. What should be added to the list, and (if you think so) what should be removed?))

[syvarris]

I would love to be involved with that project.  Ask Saint in-character when he stops being dead.

However, I think it's gonna be impossible to get at 20 tokens.  For one, it has an equal str/end bonus to an Avatar.   Armor is really expensive (See: Milnoplate, which only really qualifies as 'light' in this setting), and you'll probably want to add automanip protection, which is even worse.  A support AI (I'm assuming you're thinking like Halo's Cortana?) Is gonna be nearly useless/impossible; We already have steve, who logically should be entirely better than anything we can make cheaply.  But he's not, for balance reasons.

All that said, I hope it works out.  Suggestions:
Automanip protection.
Auron's Echolocation sensors (Cheap, very very useful for ampers in atmo)


It overlaps with a project I've been thinking about (codenamed 'Waffles') which is an entirely software based upgrade for MK suits and robobodies, which basically allows people to have an in character justification for OOC knowledge.

Also an exoskeleton puppet system.  I'd fund everyone getting a +3 sub-exo long before I'd fund a single Mark IV.  But that's because I play a sociopathic medic. :\

[Sean Mirrsen]

Seems like we have a number of competing suit projects going on. ^_^

Anton's is only barely started so far, but I think he'll do a lot of refining for the design once he actually gets down to it. The Modular Combat Suit really works rather well with the mission fund system - the owner could own just the base suit, and perhaps one of the interchangeable mobility/utility packs, and select a mission pack using the mission fund, without severe expense.

[Tavik Toth]

And I have my Halberd design.