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[piecewise]

Lets go with 1 token each as is.

And if we were to increase % used from 1,4,10, 20% to 2,8,20,40%, would two for a token be ok then?

Alright; what more do we need to work out do you think? Seems fine to me, though we kinda made the current Xan as an alternative to it.

I dunno, this things seems much more practical to me. Like, you can put them limbs in a closed box until you need them to protect them and keep them sterile, while the limbs and organs on Xan's body better not get into an environment with a lot of sand flying around, for example. Next to that, regular medics can still make use of this without any expensive suit, and unless Xan gets free limb refills for some reason (which would be weird, since medkits normally aren't refilled, nor are things like battlesuit gun ammo) even he'll be able to make use of it.

Anyways, I do think this is mostly wrapped up. Maybe say the limb degrades over the span of a few days/weeks, to prevent people chopping their arms of to get replaced with these (for the free limited self repair, you see)? Unless you don't think that'll be a problem.

Muscle is not being used as a bowstring.

Sure, but what part of the robobody will you use as a string then? unless you wanna get that somewhere else?

Also, I get the idea this design puts a lot of stress on the fulcrum part. Might I suggest an alternative design?

I can get whatever is needed to power and control the muscles from the robot body. It doesn't require nutrients, only the brain in the robot body needs nutrients.

Do robomuscles even work like normal ones do? Might be that they use motors and such more, I dunno. If it's indeed like muscles, are you sure it doesn't need any nutrients, and only electricity?
Also, I think it might be hard to actually separate all those parts and rearrange them and then try to re-purpose the controlling parts, but if you catch pw in a good mood he might be lenient, heh.

Sure.

Really, the thing is fatal, reusable, able to bypass armor and has no stat requirements. It's really powerful. I just don't want it being too cheap.

I don't think it should really need to degrade. Remember that the limbs produced by these were supposed to be temporary anyways; they're not as powerful as robot limbs, but they're a lot better then no limb.

Here's what Leo writes down for the portable sensor package:

Smoke isn't much of a problem.  Have a number of infared LEDs into a few small lamps, and use an infared camera to build up an image.  Have them be deployable, so you can take the little lamps and cameras out of the box and put them where you want coverage.

To further coverage, use a blacklight emitter.  This will probably have to be flourescent, as it's cheaper to make blacklights like that.  Include a UV camera as well.

That should take care of smoke and darkness.  I'm afraid there's no real way to see in darkness without a lamp of some kind, depending on it's range.

Radar is a bit more tricky, as with the longer-wavelength light, you need larger pickups to handle them.  Most of the box would have to be the emitter for the radar system, with a pair of long, telescopic rods and amplifiers to act as the pickups.  These would be networked together to provide directional coverage.  It would be directional, but it should be more than sufficient.  Accuracy would be limited somewhat by putting them on people, instead of a fixed stand, but it would be better than nothing..  and a collapsable stand should be included, so you can set it up properly.  It would also help if you are using it to penetrate walls.

So, in short, make a box around a radar emitter and a collapsable stand for the recievers.  Let the recievers be a pair of telescopic rods with amplifiers.  It could be attached to a frame or carried by a person, but with limited accuracy due to the somewhat irregular movement of a person.  It should be, at reasonable power levels, capable of detecting objects on the other side of narrow walls.

This box should include two IR lamps, as well as at least one IR camera.  It should also include two UV lamps, and a UV camera.

Pickups from the cameras can be handled as normal, but the radar needs a fair amount of processing power behind it to make useful returns, so it'll need a small computer and something to display it's readout on.  The radar will also be directional.

Audio isn't really useful.  Bullets and lasers travel faster than sound, after all, and pointing a directional microphone requires you to know what direction it's coming from so you can point it in the right way.  Things would be different underwater, but making a sonar box similar to the radar box isn't too hard, if that should become necessary.

As for power consumption, the whole thing should be able to run for about an hour on two or three of the laser rifle batteries.

So here's what the bolded description would be.

-The sensor package, at it's most basic, is a box a bit smaller than a breadbox.
-it contains at least two removable battery-powered IR lamps, which recharge when you put them back in their slots, from the replaceable battery in the package itself.
-likewise, it contains two similar UV lamps.
-It also contains similar removable networkable cameras, one for each of IR and UV.  The cameras, in addition to being wireless, contain empty ports for network cables.
-the largest components of the box are the ones necessary for the portable radar set.  The basic part of the box will contain the radar emitter set, the signal processing computers, and the reloadable batteries.  It's likely any moving parts required will be behind a thin, hard, fibreglass barrier designed to look like the rest of the box, while being transparant to radar waves.  This is to reduce people messing with sensitive parts that should not be messed with.
-The radar pickups will be a pair of telescoping metal rods, along with a telescoping framework that can hold the box and the recievers, in a stationary position apart from the person.  The rods themselves could also be attached to a person or even just carried, although doing so will restrict the range.
-The UV and IR cameras, can be displayed on suits like the regular existing camera viewing abilities, in false color.
-The radar is somewhat more complicated, and I'll leave the desired type of display open to others to choose.
-The batteries will be wholly conventional, and sufficient to allow for a few hours of operation.  This should be doable with a small number of laser rifle batteries.
-The range on the radar will be around five or so kilometers, albeit it will be directional, and restricted to a cone of around 90-120 degrees.  It will also be capable of some penetration of thin walls.

Is this directed at me?

[Radio Controlled]

Is this directed at me?

Pretty sure it was?

Sure.
Really, the thing is fatal, reusable, able to bypass armor and has no stat requirements. It's really powerful. I just don't want it being too cheap.

Oh sure, I definitely understand, I'm all for balance. so, how's this for a write-up:

1 | electronade
Ammo: 1 Token for 2.
Description: It's an electricity grenade that throws around electricity like a tesla arc, and has different intensity settings so you can choose how hard you wanna make somebody's life suck today. Higher intensities drain the blueshard battery faster (it has a timer so you can choose for how many seconds it works before shutting off), and the internal components burn out and become useless when the battery is spent. Percentages are per second used (so 3 seconds at 8% drains 24% total). Comes with a delay timer to choose how long it takes the grenade to go off. Brisant compatible.

2%: taser power, stuns unarmored people but doesn’t kill or harm them
8% kills unarmored people
20% kills lightly-to-medium armored people
40% full power, kills anything not very well insulated against electricity

EDIT: made the nades Brisant-compatible, if that's alright? And gave them Brisant-nade functions, aka remote controlled detonation and such. Can this be gotten for free or not? I'd understand if not, this project has already got a lot going for it.


And limbvat write-up:

10 | Sharkmist limb/organ construction vat
Ammo: organic materials as food
Description: A bieg vat of sharkmist that can grow any limb or organ out of sharkmist. Just add some milkshakes (or appropriate organic carbon source) and let it stew for a few hours. However, one vat can only grow 1 kind of thing about the mass of a big arm or leg, and it can only be ‘programmed’ once. Limbs can be made to be usable on both sides of a body however. Usable for both people and robobodies (same kind of limbs can be used for both). These limbs or organs, once taken out of their production vat, have limited self-repair capabilities, and can be attached in the field for when teammates carelessly misplace their original one. These limbs are not as strong or dexterious as the original ones though, so one still gets a normal replacement after the mission. The vat can be taken with you, needs exoskeleton to carry but battlesuit-level strength is recommended. Though the sharkmist is modified not to give a grey goo scenario, try not to spill it on the ground regardless. Bathing in the vat is ill-advised and voids the non-existent warranty.

All good?

[Parisbre56]

@RC: Why not give it the standard Brisant grenade functions? Don't think it would cost anything extra.

So does that mean it's OK to look at the AM with camEyes?
And any idea what I should be careful about when looking at the AM so I don't accidentally end up going through an airlock?[/fishing_for_info]
Or is this something I should investigate on ship?

[Devastator]

Is this directed at me?

Pretty sure it was.

RC wanted it a bit clearer.. so guess it's for him.

[Radio Controlled]

@RC: Why not give it the standard Brisant grenade functions? Don't think it would cost anything extra.

I kinda thought most, or even all, grenades came Brisant-compatible these days? I mean, goop nades got it tacked no problem, though it certainly never hurts to confirm with pw. It's a bit weird that hand-thrown and launcher-lobbed nades are the same in this game, but w/ever, abstraction for simplification I guess.

Also, gonna edit in limbvat write-up, in case peeps wanna comment on it before pw runs the turn.

[Devastator]

So.. doing anything with that writeup, RC?

[Parisbre56]

I was more interested about the fact that Brisant grenades can be programmed to be remotely triggered or only trigger at a certain distance, etc. and less about the ability of being able to be launched by the Brisant. Grenades with Brisant-compatible control systems can be easily turned into remote-controlled or claymore-like mines by someone with a bit of Aux programming instead of needing handiwork and tools. (Although being able to be launched by the Brisant would certainly help.) Just thought it would be nice to confirm that it has that capability, since it would help with re-usability to be able to trigger it remotely, as a sort of area denial when combined with a camera. Or any other interesting system an Aux user could come up with.

[Radio Controlled]

So.. doing anything with that writeup, RC?

I'll respond to your pm.

I was more interested about the fact that Brisant grenades can be programmed to be remotely triggered or only trigger at a certain distance, etc. and less about the ability of being able to be launched by the Brisant. Grenades with Brisant-compatible control systems can be easily turned into remote-controlled or claymore-like mines by someone with a bit of Aux programming instead of needing handiwork and tools. (Although being able to be launched by the Brisant would certainly help.) Just thought it would be nice to confirm that it has that capability, since it would help with re-usability to be able to trigger it remotely, as a sort of area denial when combined with a camera. Or any other interesting system an Aux user could come up with.

Ah, I thought you just meant making sure it was compatible. Hmm, that might increase cost (or increase power % used to compensate) due to needing some electronics and adding extra functionality. I'll see what pw says.

[Nikitian]

As far as I know, that much is 'free'; if something's Brisant compatible, all that stuff is thrown in as a bonus.

[Radio Controlled]

As a bonus to something you get for free? An... interesting business scheme you have there.

[Parisbre56]

Considering you can get exactly the same functionality with a datapad and a good handiwork roll, I don't see the problem.

[Radio Controlled]

Well, seeing as how a bad handiwork roll might lead to grenades exploding in your face... Yeah.

[Parisbre56]

What I meant was that you're literally just attaching a datapad to a grenade. You don't add any extra functionality (it has to be programmed by someone using aux) or anything expensive. All you're doing it is making it smaller, part of an item. And adding mildly useful functionality that won't make it much more useful, merely add some coverage for corner cases and an easier way for more crafty players to expand on their functionality. Which is exactly why we have players developing items for mass production in the first place. So that useful things can be gained at a lower effort and/or price, without having to handiwork them every time. Which is why the Red Hand is now so cheap and compact compared to its original cost and absurd size and weight.

[piecewise]

Is this directed at me?

Pretty sure it was?

Sure.
Really, the thing is fatal, reusable, able to bypass armor and has no stat requirements. It's really powerful. I just don't want it being too cheap.

Oh sure, I definitely understand, I'm all for balance. so, how's this for a write-up:

1 | electronade
Ammo: 1 Token for 2.
Description: It's an electricity grenade that throws around electricity like a tesla arc, and has different intensity settings so you can choose how hard you wanna make somebody's life suck today. Higher intensities drain the blueshard battery faster (it has a timer so you can choose for how many seconds it works before shutting off), and the internal components burn out and become useless when the battery is spent. Percentages are per second used (so 3 seconds at 8% drains 24% total). Comes with a delay timer to choose how long it takes the grenade to go off. Brisant compatible.

2%: taser power, stuns unarmored people but doesn’t kill or harm them
8% kills unarmored people
20% kills lightly-to-medium armored people
40% full power, kills anything not very well insulated against electricity

EDIT: made the nades Brisant-compatible, if that's alright? And gave them Brisant-nade functions, aka remote controlled detonation and such. Can this be gotten for free or not? I'd understand if not, this project has already got a lot going for it.


And limbvat write-up:

10 | Sharkmist limb/organ construction vat
Ammo: organic materials as food
Description: A bieg vat of sharkmist that can grow any limb or organ out of sharkmist. Just add some milkshakes (or appropriate organic carbon source) and let it stew for a few hours. However, one vat can only grow 1 kind of thing about the mass of a big arm or leg, and it can only be ‘programmed’ once. Limbs can be made to be usable on both sides of a body however. Usable for both people and robobodies (same kind of limbs can be used for both). These limbs or organs, once taken out of their production vat, have limited self-repair capabilities, and can be attached in the field for when teammates carelessly misplace their original one. These limbs are not as strong or dexterious as the original ones though, so one still gets a normal replacement after the mission. The vat can be taken with you, needs exoskeleton to carry but battlesuit-level strength is recommended. Though the sharkmist is modified not to give a grey goo scenario, try not to spill it on the ground regardless. Bathing in the vat is ill-advised and voids the non-existent warranty.

All good?

Sure I suppose.

@RC: Why not give it the standard Brisant grenade functions? Don't think it would cost anything extra.

So does that mean it's OK to look at the AM with camEyes?
And any idea what I should be careful about when looking at the AM so I don't accidentally end up going through an airlock?[/fishing_for_info]
Or is this something I should investigate on ship?

You still might not want to do that. You might see something you don't like. And that she won't be happy with you.

I'll tell you nothing. To tease the Tigress if you want to. STICK YOUR HAND IN THE BEAR TRAP!

[Radio Controlled]

Sure I suppose.

Then I'll go add it to the armory.


Next up: mine/demo kit.

Basically, a sturdy box with a collection of several items for taking various grenades or explosives and turning them into boobytraps or mines. Contains at least the following:
-main 'unit' where other bits are slotted into or attached to
-mechanical odds and ends to allow nades or explosives of various size to be attached to the main unit
-tripwires
-pressure sensitive plates/sensors
-infrared lasers
-small receiver/transmitter (for remote control)
-small simple cameras
-timer
-detonators

Idea would be the box works like the medkit does, in which its exact contents are a bit nebulous, and instead each box has a certain amount of uses. User can use contents of the box to create booby traps or mines with a variety of possible firing mechanisms, thought the actual 'explosive parts' (which might even be as crude as a drum of booze) aren't included in the package. Sort of like a 'do-it-yourself bomb kit (bomb sold separately)'.

Does this seem like a workable idea? Could you think of things to add or how to improve the concept? How many uses would one 'box' have, and what would its price be? Currently I'm hoping for 1 token and 5 uses. If that seems like a lot, remember that this thing on its own is rather useless, so you need to add the price of the explosives a person would need (aka another token at the very least). Though I guess you could also use the simple sensors for intelligence/recon purposes, but there are better options available for that.


Finally, could you please take a look at this and tell me what you think:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here's what Leo writes down for the portable sensor package:

Smoke isn't much of a problem.  Have a number of infared LEDs into a few small lamps, and use an infared camera to build up an image.  Have them be deployable, so you can take the little lamps and cameras out of the box and put them where you want coverage.

To further coverage, use a blacklight emitter.  This will probably have to be flourescent, as it's cheaper to make blacklights like that.  Include a UV camera as well.

That should take care of smoke and darkness.  I'm afraid there's no real way to see in darkness without a lamp of some kind, depending on it's range.

Radar is a bit more tricky, as with the longer-wavelength light, you need larger pickups to handle them.  Most of the box would have to be the emitter for the radar system, with a pair of long, telescopic rods and amplifiers to act as the pickups.  These would be networked together to provide directional coverage.  It would be directional, but it should be more than sufficient.  Accuracy would be limited somewhat by putting them on people, instead of a fixed stand, but it would be better than nothing..  and a collapsable stand should be included, so you can set it up properly.  It would also help if you are using it to penetrate walls.

So, in short, make a box around a radar emitter and a collapsable stand for the recievers.  Let the recievers be a pair of telescopic rods with amplifiers.  It could be attached to a frame or carried by a person, but with limited accuracy due to the somewhat irregular movement of a person.  It should be, at reasonable power levels, capable of detecting objects on the other side of narrow walls.

This box should include two IR lamps, as well as at least one IR camera.  It should also include two UV lamps, and a UV camera.

Pickups from the cameras can be handled as normal, but the radar needs a fair amount of processing power behind it to make useful returns, so it'll need a small computer and something to display it's readout on.  The radar will also be directional.

Audio isn't really useful.  Bullets and lasers travel faster than sound, after all, and pointing a directional microphone requires you to know what direction it's coming from so you can point it in the right way.  Things would be different underwater, but making a sonar box similar to the radar box isn't too hard, if that should become necessary.

As for power consumption, the whole thing should be able to run for about an hour on two or three of the laser rifle batteries.

So here's what the bolded description would be.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-The sensor package, at it's most basic, is a box a bit smaller than a breadbox.
-it contains at least two removable battery-powered IR lamps, which recharge when you put them back in their slots, from the replaceable battery in the package itself.
-likewise, it contains two similar UV lamps.
-It also contains similar removable networkable cameras, one for each of IR and UV.  The cameras, in addition to being wireless, contain empty ports for network cables.
-the largest components of the box are the ones necessary for the portable radar set.  The basic part of the box will contain the radar emitter set, the signal processing computers, and the reloadable batteries.  It's likely any moving parts required will be behind a thin, hard, fibreglass barrier designed to look like the rest of the box, while being transparant to radar waves.  This is to reduce people messing with sensitive parts that should not be messed with.
-The radar pickups will be a pair of telescoping metal rods, along with a telescoping framework that can hold the box and the recievers, in a stationary position apart from the person.  The rods themselves could also be attached to a person or even just carried, although doing so will restrict the range.
-The UV and IR cameras, can be displayed on suits like the regular existing camera viewing abilities, in false color.
-The radar is somewhat more complicated, and I'll leave the desired type of display open to others to choose.
-The batteries will be wholly conventional, and sufficient to allow for a few hours of operation.  This should be doable with a small number of laser rifle batteries.
-The range on the radar will be around five or so kilometers, albeit it will be directional, and restricted to a cone of around 90-120 degrees.  It will also be capable of some penetration of thin walls.