((The Mk series suits act more like air-pressure suits - you put a hole in it, then entire thing decompresses and the user is dead within 90 seconds. Mechanical counter-pressure suits (yes, like the Space Activity Suits), if torn, won't kill the user - the worst that will happen is heavy bruising around the tear (this assuming that it's just the suit that's damaged, but it can't possibly be worse than air-pressure suits in event of actual injury). Take it from NASA:
A tear or hole in a gas-pressurised[sic] suit would result in a rapid and probably fatal decompression. Tears in a MCP suit would remain a local defect as the elastic weave prevents the tear from propagating. A tear, therefore, would cause symptoms of localised[sic] low pressure exposure at the site of the tear (such as bruising and edema), while the rest of the body remains protected. The severity of these symptoms is quite mild and dissipates within hours/days (depending on exposure time), especially when occurring on a small area.
))
If you can think of a better job for you to be focusing on, Saint, then ask.
And Anton, how would you react if you had invasive surgery performed on you without your consent. Hacking my body isn't terribly different.
How big are the tears they're talking about; also are they assuming the temperature and radiation are normal?
Anton Chernozorov
1. Not as it is. A big fucking engine and the automanips to reduce mass as it reaches relativistic speeds. If you stripped them from other ships, yes. You could probably find what you need floating around in that battlefield up in space. The Blackship's stuff is too small for a large cargo ship. Alternatively, you could just use one of the cruisers out in orbit, once you repair it that is.
2.There are 3-4 ships what are still fairly functional and several wrecks which could be salvaged.
Can we tell if there is enough parts to cobble together a working FTL system for the freighter in the wrecks from here, or will we need a closer survey of them?
Do we have anything spaceworthy at all right now, to go and start survey and salvage ops?
3. To make one FTL comparable, you'd need that manip/amp creation area. To just make ones like it that aren't FTL usable, you'd need a shipyard. Our last one got blown up, if you remember.
((Yeah, I planted a forest over it. ^_^))
Anton contacts Simus. "XO, Chernozorov here. Our shipbuilding capacity currently consists of a forested park covering a radioactive pit. Permission to take one of our construction crews and start setting up something more elaborate?"
Look for a spot to place a new shipyard. Look into the possibility of equipping it with a gauss launch rail to reduce the need of boosting up heavy ships.
4.Gonna have to be more specific about their intended use. Also, orbital minefields are rather useless except in extremely specific areas. They occasionally use drone fields with automated bomb carrying ships, but those aren't really mines so much as an automated defense system.
((In my mind, there are three stages to planetary defense. Long-range Interdiction, Approach Denial, and Orbital Skirmish.
Long range interdiction is basically artillery. Very long but relatively thin ships, consisting mostly of just one giant primary weapon capable of insanely accurate and insanely destructive fire that can retains effectiveness up to the edge of the solar system. Using power beamed from the planet if necessary. Something like an orbital variant of the Hammer, but longer, self-propelled, and with the benefit of not having to punch through atmosphere.
Approach denial is doing everything to prevent the enemy from establishing orbit. Strategically oriented debris fields with drone ships hiding out in them, minefields, missile carriers, corrosive gas clouds, tiny Suns and mini-blackholes, giant weapons platforms masquerading as natural satellites - any form of massed attack that is too impractical or too destructive to use when the enemy is too near.
Orbital Skirmish is the all-out fighting game when you just need to kill the other guy as quickly and straightforwardly as possible, while minimizing the harm done to the planet. To this end there should be cheap to produce, simply armed ships, that can be built in large numbers and simply overpower the enemy (since armor is almost useless). Destroyers and cruisers of the typical variety, the occasional battleship, and any fast attack craft that can be fielded.))
Summing up: Long, spinal-mount Gauss artillery ships for long range, Missile carriers and remote drone "mines" for medium range, and some typical fighting ships like the ones we commandeered for close range.
Look those up.
edit:
And Anton, how would you react if you had invasive surgery performed on you without your consent. Hacking my body isn't terribly different.
"That was honestly the least invasive thing I could think of. The least invasive thing that would work, at least. It was either that or the old handshake buzzer joke scaled up to the Red Hand, and that would be both more damaging than I wanted, and too close to your synthflesh fists to be safe.
And I do think I made a point there - you and all our robots are vulnerable, if even a myopic code-monkey like me can get through to you. If Saint ever wants a different project to do, you can set him on our software protection. He's pretty good with code."
You'd need to do a survey to be sure, but you're 90% certain that there is.
There are plenty of normal shuttles, though we'd need to use some crew to go out there and do the work.
You want to have a mass driver? To launch your ships? Gonna need several miles of flat, unobstructed ground for that. Not to mention a big fat ramp building up from like the 3/4ths point. As per places to put an ordinary shipyard, you could hypothetically just clear out the impromptu shipyard and some area around it and build the new one there. Unless we're talking about manufacturing ships of significant size.
Most of what we saw in the battle were the "artillery" type you were talking about. Ships built around their cannons. They vary in exact design but they're all pretty similar, just big guns with the bare minimum of engines, power, control and living space packed in under heavy armor. Missle and mine carriers are basically the same thing; You've got a big fat mothership which isn't much more then a floating production plant that cranks out explosive drones using supplies stored on it or harvested from near by. The drones themselves are just huge, usually nuclear explosives with rocket engines and enough fuel to intercept anything within a certain radius. There are also stationary systems which perform much the same function: laser mines for instance, which are basically free floating laser cannons which attempt to shoot down anything that enters an area. And in terms of fighters...they really don't have any. All combat is done at such ranges that fighters are generally useless, they just send swarms of unmanned bombs.
"Well, just before you gave me the order to design a suit, I finished a design for a... unconventional conventional weapon. It's a vastly miniaturized Piezoelectric Shard Launcher, which is startlingly effective. I'd like you to take a look at it, if you have the time.
As far as better jobs for me... I have various ideas for projects, but it's mostly notes on things to test, which might turn out useful. I could do as Anton suggested, and work on software useful to ARM- I have several ideas for that. But I could also work on this suit, or discuss some ideas for changes to the general design. I just don't have much knowledge in this area, so I'll probably take longer than someone who's already familiar with it."
1.The shard rifle: what is the Str requirement for it?
2.Last minute adjustment to the Testament shard rifle: add " or civilians" to the warning on the barrel.
Explanation: Pyro wants me to use "Mechanical Counter-Pressure" to make a puncture-resistant suit. From what I understand, the idea is that instead of pressurizing the whole suit, MCP uses tight elastics that squeeze the body to maintain pressure. It still has a bulky helmet, but the rest of the suit is skin-tight. Apparently, small tears in the suit only lead to bruising in vaccum.
Sadly, NASA never tested what happens when you shoot an astronaut wearing one in vacuum. Small holes in the suit itself are fine, but holes in the skin underneath are... probably not good.
3. So I want to look up some past design for an MCP suit. Preferably, one that actually worked in a vacuum. Then spawn a guy wearing it into a VR vacuum, and shoot him in the leg with a gauss pistol. What happens?
4. Assuming he doesn't just die right off, how long does he have to live? How much time before he's just dead (not perma-dead, normal dead), regardless of treatment?
5. Could we manufacture some form of insulative medi-foam that works in vacuum, that effectively seals suit breaches?
Computer systems:
6. Think for a moment- Is there a good reason for our suit systems being so insecure? Is Steve able to just prevent any hacking anyways, so security would just get in his way? Is stuff like Anton's antics possible just for funnies, and it'll never have actual consequences?
7. Are my AUX rolls still counted as auto-successes? If not, charge an aux bonus. If so, give our computer systems some protection at least. Having them able to be hacked with nothing but a radio connection is terrible. Outside systems shouldn't be able to do anything to it, unless it's specifically okayed by the suit's system.
8. Since this is apparently plauging a few people, and I've started to feel guilty for spamming nine actions a turn, how much time is supposed to be passing between turns? I assumed months had already elapsed in-game, due to the production orders, but others seem to think we're on the second day at most.
((Y'know, I actually tested this a long time ago. Back when Saint first joined, he tried to hack Jim. PW basically said 'No.'))
1. I dunno. I don't see a reason to have one. Doesn't have that big of recoil and isn't terribly heavy.
2. Might also want to add "Don't get in eyes or mouth. For External use only"
2B: Yeah, that was my thought. It makes sense for pressure differential caused by vacuum, but the heat, radiation, or internal pressure differences could cause problems.
3.I don't know. I didn't know about this in the past and I know only some about it now. Lets ask simus. OI SIMUS.
4.Oh no, This is related to the above.
5.Assuming the person won't just die immediately, yeah, a "repairing spray" seems viable, in theory.
6. Suits are insecure because they were designed to fight enemies that didn't hack. Steve could definitely "Push" a hacking invader out of your system, if you have contact with him. As per it never having actual consequences, I don't like to use absolutes, especially when given assurances that I won't fuck you over. Gotta leave myself room. To fuck you over.
7.What kinda protection?
8. Undetermined. I was never good at setting how much time passed between turns. Assume months though, in subjective time.
(If I remember right you were trying to puppet him. I let anton get away with it because it was a prank which just changed simus' eyesight, not tried to control her. And I did that for you and your spine's own protection.)
Sadly, NASA never tested what happens when you shoot an astronaut wearing one in vacuum. Small holes in the suit itself are fine, but holes in the skin underneath are... probably not good.
((As it seems, I don't think anyone has done research into wounds sustained in vacuum, while the body remains compressed or not. My guess is that you might get a little bit faster exsanguination than normal, maybe some complications as the blood around the site is also decompressed and gives off gases.))
Very well, work on our software. I'll take care of the suits. I'll take a look at that weapon, as well.
Anton, you may use one construction team.
Pull up Saint's weapon and examine it, and test it out against varying UWM-style targets (sods, armored sods, etc.).
We'll assume you get all the info about his already rigorous tests against various targets so I don't have to write it out again.
((Idea for self-sealing: use that expanding foam from the goop thrower, by having lots of very small packets of the stuff under the suit, then at breach they can mix, expand and seal off. Might be expensive though.
Secondly, Devastator and me discussed an idea a while ago in dj chat: take Hammer cannon, add a way for projectile to maneuver (like thrusters or automanips), sensors and targeting computers, and then anti-laser coating. Boom, homing missile going at relativistic speeds. Could make version that sits in space or on an asteroid if needed. Oh, and remember you can use the FTL jump point as a first 'choke point' for defense, though you'll want to check how big that thing is.))
Miyamoto sends a message to ARESTEVE on Hephaestus (and also forwards it to Simus):
"ARESTEVE, I have a research project I need your help with. It will consist of several stages.
Now, the main objective here is to create the next generation of cost-optimized armor, kinda like what battlesuit plate is now. It should strike a balance between defensive capabilities, cost and weight. Battlesuit plate is great and defends against a lot of damage types, but is horribly outdated. Using a combination of existing materials and alien technology that ARM has access to, such as the energy-absorbing sand or that hexagonal material from the planetoid, we can get a more cost-effective solution. ARESTEVE, if you think there are components that are theoretically possible, but would require some R&D first, you can incorporate them as well, and start the necessary research. If any of the alien tech still needs research for reverse engineering, you can begin with that as well. Note that whatever you give me as a result should be producible on Hephaestus, because that's where it'll be fabricated. Once finished, other designers can freely use it to armor their stuff with.
Secondly, I also want you to save the materials/composites that turn out not to have the optimal cost-effectiveness, but that are more potent in their defensive capabilities. Kinda like mythril, but preferably not as excessively expensive. These would used to armor those units where power and weight are more important factors than cost, such as for synthflesh shock troops.
Finally, I'm also looking to create a better version of the civic defenders longcoat. For that, I need a material that is cheap enough to stay in the 3-token range, flexible enough to be worn over a Mk.I or standard robobody, and capable of lowering a mission-ending killing blow to something survivable. It doesn't need to make the wearer completely impervious to small-arms, but should be good enough to be useful, and thus a viable purchase for new recruits. It can be reactive armor if that turns out to work best. It should also defend against multiple damage types, unlike the longcoat that only protects against gauss weapons.
After selecting the various components you think will work best, you can start combining them in different ways. For example, one could either mix the anti-laser sand into the hard material against kinetic penetrators, or use small layers of each on top of each other, or use a fine mesh of both materials like a fabric, or whatever composition works best. There are a lot of possibilities here, so take your time.
Practically, this project will consist of three stages. First, use VR simulation to get a rough idea of what would work best, and to bring the list of options down to a few dozen for each category.
Secondly, all the remaining options will be tested in real life using the automated labs. If research into certain materials needs to be done, such as reverse-engineering that hexagonal material, it should also be done now.
Then, a final selection between the top-scoring options for each of the three categories, for which I want you to present me the top-three options for each category.
ARESTEVE, please tell me if there is anything missing with this plan of action or if you foresee problems. If not, please give me a completion date ((real life days)) for each stage."
Get completion date, do not commit to research yet.
(Pyro, assuming there are no big problems with this approach, would you mind if I commit a SCIENCE! crew?))
Send message to Saint:
After talking with Steve, it turns out that you guys should try to produce, well, as many sods as you can practically handle. Millions of them. It's gonna be a big war after all, and however many you produce, we'll find a use for them. Be sure to also provide them with all teh equipment they need, each battalion should be a self-contained unit. This includes weapons, gadgets, whatever.
Any further questions?
>The biggest issue is that I do not have access to these materials as anything more then incomplete simulation data at the moment. To get a good idea, I'd need the actual materials to play around with. If you can get me the materials though, I can begin analysis and reverse engineering as you desire.
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Topic: Hephaestus No Longer Exists: Crater thread. (Read 190926 times)