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[Comrade P.]

What if I connect it to my own brain, will it eat my soul out, bit by bit?

[Harry Baldman]

You need to find a human "volunteer" that would be available so that you can have his brain transformed into a weapon. And you can't just create a copy of his brain either, because the psychokinetic amplifier somehow understands that the brain is copied. You'd either need a steady stream of people willing to essentially have their brain converted into a weapon or some sort of farm where humans are raised and then slaughtered like cattle. So it's possible, but a bit expensive (not to mention morally questionable) and would take some time to do properly, since humans are a bit hard to find at the moment. We should build some flying saucers and start abducting people...

Is it time to start a cult? I think it's time to start a cult. If that UE could do it, why not ARM?

[Comrade P.]

EDIT: Oh, and bluerad is a non-rechargeable crystalline battery with an incredible energy density. It essentially allows you to power giant machines with very small batteries, at the cost that you can't simply recharge the batteries, you actually have to create new ones. And it's highly radioactive, so large batteries (larger than a basketball) need shielding to be used by humans safely. On the other hand, batteries of that size could run a laser for weeks.

Are we restricted in quantities of that resource? Or it can be reproduced? I liked the idea with microbeads of that in containment cells for single-shots, by the way.

[Parisbre56]

What if I connect it to my own brain, will it eat my soul out, bit by bit?

You can't connect a kinamp to your brain, at least not as it is right now. I don't know if that is even possible, since kinamps work in a very specific way. There's a very small chance that you can, but that would require some research.

What you can do is implant yourself with a psychokinetic amplifier and modify your brain to allow activating the psychokinetic amplifier in a certain way at the push of a button, thus imitating a kinetic amplifier without the need for a battery, but that would probably be a bit harmful for you. Plus, since your brain would need to be used to run math calculations, you'd eventually start getting tired and run the risk of an overload if you tried something very hard.

There's actually a procedure that can convert you into a psychokinetic amplifier "god", but it leaves you completely paralysed, strips you of your free will and imagination, severely damages your body and brain to the point you need to be constantly connected to a life support device and has a high chance of killing you. Plus, it still does not remove the limits of your willpower, it just pushes them further, so you can still get tired and you can still cause an overload.
http://einsteinianroulette.wikia.com/wiki/NPC#Amp_Specialist

You need to find a human "volunteer" that would be available so that you can have his brain transformed into a weapon. And you can't just create a copy of his brain either, because the psychokinetic amplifier somehow understands that the brain is copied. You'd either need a steady stream of people willing to essentially have their brain converted into a weapon or some sort of farm where humans are raised and then slaughtered like cattle. So it's possible, but a bit expensive (not to mention morally questionable) and would take some time to do properly, since humans are a bit hard to find at the moment. We should build some flying saucers and start abducting people...

Is it time to start a cult? I think it's time to start a cult. If that UE could do it, why not ARM?

Join the cult of Steve the Savior. You can have Steve's eternal love. You just have to accept him and let him save you from the burden of your brain and all the problems it creates. He'll make sure to put it to good use and give you a purpose, turn it into a weapon with its pleasure centres locked on "max".

EDIT: Oh, and bluerad is a non-rechargeable crystalline battery with an incredible energy density. It essentially allows you to power giant machines with very small batteries, at the cost that you can't simply recharge the batteries, you actually have to create new ones. And it's highly radioactive, so large batteries (larger than a basketball) need shielding to be used by humans safely. On the other hand, batteries of that size could run a laser for weeks.

Are we restricted in quantities of that resource? Or it can be reproduced?

It can be reproduced. You just need enough energy to create it. However, once it is created, it cannot grow further.

Nobody has asked about how exactly the crystals are grown, so I cannot tell you how exactly it works. But I assume it's an expensive and complicated process.

[Comrade P.]

On a second thought, human brain is somewhat too big to fit it into handheld rifle.
And even if it is possible to modify my brain to be synchronised with psychokinetic amplifier in that way, it'll cost me tokens, which I don't have.

Though I like the idea of being permanently brain-attached to machine gun. I should probably ask Doc about this.

[Nikitian]

You need to find a human "volunteer" that would be available so that you can have his brain transformed into a weapon. And you can't just create a copy of his brain either, because the psychokinetic amplifier somehow understands that the brain is copied. You'd either need a steady stream of people willing to essentially have their brain converted into a weapon or some sort of farm where humans are raised and then slaughtered like cattle. So it's possible, but a bit expensive (not to mention morally questionable) and would take some time to do properly, since humans are a bit hard to find at the moment. We should build some flying saucers and start abducting people...

Is it time to start a cult? I think it's time to start a cult. If that UE could do it, why not ARM?

No, we should covertly begin the zombie revolution. Braaains! Braaains!
Seriously though, we should reconsider all our options realistically and I am sure a few ways can crop up. I don't even mean 'morally questionable' things (atrocities, that is), by pure pragmatism a few things can work very well. From gathering up all the corpses of freshly deceased people (you know, not everyone in this galaxy has the same opportunity for advanced resuscitating, between the tech level and poverty) to voluntary donations of coma and terminally ill patients; from actually buying the tissue from people unwilling to live on (maybe providing pension or one-time large payment for their families) to actually starting a religious movement you mentioned - completely voluntary, completely open about the means and ends - and so on.

It's already medieval-slash-cyberpunk setting mindset-wise on most Worlds of Man, so it's not like we would be evil for merely exploiting the fact and maybe making everyone's life a little bit better in the process.

[Comrade P.]

What an idea sparkled from what seemed to be just another bunch of technobabble.

[syvarris]

Comrade P, I like you.  You're told that your gun's ammo will be slightly more expensive because it's powered by human souls, and your first idea is to make it cheaper by powering it with your own soul.  You will do well here.


Anyway, don't give up on the idea yet.  I think it's workable, and I would have told you if I didn't.  Yes, your ammo will be 20% more expensive if it uses gauss rounds.  However, the beauty of your gun is that it doesn't need to use expensive gauss rounds; you could try other, cheaper projectiles, like sharkplate.  Basically, regenerating carbon nanotubes.  That might eat your target alive from the inside.

Do you understand what I'm saying?  You might be able to make a gun that shoots angry self-replicating nanosharks into your opponents' bloodstreams!  Do not give up!

Spoiler: Edit, since you'll probably ask what Sharkplate is (click to show/hide)

First, it's not actually sharks.  It's just a specific type of carbon structure, built and maintained by alien nanobots that we call "sharkmist".  The name is a long, funny story, but I won't go into it.

Anyway, Sharkplate specifically was made to be a very cheap infantry armor.  It's impressively strong, and notably will regenerate itself by 'eating' any carbon around it.  It's extremely cheap too, since it can just be fed raw carbon.  It's not really hard, it's actually kinda rubbery, but it's extremely tough anyway, so it could make a decent bullet.

The same research project also got us the "Hexsand" and "Hexbug" armors, which you might see people mentioning.  The former is a brittle substance which is amazingly good at absorbing all types of energy--light, radiation, plasma, whatever.  It can be easily destroyed with kinetic weapons, but it's immune to basically anything else.  Hexbug, on the other hand, is an extremely heavy, hard, and tough material.  In testing, the mountings that it was put on would break before it would.  It's not particularly resistant to energy weapons, and lasers can get through it relatively easily, but it's basically immune to kinetic weapons.

They complement each other pretty well.  They've almost replaced our previous type of armor, "Battlesuit Plate", so named because... well, it's the plating that we used to put on battlesuits.  Also, spaceships.  Anyway, it's very resistant to lasers, because it's extremely reflective, and it's very strong against kinetic weapons.  It's just far, far weaker than either of the hex armors in whichever category they're immune to.  We still use it in light armor that isn't supposed to take beatings from high-powered weapons, because it's more resistant to sustained fire from alternating types of small arms, but that's basically all that it's good for.

[Comrade P.]

Are you saying that I can actually try to make a prototype gun which feeds on my own soul and eats my organic enemies from inside? Can I modify it so it will be fed by leftovers of my metabolism and CO₂ I breathe out? Though that source might be insufficient, I need to figure it out. IC, my only organic part is brain, you see. So I'll probably need some coal dispenser attached to it.
I friggin' love this game.

[renegadelobster]

Just have a hopper you can shove dirt, or your enemies flesh into

[Comrade P.]

Yes, something of that kind will serve as an ammo source. Cool. I'll rewrite the description and redo graphic design a little, so I can post it later in Tinker for peicewise to see.

[Radio Controlled]

If that weapon works by striking a projetile with a kin amp with decent force, I do wonder about breaking/fracturing your projectile, and possible stresses the gun and barrel will be subject to.

[Comrade P.]

Barrel might be relieved of any stress in a very simple way - given projectiles are just cylinders, the may be inserted in a way they protrude a little out of the barrel inside, and thus hammer hits the bottom of projectile, it avoids touching the barrel at all. And the kickback that the hammer itself suffers is used to return it back to starting position in Gauss coil, and there it is neutralised completely by a compact compensator (maybe similar to those they use in Gauss rifles to reduce recoil).
And I do think it is technically possible and not that complicated or expensive to make a durable shell to contain the sharkplate projectile, if it isn't durable enough itself.

[Sean Mirrsen]

With a weapon like that, there will not be a "barrel". The kinamp accelerates the target instantly, so at most you need a cradle to hold the projectile in place. This would make for a rather compact weapon. Likewise the force on the gun itself would be minimal, only that which is applied to the kinamp itself.

The tendency of the projectile to fracture could be, on one hand, exploited - making a sort of a fragmentation shotgun. On the other hand, don't we have a ridiculously tough and heavy armor material now? Kinamp-launched hexbug slugs could be very damaging.

So mostly, we do have ammo for such a weapon, and making it shouldn't really be a problem. The problem is in the motive force - a kinetic amp is a finite source of power, so you'd have to both load regular ammo, and periodically replace the impact hammer, to keep the weapon operational.

[Comrade P.]

With a weapon like that, there will not be a "barrel". The kinamp accelerates the target instantly, so at most you need a cradle to hold the projectile in place. This would make for a rather compact weapon. Likewise the force on the gun itself would be minimal, only that which is applied to the kinamp itself.

Won't the absence of barrel reduce the accuracy, though?

So mostly, we do have ammo for such a weapon, and making it shouldn't really be a problem. The problem is in the motive force - a kinetic amp is a finite source of power, so you'd have to both load regular ammo, and periodically replace the impact hammer, to keep the weapon operational.

You mean even if it is actually a psychokinetic amplifier synchronised with trigger and users' brain via cord? It is just about durability of the device itself, if I'm getting it right.
Well, we can just make a longer Gauss coil which punches the projectile with the hammer to accelerate it. Then there goes the compact design and high fire rate.