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[Nikitian]

Nah, it shouldn't. At worst, it should seal your insides from the impaling spear. Also not too pretty, but at least you can chuck that spear out of you and keep going. At best, you chuck it out, and then it completely seals the wound.

Also, it might be a bit confusing, but it's not the suit that would "decide" whether to cover or something; it would be your own flesh "deciding" whether regenerate to include, or to exclude. And I just hope that human body is competent enough at shit like this, since it's pretty well designed all around.

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

Right, then that should be fine.
Well, relative to ER standards.

[syvarris]

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but for the life of me I can't remember the answer.  What is the useful difference between medifoam and fleshknitter?  They both are just wound sealers, but medifoam is cheaper and doesn't cause cancer.  Fleshknitter, from what I remember, just regenerates a bunch of non-specific useless flesh over wounds.

Nik, do you think we could sell standard cans of medifoam along with the fleshknitter?  If nothing else, just to provide a cheaper option to people who can't afford FK?

[Nikitian]

Medifoam seals wounds. Fleshknitter regenerates injuries. Including, I believe, internal - so, for example, it could mend broken bones in the field. And so on; really, the only thing that currently stops it from being full panacea is that it cannot create complex organs - something I hope to change with research and tinkering.

And actually, I am all for selling standalone cans of medifoam. The problem with them being integrated into suit is that, if I understand this substance correctly, they have to be used to seal wounds on the outside; there is very little room for medifoam being applied with the suit med-systems. If it can be engineered to work with suits (making it more liquid, perhaps, so it could cover the open wounds just by gravity - then again, no use in space), I am all for it.
Fleshknitter, on the other hand, even if applied by external agent (medic to an injured, for example), acts from the inside, and thus fits suit-use perfectly. This, paired with too high price for actual medical use (until cost reduction, anyway), means that it is probably best suited to usage in maintenance-refillable small tanks in suits, whereas cheap and external-applied medifoam deserves to become mainstream medical substance for treating wounds. This is an unstable equilibrium, though, so if any of those presuppositions change, another outcome might be viable.

[Parisbre56]

You could combine the two. Medifoam soaked in fleshknitter. The medifoam stops the immediate bleeding while the fleshknitter repairs the flesh below.

[syvarris]

So, you're sure fleshknitter is able to form functional bones and muscles and stuff?  Because even simple organs like those have different cells with different functions, which only work in specific configurations.

Also, why can fleshknitter fix internal injuries but medifoam can't?  Is FK something that can be injected into the bloodstream, then carried by the body to any wounds?  I had always imagined it as something like a spray or goo, which... transmutes into flesh similar to whatever it was sprayed on.  This is why I thought medifoam could effectively replace FK; it would use the same method of delivery.

@Paris

I have the distinct feeling that would work poorly.  Either the medifoam wouldn't really do much, or it would block the FK.  I'm also imagining a horrible tumourous growth filled with inert foam.

[Nikitian]

Actually, yes - the fleshknitter is injected into the body, and from there it works up to wherever close injuries are. Well, or so it was supposed to be; I tried to specify that in my original post that created it, but Piecewise might know better.
In any way, yes, I have Word of Piecewise that it can fix up bones, muscles and stuff; it's based on human native stem cells, so it should be able to utilize the whole intricate body system to repair things as they should be - except for organs, apparently; Word of Piecewise once again.

Dunno if spraying/dumping the substance on the wound should work - possibly could, but that's certainly not the original intended method of delivery. Well, might bear some additional research into, I guess.

@ Paris Don't know if it'd work; though it possibly could, with medifoam being separately applied after the fleshknitter has set in. Might warrant some research into.



Thank you for your contribution and giving fresh ideas for further development and research!

[Parisbre56]

I dunno, it seemed reasonable to me that the medifoam would degrade without causing any harm, kinda like those dissolvable stitches that don't need to be removed, they are simply destroyed by the body as it regrows. Medifoam sounds like something adhesive that can close wounds and fill gaps, like stitches but for anti-tank bullets.

[Sean Mirrsen]

It occurred to me that the Plasma Stakes also need at least some kind of stat-up if they're going to be prototype-tested.

Plasma Stake Weapon "Jet Magnum"
Token cost: 7
Stat Requirement: Battlesuit or higher strength, +1 Uncon.
Ammo: 2 slugs/token for single load, 3 token for 5-slug autoloader.
Description: This "gun" that looks suspiciously like a rocket engine pointing the wrong way, is mounted on the forearm of a giant robot of your choice, and, if fired at the right moment, will effortlessly pierce up to two feet of almost any conventional armor on the target you punch, and burn anything beyond that for good measure. The hot plasma expands quickly, so it's pointless to use it beyond some ten feet of distance, but anything caught in the expanding cone of scorching and corrosive heat it produces, better wear some damn good protection.

[Radio Controlled]

I remember talking about this on the council before, is that correct? Or is this the first time that thing gets some stats?

[Sean Mirrsen]

I remember talking about this on the council before, is that correct? Or is this the first time that thing gets some stats?

First time it gets a complete writeup for the new system, but this was discussed and finalized before, yes.

edit: more specifically, here's the relevant post:

Anton Chernozorov

Okay, barring intervention from the Council or Simus, build a prototype of the Jet Magnum. Test it to record its actual performance for simulation, then copy it to VR and put it on a VR battlesuit. Test how much damage it'll do on a perfectly connected hit to the limbs or torso of an enemy Battlesuit, and see what it can do against an Avatar. Test to see how much damage a glancing blow can inflict, and what are the best areas to aim for against either target. Test against a group of Sods, at very short range - how close would the Sods have to be for the expanding cloud of plasma to inflict any damage on them?

<snip>

((Repeating the writeup of the Jet Magnum, for PW's benefit (and the Council's perusal):

Spoiler: "Jet Magnum" plasma stake weapon (click to show/hide)

Description: Designed to mimic the deadliness of a Plasma Projector without all the requisite physics-breaking technology, the Jet Magnum is a melee-range plasma stake weapon. Cheap and inobtrusive, the weapon fits over the forearm of a large robot such as a Battlesuit or Avatar of War, leaving the hand free for usual manipulation. Being overall larger, the Avatar-sized variant has somewhat greater maximum penetration, and deals rather more damage.
Function: The Jet Magnum uses ammunition, composed of a dedicated capacitor bank and a metal rod, to create and fire "plasma stakes" - short jets of superheated plasma intended to cleanly penetrate through nearly any physical armor up to two feet thick, and causing severe damage beyond that. It requires precise timing to properly use, as the stake's penetrating power rapidly diminishes with distance, and it must be fired at the exact moment when the robot's fist strikes the enemy for maximum damage.
Ammunition: Either single-shot reloads that fit into the weapon proper, or a five-round autoloader with dedicated battery bank, that makes the weapon slightly more obvious and vulnerable. The autoloader can be combined with a single preloaded round, giving a final capacity of 6 rounds at the cost of more time spent reloading.

Cost: 7 token for Battlesuit, 10 for Avatar.
Ammo cost: 1 token for 2 single-shot reloads. 3 token for 5-round loader.

Requirements: Requires a lot of strength and damn huge arms. Fundamentally unusable without a Battlesuit or Avatar of War, or equivalent.

Prototype built. Jet magnum sounds like an expensive brand of condoms. Just saying.
It does pretty good damage. Perfect hit on a limb can sever it, or at least render it extremely damaged. Against the Torso it could, with a good hit in the right place, kill the pilot in one blow. But thats a perfect hit. Still, pretty good.
Avatar is less bothered. It's bothered, don't get me wrong, but it could take the hit to any part and still keep going, albeit injured and very pissed off.
Glancing blows would probably only really damage the battle suit and even then only on more vulnerable parts. It's got enough armor to absorb the hits otherwise. imagine it as sort of a cone, about 8-10 feet long, and about 10 feet wide at it's widest before it peters out. If they're in that range, you're good.

[AoshimaMichio]

How many sharksuits were sent to th Sword? One or two isn't enough to test them, because testers might die or might not even need it and then there's nobody to write reviews.

Also it would be useful if someone were to provide armory description about it into wiki so those who do not follow heph thread so closely (me included) can tell what it is about.



In unrelated note, there appears to be many new armor types so maybe those should be listed somewhere in wiki as well? As in "XXplate is made of x. Source originates from Y. It is good against this and weak against that and is this good compared to battlesuit plate" and so on.

[Nikitian]

"is this good compared to battlesuit plate"

 
"Armor thickness, man! Can I test it? Half-thick, three eighths-thick, five sixteenths-thick..."
((But yeah, a good idea nonetheless.))
Hey, Syv, remember that bank idea of yours? How about we institute a secondary currency of smaller denomination than token? Like, half-token or triens? (Probably best not to go into too low denominations like 1/4 or below since it's going to be character-interaction currency first and foremost, plus we don't want "free stuff" to start having a price, which might happen).

[syvarris]

@Ao

I'm pretty sure Radio and Simus have the final say on number, but I'm pretty sure we sent three sharksuits.  That seems to be our standard, presumably because it allows one to be on each mission, and therefore allows the highest chance for a prototype to get on a relevant mission.

I'm not doing wiki stuff now, primarily because my wifi is essentially dead, so only my phone has internet.  I highly dislike editting the wiki on my phone.  Once I get wifi back, I'll make some pages for stuff if it hasn't been done.

We have three new types of armor: Sharkplate, Hexbug, and Hexsand.

Sharkplate is rubbery, relatively light, regenerates if provided with carbon, and pretty tough.  It is extremely cheap, and stuff made with it is nearly free as far as production cost.  An inch (sharksuit thickness) resists gauss rifle rounds, although I don't know if we ever tested against lasers.  Probably melts through after a few seconds

Hexbug is a composite material made from the hexstone on the anomalous planetoid, the shell of the rock lice found there, and some crystal which I'm unfamiliar with.  It's extremely resistant to kinetic force, an inch thick plate being immune to anything short of a LESHO.  It's kinda resistant to lasers, but less so than BS plate; you can melt through a layer with a lasrifle, given time.  It's extremely heavy, although how much relationally to BS plate is unknown.  It's roughly quadruple the cost of BS plate by volume; you can get an inch thick plate for the same price as a standard four inch BS plate.

Hexsand is a mixture of the sand creatures from the samsonite abyss, and the hexstone from the AP.  It's essentially immune to lasers, even at very small thicknesses, although plasma (or exceptionally powerful lasers) can still melt it simply because it's too much energy.  A half-inch thick layer is enough to ignore a shot from a plasma projector.  The tradeoff is that it's highly brittle and vulnerable to kinetics; a half-inch layer can take a single gauss round before shattering, at best.  To mitigate that issue, we generally back it with an inch of sharkplate which keeps the shards mostly in place even after they've been shattered.  It's also more expensive than hexbug by volume- the half-inch plate along with sharkmist backing costs as much as a standard BS plate.


You might see me refer to 'hex composite' which is just a specific method of stacking the armors.  It's one inch of hexbug on top of a half-inch of hexsand on top of one inch of sharkplate.  It costs twice as much as a standard layer of BS plate, and so the Assaultsuit has two layers of hex composite beneath a single layer of standard BS plate.  Not only does this make the AS much more resistant to BS-killers, which at most remove a single layer in a limited area, but it also makes the armor much thinner.  An AS' armor is 9" thick, compared to the BS' 20" thick armor.

All that was written off memory.  I'm pretty sure it's mostly correct, but I could be wrong in some areas, especially the composition bits.

@Nik

Uh, how would we go about instituting a secondary currency, considering it wouldn't be... fungible(?)  With normal tokens?  The armory wouldn't accept it.

Furthermore, I'm pretty sure the Team Fund has rendered my banking idea pointless.  The only reason I might withdraw tokens from it and start my own bank would be if the TF just sat completely stagnant.  Even then, I'm not likely to do so within the next few weeks, because it's the end of my semester.  Syv be busy.

[Nikitian]

Well, the idea was that the newly created Bank of Hephaestus (which might or might not have a donation from the team fund) would guarantee its ...liquidity(?) with actual tokens, by converting them back and forth for anyone who wants. I think that there might be some demand for less-than-token units of value, possibly not much, but still some; maybe for inter-player services or something.

One more trick that I can see useful and interesting would be to give some extra when converting tokens for the very first few characters (say, three, and keep our secondary currency at one third-token). For example, we could give out one or even two extra trientes to the first three people who decided to convert some of their tokens into this new currency. Now, of course they can convert it all back, but those extra coins would remain there - unless they somehow start trading them around themselves and/or other people. Furthermore, if we work it out with Steve, maybe the new starting equip could be 5 tokens and 1 triens - same as before in terms of strictly available equipment, yet clearly more available for inter-player trading. Finally, perhaps we could design and agree with Steve/the Armory Master to produce a very cheap "one-token-ish" weapon (like those "1-token" gunpowder weapons, but maybe or maybe not updated to modern tech) to be purchased for, say, two trientes from the Armory (still not free - which I presume is the main reason why those gunpowder weapons cost anything at all - but less than token nonetheless).

All that is just to stimulate inter-character economy since sometimes a token more is just too expensive, and a token less is just too cheap.

Now, when people would start to trade our shiny coins between them and stack them up for conversion at our expense, we'd lose tokens, yes; but even if all of the above was implemented, it would be meagre 13 or 14 tokens per 40-ish players, and it would not be easy to collect it all right away; by striking the deal with "less than token weapons" with Armory, the situation would be alleviated a bit, so, I think, it could be perfectly manageable with a few grants from the team fund. Or by working out the loans idea you had before; we could actually enforce a bit the new currency by setting the interest collected in it (of course, not aligned with the starting amount or these efforts would undo each other).

Or, actually, if RC is not against it, this secondary currency could be instituted directly from the team fund coffers.
EDIT:
I'm throwing in the fleshknitter cans, assaultsuit and (to be Armory-stocked) MCP-I suits into the shipping manifest, unless/until spoken against.