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[GlyphGryph]

I REALLY want to get a few of those shots that make you not have to breathe. The idea fascinates me, and the possibility of getting some gets my giddy.

[Descan]

Link?

[GlyphGryph]

http://gizmodo.com/5921868/scientists-invent-particles-that-will-let-you-live-without-breathing

They last about 15 minutes to half an hour, but you can chain them. I'd love to get some sort of hookup with a steady release and do some crazy shit.

[alway]

Well, it would certainly keep you alive, but I can't recall the trigger which causes one to recommence breathing upon holding one's breath. It very well may keep you alive, but you may still breath if the trigger for 'k, time to breath now' is related to things other than blood O2 content. It wouldn't affect anything if you were in surgery/sedated, but if you were using these just to not breath for kicks, you may still find yourself compelled to breath due to assumptions your biology is making. If, for example, your impulse to breath is related to blood CO2 levels (can't recall what the tirgger is right off hand, but I do remember hearing a study about it if you want to look it up), you will still feel pretty much like you normally would if holding your breath; you just wouldn't suffer from lack of O2.

[SalmonGod]

I was thinking about that, too.  I wonder if your lungs would be appeased enough by just breathing the same bit of stale air over and over for the duration.  All you need is for your lungs to think they're breathing, right?

[GlyphGryph]

Eh, if you're managing underwater swims as long as I can, I imagine you're already overcoming that pretty effectively, since I've made it to the point where my vision starts getting wavy and going dark, heh. (Better hope you have friends to help you out at that point, because pulling yourself out successfully by yourself might not be possible)

The burn actually evens out after a certain point, so I imagine if you can get there you'll be fine. So long as you don't lose active control, because breathing is something your body will definitely be wanting to do.

Rebreathing the same stale air won't work to alleviate that, though - its the carbon dioxide content your lungs hate.

[Euld]

Update from project CLANG, a video game/technical system that will hopefully make motion control swordplay a lot, lot better:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The UI
In the first technical note we talked a little about how we plan to use the hardware controller to streamline what might otherwise become a challenging user interface. We would like to give players the option of learning many different moves, in many different combat systems. Keeping track of all those moves and remembering what works in which type of situation has the potential to become a headache. We've been working on some specific user interface widgets to help address this situation. These might not be the actual ones we end up using--a lot of development and testing still stands ahead of us--but we're showing them to you because doing so might help convey some sense of how we think about the game.

The Stance Bar

The vertical column of icons on the far left reminds you of th e various stances available in the system. Medieval Italian and German longsword masters did us the favor of assigning vivid names to these positions, such as Boar's Tooth, Iron Gate, The Fool, Boar's Tooth, Window, and Woman's Guard. As you can see, we have translated these directly into icons. In keeping with normal UI conventions, the stance you're in illuminates. Available stances (ones you can move into from your current stance) are shown normally, and unavailable ones are greyed out.

The Attack Star

Fiore's longsword system defines seven basic angles of attack, called the sette spada or Seven Swords, which are depicted in an illustration in Flower of Battle that has become a familiar icon of the western martial arts. We have transferred it with some modifications into this user interface widget, which we call the atta ck star. It depicts six angles for cutting attacks, represented by the six swords, and a target for thrusting attacks. Depending on which stance you're in, some of these may or may not be available, and so the swords and the target will highlight or gray out in a context-dependent way.

The Parry Bar

In general, attacks are just points of entry to branches of the combat tree that can become quite elaborate and include a wide range of parries, counterattacks, etc. This widget in low right center serves as a dock where icons representing such moves can come and go dynamically, depending on the situation.

The Trainer

In a fully realized version of the game, which we hope to bu ild later when we get more funding, your character will learn stances, moves, and techniques from a cast of trainer characters dotted around the map of medieval Europe. The trainer radial serves as a way of organizing and accessing all of that knowledge. Each icon represents a specific teacher your character has trained with in the past. When that trainer's knowledge becomes relevant to what's happening in a fight, they will zoom out and you'll see them surrounded by a sub-radial depicting the various techniques that they taught you.

The End of Fight Bar

At the end of a fight, when one of the combatants has been disarmed, disabled, or placed in an impossible situation, the three icons in the end-of-fight bar become relevant. If you're the victor, you'll be given the opportunity to spare your defeated opponent--or no t. If you've been defeated, you have the option to cry uncle, which in most chivalric contexts means that the victor is expected to show mercy (and take all of your stuff and hold you for ransom).

Here's how it all looks with the widgets displayed. For testing and development purposes, we'll probably make the icons hot so that you can click on them with a mouse and make something happen. In theory the game could be played that way too. But we intend to design it in such a way that playing it with the hardware controller gives you a better experience.

This sounds so cool

[Il Palazzo]

Alway is right, the breathing reflex is triggered by rising levels of CO2 in your bloodstream. It's the mechanism behind that thing some divers do - a few quick breaths before diving removes additional CO2 from your bloodstream(but doesn't increase the oxygen concentration), allowing for holding your breath longer. This in turn is the cause of the diver's blackout, when they keep their breath long enough to lower oxygen concentration beyond the level required to maintain consciousness, while still not feeling the need to breathe.

I suppose injecting yourself with the fluid would result in the opposite - having a very strong urge to breathe despite not really needing to.
Also, there's probably some level of CO2 concentration in the bloodstream that becomes toxic or maybe the repeated introduction of extra gas without it's removal would eventually cause the gas to separate from the blood cells and cause embolism. So I don't see this working in any capacity outside emergencies.

[GlyphGryph]

This was specifically developed because it doesn't introduce any actual gas and thus no embolisms.

The CO2 concentration issue, I imagine, is why you probably wouldn't want to chain them.

[Aqizzar]

As much as this does sound like some awesome Deus Ex science potion, there are factual considerations like CO2.  I bet there's some kind of drug you could develop to get rid of carbon dioxide.  Like, dumping it into your digestive tract or something.  Sure you'd be gassy, but you could also chain no-breath drugs.  It'd be perfect for swimming.  You'd be self-propelled.

[kaijyuu]

Awesome and science fiction-y as it may be, I'm pretty sure oxygen tanks are more efficient.

[Remalle]

I found an Easter Egg in Arkham City!

Spoiler: Cold Call Killer sidequest spoilers (click to show/hide)

Intentionally screwing up on Zsasz's sidequest will result in him giving you a few extra calls.  In these, instead of him monologuing his first kill to you, he and Batman have conversations; in the first, Batman pleads with Zsasz to take his life instead of his hostages, and in the second, they debate philosophy.  If you still haven't tracked down his hideout at this point, the game will automatically find it for you.

[Boksi]

It'd be perfect for swimming.  You'd be self-propelled.

It might be sleep deprivation, but I laughed out loud at that.

[Heron TSG]

It'd be perfect for swimming.

It would also be perfect for running. There are times that you're breathing like crazy and still don't have enough air. Once you're in oxygen debt, the lack of oxygen in your muscles leads to lactic acid buildup, pain, and soreness. Only now, with fancy medical magic, you would start sprinting, pump some Oxygen right into your legs, and keep going. Probably going to be used like high-altitude-blood-extraction is in bicycle racing. (Which is to say, only by really weird people that everyone else gives funny looks to.)

[Reudh]

Funfact: In times of extreme stress, the body's BRAIN can switch to lactate in the absence of glucose.

Also, my happy was:

I woke up today, I seem to remember having a dream, but that's all I remember about it. It was a dream I had. The only aspect I can remember of it is a feeling of overwhelming peace and happiness. I normally tend to remember every detail of my dreams.