Cyborg vulnerability

[CalliopeSoups]

There was a discussion on the discord about how it would make more sense for cyborgs to be able to do things like set up engines if they were in more danger like a human would be. I don't believe cyborgs should be particularly frail at all but I think it would be good if they had things like a 'fire resistance meter' that goes down when you spend time in fire, along with making them take proper damage from burn and things like critter attacks. With cyborgs less resistant to things like fire by default it would also make getting upgrades more alluring.

[Kotlol]

I'd say even things like PLASMA should damage them.
Even Radiation can damage them if exposed too long.

I'd say their plus would be... they have protective gear from the start, but... will slowly degrade over time and thus taking damage.
They are immune to space though. That should remain.

[JohnnyJohn]

I'm not sure if this would be particularly good for gameplay, especially on lowpop. Unless borgs could self-repair, like at a dock.

[Gomp]

I think it is fine for borgs to be immune to some things, they already have some major limitations, granted those are mostly a clunky interface and a lack of quality of life features, but if you would get rid of that, then I think you should also give them their vulnerabilities to some elements back.

[BadShot]

Even Radiation can damage them if exposed too long.

Radiation could start messing with their electronics after enough time, making their screen accrue radiation static or maybe reduced energy capacity with prolonged exposure.

They got no organs to speak of (minus maybe brain) but radiation can cause a lot of havoc on electronics.

[Lefinch]

I mean they get the snazzy radiation visual fuzz from rads now, so that's nice!

I'm fine with them as is though: They have some disadvantages, they have some advantages. Working in extremely hostile environments fits a theme that if you add in radiation you also may as well add in working in 5000K+ conditions.
The "Ablative shielding" concept makes sense so I'm not immediately stopping it, but generally speaking here's my thing:

A) I, personally find it really funny when borgs hang out in a lit combustion chamber even if it makes no sense.
B) When I first started playing, and this was before 2023, back when I was still dipping in every two years and trying to get to grips with SS13 and immediately giving up there was a round where the station was fully alight: people were screaming, there was chaos on the radio, I was bumping into cogmap1's walls and trying to work out how to pick things up... and then out of the darkness, a goddamn machine -skeleton- emerges from the flames, walks up to me, and screams in my characters face before running back off, then spending the rest of the round constantly emerging from the flames to do that to me.
Was it actually just a lightborg? Yes, Do I have any idea what the hell they were actually doing besides traumatising me? No. What exactly does this mean for the idea? I have no idea but I'm still pro-letting cyborgs off the environmental damages hook for this particular bias.

One thing I will point out to play devil's advocate is that some kind of "Ablative shield" might discourage the old classic cyborg standby of just lighting the station on fire, but you'd have to tweak it with this in mind or else it either won't make a real difference, or will make the things more fragile than humans anyway.