[MAJOR UPGRADE][[ROBOTICS]] Cybernetic Augments

[BruiseCruise]

Taking a page or two from E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy and Deus Ex:

1. Dermal Sheathe. When powered, your skin hardens and is more difficult to pierce and/or damage. You take 25% (maybe 50% for a more powerful version? All speculation here) less brute damage and are less likely to bleed. When going haywire, your entire body temporarily becomes rock hard and are rendered immobile, taking minor suffocation damage in the process.

2. Electromagnetic Discharge. When powered, attacks with a melee weapon or a fist deal a small amount of EMP/Electric damage as well, perfect for going toe to toe with an unruly robot or fellow augmentee. When haywire, the subject takes minor electric damage and his/her Bioelectric energy or cell is drained dramatically.

3. Aim Assistance. Exactly what it says on the tin. Since BYOND is so darn robust, instead of homing in on enemies or something this mod merely improves your spaceman's ability to hit vital targets. The augmentee's punches and projectiles hit more critical places on their victim, generating more critical hits and/or causing more damage. When haywire, this augment causes the augmentee to enter a drunken state (moving around randomly, punching himself).

4. Point-Defense System. When activated, a cloud of nanites hovers close to the augmentee's body and eats/intercepts incoming projectiles and provide minor damage resistance to explosive shrapnel and the like. When haywire, these bots fight eachother rendering the protection useless and, at times, nip at the augmentee's body dealing brute damage.

5. Photo-optic Camoflage. Now you see him, now you don't! While this augment is active the augmentee is nigh-invisible to the naked eye and his/her actions are pointedly quieter than usual thanks to sound dampeners. When haywire, the imaging hardware becomes borked and randomly changes appearance and hue, making the augmentee extremely visible and look utterly ridiculous for a short period of time.

6. Nanotech Recyclers. Definitely illegal and downright mean, this augment supplies the user with symbiotic nanites that feed the user energy and repair damage by recycling synthetic material. By decomposing a corpse or a significant amount of meat, the augmentee is given a significant amount of healing and stamina, but must stand still while the process completes. If haywire, the symbiotic relationship goes sour and the augmentee is drained of stamina due to the nanite's intense hunger.

And of course:
7. The Skull Gun. A powerful laser cannon installed just around the brow line. The augmentee can, at a moment's notice, fire a beam in front of him dealing burn AND brute damage. The projectile can also pierce targets, making it effective in close-combat situations. The augment must cool down in between shots to avoid overheating the user. When haywire, the hardware does exactly that: the interior of the user's head suffers massive burns and causes nasty physical trauma. May also cause perceived animosity from the Janitor.

[atomic1fire]

It would be cool if nanite research went in a slightly different direction then augments.

Whereas augments would be surgically implanted, the normal nanites would turn you into a cyborg, but more research would control just how much a nanite mutates you.

Augments that involve bones or skin could be done with nanites instead, like for instance the camouflage suggestion, or a augment that gives you metal coated bones that reduce brute damage from brute hits.

[atomic1fire]

Since I don't think we can edit:

Bruiser's post goes a lot in that direction but I think having an injectoresque thing for robotics would be cool, but only for upgrades where it makes sense, like disease resistance that involves nanites killing viruses in your blood. Also item limbs that can be retracted.

Nanite chainsaw anyone? like literally your arm turning into a chainsaw, then forming back into an arm. I suppose emmaging would involve your arm falling off and melting or something. Item mimicry could draw power and sort of work like cyborg arms already work on cyborgs.

There's a lot of cool crap we could think of with augments and nanites.

[BruiseCruise]

Since I don't think we can edit:

Bruiser's post goes a lot in that direction but I think having an injectoresque thing for robotics would be cool, but only for upgrades where it makes sense, like disease resistance that involves nanites killing viruses in your blood. Also item limbs that can be retracted.

Nanite chainsaw anyone? like literally your arm turning into a chainsaw, then forming back into an arm. I suppose emmaging would involve your arm falling off and melting or something. Item mimicry could draw power and sort of work like cyborg arms already work on cyborgs.

There's a lot of cool crap we could think of with augments and nanites.

Yea, I kinda realized that most of those suggestions are less 'hack n' slash' surgery and more like Cyborg Modules. You never really see your augmented body in E.Y.E or anything, but it implies that a lot of the modules are vaguely embedded under the skin or just cybernetic replacements of body parts like eyes and whatnot. As for Deus Ex, the original just had spooky-looking canisters of Nanite Dew that you presumably had injected by a medbot, but that made sense given the context of nanotech vs. cybernetic augments. Judging from the title it looks like we're going the Augment route first, but having some sort of nanotech in the future sounds pretty fun and interesting!

As for the augments proper, I liked the idea for the AED earlier in the thread. It would make it a bit easier to install augments without chopping the augmentee into pieces and makes it easier to add new things. As for limb and skull enhancements, though, I think it would be good to utilize surgery. That way it adds a sense of danger to becoming Robocop and enables people to become Aug Thieves kinda like that Chinese Gang in Human Revolution.

To be honest, though, having some Nanomachine-pumped Armstrong-expy sounds like one hell of an antagonist role, especially if it can be worked into consuming the station's power supply or something. I like these suggestions because Augments really have a lot of potential!

[Frank_Stein]

I also just like that, there's a great opportunity for Genetics and Robotics to have a better sense of synergy. Augs can help cover Powers weaknesses and limits, or can combine with them together to complement each other.

So, I think another aspect to the whole thing is how research is performed. Genetics has a little puzzle thing with matching the genomes. Robotics could have something along those lines. I think maybe also it'll be important to study body parts to advance research in that area. Maybe connecting the nerve pathways?

[salix_catus]

Make it so the exploity ones malfunction on the adventure z level. Matter eater and liquify were incredibly annoying when they worked.

[Dabir]

In E.Y.E, powerful and arcane rituals are required for really heavy augmentations, to keep your soul in one piece. I suggest that an excess of augmentations should lead to your body being taken over by hostile NPC AI.

[robertGN]

In E.Y.E, powerful and arcane rituals are required for really heavy augmentations, to keep your soul in one piece. I suggest that an excess of augmentations should lead to your body being taken over by hostile NPC AI.

Failed Constantine Lifeblood blasts Roboticist Joe!

[BruiseCruise]

In E.Y.E, powerful and arcane rituals are required for really heavy augmentations, to keep your soul in one piece. I suggest that an excess of augmentations should lead to your body being taken over by hostile NPC AI.

Hahahahah, I totally forgot about that part! Sounds similar to the whole 'Cyberzombie' thing in Shadowrun: too much cyberware/augments and you basically become a soulless machine with no concept of humanity or remorse. So basically the standard SS13 character.

There definitely should be penalties for too much cyberware, though, preferably nothing that risks instant death or zombification. I personally think overuse or too much bodily strain should increase the probability of an aug going haywire or malfunctioning. Like I mentioned in my previous post, this could cause anything from mild annoyances to severe bodily harm, causing the user to really weigh the costs and benefits of installing and using too much cyberware. This could also probably tie in to the cyberware/augment power source too: would the user require batteries ala cyborgs, or would the augments be powered by Bioelectrics and the body's natural energy? While I thought the whole '1 candy bar = 1 punch' in Human Revolution was pretty dumb, maybe that system and that of the original Deus Ex could meet halfway? Different foods replenish different amounts of stamina or Bio Energy, but heavier cyberware and frequent use requires the user to ingest a LOT more food to keep up with the cost. At the very least it would make the chef a lot more popular. You could probably tie it in to some sort of antagonist role too if there were more 'Black Market Augs' ala the Nanotech Recycler and whatnot.

I realize it's pretty early to speculate on all of this, but I feel like SS13 could handle this stuff pretty well and make it entertaining to boot. Also speaking as a frequent Roboticist player I'd love more opportunities to create horrible amalgamations of flesh and steel!

[Anticheese]

There is nothing wrong with taking cues from E.Y.E.

[Haine]

Cyborg Heart [I DON'T KNOW HOW THESE WORK CURRENTLY EVERYTHING I SAY MIGHT BE DUMB]

I made a post about them on SA a while ago that I'll dump here for reference (quoted because I don't feel like retyping it)

RE: Cyberhearts

in theory I haven't forgotten anything in this list since I programed the fucking things, but who knows. I can't remember the exact recipes of my own chems sometimes so maybe I have forgotten something here!!

• They give you a little stamina boost.
  
• They give you a bit of stun resistance.
  
• They have a chance to automatically restart if stopped (cardiac arrest), or to correct an abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac failure).
  
• You can emag them for an increase in all of these.
  However, that also affects the negatives of them:
  
• Shocks are Bad. There's a good chance you'll get burned or take some brute if you get shocked, and they rarely even cause heart failure. This includes shocks from a defib. However, shocks will give you an extra boost to stamina.
  
• If emagged, cyberhearts that get shocked have a larger chance of hurting you, do more damage when they do, a larger chance to go into cardiac failure, and also have a chance to just outright stop, or break.
  
• Broken cyberhearts just don't work. They can't be restarted. They have to be replaced entirely, which will be difficult to do before you keel over, because fuck dude your heart is broken, it ain't doin nothin no more.
  
• EMPs cause cyberhearts to break.

[Amuys]

There is nothing wrong with taking cues from E.Y.E.

Using a emagged slot machine should replace the "you win x credits" with "you gain x brozouf"
Also, a specific aug that checks how broken your legs are.

[BruiseCruise]

There is nothing wrong with taking cues from E.Y.E.

Using a emagged slot machine should replace the "you win x credits" with "you gain x brozouf"
Also, a specific aug that checks how broken your legs are.

This, or at least toss in that awesome exploding Damocles sword.