Bionic battery system idea

Game Talk The Drawing Board
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Currently the bionic power generation is very player centric.

Player generates the energy by walking/eating/drinking. There are systems for charging the power from an external source with cable/batteries but they are usually backup systems and the usual aim is to power other tools with bionic power instead of powering bionics with external tools.

What if we combine battery system CBM and power storage CBM.

You install the battery system CBM. On its own it does nothing, instead it allows you to install batteries (“wear” them).
You would get energy by putting in full batteries. The installed batteries would also act as the power storage.
When a battery is empty you would take it off and put a new in.
You could install multiple battery system CBMs to use multiple batteries at once.
Installed batteries would incur minor encumbrance based on their total weight. Maybe even allow putting in a car battery with some encumbrance penalties.
(the current power storage CBM could be kept as non-encumbrance non-energy transfer option)

I think this would drastically move the bionic power out of player. Instead of using the player bionics as the power source you would be fully relying on an external power source and use the bionic as a power storage. It would make the system much more connected to the rest of the game.

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So I’ll need more than 3 full batteries to activate my fusion blaster :thinking:

If this CBM uses disposable batteries, I’d rather choose to save them…

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I’d rather personally have a hybrid system. With the new battery system, properly getting batteries to fuel your bionics could be a large chore reliant on getting lucky to find the right batteries, but having the option is also a viable one.

I’d personally opt for two storage systems - internal storage and external storage. Internal storage acts just like bionic power does right now; some CBMs generate it and some CBMs draw from it. External storage would be tied to certain items, like a wearable “cybernetics UPS” that recharges from certain sources but only serves to fuel your bionics (or even an External Power Supply CBM that lets you use batteries of various types directly.)

Bionics are generally intended and balanced around being used often - the Leukocyte Breeder is the best representation of this. Balancing their usability around rare items would severely cripple them. (Whether or not that’s a good or bad thing depends on personal preference.)