There’s a few ideas I wanted to suggest concerning bionic additions, and changes to existing one. Of course, this would also be a good place for others to post their own ideas they might’ve have, in addition to feedback on my own suggestions, and advice on how such additions could be implemented.
Bionic Additions:
Some way to drain body heat to gain charge. We do have a bionic that drains heat from enemies to provide power, so a self-targeting version is feasible. However, the catch here is that it could be abused by intentionally lingering near lava or some other source of heat. One possible counter to this is if there was a way to implement an overheating mechanic where the bionic builds up heat and risks damaging you or some other consequence for overusing it. I do believe something off that sort has already been implemented for the reactor CBM, so that’s a good sign.
Additional bionic weapons, possibly. Some added variety would be nice, and would compliment a change to be proposed below. In particular I’d like to see a blunt weapon of some sort, and possibly something explosive aside from the fusion blaster. If it involves physical explosives, it might need an additional ammo limit that has to be reconstructed at the cost of power, over time.
Faulty Bionic Additions:
A permanently-equipped bionic weapon. While it could presumably be a decent chunk of mangled metal to bop enemies with, it would be exactly as horribly crippling as you’d expect. A more sensible, toned-down alternative would simply be to give the character the “only have one hand usable” effect the fusion blaster gives, without the benefit of a free weapon, though maybe it could still give a randomly-initiated “smack target with your cyborg limb” attack in the same way several mutations offer bonus attacks.
A glowy light effect. Should be just bright enough to be visible to enemies, and spoil night vision, without really being useful. Otherwise it’d be a free light source, especially if it consumes no power.
A faulty bionic that’s had its waterproof casing deteriorate. Presumably just wading through puddles wouldn’t expose it unless there was a special check for getting knocked prone while standing in shallow water. Being in the rain without rain gear or at least enough waterproof clothing would cause pain, bioelectric drain, and possibly damage depending on weather intensity, and going for a swim would be a Bad Idea.
Changes to Bionic Mechanics:
Some jsonizing of bionic properties. The one I’d most want to see jsonized is the property that references what weapon is equipped by a bionic. This would allow the ability to add or mod in additional bionic weapons far more easily.
Make installing bionics take longer than the mere moment it normally takes. Too long would likely be a major annoyance, but at least enough that one can’t jam CBMs into ones body in the heat of battle.
Add “partial success” results when installing and/or removing bionics. The obvious example would be forcibly ripping a bionic out, causing pain, bleeding, damage etc but still removing the bionic. Or installing a bionic but failing to do so in a sufficiently sanitary manner, causing the “infected limb” effect either in a random bodypart, or one specific to the bionic in question. Random wouldn’t require assigning any “where’s this thing go?” property to bionics though.
As mentioned, feedback on how my ideas sound, and suggestions regarding how they might be coded out, would be appreciated, as well as any suggestions others might want to suggest/discuss.
Weapon Variety that will function with different fighting styles. (The Claws are worthless in any fighting style, if I’m right, yes?) Especially knives would work well, they could act like an Omni-blade from Mass Effect, which is basically a Katar strapped to you arm. I’d count that as usable weapon for all knife-fighting styles. For that matter, it would be funny if the claws are being used in the tiger-style or so
Other than that, laser-weaponry is always a possibility, it would be weaker than the fusion blaster, but have more ammo, and probably no explosions~ Something like a shoulder-mounted mini-rocket launcher or grenade launcher could be funny too, but I don’t know how that would work with ammo.
Of course there should also be a bionic that allows you to interact with the battery of a vehicle. Either by loading yourself up, or by jumpstarting said car.
Other than that, there could also be different versions of the same bionic. Like, the ‘old’ basic one and newer, experimental versions, which would work even better, but have some kind of penalty included. Or, in some cases, the older version could have some kind of glitch, bug or so which gave the scientists a reason to create the newer version, without a bug.
Actually the claws do have the “unarmed weapon” flag, so they SHOULD work with unarmed styles. However, I have noticed that the “stab” flag seems to cause the piercing skill to gain experience instead of unarmed, so just yanking that flag from bionic claws might solve that.
Also, lasers might work, though we have a “finger laser” bionic. Rather weak if I recall.
Power transfer bionic would be amazing and awesome though.
Draining target’s heat to power the bionic is pure technomagic.
Draining user’s heat to power bionics would only make sense if the power produced was tiny, user’s surroundings cold and if it caused accelerated cooling to surrounding temperature. No way it would work in the summer, unless placed by fire or on lava. It would best work as a separate item that you place over heat source, because then you could heat it up to sensible temperature without scorching own body.
Useful work (in this case electricity) is produced from heat going from warmer source to the colder one. Efficiency of this process depends on temperature difference, so going from body temperature to room temperature wouldn’t power a led light.
Ah, true. Maybe it should depending strictly on environmental heat then, and require some threshold above the user’s comfort level to operate, ideally without actually protecting the user from the heat. Somewhat more plausible and demands greater risk.
Some sort of bionic that sort of drugs up/manipulates your brain chemistry or somesuch. Provides a morale boost. Either one where you have to activate to get multiple dosages/one that continuously functions when activated. Can become very addictive.
Autopilot bionic. Will ignore pain, fatigue, hunger and thirst when used. In exchange, since your mind is elsewhere while some bionic mechanism is the one in control, you don’t gain any skill experience. Also, upon deactivation, all the stuff your body ignored will come back in full force.
Negative bionic ideas:
Noisy mechanical thingy. Okay, so there’s already a few bionics that emit noise. This one in particular is more or less a really shrill one that’s located somewhere in your ear. Emits a very high pitched noise that can cause deafness and headaches.
Malfunctioning magnet thingy. Will sometimes cause small metal items to fly towards you. Like the electromagnetic unit, but they don’t safely land on your feet and will most likely crash into your body instead.
Another noise making one. Picks up random radio signals or static once in a while.
Supersensitive senses. Noises are more likely to deafen character. Getting hit causes more pain.
[quote=“Random_dragon, post:10, topic:10044”]Derptastic as that’d be, could adapt that absurdity would be, being able to blare loud music or other noise on demand would be a useful bionic.
And if it doubles as a morale-boosting integrated boombox, all the better.[/quote]
Yeah, could’ve been some hip scientist who wanted to combine music and combat orientation.
Or it could simply be a commercial bionic. Why bother with silly little smartphones and ancient MP3 players when you can have one that’ll never lose or get stolen, and is obvious waterproof since you can presumably shower with bionics.
As for who’d buy the broadcasting stereo system equivalent? Same people who rig extra-beefy speakers in their car to pump up the bass.
Actually, that gives me another idea. A faulty bionic that’s had its waterproof casing deteriorate. Presumably just wading through puddles wouldn’t expose it unless there was a special check for getting knocked prone while standing in shallow water. Being in the rain without rain gear or at least enough waterproof clothing would cause pain, bioelectric drain, and possibly damage depending on weather intensity, and going for a swim would be a Bad Idea.
Heelys implant with electrical propulsors within the back of your legs which allows you to travel 10-40 mph depending on carrying weight and dexterity (gliding takes practice). Doesn’t work with Joint Torsion Ratchet because you’re not moving muscles so much as gliding. Extreme difficulty when it comes to diagonal turns.
Also laser lasso because camp factor. Target an enemy, launch lasso and effectively slow it down as what a ‘grab’ would do.
[quote=“Random_dragon, post:14, topic:10044”]Laser lasso. Hmm. Now a mundane version, as a grappling hook first and weapon second, would be more plausible.
Very yes. Should be an even better morale boost than a regular old MP3 player, too, since you don’t have to deal with those pesky buds lobbed into your earlobes.
