So, after playing the game and realising how prohibitively warm some of the protective options can be (like for example, leather armour), it occurred to me that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that no clothing options PROTECT you from heat.
After doing a bit of reading here and there I’ve gathered that there is an eventual plan to add an insulation mechanic to delay temperature effects, but that this is probably a “some day” change.
This got me thinking about like, sun protection for more than just glare, breezy clothes that trap air flows and help cool you down…
But then I realised, this is the apocalypse, you have access to virtually infinite raw materials, a great deal of time to tinker, and a strong vested interest in performing as much intense physical labour as needed; if this was me I would ONE HUNDRED PERCENT be rigging up a fan to my clothes to keep me cool.
This leads me to the topic of negative clothing warmth.
This is something I’ve considered in the past because I don’t tolerate heat well, and I think the best way to do it would be to have a belt with a fan blowing into one’s shirt, and another for the pants.
This leads me to the topic of multiple clothing layers.
**
So my proposition is at its base, two separate clothing items, one a shirt, one a pair of pants, which when powered provide negative warmth (similar to the thermo-electric underwear); this raises the question, does negative warmth cause havoc in the code? It probably would when insulation happens.
I think they’d need to be normal layer for balance purposes as having it close to skin would enable too much armour layering shenanigans, and for the air to flow through you couldn’t compress it too much anyway.
And in addition to this you would have a fairly bulky fan and battery system poking out somewhere, the belt mount seeming the most logical and probably most physically secure; so the question arises: Is the code presently able to support a piece of clothing occupying multiple layers on the same body part?
A shirt would need to occupy both the normal, and torso-waist slot.
Pants both the normal and legs-waist slot.
Of course there could be multiple articles of clothing that interact with one another, but this seems like it would be a far more complicated affair code-wise.
AFAIK, in real life traditional clothing for hotter climates is made of ample, loose clothing (think a large tunic). The layer of air between the body and cloth acts like insulation.
Actually, it works against cold as well; so, we would have some clothing that is actually “good enough” against both hot and cold climate (not extreme temperatures, anyway).
Loose clothing is probably the best you can get in terms of “low tech” temperature control, and it basically doesn’t allow for any armor, and so, no protection against anything worse than sharp leaves.
I believe there are at least two “high tech” cooling options that might work: an inner set of clothing (close to the body) with tubes of pumped water that’s refrigerated before it’s pumped in.
I think something similar exists in space suits, but I’m not aware of it being available on the general market. It can be noted that this kind of design could be used for heating as well.
The other alternative I can think of is the solid state technology used in some early refrigerator systems (I believe they lost out to the current compressor technology because they were more expensive both to manufacture and to run), where electricity cools one side of a metal with specific properties, while the other then heats up with the moved energy (plus what was used to move the energy around). I doubt there’s any use for that approach in the current world, but it might be of use in apocalyptic plate armor.
Peltier effect wouldn’t be useful at human scale, its a small electrical novelty at this time.
But active cooling suits in limited applications do exist. The big hangup with them outside their complexity, is the fact that any prolonged use relies on bulky thermal exchangers and refridgeration units. Its also worth keeping in mind that any active cooling system on your skin is going to be uncomfortable, nothing I’ve seen is very suitable for rapid movement, and liquid is going to start condensing on the surface.
There’s good reason the concept has seen very limited adoption for very specific situations. Its never as easy or as good as it might seem, and it gets in the way of doing a lot of things.
I think this stuff would be a much better candidate for alien/exodii technology - Thermal Cybernetics already exist, so I don’t see any reason they wouldn’t have been able to make thermal underlayers from the same basic technology, and probably far less prohibitive to trade for as well.
A friend of mine has made a number of (lightly) armoured active cooling suits, that functioned fairly well but were all quite bulky and cumbersome (and heavy). The cooling unit (along with other stuff) is contained in the rigid backpack section of the suit. Also has some built-in lighting and a head-mounted laser.
It’s obvious from the signs behind the suit wearer where the cooling off -really- comes from. Is the “other stuff” contained in the rigid backpack a jug of Rick’s Red or some bottles of Corona?
Aye, quite right. At least, I’m sure that helps a bit, although I suspect the mask and helmet somewhat hinder beverage consumption.
Other stuff includes a computer, audio processors, effects, built-in headphones (he used to DJ in this outfit, though he’s mostly retired now), controllers for the suit’s various systems, power supplies and batteries to run everything.
