Crazy Idea: Bionics Threshold

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

This is a crazy idea. Feel free to ignore it. Or heck, perhaps its already been brought up and dismissed. But here it goes…

You can modify yourself enough genetically that you are no longer human in this game, yes? And after you reach that threshold, new possibilities become…possible?

Well, what if there was a bionics threshold, where after a certain point, you are no longer human but a ‘Cybernetic Organism’ and need mechanics/electronics AND first aid to heal? I mean, if you have a bionic megaman arm, and a full page-long list of bionics, surely at some point your better off going to an electronics shop then a doctor’s office. And perhaps, after you reach this point, your body has serious issues accepting mutations, or mutations risk causing serious harm, or something. I know issues of bionics/mutation incompatability have been discussed before. Wouldn’t it be easier to just ‘standardize’ how this stuff is handled? A bionics threshold, past which mutations become mostly harmful and not beneficial, would certainly do that.

And then, once you pass the threshold, you could have post-threshold bionics, transhuman ones, so to speak, that would alter how you think and perceive the world, or change your physicality in ways that can’t be undone; like a cybernetic endoskeleton…or perhaps one where your brain has been replaced with a computer that your mind has been uploaded to, or a new android body (with no fleshy parts at all), or somesuch. Things that would increasingly make you more and more a machine, and have less in common with humans in the mental and psychological sense. Or perhaps just more classical transhuman stuff. This might also be stuff that has to be exclusively built, like some of the rarer mutagenic serums. There would also be obvious downsides, such as…you’ve now climbed to the pinnacle of what Man was once capable of, or could have been capable of…but there is no longer a permanent infrastructure to support what you’ve become. It’d be fun, and not necessarily all good, either.

I don’t know - just a crazy thought. I don’t have my heart set on it, I was just brainstorming and thought I’d mention it.

2

Yes.

Bionics need to chang IMHO.
Because right now there are no downsides to having bionics installed. Having any bionic installed is a straight upgrade from being a fragile meat sack.
Right now anything to make it more difficult to become a cybernetic god gets my vote.

3

Yess… This to the fullest extent.

4

First of all, let me just emphasize that I’m somewhat uncommon with 0.A version of CataDDA - altough I’m catching up as we type… everyone here has put a truly respectable ammount of effort towards building a game system to suit (so to say) everyone’s needs. This means that the Bionics system is being redone or it is close to finished status, as far as I know; knowing that, I won’t imply that there’re great errors and discourses, just state what’s evident and/or lacking.

A) Bionics never hamper the player’s actions nor fail, which is consequential with the sole ability to upgrade, never downgrade them;
B) Body parts are limited to Pain/HitPoint variables, and have few flags like Bleeding and Bitten;
C) There is no basis for cybernetics by the time Day-Z happened, so immediate and drastic improvements are impossible.

Let’s just say a terrible beast with 3-feet thick tentacles slaps the player over the neck, face, one ear and one sholder, throttling him into a wall behind. In my own (sane) mind, there would be a hole to beast’s underbelly from my plasma-cannon-arm within the next turn; but roleplaying says NOT. Such a blow to a player’s torso and head should at least immobilize some of the systems (the power supply system being the most notable one) for half-a-dozen turns to be honest, needless to say that a dislocated shoulder along with gashed head / cracked skull should render the player incapable of remembering that he has a way to use a built-in plasma weapon.

A good and somewhat reasonable way to deal with this issue is, once Bionics are carefully balanced within the last stages of this game’s development, to introduce the Immobile and Temporary Immobile flag (and a Concussion flag to the “head” body part) to all the limbs followed by a link between particular body part’s present ammount of hitpoints AND binded bionic’s effectiveness. Furthermore, if I was a programmer linked to this game - I would treat all bionic implants as superalloy mixtures, and let them wear off after a (glorious) ammont of abuse. This would, in a way, erase the need to worry about malfunctioning spinal taps and other lobotomy disasters, only after a giant mosquito pecks your player in the forehead.

Since not all bionics are similar, and I would like to read more of your opinions on the particular subject. :slight_smile:

5

I keep thinking that it would be interesting to see the Vehicles system applied to mobs and characters.

What is a skeleton but a bone frame, a nervous system but the control units, eyes are biological sensors. The circulatory/respiratory system is the engine running off the fuel/food in the gas tank/intestines to keep the limbs/wheels moving?

I’m certainly not suggesting some system anywhere near so complex as Dwarf Fortress (where we are counting digits, density, hue, and melting points of individual tissue layers) but a clearer and more utilitarian system like Fallout.

6

This is one of those long-range things, I think.

Making augs somewhat less intercompatible is on the radar but a pretty low priority from my perspective; a Threshold (where You Are A Machine) is tougher to justify as not all of 'em mess with your neurology. (Alloy Plating and the Subdermal Carbon Filament, forex; likewise the air filter, power generation, etc.)

Of those that might have a neural connection, less would require one. When I was running Ka’lol (significantly augmented char) in That RP, some of his larger-scale stuff was voice-controlled; the toolset and firestarters were thought-activated as they’d more-or-less replaced his hands, and therefore could use existing connections. (Firing the finger-laser was thought-based but arming/disarming it was voice.)

The CQB and membanks augs would require significant neural links and might contribute to a Threshold. Alarm System has one but that just pings you, so shouldn’t be that significant. Fusion Blaster Arm, if people actually use the bloody thing (it’s comparatively inefficient, last I checked), could qualify due to the limb-replacement. Exotic things like the teleporter, quantum-tunnel, or time-stopper would probably affect one’s internal processes enough to contribute, too.

So IMO it’s an idea, but needs fleshed out a bit. (And I’m generally opposed to making augs need specialized gear to repair, as that seems likely to make them a Gotcha.)