one that jumps out me as one whe should add is the air reserve bionic.
grey goo is neat, but it needs HEAVY limitations, both thematically and in game mechanics.
By the way, since it is the topic of discussion, I feel obligated to mention that as Eclipse Phase is licensed under a Creative Commons license, you can pick up the core rulebook for free here: http://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/
In case anyone wants to look through and pick up ideas for themselves.
The “Grey Goo” isn’t actually the kind that we often think about. A nanoswarm can’t self replicate (well maybe some of the TITAN ones can, but most can’t).
We need bio-mods.
[quote=“Kevin Granade, post:21, topic:5223”]one that jumps out me as one whe should add is the air reserve bionic.
grey goo is neat, but it needs HEAVY limitations, both thematically and in game mechanics.[/quote]
This is a brilliant idea!
Nanoswarms would be a great opportunity for a powerful robot-type enemy that ISN’T just a bigger and badder version of one of the security bots. It has specific weaknesses (fire, explosions, EMP) and it has its own abilities (stealth, almost impossible to beat in melee). It’s not fast, though, and it can only melee, so it doesn’t just one-shot the player from nowhere, it encourages safe gameplay in areas where you know one is around. Perhaps some sort of way to track it, or when it’s dormant it shows as a pile of dust or something that the player can clearly see and avoid. I like the idea of another powerful thing like the zombie bear or the jabberwok, but those both go down super easy to the right gun, and the nanoswarm WOULDN’T. Anything that requires different playstyles creates variety, and I’m in favor of that.
It doesn’t encourage different playstyles, it encourages using one specific method of attack to take on. That is literally the opposite of encouraging variety.
As is I agree. Having only one specific vulnerability just forces you to get a weapon of that type before you go for it. And it would be horribly unfair to first time players. (Zombies are a bit more easy to understand than molecular disassembler swarms)
Perhaps the 2040 nanoswarms just ain’t that good yet. Say, little movement, so they just act as clouds that do not follow you around. And they only get power in specific regions of a certain lab type. (Say a powered lab, which has its own fusion power generator). As long as you walk around in the swarm something bad happens (or it is just annoying). You could turn off the power but that would kill the lights, and quickly reduce the temperature to sub zero.
So you could use emp/fire whatever to clear away specific tiles of nanoswarms. Or just kill the power, and get a different set of issues.
I think we could come up with better solutions of enemies that cannot be shot. (some sort of active emp field enemy? like the skeleteons but double strength).
Perhaps the 2040 nanoswarms just ain't that good yet. Say, little movement, so they just act as clouds that do not follow you around. And they only get power in specific regions of a certain lab type. (Say a powered lab, which has its own fusion power generator). As long as you walk around in the swarm something bad happens (or it is just annoying). You could turn off the power but that would kill the lights, and quickly reduce the temperature to sub zero.So you could use emp/fire whatever to clear away specific tiles of nanoswarms. Or just kill the power, and get a different set of issues.
That’s a neat idea.
Implementing nanobots as more of an environmental effect than a straight up monster does sound like one of the better ways to implement it.
I think one issue with enemies that can’t be shot is that they all seem to just straight-up dodge shots in exactly the same manner. Maybe have different ways of avoiding projectiles? Maybe some of them have magnetic shields, so you can take them down with heavy wood arrows, or they absorbed laser fire, or actually could dodge bullets but getting stuck on something with enough of a movement cost would slow them down to be hit. As long as the mechanism of projectile avoiding is immediately clear, and they still take regular damage from melee. I don’t think melee needs any more nerfing.
Well if you want to make nanoswarms less OP, lower their view range (to like 2-3). People who attack a nanoswarm that isn’t going after them will learn quickly not to do it again. Facing enemies that you can’t do anything about until you know how to beat them is a thing in any game.
If you really want to win against a nanoswarm, follow this easy step by step guide. Possible even for the novice adventurer.
- Walk away from it to a safe distance. No rush, it isn’t very fast.
- Light a fire between you and the nanoswarm.
- Watch as the nanoswarm flies into the fire and dies.
- Rinse and repeat for every nanoswarm you encounter.
If you encounter a nanoswarm before you have discovered fire, you should re-evaluate your priorities.
Problem is this would only really work for fire, as being a nanoswarm, they won’t set off regular traps. But then again they also shouldn’t roam unless they have a target. So you should be able to sleep right next to a room full to the brim with nanoswarms and be just fine.
I think this would be more interesting to implement as a slightly different sort of enemy- rather than a nanoswarm, a regular old swarm.
Implementation would be something like:
- A single “monster” that rather than having HP per se has to be hit a certain number of times, representing that a single strike against any given entity in the swarm will take it out. This could be simulated by ensuring the monster only ever takes one damage when hit and setting the HP appropriately.
- Like current vermin, the swarms would be able to occupy the same tile as the player. I think the vermin tag can be added freely to any monster, but hasn’t been used for this purpose.
- Damage output based on current swarm HP
Think repurposed semiautonimous orchard-harvesting robots, smaller versions of the current nuclear wasps, or even your good old garden variety rat swarm. Adding “deciswarms” or something similar to the proposed nanoswarm but made up of larger bots might also be more technologically appropriate.
https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/6614 A cyborg inspired by this thread. (No nanoswarms yet).