Could we add a menu to the UPS that let’s you switch between it off, powering all UPS devices, and powering only drain-demand items like rail guns? That way, you could switch the armor on/off when needed, but still use other UPS powered equipment.
Also, why should the UPS constantly drain power when active, even when nothing is using it?
[quote=“Waladil, post:20, topic:4758”]
No, it is intended that the device monitors your surroundings and knowing whether or not it’s used. Hence the high levels of computer knowledge needed; you’re coding a system by which the device can track conditions and manage itself. The temperature system would be relatively easy (attach thermometer. If temperature is not between X and Y, turn on), but enemies would be harder. Maybe it can trace the ambient goo levels in the air or some technobabble like that.
I’d like to see this and other things represent the player beginning to master his surroundings; at the beginning you struggle to merely survive, then you adapt old stuff to new situations, and finally you start making entirely new things, designed by a survivor, for a survivor. For example, that’s part of why I chose SICP for the book; it has general knowledge you’d need to make it, but not clearly detailed recipes.[/quote]
a) Re technobabble: I don’t think anyone/thing in the Labs had the ability to realtime scan for Goo presence–and certainly not ambient Goo presence in the air. I should think actual Blobs v. zeds v. living critters would throw that off, too.
b) Yeah, I included recipes in books that I’d thought would derive from general-knowledge, but not be clearly marked. Tough to sustain that after dvolk got books to list all their recipes though. SICP will have a “clearly detailed recipe” should yours get merged as-is.
There is one bionic that can sense if something is moving nearby and alerts you, maybe using that as a component would both add sense and increase the effort required to obtain it.
Maybe it’s a power armor thing. It IS some pretty high-end gear getting used by the military, and if they’re going to be dumping tank soldiers on the ground with a possibility of being stranded behind enemy lines with no power source, having a little program to automatically manage your power would take one issue off of the soldier and remove a distraction from them in a very dire and possibly focus-intensive situation. If there’s no fighting yet but you expect it at a moment’s notice, that smart system could save you a few seconds of response time and enhanced maneuvering/combat provided by the armor itself and maybe save the soldier’s life.
This seems like something someone in the brass would consider at some point. That and the armor ain’t cheap; if the soldier dies, that suit’s left for someone else to pick up, and if you dumped a super soldier in on them, they probably aren’t going to kindly mail it back to you.
I’m not sure about the power supply having this, but maybe the power armor. Or the advanced UPS. It IS, y’know, “advanced” and all.
Wait a minute. Last time I used AUPS it didn’t consume charge when not used.