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Powered Hardsuits (not modsuits) #335

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# Powered Hardsuits (not modsuits)

| Designers | Implemented | GitHub Links |
|---|---|---|
| Alzore_ (Discord) | :x: No | TBD |

## Overview

Implementation of powered hardsuits to the game, and various NON-INTERCHANGEABLE FEATURES to specific hardsuits for them to better excel at their given job. Hardsuits would not be able to compress, they are not modsuits.

## Background

In Space Station 13 (or at least on TG), hardsuits basically don't exist and are replaced with the atrocity known as modsuits. These suits do the following:
- are extremely portable
- have little to no downsides to wear
- can be easily crafted
- can be loaded up with all sorts of meta equipment
- require power
- are basically all the same (due to "modularity" allowing you to put the meta modules in every single suit)

Hardsuits in Space Station 14 are effectively the polar opposite of this, except for the last point. They are all mostly the same, with the only difference between suits being movement speed and armor. What if that wasn't the case though?

## Hardsuits, EVA, and Void suits

Before I get into the cool ideas of what different spacesuits would do, there should be a few specific classifications for spacesuits, since not everything needs abilities.

### EVA suits
EVA suits would be an abundant and renewable (through cargo) form of space protection. The helmet comes separated and needs to be attached and carried on its own. They provide absolutely zero combat damage resistance. Movement speed and cold protection vary.
This basically only includes EVA suits, emergency EVA suits, and prisoner EVA suits.
EVA suits with resistances would be counted as voidsuits.

### Voidsuits
Voidsuits would basically function as hardsuits without the fancy tech. They would have no abilities, decent movement speed, and not require power. People such as the captain, paramedic, and CMO would get these. The atmos firesuit would sorta fall under this category despite not being called a voidsuit.
Voidsuits can still have headlamps in the helmet, but these would either use power cells or just have infinite power.
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### Hardsuits
Hardsuits are the real techy stuff, the things cool people get. Everything from the engineer hardsuit to the deathsquad hardsuit would be in this category.
Hardsuits would be ginormous items, unable to fit in any bag (except for the RD hardsuit), and would give you a movement speed penalty when either carried or worn, with some possibly even taking up two hands. Hardsuits can be turned on when the helmet is deployed, decreasing the movement speed penalty and draining the battery. They should all should do at least SOMETHING different to justify existing, having specific unique abilities that eat up charge faster than only having the suit turned on.

## Suit charge

Currently, the only real downside for wearing a hardsuit 24/7 is a movement speed penalty that needs to stay around 10-30%, or else you'll end up being too slow to do anything and the game will be unfun. This has led to people wearing hardsuits constantly in anticipation of something happening, which isn't interesting at all. If everyone has space protection, what's the point in space?

A powered hardsuit would still slow you down somewhat, you are wearing a bulky metal suit after all. But movement speed is no longer the only downside to wearing hardsuits. As a result, contributors will have more freedom to make certain suits mobile while still having power charge as a balancing factor to make up for it.
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Powered hardsuits would start the round charged to 100% (how much energy a suit can hold varies), but do not use power cells. Instead, they would have to be charged at a suit storage. You should be forced to remove your hardsuit to charge it, you cannot just jump into a suit storage to use it. Every so often while using your suit, you'll have to stop back at your department to charge them or ask a nearby department to open up and let you charge with their storages.
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This exists to keep people from wearing them 24/7 as people did with modsuits, using less abilities would drain charge slower, allowing people to disable things when unneeded to conserve power, or just never use them for extended spacesuit time. The same applies to antagonists, though your blood-red hardsuit has a much higher energy capacity than any of the crew's hardsuits, you'll still have to charge it at some point, and when that time comes you'll be extremely vulnerable. No more syndies buying a jetpack and a blood-red and just flying around the station for the entire round shooting people.

Running out of charge would not prevent the suit from protecting you from space, but it would give you a major movement speed decrease (think 25%-75% depending on the suit) and entirely prevent you from using ANY abilities. Stored items will be locked inside, magboots will be turned off, and additional armor shields will be disabled. Engineers could still wrap up repairs after running out of power if they have other equipment rather than relying on their suits, and security could finish dragging an apprehended suspect back to their department, just very slowly.

## Suit Abilities

Specific hardsuits would have specific abilities that could be seen in SS13 modsuits, but these abilities would be hard-locked to specific suits, rather than being placed on any suit with a module. The abilities could include...

- **A basic flashlight on the helmet/suit.**
A small light with a low energy cost that lets you see. You could keep it off in a lit area, or if you want to conserve suit charge. Carrying a seclight or a normal flashlight is also viable.
- **Engi hardsuits giving welding protection.**

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Engi hardsuits having radiation dampeners that eat up a shitton of power when active.

Let's regular engineers refill Singulo without giving them cancer instantly, but ensures they can't just chill out there to avoid everyone, they would have to put the suit back. You could scale power usage based on the amount of rads received.

CE suit can either just get inherent rad immunity like it always did (because it's a one time suit) or a significantly reduced power consumption, something inconsequential, CE goes through a lot.

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That was another idea I had but didn't include in this doc. I don't want to set any specific suit abilities in stone by including them here, but I do have ideas for what exact abilities every suit would have if this does get merged.

I do like the idea of power usage scaling based on the hostility of the environment though.

Maybe you want to wear sunglasses or a medhud or just don't like how engi goggles look on your character, well it doesn't come free, since having this turned on would also cost suit charge. An efficient player could turn it on/off whenever they're welding, but that runs the risk of forgetting to turn it on and damaging your eyes.
- **Engi hardsuits having built-in magboots.**
Perhaps you didn't grab magboots before gravity went out or stole an engi suit and don't have access to them at all, either way, you still need to use suit charge to power them.
- **Atmos hardsuits having thermal regulators that when disabled don't protect you from extreme heat.**
A similar situation to the welding goggles ability. You can either leave it turned on at all times while wearing the suit, or you can turn it on/off while you're dealing with a recent plasma leak and subsequent fire. Conserving suit charge at slight risk of forgetting and causing your death.

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I would like to avoid inherent noobtraps. I like the idea, but right now at least, getting exposed to 20,000C gasses for a microsecond just kills you no matter how fast you react, and for my poor moff friends, it also just fucking ashes you.

I'd like to see fire/absurdly dangerous Atmos protection possibly scale compared to how dangerous the Atmos is.

Think about it this way: a 5,000C atmosphere can be stomached perfectly fine. It would have little to no power draw, because 5,000C is not really outside a realistic realm for material resistance for an advanced hardsuit engineered for the conditions...

But a 20,000C environment? The suit is working HARD to keep the meaty organic inside cool as possible compared to the absolute hell outside. It would use a lot of power and Atmos techs would be encouraged to fix a problem as fast as possible rather than "this room is now 20,000C, have fun trying to catch me" and casually sitting in it all day.

- **Mining/luxury hardsuits having built-in appraisal tools on item examination.**
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Just a handy tool to make salvaging more efficient, you can still carry a regular appraisal tool.
- **HoS/sec hardsuit having a small (2x3?) ammo storage (with a whitelist, maybe use the sec belt one?).**
You could stick some magazines or grenades in here in a pinch and leave it on for easy access while you're in a rush, or you could fill it with items you don't commonly use so that you only have to turn it on sometimes. There are plenty of different ways to use this.
- **Clown hardsuit playing music or bike horn sounds.**
- **Blood-red and variants having built-in blood-red magboots or noslips.**
Here's a dilemma, do you spend 2 tc on noslips to permanently become immune to soap, or do you spend it on something else and put faith in yourself and your team to wrap up the mission before your charge becomes an issue? Or perhaps you're going with a hit and run strategy using your ship, where you'll be able to charge your suit frequently in safe moments of downtime. The possibilities are endless.
- **Elite hardsuit having a small chance to reflect energy weapons.**
- **Juggernaut hardsuit increasing its damage resistance at the cost of increased energy usage.**
- **Deathsquad hardsuit reflecting ballistic weapons (because screw you lol).**
- **Deathsquad hardsuit being self-recharging (because screw you lol).**
It's an admin-only spawn to kill everything and everyone. If any suit is going to be self-recharging, it's going to be this one.

No other suit would ever get this ability, it goes against the very idea of this entire design doc the same way being able to swap out power cells would, you NEED to take a few minutes of downtime to charge your suit, using abilities and not using them is done with the knowledge that you are either delaying when you'll need that downtime or moving it closer it for special benefits.

Generally, suit abilities should be able to replace an already existing tool, or be replaced by said tool to conserve charge, though certain suits doing unique things that fit their given job would be welcome as well (such as thermal regulators). It all gives an extra layer of depth and decisions to gameplay, and plenty more ways to screw things up on the fly if you're trying to micromanage suit charge and abilities. Your hardsuit is a tool to use to your advantage, just like every other piece of equipment you have. What you decide to do with it is up to you.

## Several possible scenarios

I would like to demonstrate the idea behind this proposal and the effects it can have on the game by giving four scenarios where hardsuit abilities interact with the rest of the game as a whole while adhering to the core game design pillars.

- Imagine: A syndicate agent is using an engineering hardsuit for the welding protection ability, they have the plan to deconstruct into the armory to steal from it, so they also wear a pair of sunglasses. They have now attained the abilities of both welding goggles and sunglasses, but due to them leaving the welding goggle ability on after they were done using it, they run out of hardsuit power while fleeing security in space and are either apprehended or purchase a blood-red hardsuit/syndicate EVA suit from their uplink on the move.

- Imagine: An engineer is repairing a major spacing near cargo, but his suit runs out of power. He asks salvage if he can use one of their suit storages to charge, which they allow him to do so by opening the door. While the suit is charging, the salvager walks out of the room, leaving the engineer locked inside cargo to either call for the AI, hope the salvager returns, or repeatedly fail to open the door hoping the QM or a different salvager notices.
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- Imagine: Engineering is having trouble managing their suit charge constantly throughout the station during a survival/kessler round, so science constructs various suit storages around the station near commonly damaged areas. Engineering uses them often but is left vulnerable to having their suit stolen by a tider or the clown due to the public area.
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- Imagine: Nukies are taking a very long time to complete their mission, and their suits begin to run low on power. To conserve charge, they start using their suit abilities less. Possibly including noslips that they didn't otherwise buy allowing the clown to slip them, and turning off lights allowing the crew to sneak up on them. Or they decide to take a break and charge their suits at the crew's suit storages, leaving them vulnerable to a surprise attack, or even possibly retreating to their ship to charge using storages provided there, giving the crew a chance to recover and regroup for a counter-attack.

## Required changes
- Suit storages would now be a machine rather than just a plain closet. Likely with a single slot for a suit so you can't charge 7 at once. 1-2 oxygen tank slots or gas mask slots would be good as well. You should still be able to hide in them though like you can in a closet.
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- EVA storage uses closets/lockers instead of suit storages to prevent immediate easy access to hardsuit charging in the middle of the station.
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- Ideally, armories are mapped with a suit storage for every hardsuit, rather than having some just sitting on a rack, though as long as there are one or two storages it would still suffice.
- Various non-charged suits are renamed to voidsuits (cap suit, cmo suit, basic suit, etc.)
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