Hardsuit "Rework"

[Y0SH1M4S73R]

I had this idea swirling around in my head about adding more depth to the variety of hardsuits we have in the game. While implementing this idea would ideally provide no functional changes to existing hardsuits, it would allow players to make very specific hardsuits with all kinds of characteristics.

Firstly, hardsuits would have a maintenance panel that is opened with a screwdriver. Once opened, any upgrades in the hardsuit, like jetpack upgrades, could be removed using a crowbar, one by one. Once all the upgrades are removed from the hardsuit, the plating could be removed with some tool, and the hardsuit could be stripped to its frame with a crowbar. From a frame, you can use components to build all kinds of different hardsuits, including ones that have characteristics of multiple different kinds of currently existing hardsuits.

There would be several types of frames. From worst to best, some hardsuit frames would be:

Spoiler:

• Improvised Hardsuit Frame: This frame is huge and unwieldy, slowing movement down significantly. However, it can be built with just some metal and rods. Oldstation's prototype RIG hardsuit would have a variant of this frame.
• Regular Hardsuit Frame: This frame is the regular hardsuit frame - bulky and slightly encumbering. It could possibly be buildable in a protolathe with certain tech levels, probably being gated behind silver or titanium being required for its construction.
• Compact Hardsuit Frame: The same type of frame as used in Syndicate hardsuits - it can be stored in backpacks. Only available by stripping Syndicate hardsuits, or maybe buildable in a lathe with a high level in illegal tech.
• Micro Hardsuit Frame: The same type of frame as used in the Nar'sien hardsuits, which fit in pockets and such. Only available to cultists or lucky miners by stripping Nar'sien hardsuits.

To wear a hardsuit, you would need to line the inside of the frame (don't want the joints to pinch you to death or something). From worst to best, some hardsuit linings would be:

Spoiler:

• 5x Cloth: Cloth provides absolutely nothing to a hardsuit other than the ability to wear it.
• 5x Leather: Leather provides a bit of protection against brute damage, above what the plating will give.
• Emergency Firesuit: Gives the hardsuit the firesuit's pressure and temperature protection and slowdown. The slowdown stacks with the slowdown imparted by the frame you use.
• Insulated Compression Suit: The spaceproofing found in all regular hardsuits. It can be worn on its own, functioning as an EVA suit with no slowdown but no item storage or protection of any kind. When worn on its own, you still need a space helmet, and even a small amount of damage will puncture the suit in places, making it no longer spaceworthy. Compression suits can be obtained by stripping any regular hardsuit, or made in a protolathe. Building a compression suit in a protolathe requires some minor tech levels and for the protolathe to be filled with the chemical ingredients of some generic elastic.

A hardsuit frame with a lining is ready to wear, but its helmet would need to be sealed with a couple sheets of metal and a visor to create a fully-spaceproof hardsuit. You would only need to line the helmet with regular metal, but there would be multiple different visors you can use. From worst to best, some hardsuit visors would be:

Spoiler:

• Metal: Blinds you unless you have xray vision.
• Glass: Reduces the helmet's defense, but at least you can see through it.
• Reinforced Glass: Reduces the helmet's defense a bit less then regular glass does, but slightly reduces your vision.
• Plasma Glass: Flash proof, but tints your vision pink and reduces the helmet's defense by as much as reinforced glass does.
• Reinforced Plasma Glass: Flash proof, but tints your vision pink and slightly reduces it.
• Hardsuit Visor: The visor found in all regular hardsuits. You can obtain a hardsuit visor by stripping any regular hardsuit, or you can make one in a protolathe, given sufficient tech levels. You can insert HUD implants into a hardsuit visor to gain the huds from those implants when the helmet is up.

The finishing touch on a custom hardsuit would the plating, which would protect the internal components and allows for the addition of upgrades. Each of the pre-existing hardsuits would get its own set of plating that imparts that hardsuit's armor values. There could also be specialty plating, such as:

Spoiler:

• 10x (anything a golem can be made with): Makeshift armor plating with characteristics determined by the mineral used.
• 10x Raw Hides: Show that you're better than those damn dirty liggers by wearing their skin on your space suit.
• Carp/Corgi Costume: Space Corgi? Space Corgi.
• Chameleon Plating: A Syndicate item with the same armor as a Syndicate hardsuit, but the ability to look like any other hardsuit.

A finished hardsuit, complete with frame, lining, visor, and plating, would be able to have upgrades applied to it. There would be several upgrades that could be applied, such as:

Spoiler:

• Hardsuit Jetpack Upgrade: The hardsuit jetpack upgrade that is already in the game.
• Joint Seal Actuators: The part that allows Syndicate hardsuits to switch between EVA and combat modes. Syndicate hardsuits would start with this upgrade.
• Integrated Flashlight: Exactly what it sounds like. All regular hardsuits with helmet lights would start with this upgrade, but any flashlight would be a valid substitute.
• Shield Generator: The shield generator used in the shielded Syndicate hardsuits. There would be variants for battlemage, deathsquad, ERT, and CTF hardsuits.

As I already said, this system would add a layer of depth to one of the game's mechanics, without adding much in the way of extraneous things. So? How good of an idea do you think this is?

[Armhulen]

Sounds fun, ghetto hardsuits should be easier to make and a lot more dangerous for the user though.

[D&B]

Would be cool being able to finally make an ash Drake hardsuit

[kevinz000]

Power armor when???

[Y0SH1M4S73R]

Power armor when???

I was thinking that power armor could be a hardsuit frame that gives the user extra strength and speed, but needs a charged cell or else it gives extreme slowdown.

Sounds fun, ghetto hardsuits should be easier to make and a lot more dangerous for the user though.

A REAL ghetto hardsuit, that doesn't require getting an actual hardsuit in the first place, isn't even spaceproof unless you line it with an emergency firesuit. A ghetto hardsuit with a firesuit as its lining also makes you very slow. Think the slowdown of the hardsuit plus the slowdown of the firesuit put together. Such a hardsuit would make you so slow that it's literally only good for going into space, and the most basic of armor you could make for it provides minimal defense.

[BeeSting12]

I think this is a really cool and good idea, if anyone can code this that'd be awesome.

[oranges]

I hate hardsuits

[Dr_bee]

huh, I like it, it would also act like a makeshift armor system as well.

now you too can weld an assistant into a metal exoskeleton and give them a spear to fight the ops.

[Remie Richards]

so this is our Fallout 3 -> Fallout 4 transition of Hardsuit -> Power Armour?
I can dig it.

[Dr_bee]

Side suggestion, put the harsuit frames, and equipment in the exosuit fabricator instead of the protolathe. Hardsuits should be robotic's responsibility.

[Remie Richards]

I mean,
A suit that's essentially a robot (lots of actuators and clunky noises == robot) with a person inside, being moved to robotics?

yeah that makes sense.

[Armhulen]

Actually don't do that though, make a way for anyone to build skeleton armor but give only decent upgrades to roboticists

[FantasticFwoosh]

Doesn't this just replace mechs for exosuits?

[Anonmare]

Personally I'd say make the ghetto version liable to faults and vulnerable to alot of hazards. Like tasers making it lock up and you stay down for way longer and EMPs making it malfunction and do heavy brute damage from the actuators flailing in ways humans were never meant to.
I'd also say the ghetto version can't even be held inhand, you have to climb into it like a mechsuit and can't be dragged around.

I also think hardsuits should only get a limited number of "slots" for upgrades (some take up more slots than others) and you need to do a fair amount of research and spend materials for anything on par or better than the stock hardsuits.

the stock hardsuits could have the following:

Engineering

Spoiler:

• Regular Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor w/ toggleable meson vision pre-installed
• Four upgrade slots
• Slot 1 - Basic radiation hardening

Atmospherics

Spoiler:

• Regular Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor w/ toggleable T-ray vision pre-installed
• Four upgrade slots
• Slot 1 - Heat-resistant shielding

CE

Spoiler:

• Regular Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor w/ toggleable meson and T-ray vision pre-installed
• Four upgrade slots
• Slot 1 - Advanced radiation hardening
• Slot 2 - Heat-resistant shielding
• Slot 3 & 4 - Jetpack

Security

Spoiler:

• Regular Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor w/ secHUD pre-installed
• Four upgrade slots
• Slot 1 - Damage Dampeners

Head of Security

Spoiler:

• Regular Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor w/ secHUD pre-installed
• Four upgrade slots
• Slot 1 & 2 - Advanced damage dampeners
• Slot 3 & 4 - Jetpack

Medical

Spoiler:

• Regular Frame
• Compression suit
• Glass visor
• Four upgrade slots
• Slot 1 - Advanced Actuators (Decreased slowdown by one)
• Slot 2 - Onboard stabiliser kit (Gives user action button. Places a NO_DROP Air injector (hypospray with the ability to ignore SYRINGE_PROOF flag) into your hand. Use to select reagents, only comes with epinephrine and salbutamol by default. Emag adds harmful functionality)

RD

Spoiler:

• Regular Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor w/ Research Analyzer and diagnosticHUD pre-installed
• Four upgrade slots
• Slot 1 - Explosive-resistant plating

Mining

Spoiler:

• Regular Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor w/ toggleable meson vision pre-installed
• Four upgrade slots
• Slot 1 - Damage Dampeners
• Slot 2 - Heat-reistant shielding

Captain

Spoiler:

• Regular Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor
• Four upgrade slots
• Slot 1 & 2 - Advanced damage dampeners
• Slot 3 - Heat-resistant shielding

Syndicate

Spoiler:

• Compact Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor pre-installed
• Five upgrade slots
• Slot 1 - Damage dampeners
• Slot 2 - Compact Jetpack
• Slot 3 - Combat mode module (enables full movement speed at the cost of space-proofing)

Syndicate - Elite

Spoiler:

• Compact Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor pre-installed
• Five upgrade slots
• Slot 1 & 2 - Advanced damage dampeners
• Slot 2 - Compact Jetpack
• Slot 3 - Combat mode module (enables full movement speed at the cost of space-proofing)
• Slot 4 - Heat-resistant shielding

The shielded hardsuit will instead be a purchasable upgrade if that isn't clear.

Suggestion:

Ninja

Spoiler:

• Micro Frame
• Compression suit
• Hardsuit visor w/ antagHUD pre-installed (Destroyed if removed from visor. Visor only works for mobs with the ninja faction)
• Five upgrade slots
• Slot 1 - Damage Dampeners
• Slot 2 - Compact Jetpack
• Slot 3 - Spider Clan OS (all Ninja suit abilities here)
• Slot 4 - Advanced actuators

[Y0SH1M4S73R]

I think this is a really cool and good idea, if anyone can code this that'd be awesome.

If anyone can make some placeholder sprites for hardsuit frames and components, I can code it. I'd just need item and worn sprites for frames and underlays for the linings of the item and worn frames.

[D&B]

Could we use Goliath plates or ash Drake plates to buff hardsuits?

Make it a mess of technology and organic flesh using legion core to merge and mend metal and sinew.

[FantasticFwoosh]

Maybe we can borrow that thing some bay admin did where they made a borg sheathed in human skin (snowflake admin but neat idea) via a special contraband hardsuit with very unconventional decoration choices.

[D&B]

Maybe we can borrow that thing some bay admin did where they made a borg sheathed in human skin (snowflake admin but neat idea) via a special contraband hardsuit with very unconventional decoration choices.

No thanks, let's keep the admin abuse from that piece of shit contained in that server

[FantasticFwoosh]

Well obviously im going to wear a gibbed lizard on the hood of my hardsuit spoilsport.

[Dr_bee]

Could we use Goliath plates or ash Drake plates to buff hardsuits?

Make it a mess of technology and organic flesh using legion core to merge and mend metal and sinew.

Goliath plates could probably be worked via tablecrafting into a brute armor upgrade, that way you can use them on all hardsuits with free upgrade slots.

[GarlicBread]

See: raiders of every post apocalyptic game

But it would be cool as shit to see people clunking about with crap bits of metal welded all over themselves

[FantasticFwoosh]

See: raiders of every post apocalyptic game

But it would be cool as shit to see people clunking about with crap bits of metal welded all over themselves

Bringing out the Killa Kan reverse engineered by assistants out of bits in maint and a hardsuit frame.

[JStheguy]

I think this is a really cool and good idea, if anyone can code this that'd be awesome.

If anyone can make some placeholder sprites for hardsuit frames and components, I can code it. I'd just need item and worn sprites for frames and underlays for the linings of the item and worn frames.

Well, I can totally make you some sprites for this project, in fact here is an attempt at a completely stripped hardsuit frame as example.

Just tell me exactly what it is you'll need and I'll do it.