Battlesuit exoskeleton. (dumb idea that maybe isn't)

[Cogliostro]

A Battle Exoskeleton could be a ghetto-tek curiosity of the Cantr world, like its radios and limos. Requiring much steel, circuitry, and other rare components, it confers the following advantages and disadvantages to whoever wears it:

- You cannot be dragged while you have the battlesuit on.
- A normal character has almost no chance at all to cause damage to a deployed battlesuit character. ( you need to get in your own suit to fight a battlesuit warrior on equal footing)
- You have to deploy your battle suit. This can be done by yourself without help (put it on). This takes 2-3 cantr hours. You cannot take it off yourself, someone without a suit has to help you get out of it (2-3 hours again).
- A deployed battlesuit character can exit from a building or vehicle they're in, but cannot enter it back (has to be undeployed first).
- If a deployed battlesuit warrior is killed, the very expensive battlesuit he is wearing is always destroyed.
- While deployed, you cannot walk on roads. If you deploy inside a vehicle, you can move on roads as before, except that if you hop off the vehicle to enter a location, you can't get back in without undeploying first. If there's a deployed battlesuit character on board a vehicle, the vehicle gets to arrive wherever it was going, but cannot move again after until the battlesuits aboard undeploy (or exit).

- All combat continues to be calculated according to the existing system beyond that. I don't see a need for any special defense bonuses like we were discussing in the beginning. When it's "Battlesuits VS Battlesuits", the weapons and character combat skills of the guys in the suits will be important factors. So will whether they have someone without a suit taking care of them: feeding them healing foods, bringing tea, coffee for the warrior, telling bedtime stories.

You are thus able to put on the suit in the relative safety of a building or vehicle, and then rush into the location to fight your enemy, but you cannot escape from the battle/location on your own - someone without a suit must help to get you out of it.

Fast forward to the future. All the 60+ year old town leaders have one and have become a caste of robotic monstrosities (which they are now anyways, behaiviour-wise, but now they REALLY become who they are). Large combat engagements like clan wars will feature these exoskeletons a lot; but this will cause the people wearing them to be unable to go inside buildings; because of this, they will be "encouraged" to roleplay during the combat phase, since they have no other choice, considering the advantages of the suit.

Approximate expenses to build a battlesuit are high:

* 15,000g steel
* 2000g rubber
* 2 circuitboards
* a Binoculars
* 1000g leather

(it should take a while and require a selection of advanced tools)
Those familiar with the Fallout series of computer games will remember a faction called the Enclave. They were the only faction in that game to have powered battle armour that made them "invincible". On the surface the current idea about elite, superexpensive battlesuits seems similar to that (ultimate power for the 50 most wealthy players in the game), but it's really different if you analyse the specifics- our Cantrian battlesuits are not the absolute be-all-end-all power available to the individual, but rather a nifty strategic option that we make available to *groups*.

Ideas welcome!

[EchoMan]

[Rebma]

I almost didn't read this suggestion. I'm still shocked that I'm actually in favor of this...

[Cogliostro]

Just in case people don't appreciate cheeky jokes about robots & town leaders, I just wanna point out that when this is dropkick-rejected, I'm totally coming back with the same exact suggestion only now it will be called "Heavy Plate Armor".

[AlchemicRaker]

you could start by proposing some way to make even light leather armor seem reasonable. Theres no place for it in the combat system right now, thats the main problem.

- Natso

[Cogliostro]

There's no place for light leather armor because that's for fey fairies and elvenfolk (+1.005% damage reduction! Huh, screw all that.); but Primitive Battle Exoskeltons are where it's at for real American men and women, which we're simulating in Cantr.

Armor suggestions are boring. In this suggestion I"m fantasizing about how it would be monumental to be a lumbering, near-invincible kniggit-robot. Who can't go in and out of a building on his own.

[Turtle_jay]

I believe he is purposing something along these lines...
http://www.maschinenkrueger.com/models/bk11.html
http://www.maschinenkrueger.com/models/bk16.html

Not along the 'Halo Master Chief' or 'Iron Man' lines. Or for that matter Gundams (I need how many millions of grams of steel?!?!)

I actually like the idea. As a tool to make the game more enjoyable RP while not making it what scientists like to call 'total newb crap' I think this idea would be interesting in Cantr. As he suggested it, I can see this working well in cantr. The thing would need a person outside helping the 'warrior' get out. It would take fuel, and much effort to operate.
I think it would give a lot of the older players who have 'everything' something they can strive to get. It would also give people who get those a need to create friends who will help them with their equipment. Small towns might finally be able to break free from empires or family clans that hold them captive, or empires could well expand their reign to new size.
I also like how it would once again seperate the gap between 'upper class' from the 'peasants'. It sounds bad to do that, but when everyone is equal, what can a person really work up to? The further the gap, the higher goals you can set, and the more people will want to reach the top.
Such a massive armor thing would obviously not be able to get inside (with exception of a large garage if that ever gets implemented) and would travel on roads at the incredable speed of 'walking slow', it would change up the way wars are fought in cantr.

Downside, yea it gets rid of some of the realism of Cantr. But really, in a world where you can have cars and radios but no Guns, you can only attack a person once a day, and large citys are population 15, realism is not something to worry about.

I give the idea one thumb up. Two if implemented well.

[Doug R.]

If you need someone's help to get out of it, a tyrant in a suit could be defeated by everyone simply leaving. *pictures the tin man frozen in the woods* In fact, I don't think this will widen the gap between the rich and the poor at all. Requiring assistance means the rich depend upon the poor. It would actually make overthrowing a leader wearing this suit easier, as everyone could run and hide while the town leader is stuck standing outside in the suit, only to be hacked to pieces by characters that they can't pursue. In fact, now that I'm thinking about this, I can't see any benefits at all to this suit if assistance is required to exit it. No smart leader would ever cede any portion of control over their rule to someone else.

[Piscator]

Before we implement elementals I'd like to see the existing technological gaps closed. Having radios and cars in a still largely quasi-medieval setting apparently strains many one's sense for technological consistency immensely and implementing powered battle armor seems to be too huge a leap to take, if you consider that we currently have neither armor nor sophisticated hydraulics to make such a thing move. It's like a battlemech in King Arthur's court.

Besides, many of the things described could be achieved by some kind of urban combat vehicle just as well. Vehicles are unable to enter buildings already, so all we would need to do is define rules for vehicle combat (shielding of passengers, types of weapons you can use from inside a vehicle, rules for entering/leaving etc.).

[AlchemicRaker]

See: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19168

Though, it doesn't have any requirements for assistance (unless reloading project may require multiple people or something)

- Natso

[Piscator]

That's not exactly what I meant though. I was rather thinking along the lines of an armoured personell carrier. Something that allows the more effective use of personal weapons rather than something equipped with a stationary gun. I doubt though that our current combat system is even close to being able to handle such a thing.

[AlchemicRaker]

If "combat training" itself were abstracted to be something like an un-droppable, un-givable item, it could act passively (passive like a shield, it works automatically when needed). It could be Used to start a training project (to grant the combat training to other people). Creating the "combat training" in your inventory would require some sort of training machine (punching bag). Instead of repairing, you would "exercise" your training, to keep it from deteriorating. There could be various sorts of training (offensive, accuracy, defensive, or even health-related things).

Offtopic rant about stuff.

- Natso

[Piscator]

You know that we already have a skill system in place, do you?

[AlchemicRaker]

You know that we already have a skill system in place, do you?

Indeed. But you could call this Kung-Fu and get +5 damage to attacks, and teach the technique to your followers in your dojo. Doesn't that sound exciting?

[Miri]

You know that we already have a skill system in place, do you?

Indeed. But you could call this Kung-Fu and get +5 damage to attacks, and teach the technique to your followers in your dojo. Doesn't that sound exciting?

And 'Grasshopper' I shall call you.
Yeah.

I like this idea, but only if we were to push overall cantr technology up, at least to something like XIX. age, or just before the 1st WW. But that would mean... doing A LOT, that's what it would mean