Suit Purchase, Use, Passives and Overhauls
Currently, suits do not interact in terms of varying capabilities, and are very different from how ships are administered, and how SRVs could be administered.
A proposed change and addition of one more suit may help to integrate the combat, stealth, and exploration games on-foot by giving their suits and tools cross-functionality.
An example table of abilities and modifiers (incomplete)
Currently there is in the game one environmental factor that changes with location - temperature, where the total heat or cold is affected by direct starlight and shadow.
This could be extended to other aspects of the game.
Stealth
The amount of “noise” a person generates depends on the atmosphere. In no atmosphere outdoors, everyone is at max stealth for noise, the moment they enter a building at normal atmosphere or are on a planet with some atmosphere, their noise factors in to detection. In a construction with no air, the “sound” is transmitted through the floor, so it’s greatly attenuated but still there. Firing boosters makes noise on worlds with air, not so much on other worlds. The hypothetical “Heavy” suit would have no boosters.It also depends on their suit and its servos, joints, and so-on. Some suits have very little - like the pilot’s suit - while some have a lot like the hypothetical Heavy. This can be adjusted with enhancements, but the base is there in the suit. On an airless world, all have the same noise profile, which gives a reason to vacuum all the buildings in a settlement. Crouching halves noise and movement speed, but no amount of crouching can cover up the noise of boosters.
Profile matters too, and a heavy suit has a larger profile than a pilot suit. Crouching lowers profile, no light lowers profile, and cryptic coloration can lower profile. Being able to go prone, which maybe only the pilot suit could do, drastically reduces profile and quarters speed and noise. Thrusting increases profile, as does leaping with no cover (distance from eyeline can mitigate).
A HUD indicator tells you your stealth profile, in general - objects can obscure line-of-sight, but your HUD indicator is more a subjective measure of how much noise you give off and your profile.
Environment
Heat and cold tolerance and factors like corrosion resistance in hostile environments are passives, but factor in on whether the interlocks on your ship will permit you to exit.Suits have different ratings on how much heat/cold they can withstand, with ratings changing on the configuration of the suit, its enhancements, and its base settings.
Heat is mitigated by suit insulation (passive intrinsic to the suit), active cooling (draws power), passive cooling (light colored paint), and shadow.
Cold is mitigated by suit insulation (passive, intrinsic to the suit), active heating (draws power), passive heating (movement and thruster use), and starlight.
Sprinting causes heat, and is useful in cold, but not as useful in hot environments.
Thrusters cause small heat
Displaying a measure (HUD indicator in addition to absolute temperature) of how much power is going to maintain temperature, or having this change with more extreme environments might mitigate not allowing the player out - just grab three chargers and charge often as an option
Speed and Jump
The speeds of the various suits and their sprinting speeds depend on the mass of the suit, which depends on the armor and carrying capacity. This refers to the speed of running, as the speed of jumping is affected by weight as well as planetary gravity.The pilot suit is one of the fastest, as it is one of the lightest. It also has the least carrying capacity, armor, power storage, and shields. It also cannot operate in the widest range of surface gravities.
The heavy suit is slowest because it is heavily armored and has massive servos to help movement on heavy worlds and is capable of carrying cargo or breaking down doors. Its thrusters, if it has them, are much less effective, and its jump height is also lower because it has servos that don’t allow for rapid movement so much as deliberate, inexorable movement.
Crouching lowers speed as it lowers audible signature and profile. The heavy suit cannot crouch.
Oxygen
Oxygen generation and storage could vary as well, as in some suits more dedicated systems could be incorporated that scrub CO2 and provide Oxygen. The Survival (Artemis) suit could carry more oxygen or generate it more efficiently, so in a non-breathable environment less power goes to sustaining this. This is currently less of an issue, but could go to power balancing, something in ships but missing from suits (O2/temp/shields)Tool Slots and Weapon Slots
Intermixing these as a total carrying capacity could open the way for mixed builds and make loadouts more important and more readily incorporated into non-combat. A Heavy suit is slow and makes a lot of noise, but could carry a lot in terms of items and slots, maybe up to including a single cargo item (carried on the back or occupying one arm).Having different suits with different strengths and being able to intermix a varying number of tools and weapons would provide a mix of gameplay, which may be preferable given the mix of available environments.
Armor and Resistance to Corrosion
Right now the suit offers a passive “health” boost to the base health of a pilot, changing this to an armor rating that instead reduces incoming damage to health would allow some variation.The Heavy would likely be the most armored suit, but a standard personal shield might draw more power as it is a larger surface, or might not provide as much shielding at the standard draw rate as it does for a Dominator suit.
This may also be a measure of resistance to corrosive environments, where shields would not help, and may limit the operating time before suit integrity gives way. The Heavy and Artemis would likely stand out - as besides armor, a resistance rating could be included. If the Heavy is kind of a mining suit, it would be able to withstand corrosive environments, possibly better than the explorer suit.
Pressure Resistance
Not all suits would be the same in this regard as well. The Artemis might have slightly better resistance to pressure, while the Heavy would have the best overall. This doesn’t matter in low pressure environments. In high pressure environments, this rating determines how much suit damage is added to by pressure as suit integrity starts to fail. This also may not come into play unless one is dealing with extreme pressures.New Tools and Items
Included in this idea are some alternate tools, if intermixing them is possible and they are not tied to specific suits.Medical treatment tool: a tool that consumes a medkit to heal an incapacitated crew member or NPC.
Mining tool: a tool that allows surface mining on planets for mats, or can take down doors over time, or can hurt people at very close range.
Sampling tool: a tool for exploration that allows gathering of materials related to creatures - using it may depend on gathering genetic and protein expression profiles from multiple specimens in different circumstances which opens up being able to sample an organism to get possible suit or item unlocks or upgrades, or other craftables.
Carrying harness: may be only for the Heavy, allows cargo and escape pods to be collected and moved by a player. May take up two item slots, means the Heavy can also mount more tools if the harness is removed.
Melee weapons: deadlier the higher the carrying capacity of your suit, so with motor assist a Heavy can do a lot of damage up close, while a pilot suit would not add anything to damage.This additional damage applies to the standard punch as well, meaning a Heavy can clobber someone in a pilot suit pretty hard, if they can catch them. A crowbar-like tool might make it possible to jimmy open doors over time, most effective with Heavy suits.
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Camera - a camera for capturing your own in-game shots, add a telephoto option, make it something you can use in missions for espionage (photograph the McGuffin) or investigation (photograph So-and-So at Such-and-Such without getting caught) or in-situ images of something you've sampled.
Telephoto/Zoom/Binoculars - the ability to look long range at potential targets or bases to scope them out from a distance, look at wildlife from a distance and determine the best direction to go.
Markers - Stain or bioluminescent markers to point out targets or landing zones for allies, meaning it is possible to mark something that is not targetable for allies you are not teamed with.
So, does one @FDEV to get an opinion?
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