Automata - In Need of Ideas

[CDTalmas]

Hey there folks.  I created a perk some time ago called Sticky Fingers.  Thought it was cute and cool and such to be able to pick up items around the character.  Then, I decided that I wanted to take it further.  I went to picking up land mines and looting containers and, eventually, creatures (dead of course).  For the price of one perk, that would have been an absolute steal.  Now I'm focusing on more of a balancing act by separating the abilities into different perks.  But another idea struck me... Why was this happening?  Was the playing just subconsciously grabbing these nearby things and looting everything?  Maybe.  I swam through a sea of ideas and found one that I want to run with, however.

Nanites.  The player is suddenly surrounded by a swarm of nanites from gods know where.  Seemed like a nice, simple explanation and given how sci-fi Fallout is I figured it could fit the lore (not saying it does but it should be at least considered friendly).  Then I started looking at everything that nanites are currently capable of.  I asked around the chat for ideas.  Many have popped up with good suggestions:

Reshaping into keys to unlock doors (and/or consuming bobby pins to represent unlock attempts)

Rewriting computer code to bypass security

Nanite bombs (creating an occasional "frag grenade" with additional effects)

Small-scale matter conversion (tin cans to scrap metal, as an example)

Slow healing (limbs and/or HP)

Condensation collectors (as if you needed any more proof than Wadsworth)

[Added by LoneGhostOne]

Stealth Field Generator (bend light around the player?  Absolutely!)

Damage Reduction (possibly an anti-magnetic field?)

Weapon repair (might require the small-scale matter conversion)

[Added by justanatom]

Poisoned melee weapons (may be associated with slashing only; could also be disease-based)

[Added by Puppettron]

Bonus unarmed/melee damage from "extra impact" (suddenly, a massive fist!)

AoE cloud, similar to radiation damage... but for HP (I'm just a little black rain cloud, slicing and dicing to bits...)

Craft anywhere (Possibly reloading too; cooking?  Maybe)

Light source (a simple, slow release of energy similar to the way a light bulb works)

[Added by Pavel]

Parasitic nanites (either as an option or an override mode once AP is depleted; take HP [flesh] instead of AP)

[Added by deadboy]

Cause robots to go berserk (reprogramming? I'm more than certain)

Now, these are all awesome and I'm already looking into adding them to the mod but I'm running into a few balancing issues.  Generally speaking, how many of these should be under a single perk?  What should the perk/level ratio be for something of this magnitude to keep it balanced (I know people won't follow it but I want to focus on proper balance and give them the option)?  Should I require other base-game perks?  TTW?  Also... what other ideas can you come up with for what nanites are capable of?  Not just real-world but sci-fi as well.

Toss me a few bones if you have 'em folks :) Looking forward to more!

[LoneGhostOne]

stealth nanites! temporary damage reduction! repairing weapons!

[CDTalmas]

Awesome ideas.  Can see all of those working.

Do you feel that each ability should be its own perk?  Or, at the very least, only a couple perks will contain a small group of abilities?  And what about NV's perks/level?  Should it remain at 2?  Go to 1/3?

[justanatom]

using them as a poison on melee weapons? and when they die by poison they disolve into red goop

 

[Puppettron]

i'd consider sorting them into types, like combat, utility, and... um... i'm sure there's another type.  then you can stack the abilities into those types and use those as your perkbase.

alternatively, you could sort by level and make it a ranked perk.

also, suggestions:  regen, obviously.  but it'd have to be regen based on a different source than available sources of regen.... which are currently sunlight, radiation, food/ingestibles , a halo, and power armor.  so...  energy ammo and/or rare misc items that fit thematically.

unarmed/melee bonuses beyond poisoning.  in essence, by concentrating the nanites around the contact point of your strike, you can increase the density of the striking object, and physics takes care of the rest.

pbaoe poison cloud.  does minor dot to nearby enemies.

crafting stations on demand.  simple to code, incredibly powerful in certain situations

alternate light source.  maybe not as scripted and nuanced as the Flashlight, but different than the pipboy light

pheremones.  + cha/speech/barter?

[Pavel]

Parasitic nanites:

as a base trait, have the nanites perform these tasks at the cost of HP, rather than AP depending on the task at hand, and the range of the object in question

[CDTalmas]

@Puppetron:

Combat and utility are really all there are... though I suppose you could break those up into Offense and Defense, social, lock-picking, etc.  As far as the source of regen, I'm planning on having everything powered by AP.  The more perks you keep activated (each will have its own on/off switch, so to speak), the more AP you'll end up spending.  Having an additional AP regenerator may be a good idea, if such a thing exists (I'll probably have to restore AP manually depending on whether "damaging" it causes the regen to stop).

I like all those ideas (especially the one-inch punch of "suddenly, a fist!" with the nanites) except the pheromones.  The pheromones are far more chemical than nanites really are.  Manipulating matter is more their thing, I'd think.

@Pavel:

Awesome idea.  Might be able to use a slider in MCM to set the threshold of HP lost before it deactivates, waiting for a proper HP level before allowing its usage again (better horde those stimpacks!).  Range will be its own thing, as I plan on introducing a perk that extends the range by (dum dum dummm!) giving you more nanites.

[deadboy]

Interested to see where this goes.

[deadboy]

As far as my suggestion, you could make the bots go berzerk or add them to a faction that's friendly, or even allied, to the player. Not sure if this thing is perk level based or how you go about improving it but all of those could be levels of the same aspect of the ability. Like a robot version of animal friend or whatever.