[Powers] Living suit that can save you if you go down

[Maz]

In some sci-fi and super hero stories, a persons suit can 'take over' and help you if you yourself is incapacitated. Examples could be Ironmans suit. Dr. Stranges Cape, or a Venom-like semi-living suit.


How wuld you build the power for a suit to be able to "take over" if you fall unconcious while you wear it. So it can run away with you, to a safe spot.


I am thinking some sort of ally, that is only active when you go unconcious (or is dead). But I am unsure. Especially I am unsure if I should then track damage to it as well as to the character.



Now, if we can manage the above. Then what if the suit were able to use your other powers while it is in control?

[Plane]

I think suits of armor usually work better as allies regardless.

B43 Compartmentalized Mind: Controls is how it works: since IQ 0 stuff can't do anything on it's own, that's how normal armor operates, whereas armor that can operate on its own has at least IQ 1.

An easier way to think of it is rather than armor that CAN'T operate when its operator is away, might just be to think of armor that WON'T operate. Maybe its IQ is too low so it stays passive when its pilot is awake. If it had animal-like IQ it might only understand basic stuff like "run away to home base if my pilot falls asleep" and not be able to add much of value during a fight.

It might not understand how to responsibly use maneuvers like Attack or Move without interfering with it's pilots plans, while awake.

The one exception to this might be taking nothing but All-Out Defense maneuvers, so as to help with dodging stuff. Even that could be disruptive though.

If using cumulative -1 penalties for dodging in MA (presumably these would stack whether the pilot or the armor was dodging, since it's 1 body) it might be smarter NOT to dodge a bunch of 0-damage or 1-damage attacks from a mob of mooks if it could compromise you against a 100-damage followup by their boss.

Or: maybe you'd rather to Aggressive Parry / Grabbing Parry rather than dodges against Mooks. The AI might be too stupid to understand when to use a retreat, and if it retreats out of range then you wouldn't be able to do these parries. My guess is that it would get first dibs on selecting what active defence to use. Someone using controls probably goes 2nd even if they had Sacrificial Parry.

For that reason, I imagine a pilot might instruct the AI "go into defensive mode" or "exit defensive mode, go idle" to alternate between situations where they would benefit from the AI taking AOD (allowing the pilot to make AOAs!) and situations where they wouldn't (like above).

One possible idea might be to buy IQ for this vehicle with limitations. Like maybe it can only be intelligent for a limited duration, or only in emergencies. When those modifiers stop their IQ from working, they would just be IQ 0 and not be able to take maneuvers.

[Michele]

The best solution is to create an entirely separate character, who would probably be a disembodied AI (if the armor is purchased as equipment, as a vehicle). That's what I'do for Iron Man. It would be easy to program it to take over automatically in emergencies only.

Another approach that might be interesting and funny, but is more appropriate for characters who are not all there, and in particular for dangerous lunatic NPCs with a weird in-built sidekick, is the following.
Purchase Compartmentalized Mind [50], then reduce the cost by applying Split Personality to it. You can thus seriously diversify the main character from the sidekick, without having to come up with a second character, an Ally NPC. By taking a Self-Control roll of 15, you make sure the swapping mostly takes place when the main personality wants it, or when he's unconscious - but occasionally, you'll have the sidekick elbow its way to the pilot's seat.

[Plane]

One other thing to keep in mind is that the "Can Be Wielded" enhancement (GURPS Thaumatology 119) now appears to be necessary for any advantages which are weapon systems that the operator of Dedicated Controls is able to use (Affliction, Claws, Innate Attack or Striker).

Prior to this, B43 seems to give the impression that Compartmentalized Mind allows your user to use any of your Innate Attacks without needing any special enhancement:

let an operator perform his own physical or mental maneuvers using your abilities (e.g., Innate Attack or Radar), as per the rules for vehicular combat (see p. 467).

I like this new distinction, since it allows you to specify some abilities which Controls can access, and everything else is inaccessible by default.

Not sure how it would interact with non-dedicated controls... I see that as just an advanced version that allows using all abilities without changing your grip/location to handle a different set, so it seems like you would still need some "Be Wielded" version...

There's also "Must Be Wielded" limitation to make advantages cheaper if only your pilot can use them. The -30% version would be ideal for a non-AI suit of power armor, while the -20% version is useful for AIs who want to handicap their wearers.

[Refplace]

I'd also go with Ally for this. If the suit is an Ally you should track its damage separately but there are ways to mitigate it.
Suit is an object controlled by a spirit or A.I. so the Ally is mostly protected from attacks.
Ally is a small control box that manipulates the full suit, harder to target than the suit.
Ally isthe suit, give it Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction and Unkilllable.

[Black Leviathan]

If your suit has a jet-pack or other obvious form of mobility, if you just want it to drive you home when you get knocked out then that's a bit trivial for ally cost. I'd say it's more along the lines of a feature. It doesn't have it's own intelligence. If you set the suit to fly you back to the repair bay if you pass out then it will try to fly back there even if you're using it on another continent.

If your suit can be called for when you fall of a building and it will fly to you and wrap itself around you to stop your fall.. that's an ally.

[Maz]

Thanks for the quick replies. Going to stat it out as an ally and see from there. I like Plane's ideas about letting its IQ affect what it can and will do.

[Aldric]

Summonable ally with controls is how I did it. The ally had IQ 0, so it wasn't taking any actions unless controlled. It had enough Payload to carry the summoner, and ended up quite broken for the point cost.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

If your suit has a jet-pack or other obvious form of mobility, if you just want it to drive you home when you get knocked out then that's a bit trivial for ally cost. I'd say it's more along the lines of a feature. It doesn't have it's own intelligence. If you set the suit to fly you back to the repair bay if you pass out then it will try to fly back there even if you're using it on another continent.

If your suit can be called for when you fall of a building and it will fly to you and wrap itself around you to stop your fall.. that's an ally.

Even vehicles which have no IQ at all can be designed as allies, and they can end up being cheap. Navigation is a skill so I think IQ would be appropriate to represent it.

The only way I can think without an ally to get IQ effects is with the Uncontrollable limitation, but I think that's more "my gun just randomly starts shooting people" disruption than "my flight has an autopilot" usefulness.

It's just that "find your way home" isn't exactly high-IQ requirement. Cats/Dogs/Horses can figure out that sort of thing so it's maybe IQ 2-4 realm.

[Maz]

Originally Posted by Plane

[...]
The only way I can think without an ally to get IQ effects is with the Uncontrollable limitation, but I think that's more "my gun just randomly starts shooting people" disruption than "my flight has an autopilot" usefulness.

It's just that "find your way home" isn't exactly high-IQ requirement. Cats/Dogs/Horses can figure out that sort of thing so it's maybe IQ 2-4 realm.

I would like the suit to also be able to do some rudimentary self defense. And "getting home" is a lot easier if you can fly through open sky or ride through open plains. It's a lot more difficult if it's in a dystopic megacity full of dangers, and you got shot down while investigating something down in the sewers.

So I am definitely going to go with IQ... but! I want it to also act animalistic, so giving it the wild animal trait.