[Basic] Icarus Landing System

[The Colonel]

Presumably preventing rather than resisting fall damage would make the landing a little less alarming as well... I know the canonical Icarus system isn't stealthy, but you don't smash a huge hole in whatever you land on either...

[awesomenessofme1]

If you want it to slow it down before landing, maybe something with heavily limited TK that only allows the use of levitate to slow down falls? The problem I see with, that, though, is that you would need to choose between it being cheap and it being fast.

[vicky_molokh]

I always found Catfall overpriced. Flight with Gliding and Reduced Flight Move is so much better bang-per-buck wise.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I always found Catfall overpriced. Flight with Gliding and Reduced Flight Move is so much better bang-per-buck wise.

Agreed. The primary utility of Walk On Air is, unsurprisingly, the ability to walk on air. I don’t think the secondary ability to only be able to catch yourself could be worth any more than 50% (indeed, I feel it’s closer to 20%), yet that would put it at the same cost as the massively-inferior Catfall. With that in mind, I can’t see Catfall being worth more than [5], and suspect it wouldn’t be horribly unbalanced to make it a Perk.

Considering Icarus is just a superscience energy field utilized as a parachute, your suggestion of Flight (Gliding) and reduced Air Move is probably the best fit. My Walk On Air version is more for games like Portal, Shadow of Mordor, etc, where the character falls normally but there’s no impact despite the incredible height involved.

[Anthony]

Icarus Landing, as described, is Flight with a pretty severe limitation that all it does is cap your downwards velocity at the equivalent of a ten meter fall (about Move 15). Apparently normal people in that game take zero damage from ten meter falls.

[Erling]

In 'Icarus Effect' official Deus Ex novel protagonist Ben Saxon landed onto ocean surface after jumping from an airborne jet. His cyberlegs where broken, but he was relatively unscathed. So I think Icarus Landing System is a good bunch of limited DR (Falling Only), not immunity nor flight.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Immunity to Falling damage for [15] seems about right. Not so sure about the [10] level suggested in the link for Catfall.

The text on B80 under resistant would seem to make that illegal:

Resistant does not protect against effects that Damage Resistance or Protected Sense either stop or provide a HT bonus to resist.

I'd also be leery of this ability because the first thing I'd be thinking is "Does it work against damage from being thrown into walls? If not, why not?" Mind you, this question also applies to Catfall and to the Acrobatics roll to reduce falling damage.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I always found Catfall overpriced. Flight with Gliding and Reduced Flight Move is so much better bang-per-buck wise.

Gliding and Flight Move bought down to 0 costs a net 0 points for the average Speed/Move 5 person. However, Gliding doesn't use Flight Move, so it shouldn't be granting that in the first place.

[Sorenant]

Originally Posted by Erling

In 'Icarus Effect' official Deus Ex novel protagonist Ben Saxon landed onto ocean surface after jumping from an airborne jet. His cyberlegs where broken, but he was relatively unscathed. So I think Icarus Landing System is a good bunch of limited DR (Falling Only), not immunity nor flight.

Jensen jumps out of a VTOL in the first cutscene of Humanity Divided and lands unscathed. I don't know much about Icarus Effect or Ben Saxon, but the wiki says:

With no other choice, Ben opens the cargo bay doors and jumps out into the sky above the Atlantic Ocean. At the last moment he triggers his Icarus Landing System, the strain of such a long fall eventually burns it out. Saxon manages to land in the water and but once again destroys his cybernetic legs.

So it seems he did not activate his augmentation at the right time, like opening a parachute too late. Which by the way seems to me like a fair interpretation of the Icarus Landing System: An electromagnetic parachute.

Originally Posted by Rupert

The text on B80 under resistant would seem to make that illegal

I think he's using "Immunity" in a general sense, not related to Resistant.

That said, I support the idea that RAW Catfall should cost [5]. It's a neat ability but I find [15] exorbitant. But...

Originally Posted by Rupert

I'd also be leery of this ability because the first thing I'd be thinking is "Does it work against damage from being thrown into walls? If not, why not?" Mind you, this question also applies to Catfall and to the Acrobatics roll to reduce falling damage.

This is a good point. How about changing the Parachute limitation from Powers into an enhancement worth +200% (raising the cost of Catfall from 5 to 15) that requires the described distance to deploy but makes the character immune to fall damage and requires no open air space?
For an extra 50% (equal to Cosmic, Not subjected to built-in limitations) the character can fall at normal speed and the ability works at any distance. It's a cosmic enhancement for cinematic games, so no need to justify why it doesn't work when thrown around. The world just works like that.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Erling

In 'Icarus Effect' official Deus Ex novel protagonist Ben Saxon landed onto ocean surface after jumping from an airborne jet. His cyberlegs where broken, but he was relatively unscathed. So I think Icarus Landing System is a good bunch of limited DR (Falling Only), not immunity nor flight.

The description that was linked stated "This field pushes against the Earth's magnetosphere and slows the user's descent to a manageable velocity, allowing him to fall from almost any height (within reason)."

That's a slow fall ability, not an ability at landing better, and anything that is changing your movement in the air is flight (GURPS could use a slow fall ability, but Flight (Gliding, -50%; Downward Only -???, Minimum Descent Rate 10 yards/sec -???) works and will probably max out the limitations).