Gear

• summary: primitive vs power armor vs platemail, oh my:
  • any weapon/4 ignores armor you can find in DnD's normal shops.
  • Power armor is immune to primitive melee, punches, firearms and standard grenades of TL<=3. (but not heavy/3, as "firearms"=="portable")

Vacc Suits

• All Earth/Garu4Human/Gark Vacuum-rated suits seen so far (inc. combat armor that was bought with bubbleseal) include:

1. elementary health/suit telemetry (heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, tankage, helmet in/out pressure)
2. minimal low-power radio (it's a backup for a main radio if one is present). Includes helmet-internal mike and headphone. range is designed for "short range EVA." unencrypted.
3. Earth-compatble uses FM, Garu use AM.
4. Gark-civ-only details
   1. finer grained FM channels, is digital and mildly encrypted
   2. helmets come with an tiny infra laser-com high on the forehead.
   3. radio silence switch turns off voice-out and telemetry-out
   4. emergency toggle that removes voice+data in favor of a wide spectrum range-boosted AM-based S.O.S. (in Gark, the phrase translates to "I jumped too high.") Relevant Gark displays have a unique icon/directional for this.
   5. An external membrane about 2-cm diameter is a minimum-quality mike and speaker for use in thin atmo -- you can't hear well when talking through it, but something like a gunshot would still be heard.

Suit Cameras / HUDs

1. Earth-vintage have a temple-camera for teamwork and a "rearview mirror" camera, but:
2. If the only radio is the suit-basic, you can only upload one photo.jpg per 30 seconds. (Or equivalent size of a downsampled-to-hell feed.)
3. Gark suits do not default to coming with a camera, so your first wave of CFU does not, but it's a $100 upgrade for new or upgrading CFUs.
   • (Or $1 if you don't care if it's trivial to shoot off; above price is integrated into the armor.)
   • (Gark backup radio does not improve camera stream quality; those tech-level bonuses went into "make it dirt cheap")
4. Any explicit comms gear (mod or encumbrance) from any vendor erases the framerate limitation. (unless you're Murderbot)

Ideally this should be small enough to not obstruct your own vision or distract your attention too much...

For Warmart products, the HUD tricks you're talking about are part of the species-tailoring discussion, so future suit (or "aftermarket" helms to swap-up your current tech) purchases there can add the cameras the Garks don't default to, and team-view is well supported by this stack, so this is more of a "tell your tailor" effort level, and the Gark do not have an equivalent to SPOSHA.

Earth-vintage is built to SpaceOSHA regs, the relevant parts here being:

1. nothing EVER pops up from external stimuli -- dash lights can be "clicked" to drill into relevant details like a camera feed. (See also "the Citadel Incident")
2. no UI modes are allowed to significantly reduce the wearer's view of their surroundings, so what's literally "HUD" is firmware-locked to essentials, and rich data views are "tilt to see".
3. There is a camera-feed display above north, originally intended for rear-cam, that can switch between any number of feeds, but these suit-bits weren't built to be general-purpose computation, so modifying them to increase features beyond SPOSHA planned limits sounds like a real hassle at this time. (As compared to Nathan's rig, as he bought hardware and software to enhance his exo to pro-vblogger-rated.)

Garu-tech doesn't have to follow any regs, but are extremely primitive when it comes to giving a suit helm a "video game HUD" -- those infravision kits spec'ed up when you first met the Garu are based on their space telescopes. Their comfortable-design-space is more "bank of indicator diodes in helmet" and "handheld green cathode tricorder" but they can try and stretch.

Baroness's Expedited Armor

The solder helms at Warmart don't resemble the loot from the Baroness's troops; those had:

the sliding plates are a lot thinner than the rest of the armor, roughly 100cm2 chunks that when deployed are 3 layers deep. The inner side is all micrometer-scale gears/teeth. They're opaque with no display: further review/discussions show that there's 5um thick x 5cm diameter thermo/visual sensor spots on the outside, and the Garks use the mindlink to see. (In the middle, the data protocol is their version of 3d video data; hacker-2 means you're making good progress on dumping that onto a Dejah wallcomp; you've proven the idea already but it's still a jury rig type of trick.)

Warmart

known items:

1. $40 utility knife with several swisslike features, like combat-shovel and wire-cutter. (shortsword) 1d6+1s13 (power armor ignores)
2. $2k developer's rig (enc=2 "laptop") allows more complicated projects than the dataslab's scripting + Mr. Ammo Clippy limits.
3. $500 walky-talky-zappy: a laser pistol and folding dish that also can gyro-lock onto a laser-com and send/receive, must be paired with a gark-helm, compad, or headset.
4. $600 laser sniper rifle with scope -- effective range 1k or -2 within 2k, but damage scales as:
   • 1d10 500m
   • 1d8 1000m
   • 1d6 1500m
   • 1d4 2000m
   • (damage rangebands x10 better in vacuum, x10 worse on venus)
   • comms-kit: range is low orbit w/$400 gyromount and sat dish (tripod or vehicle hardpoint)
   • w/o kit: user rolls to hit against laser-comm, scope has basic laser receiver -- comms toggle button outside the trigger guard

random notes:

1. a human's typical maximum weight for a portable weapon: 14kg. (A M249 w/ammo's 10kg; M60's similar)
2. FYI, no aliens go to Warmart for style; that line's look is "technicians like pockets and dark grey."
3. reloading Gark energy weapons: It helps that the cells' connect points are intended to mate in an idiot proof way when the idiot is a gorilla-armed leatherneck being shot at.
4. Gark mindlink trodes is not a Drone Control Link(p83)
5. "light mecha" (Ogryn) choppers are $20k, do 2d12 and it doesn't matter if they're primitive or advanced at that size. 150-200 kilos, 6m long.
   1. At the noble sword shop, a scrith'ed work of art version costs millions.

Warmart's availability of custom work that resembles the mods on p90: As these are pure Gark-miltech, the maintenance of customized gear is based on the "gark-tech" skill, not "fix."

• masterwork quality only available in the noble shops.
• Autotargeting: Not available. (It's narratively available on the stinger missiles and up, but at that point it's part of normal attack rolls, not a mod on top of.)
• Boosted (+2 dam, $2k) Available on the noble level. Anti-subtle.
• Bubbleseal ($5k) available. "vac suit for 1hr"
  • these do not compress down to a torc, but a skull cap or rear-of-skull molding.
  • Adding this to helmetless gear like secure clothing, the face area is a single layer of 1mm thick plexiglass plates -- very little refraction, but you can see the framework of metallic join-edges.
  • (helmets without retraction use 1cm thick plexiglass but have really excellent lack of refraction)
  • Both plexiglass models have dial-a-opacity per panel for sunshade needs, and a pair of tiny amber lasers for turning opaque sections into basic HUD elements.
• Climbing-pads (fix-2, $1k/limb, nobles) a set of boots and gloves gives you: +1 for climbing, +1grappling robots or rock monsters.
  • when in use, 3-cm diameter pads crackle with blue sparks and treat both non-ferrous metals and silicates as if iron for the purpose of "magbooting" to them. Iron-centric metals are silent, other metals hum, rock sounds like nails on a chalkboard.
  • Merchant makes it "clear" he'd "never" turn it on in contact with flesh as he doesn't have any enemies he hates that much, but that's not a combat-rounds relevant boost. (it'd be flashy, but just a narrative reskin of normal unarmed damage.)
• Concealed nope; spy-grade that will "fool standard TL4 sensors" is not on the market.
• Customized (+1atk or ac): nobles only
• Extended Magazine ($500, fits double sized mags) definitely available.
• Flexible ($5k, -1enc for buyer, +1enc else) nobles only
• High Efficiency (cost x5, duration x1.5) available
• Infinite Magazine nope.
• Infinite Power nope.
• Phasing nope.
• Polymorphic Blending nope.

Baroness's Troops

1. heavy rail gun: $16k 30kilos frog-portable, 3d8 op4k/max8k mag:10 w/suppress option
   • vehicle variant: 2 hardpoints, $8k, mag:20 otherwise the same. (if I need a mass, an M2 with extra sauce is 60kg, or GAU-8 is 280kg w/o ammo, 1800 with)

General Computing Notes

• Gark computers are not to far off of what visions of future Earth tech would evolve to -- highly miniaturized, though a drastically higher power draw than flatlander designs would use, as the Gark do not like the idea that cosmic rays can sucker punch their tech.
  • (You have gotten Earth+Gark devices to talk, but the Gark devices are using their lowest baud settings just to not timeout and mark the Earth node as lost.)
• Tan' tech works... probabilistically -- it's not that crosstalk and other interference are accomodated for, it's that they'll probably even each other out.
  • The basis of their stuff is µm-scale vacuum tubes and fiber optic lines carrying analog squawking.
  • the Dejah's parlor has a dozen brick-sized signal converters USB'ed into the spaghetti of the jump-controller rig.
• Garu computers are also vacuum tube based, each made by glassblowers, if they're not just using paper.

programming TL/4 as of current Dejah date

buy TL4 civilian electronics now and I think that we've got enough of an idea of how those work to program things properly

Yes -- Brian's found that Gark...

1. general-purpose dataslabs (iPad mini) have support for rudimentary scripting for power-users, including an voice-activated expert system tutor/agent named Mr Ammo Clippy. (Though the "translate UI into earth" general solution Brian has doesn't go as deep as teaching Mr A.Clippy to engage in English -- it's clear that Herald's collection of language-translators slot right in though.)
2. task-dedicated stuff (like integrated radios and vacuum seal managers) are very vendor-locked; Brian has not reflashed the firmware on any of those systems to date.
3. If you're in the Warmart shop that specializes in slates/comms (Clan The Mobile Sprinter At the Very Horizon) there's a small section in the back with developer-rigs, (enc=2 "laptop", $2k) -- by removing the "rudimentary" limit, bigger and quicker tools are possible. (Not quicker creation times...)

combo project notes

• metatool@4 = $200 enc 1

  This wrist-mounted housing contains a myriad of small, useful tools designed to handle the widest possible range of technical needs. While a metatool is too limited to handle major jobs, it is usually sufficient to manage jury-rigged repairs and temporary fixes until the tech has time to apply a larger wrench to the problem.

• dataslab@4 = $300 enc 1

  A palm-sized computing device that can unfold into a thin slab roughly one-third of a meter on a side. It can perform all the functions of a compad or handheld computer and can communicate wirelessly with nearby devices.

• Compad@4 $100 enc 0.1

  One of a host of different hand-held portable communications devices. Most TL4 worlds have global comm coverage, but primitive worlds render these devices useless without a nearby comm server to provide connectivity.

• Black slab@4

  While a “black slab” appears to be a normal dataslab to casual examination, these devices are packed with intrusion-optimization hardware and integral line tapping tools. They function as a metatool for purposes of accessing data lines and grant a +1 bonus to all hacking attempts made with them. They are also quite illegal on most worlds, available only from black market dealers and private sales from hackers.

• dataslab@3 = $500 enc 1 "ipad mini"
• compad@3 = $500 (enc 1 if Garu-built, enc .25 if earth-vintage) "smart phone" or $50 "flip phone" (enc.25)
  • ".25": I am fine with ignoring a single smartphone, but if carried in bulk, these are smaller than "# (three can be bundled)" and bigger than "* (GM rules they're about .1)"

Garrudaanni-Made

smartphone/3

we have... the capability to manufacture more [smartphone/3s]

Size caveat for the short term: what Garu handicrafts plus Zarkov's "bootstrap-grade" plans give you is enc=1 brickphones, unless you want to downgrade feature-sets -- without the chip-fabs of Earth, you've got a surplus know-how on chip making and are bottlenecked on the lack of high-grade industrial chains. (The pinnacle of Parre's IT-industry is Gramma Nazeena's core-mem quilting group -- famed for their speed and quality, infamed for the quantity of spilt tea.)

Prototype Laser Rifle

(consistency/sanity warning: we shoe-horned in Jean's blaster because it's amusing. I regret nothing.)

That gun's made of a lead acid battery, a few "cold fusion" grade solenoids, a blacklight, a CO2 paintball canister loaded with neon, and a lo-fi midi chip loaded with star wars effects, all wrapped in an aluminum frame spray painted in "Lowe's black metal finish".

The weight of the battery's why it has the encumbrance of a rifle. And the battery's the majority of the thermal mass. So... it'll be fine.

history: A brilliant comicon nerd using parts borrowed from the Tokamak at work figured out how to ionize a path in the air with an industrial blacklight, then fling an ionized neon packet down that path. It was perfect for the 501st... and laser tag as long as stormtrooper accuracy didn't drive you mad.

His quest to make a blue version "failed" but as a side effect, gave us this weapon-grade version.

So it's technically a barely aimable UV-laser, but it looks like a blaster bolt.

It works the same way Dr Dinosaur's designs do -- better than it should.