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Wounded Ronin
Does anyone remember Deus Ex? It's a classic game, and it has enough similarities with Shadowrun (cyberwear'd main character, certain cyberpunk cliches, disutopian future, etc) that in the past I've wondered if someone could make a good hombrewed Shadowrun FPS by making a heavy Deus Ex mod. (Because there are some really wonderful mods out there that include extensive internal changes.)

But, that question is beyond the scope of this post, which is decidedly crass, short-sighted, and silly. This post has to do with drinking way too many 40s.

So, in Deus Ex, the game designers decided that whenever the player drank a beverage or ate a snack, he would regain 2 hit points (out of 100) to the torso hit location. This was probably intended as a small, fun gesture, and I think most people didn't take advantage of this too much. One food item that the player is very likely to pick up is a 40, which are scattered all throughout the game world. In what I feel was a truly excellent touch to in-game atmosphere, warm 40s lie in abandoned subway stations, on street corners, in alleyways, and whatnot. Their ubiquity always conjured in my mind very vivid images of groups of homeless people scattering and fleeing, leaving behind their 40s, as they hear gunshots in the distance.

However, I'm a very anal retentive person. The first couple of times I played through Deus Ex I actually stockpiled food and drink items in my inventory so as to have a lot of life in reserve. To my dismay, I found that there's actually a bug in Deus Ex where for extremely long periods of time food fails to heal you when you eat it, even though you're getting messages saying you regained 2 hit points. I actually logged onto a IRC channel for Deus Ex game modders to ask about this bug, since I figured if anyone could tell me more about this it would be someone who mods the game, right? But, everyone there told me something to the effect of, "I never noticed; I don't really ever use food."

Because of my obsession with stockpiling health items, my JC Denton (the main character) was initially very much of a frightening glutton my first couple of times playing through the game. You have to imagine a vaguely Neo-looking man, bursting with SOTA cyberware, getting into a gunfight with cyberpunk-style government goons who wear armor and carry assault rifles, and with scary cyberpunk-style Majestic 12 commandos who sport their own cyberwear and fire rockets.

So, the heroic Neo-looking dude is strafing left and right and using all this cyberwear, and blows away all the bad guys, but he takes a lot of damage in the process. Limping on a pulverized leg, he pulls a 40 out of his overcoat, and knocks back the whole thing. A slug gets ejected from his torso as he does this. He pulls out another 40, and knocks it back immediately, bits of warm froth trickling from his mouth to flow over his armor. The bullet hole that the slug popped out of gets a bit smaller. Dropping the empty 40 on the ground, and without pausing to wipe his mouth, JC pulls out another half drunk 40 that has a damp paper bag which smells like a bum wrapped around it. He pours this down his throat so fast that some froth bubbles up through his nostrils and he stops, panting, but the bullet hole closes up completely.

After drinking 10 40s, JC still has some damage so he proceeds to jam 10 candy bars down his gullet and eat 10 full MRE baggies. In the end, bits of frosting, candy crumbs, wine stains, and soy-based MRE chocolate pudding powder stain his armor. He smells of rancid 40s, and he's so drunk he can't walk in a straight line.

However, he's healed! Retching, but managing to hold it down, he grabs his experimental plasma rifle and charges on, taking the fight to Majestic 12 once again.

I was thinking that it might be extremely funny to have some kind of cyberwear that was able to transform food or alcohol into healing. On the other hand, having healing on demand like that might be too powerful. I'm not really sure. Furthermore, I only know SR3 rules, so this might really bore people.

But, in any case, I present to you the cyberwear which is based on my elaborate fantasies about sammies drinking 10 40s:

Food Adaptor (made by JC Denton Industries)

This piece of cyberwear is a small factory which is grafted to the inside wall of the stomach. It rapidly absorbs any food or drink which the user consumes, and breaks down the biomatter in that food or drink into various protiens and acids. The factory then produces and deploys nanomachines which actually stick these protiens and acids over damaged tissues and immediately begin rebuilding them.

Every time a character with this cyberwear eats ((Body/2) x 2,000) calories worth of food (the entire contents of one MRE baggie is about 2,000 calories) or consumes ((Body/2) x 4 units) of alcohol (4 units is about the alcohol content of a 40), this device will heal one box of Physical in one minute. In order to balance this, the GM must do the following:
1.) Slap the character with sadistic-yet-funny penalties for getting totally blasted if a lot of alcohol is consumed, in addition to the obvious penalties to all physical skills for being totally drunk
2.) Slap the character with penalties to physical skills such as Athletics or dodging if he sits down and stuffs his belly with unbelievable amounts of calories (4,000+ in one sitting). It is very helpful if the GM watches Supersize Me for the purposes of inflicting hysterical yet humiliating role playing pain upon the character. "Ugh...I've got the McShakes....BAARRRFFF!"

This device may only be used once per injury. Furthermore, it can only heal a maximum of 6 boxes of Physical damage per injury, so if a character takes a Deadly wound and wakes up in the hospital with 9 boxes of physical, the best he could hope to repair through this cyberware would be 6 more boxes. Also, bear in mind just how much alcohol or food the character would have to consume to actually heal 6 boxes. A skinny teenage girl with a Body of 2 would need to drink 24 units of alcohol, which should probably kill her, if you think about it. So 6 boxes is a very reasonable limit.

Cost: 10,000 Nuyen
Availability: Always (yes, fall to the temptation to install it...)
Essence cost: 1

So, what do you think about this cyberwear? Good idea? Funny? Or too powerful?
Calvin Hobbes
I just can't get past the idea of the cyberai with a beergut, missing teeth, and a huge red nose.
cleggster


Ohhhhh, I know just the PC who would LOOOVE this. But there is something like it. Was it Platelet Factory? It's late and I can't remember quite right. But there was a piece of bioware that accelerated healing. Downside, you ate twice as much. But it didn't directly break down the food for regeneration. The impression I got from Deus Ex was that since everything was powered by nanites, you could get a little health by ingesting protean. Then your nanites would go to work. Thats why a beer was the same as a whole bottle of wine. And soy packs were the best (always kept them handy).
PiXeL01
Symbiotes, I think, is the bioware you are refering to. with the Platelet factory you need to inject anti coagolants (spelling, I know) or your blood will start to clug up
Wounded Ronin
QUOTE (cleggster @ Dec 24 2005, 02:20 AM)
Ohhhhh, I know just the PC who would LOOOVE this.  But there is something like it.  Was it Platelet Factory?  It's late and I can't remember quite right.  But there was a piece of bioware that accelerated healing.  Downside, you ate twice as much.  But it didn't directly break down the food for regeneration.  The impression I got from Deus Ex was that since everything was powered by nanites, you could get a little health by ingesting protean.  Then your nanites would go to work.  Thats why a beer was the same as a whole bottle of wine.  And soy packs were the best (always kept them handy).

Yeah, that's kind of the impression that I started with too. But I kept thinking about it, and a few things occured to me:

1.) Alcohol is basically carbohydrate, and not protien. Ditto with soda.

2.) If the nanites were repairing your body with added biomatter, why does only torso damage go away?

EDIT: Also, the main difference between Platelet Factory and this is that this thing is much better for drawing your PCs into humiliating situations. cool.gif
Wounded Ronin
By the way, years later, I learned that I was wrong about their being a food-related bug. Back when I'd started playing Deus Ex I thought food items only healed the body, so that sometimes if an item randomly healed a leg or the head or something I'd think incorrectly that it had failed to have the desired effect. But the truth is that rather than always healing the body, food items heal random body parts when consumed.

By the way, how much does it suck that in Deus Ex 2 they actually had booze reduce hitpoints? How ridiculous is that? If I had to will myself to survive after being shot multiple times I'd guess that a stiff shot of bourbon might help as much as anything at that point.
Backgammon
In Bioshock, booze gives you some health in exchange for "mana", while cigarettes did the opposite. It was neat. Then again, everything about that game is awesomeness.
Leofski
Shouldn't it be nanites?
CanRay
Maybe those Gangstas are onto something, pounding back those 40 ozs. nyahnyah.gif
Heath Robinson
QUOTE (Backgammon @ Apr 26 2008, 08:55 PM) *
In Bioshock, booze gives you some health in exchange for "mana", while cigarettes did the opposite. It was neat. Then again, everything about that game is awesomeness.

They did the same kind of thing as in System Shock 2 (usurprising as it's pretty much the same creative team, and "spiritual successor"). It didn't include the cigarettes admittedly, but you'd find alcohol all over and it'd heal you at cost of your psychic power points.
Wounded Ronin
QUOTE (Heath Robinson @ Apr 26 2008, 03:53 PM) *
They did the same kind of thing as in System Shock 2 (usurprising as it's pretty much the same creative team, and "spiritual successor"). It didn't include the cigarettes admittedly, but you'd find alcohol all over and it'd heal you at cost of your psychic power points.


That actually made it awesome to not be a psychic, since you'd get all this "free" healing for not needing psi points. Even better, if you didn't need psi points you could nevertheless carry around an entire game's worth of psi injectors in one inventory slot, so that towards the end of that game when you got the implant that redirected a certain portion of your damage taken to psi points, you could just refill your psi meter before each firefight from your enormous and seldom used supply.

Yeah, I played that game through once as a Marine, and the whole time I was reflecting how much harder the game would be if I'd picked either of the other player character classes.
Shrike30
QUOTE (Wounded Ronin @ Apr 26 2008, 11:51 AM) *
If I had to will myself to survive after being shot multiple times I'd guess that a stiff shot of bourbon might help as much as anything at that point.


Introducing a substance into your body that opens up the capillaries and increases blood flow after you've been shot multiple times is a good way to lower your blood pressure even further or bleed out even faster smile.gif
Wounded Ronin
QUOTE (Shrike30 @ Apr 26 2008, 05:11 PM) *
Introducing a substance into your body that opens up the capillaries and increases blood flow after you've been shot multiple times is a good way to lower your blood pressure even further or bleed out even faster smile.gif


I think it depends how much pain I'm in. If I'm incapacitated by pain and can't stop the bleeding, I should use something, anything, that would allow me to take further actions. That's the way I see it.
Daier Mune
QUOTE (Wounded Ronin @ Apr 26 2008, 05:04 PM) *
Yeah, I played that game through once as a Marine, and the whole time I was reflecting how much harder the game would be if I'd picked either of the other player character classes.


harder, yes, but so much more rewarding.
Wounded Ronin
QUOTE (Daier Mune @ Apr 26 2008, 06:35 PM) *
harder, yes, but so much more rewarding.


I took a perverse pleasure in saving up my nanites for the whole game so that at the very end at the last possible moment I converted them all into ammunition for the assault rifle. Then I ran around gleefully using automatic fire and terminating everything with extreme prejudice.

I actually started to run out eventually, but I never completely ran out, and I really enjoyed the feeling of being able to cut loose and mow everything down after a game full of sneaking around, conserving, and exclusively using melee combat whenever feasible.

Also, LOL at how just because of the ammo scarcity the wrench is one of your most useful items.
Leofski
As opposed to Bioshock, where despite plentiful ammo, you still use the wrench almost to exclusion nyahnyah.gif
CanRay
QUOTE (Shrike30 @ Apr 26 2008, 05:11 PM) *
Introducing a substance into your body that opens up the capillaries and increases blood flow after you've been shot multiple times is a good way to lower your blood pressure even further or bleed out even faster smile.gif

Same arguement is made against giving people alcohol when trapped on a winterscape to keep them moving, it thins the blood and allows for hypothermia...

But, alternatively, as I postulated in one Survival Course, "When the alternative is them not moving at all, isn't thinned blood and mobility, which warms you up, superior than just lying there? Especially if you don't know how far you need to go, and it might just be over that next hill. Just like you taught us, it's just one more hill... Just over the next hill."

The teacher of that class hadn't thought of that. She had no choice but to agree with me.
Wounded Ronin
QUOTE (Leofski @ Apr 26 2008, 06:06 PM) *
As opposed to Bioshock, where despite plentiful ammo, you still use the wrench almost to exclusion nyahnyah.gif


Well, I haven't played Bioshock. What's the deal, does ranged weapon do crap damage?

Hell, even in Deus Ex, the Dragon's Tooth does so much damage, and convieniently opens doors, that when I'm playing for maximum efficiency I just switch to it exclusively after I find it, except for anti-bot uses.
WeaverMount
One of the (zillions) things I love about Bioshock is that you are playing a compulsive eater and an alcoholic. You can't hoard like you do in most games, you find some booze on someone and you just can't help but knock back the whole thing right there.

I remember hearing someone talking about running a Bioshock mod in SR4 did that come to anything?
Wounded Ronin
The whole compulsive container-emptying was always something that bothered me about a lot of video games including Fallout as well as Deus Ex and apparently Bioshock. They show you a bottle of beer, and you have no choice but to finish it. Fine. They show you a bottle of wine, and you have no choice but to finish it. Fine, I guess, seeing as you're a strapping young man. They show you a bottle of hard liquor, and you have no choice but to finish it?

Jagged Alliance 2 did it better, where one use of a beer bottle (specified as malt liquor in the item description) used it up, one use of a wine bottle removed about 1/3, and one use of a hard liquor bottle removed a little bit. You could still carry the bottles around and swig more from them if you wanted.

Also, Return To Castle Wolfenstien gave you the option of drinking your LaTour 1930 or whatever 1/3 at a time.

In the interests of immersion, I propose that video games should implement booze on a drink-by-drink basis, rather than treating one container automatically as one serving.
Lionhearted
Funny that you mention it.. I just picked out my (inherited) Deus Ex and began playing it for the first time, ironique neh?
Leofski
QUOTE (Wounded Ronin @ Apr 27 2008, 01:00 AM) *
Well, I haven't played Bioshock. What's the deal, does ranged weapon do crap damage?


There are so many damage and attack boosts for the wrench in bioshock that it compares fairly well for damage against most enemies, and there is a tonic available partway through that restores health and energy when you hit stuff with it.
Blade
@Wounded: don't forget that after eating all his candies/40s and drinking all his soda, out J.C. Denton rushes toward the nearest water dispenser and empty it!
And don't worry, you're not the only one who hoarded food to use as small medkits.

Some games handled food better. I remember an old first person RPG where it didn't heal you right away but allowed your HP meter to slowly regenerate itself. And of course there was the 7 first episodes of Ultima (especially the 7th) where your characters needed to eat regularly.

Anyway, medkits aren't handled much better, after all.
Backgammon
I didn't use the wrench at all in Bioshock. So depends on your play style. You can get all the wrench tonics and smach people hard, but you don't have to.
WeaverMount
>Anyway, medkits aren't handled much better, after all.

I Was poking fun at a how med kits can treat of wounds at just kind of magic better sauce. My friend who is a para medic said "Yeah, but you'd be surprised what pure oxygen can do for someone"
CanRay
I have asthmatics in the family, I've SEEN what just a bit of pure oxy can do!

But yeah, then we also get games like Max Payne and Suffering, where the main characters are able to go through five kinds of hell on just a handful of painkillers every now and then. nyahnyah.gif

But they fully admit that it isn't realistic, so that's OK. smile.gif
hobgoblin
QUOTE (Blade @ Apr 27 2008, 12:47 PM) *
And of course there was the 7 first episodes of Ultima (especially the 7th) where your characters needed to eat regularly.



a roguelike classic, that feature wink.gif
Blade
Indeed, but in Ultima you don't die from food poisoning 1 time out of 2.
hobgoblin
just stay of those goblins wink.gif

orks on the other hand...
Wounded Ronin
QUOTE (Blade @ Apr 28 2008, 08:05 AM) *
Indeed, but in Ultima you don't die from food poisoning 1 time out of 2.


I think food poisioning realism would rock.
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