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crux_fleet2014-04-11 01:33 am
crux_npcs) wrote in crux_fleet2014-04-11 01:33 am
0004: NOODLEBOTS, HO!
Anyone with a drone gets a deedlit-deedlit-deedlit alert on their comm devices. It's a video post with a rather harried-looking Ensign Navarro. His eyebrows are missing and his hair is much more closely cropped than before. The area behind him is swarming with activity as a flaming figure does battle with a muck-covered monster.
"Ensign Navarro here. So, we were going to do this a while ago, but discovered a flaw that needed hammering out. The good news is this: We finally upgraded our drone technology. The bad news: The upgrades we were going to use melted right off. And caught fire. And it turns out the rest of the upgrades were just as flammable if you added the right chemicals to the mix." He coughs. "But, like I said, we've managed some improved functionality. If you'll pardon the projection..."
He taps a few things on his end and a complex display and readout appear. "We've increased the battery span on the drones. We're making strides for kinetic charging, something we'd tried for on the old Tyr mobile armors but which, unfortunately, turned out to be too expensive. We phased those out for the Teslated microgenerators we now use, but I was always a fan of the idea of someone powering their equipment by moving. So we're working on miniaturizing it. It might be ready in a model or two. In any case, with the battery improvements, we've enhanced recharge time and allowed for more power output. So now you shouldn't be so, ah. Noodly." Yes. "We've also added some actual connection points, so you guys can start designing outer shells if you want. Make them look a bit like you."
He flicks a dial and various armored plates skitter over the display surface. "You might want to keep in mind that, when making these things, they're still not 100% designed for an outer layer. So if you're making an outer shell of some kind, make sure you've got joint room. We'll be fixing this in future models."
"Finally, we've managed to fix the paper plate problem. Some of us wanted to use a vid-screen to allow you guys to get your faces across, but. Well. Honestly, after watching how some of you interact with each other, I'm not sure that those vid screens would remain intact for long. So we built in some holo displays!" He reaches offscreen and plonks a drone's head onto the table in front of him. Wiping off some flame retardant foam, the Ensign smacked it on top of the head with a fist and the blank face began to project another human face, this one contorted in pain. "Um. Ignore that. We were trying for some haptic feedback and, well. Let's just say it's going back to the drawing board. But in any case, the holos are pretty primitive. We can't quite make it replicate your current expressions, it draws on too many resources to translate your impulses into expressions, but you can manually take a 'snapshot' and update it whenever you want an expression change. Like, uh." He waves a hand over the face and it goes of one contorted to pain to a default blank. He waves it the other way and it goes back into a different pained expression. "They're not solid holograms, they don't provide instant 'updates', but we can get the lips to move when they talk! And we think we're pretty close to a breakthrough on the whole 'Entire face moves just like yours does' gig."
He shoves the drone's head off the table and drums his hands on its surface. "So, there you have it! Not our proudest production, I'll admit, but we're finally back on track with getting you guys the comfort and versatility you deserve. Maybe in a week or two we'll have something more substantial to give you, but for now we'll need you guys to help us out and provide feedback so future drones will be superior. If you've got any questions, ask now." Navarro grins expectantly, only flinching a little at the sound of the flaming body in the background pulling the arms off of the slimy one and beating the body with them.
"Ensign Navarro here. So, we were going to do this a while ago, but discovered a flaw that needed hammering out. The good news is this: We finally upgraded our drone technology. The bad news: The upgrades we were going to use melted right off. And caught fire. And it turns out the rest of the upgrades were just as flammable if you added the right chemicals to the mix." He coughs. "But, like I said, we've managed some improved functionality. If you'll pardon the projection..."
He taps a few things on his end and a complex display and readout appear. "We've increased the battery span on the drones. We're making strides for kinetic charging, something we'd tried for on the old Tyr mobile armors but which, unfortunately, turned out to be too expensive. We phased those out for the Teslated microgenerators we now use, but I was always a fan of the idea of someone powering their equipment by moving. So we're working on miniaturizing it. It might be ready in a model or two. In any case, with the battery improvements, we've enhanced recharge time and allowed for more power output. So now you shouldn't be so, ah. Noodly." Yes. "We've also added some actual connection points, so you guys can start designing outer shells if you want. Make them look a bit like you."
He flicks a dial and various armored plates skitter over the display surface. "You might want to keep in mind that, when making these things, they're still not 100% designed for an outer layer. So if you're making an outer shell of some kind, make sure you've got joint room. We'll be fixing this in future models."
"Finally, we've managed to fix the paper plate problem. Some of us wanted to use a vid-screen to allow you guys to get your faces across, but. Well. Honestly, after watching how some of you interact with each other, I'm not sure that those vid screens would remain intact for long. So we built in some holo displays!" He reaches offscreen and plonks a drone's head onto the table in front of him. Wiping off some flame retardant foam, the Ensign smacked it on top of the head with a fist and the blank face began to project another human face, this one contorted in pain. "Um. Ignore that. We were trying for some haptic feedback and, well. Let's just say it's going back to the drawing board. But in any case, the holos are pretty primitive. We can't quite make it replicate your current expressions, it draws on too many resources to translate your impulses into expressions, but you can manually take a 'snapshot' and update it whenever you want an expression change. Like, uh." He waves a hand over the face and it goes of one contorted to pain to a default blank. He waves it the other way and it goes back into a different pained expression. "They're not solid holograms, they don't provide instant 'updates', but we can get the lips to move when they talk! And we think we're pretty close to a breakthrough on the whole 'Entire face moves just like yours does' gig."
He shoves the drone's head off the table and drums his hands on its surface. "So, there you have it! Not our proudest production, I'll admit, but we're finally back on track with getting you guys the comfort and versatility you deserve. Maybe in a week or two we'll have something more substantial to give you, but for now we'll need you guys to help us out and provide feedback so future drones will be superior. If you've got any questions, ask now." Navarro grins expectantly, only flinching a little at the sound of the flaming body in the background pulling the arms off of the slimy one and beating the body with them.
[Video]
[Navarro laughs a little and waves his hand.]
They wouldn't last long in combat, sorry. The plating we're making now is largely cosmetic and the skeleton still won't take any major weight. It's stronger than the first model, but anything over two hundred pounds and you're talking some issues with the motors.
...Keeping that in mind, you could theoretically outfit it with some handheld weapons and some lightweight armor, but I wouldn't advise linking any sorts of energy shields or weapons to the drone's power cores. The cores could take it, but the relays might end up blowing out on you. The next version will be a bit more durable, but we didn't think we needed to up things to that level with this one.
There's a few reasons for this. One is ease of construction: you guys are getting numerous enough that we're having to put in over a week full-time just to build enough for everyone, plus spares. Second, they're designed for you all to fit in with human-sized dwellings, not fight. Third, well. There's still a lot of people nervous about you robots wandering around. Armed robots wandering around...
[He trails off and shrugs.]
Finally, we're not really getting a whole hell of a lot of feedback on the Model Is other than "They suck" and "You're all incompetent". And the one white and gold guy who keeps breathing heavily and not-too-subtly implying that he'd like to kill someone's drone to see if it zaps the Autobot on the other side. It's honestly a little creepy at this point.
If you guys wanted this to go quicker and get more options you like, I'd suggest giving us some actual feedback and telling us what you'd want to see. We're basically working on making it so you all can interact with people more easily, that's our goal. Anything else, we're just guessing on.
no subject
[Because she has a few. But they're for Deadlock's noodlebot, not hers. And she fully intends to find a way for him to get caught in public like that too. Somehow.]
Hnnn...
[Flashpoint's thinking, mostly about who the creepy white-and-gold guy might be, but that's why she doesn't interrupt for once. She grunts at the power rely thing though. She may have, uh, found that out the hard way.]
So these have better range than our holos yeah? We can go off ship with 'em?
no subject
[He totally means Deadlock.]
Yeah. Your holomatter disguises have a range of, what, a few feet? Few meters? Ours should be good for a few dozen miles, depending on how you're linked up. With a strong enough signal in place, not hard to do with subspace radio, you could have them running errands while you're in orbit on the other side of the planet.
no subject
[She means emergencies of course! Mainly. There might be other relevant reasons but none that she'll admit to publicly. They are all totally legal though, of course.]
More than that, but not to the tune of multiple miles! [She sounds impressed.] So the system uses something ship or fleet-wide to support that strong a signal? Hmm...how's the security?
[Because the last thing she wants is some happy hacker hijacking her noodlebot and doing Primus knows what with it. Or worse, piggy-backing to listen in and maybe getting access to her native systems.]
no subject
[Never let it be said that Engineering will turn down a chance to arm anything.]
Yeah, we've got a fleet-wide system, but when we give you a control device, that's what's generating the signal. Each one works with a quad-core quantum computer with... Well, I won't bore you with the actual number, but it's over a centillion possible qubit keys. And those change randomly every few hours.
We put a lot of work into that.