---
tags: Appended, Hardsuits, Ongoing
title: MODsuits (Fikou)
---

# MODsuits (Fikou)

[toc]

## Intro

This page has information about the ongoing project of MODsuits, a feature for Robotics as a replacement to Hardsuits, and on-station Mechs later down the line. If you'd like to contribute module ideas to the project, feel free to do so here: https://hackmd.io/Q9aZzRM_STWLzTC-BAPEHA

### Why do we want this?
* It frees us from boring design for hardsuits which only differ in armor and what they can hold in their suit-storage.
* It encourages co-operation of the crew and robotics, along with robotics and cargo.
* It will let us move a lot of utility mech functionality onto them which lets us do more with mechs that are moved to Lavaland (which is enabled by the mech refactor and the orbital mech pad I coded before), which are gimped mechanically with clunkyness because they are too powerful on station.

### Goals
* Create a system with easy to write for modules for anyone that would like to contribute.
* Make it fun for people to customize their suit with whatever modules they want, getting the suit to feel like "their own".
* Create a meaningful system of balance for suits, you will sacrifice some stuff like armor or inventory slots for the utility of the suits.
* Create interaction between robotics and cargo, along with crew interacting with robotics, they should be more "safe" to make them for the crew, unlike mechs which you will probably never get if you aren't a roboticist/miner.

### Non-Goals
* Creating suits for the crew that are used for combat purposes.
* Combat stuff usually leads to uninteresting design, it makes the suits do everything for everyone, makes them more of a must-have, there is no sacrifices if you can walk around with 50 armor across the board and an internal rocket launcher.
* Creating a module meta-pick combination.
* This is hard to do, but a meta-pick shouldn't be possible. The modules you pick should likely be related to a job you're currently doing to help you out.
* Making the suits a must-have.
* The suits should be sacrifices, you sacrifice armor, mobility, storage for that big utility boost, people needing suits to not lose out at something would suck.

### Questions
* What to do with crew-sided combat suits, namely the Security and Captain's suit, if they aren't armored? Nukies get actual armor on their suits since they have to wear them for the entirety of the round, but won't this make them basically kings of space combat? We can turn them back into soft-suits, but I feel like that would kind of suck for the Captain namely, and if we make the Captain's suit armored, this would kind of go against the goal of preventing powergamey suits for combat stats.

## Features

### Production
* You need a few parts to start creating the suit. A shell, helmet, chestplate, gauntlets, boots and a core. All of them except for the last are obtainable from exosuit fabricators, the latter is obtainable from cargo.
* You follow through construction steps, building the suit from the parts you got. At the end you can apply external armor, which is what decides about the look, environmental protections and maybe the modules the suit may have. After all is done you get the control unit.

### Configuring
* The suit is plain and doesn't work by default. By using a paint-kit on the suit you can customize its' look with a few skins. To get the suit working, you need to open its' panel, then you can insert the power cell and any modules you want.
* After all is done, you close the panel, put the suit on your back slot, and extend it over your head, chest, hands and feet. You can turn it on after all the extensions are done.

### Functionality
* You interact with the suit mostly through the TGUI, it shows your name, the cell status, suit parts, all the modules, additional stats from specific modules.
* You can lock, activate the suit from the TGUI, the module section lists the complexity and all power uses of the module.
* The suit may have an AI mounted onto it with an intellicard, which lets the AI move the suit in-case of something happening to the user, also giving it full power over the modules.

### Modules
* Every suit is equippable with modules, the main selling point.
* All modules have specific statistics that affect stuff about them
* Complexity - Adds to a main complexity statistic on the suit, if too high you cannot add any more modules.
* Cooldown Time - Cooldown between using the module.
* Incompatible Modules - Set some modules that we can't use with us.
* TGUI ID - Creates a component correspondant to the ID in the suit TGUI, for example a Rad Scanner could show a radiation scan in the Info tab of the suit TGUI.
* Power Usage - There are three types, idle, active, and use, it affects the suit's power drain. Idle is globally used across all types of modules while others only work with some.
* Modules come in four varieties, all with unique specifics
* Passive - Work from the get-go after insertion. Something like a storage module or the aforementioned Rad Scanner
* Usable - They do something when they are used in the TGUI, they drain using "use" type of power usage.
* Toggle - Think of them as passive modules, but you need to specifically enable them for them to work, they use "active" type of power usage when toggled on.
* Active - You may only have one selected at a time, they get either put in your hand if they have a linked device, or enable a function on middle-click. They use "active" type of power when selected and "use" when they are actually used.
* Modules can be configured, like flashlight modules with custom colors, jetpacks turning on/off stabilization, etc.
* Modules may range from stuff like jetpacks, to HUDs, health analyzers, clamps, hookshots, magboots, the full list is on the Module idea list linked above.
### Circuit Interaction
* MODsuits can interact with circuits in order to access some elements of the suit remotely