Throwing Science to the Wall

...and seeing what sticks, I guess...

So it goes like this. For the sake of the Acts, I want to end each Act with something a little different, in theme with both Amy's progression and her own overarching story-line. I know how I want to do it, and it would only really fit into a Subplot-style storyline, but I first need to know if what I'm planning would even be allowed inside said Subplot event/s.

For those of you who watched the anime you might feel like this is a cheap knock-off, but I like to think that it has big differences between the anime take, not to mention the mechanics are somewhat different (as you'll see).

But I won't even bother continuing down this particular avenue if the base idea is shot down, so here goes...

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Requesting confirmation whether the following would be allowed for Subplot-only battling.

*** Artificial Augmentation Fields ***

Background: The mixed result of a desire to introduce the world to net-navis in complete safety and another desire to create digital soldiers, Artificial Augmentation Fields (or 'AAFs' for short) were created using experimental technology and are still being developed and tested.

How It Works (Meta; skip unless interested): AAFs are created when eight AAF projection terminals are arranged over a large area in a cube-shape and then activated together to establish an electrical field. Inside this field, digital entities can manifest as physical entities, able to interact with the real world. This is done by the use of electrical currents that simulate the surfaces of those entities, to purvey their realism if touched.

By those programmed boundaries, it also allows spawned entities to create and use their normal battle weapons. In the case of navis, if an AAF transmission backplate is attached to a compatible PET, that PET can send battlechips to its paired navi while they exist in the AAF. Doing so brings its own risks, however, as the operator too would need to be in the same AAF to use this function. The electrical field itself is not powerful enough to bring harm to an operator, even over long periods of time, however as the manifestation of attacks are actually just bursts of electricity, operators in the field are exposed to the risk of electrocution if their body connects with one of these attacks.

The limitation of these fields is that the electrical pulses of attacks are just that: electrical pulses. While a navi may simulate a Bubbler chip or a Heatshot chip, the aqueous and heat properties are only simulated with other digital entities; their cooling and heating properties do not transmit to the real world. What is important to remember, however, is that while their elemental properties will not transfer, kinetic energy is still kinetic energy; a Heatshot may not cause a cold box to thaw, but the force of the shot will still send the box flying across the room if it isn't heavy enough to sustain the blast.

It is extremly difficult to disrupt an AAF from within it; as any attacks can only travel as far as the electrical field's boundaries, it is not possible for any digital entity to directly attack any of the eight projection terminals in order to take it offline. However, as stated before, kinetic energy is kinetic energy. If used correctly, a physical object inside the field could be propulsed in such a manner that, with repetitive force, a projection terminal could be taken offline, however doing so would leave the instigator exposed to attacks from other forces if present. With this in mind, the projection terminals are often placed at a distance from the edge of a planned AAF, to avoid this outcome.

How It Works (Rule Changes): There are no changes to existing rules; no changes to navi HP, turns, effects, etc. The only change is that the player will now control an extra charater in battle: the operator.

Upon entering an AAP a human operator will normally have 100% health, although this may change due to RP reasons if the operator is already injured.

A human's 'health' (perhaps vitality is a better word) is always viewed as a percentage, and cannot exceed 100%. In the first prototype field, attacks that would deal damage to a navi only deal 2% of their original damage to a human, but that value will increase as the story continues and further Acts come to a finish. Any damage incurred is represented as a percentage rather than a HP value, and are always rounded up to the nearest 0.1% if required. For example, if a 17 HP attack landed on an operator, 2% of 17 is 0.34, which would be rounded up to become 0.4% damage.

A human cannot be healed by recovery methods used by navis, instead needing to rely on their own stamina to recover. They can still use network defenses created for them (eg. shields, barriers, casings, etc), however attacks that cause negative effects can (and will) affect humans in the same manner as their navi counterparts.

A human's health directly affects their ability to assist, evade and recover:
75.01%-100% at turn start: 6 actions, normal evasion ability, +1.5% stamina at turn end
50.01%-75% at turn start: 4 actions, evasion ability -1 rank, +1% stamina at turn end
25.01%-50% at turn start: 2 actions, evasion ability -2 ranks, +0.5% stamina at turn end

A human's actions can be used for (but are not necessarily limited to):
* attempting evasion
* interacting with the environment
* transmitting a battlechip to their navi
* using a weapon provided to them (if possible)
* resting (which restores stamina dependent on the current level of health)
--- 75.01%-100%: 1% / 50.01%-75%: 2% / 25.01%-50%: 5%

If a human's health reaches 25% or lower, they will fall into an unconscious state (the final result of sustained electrocution). This is an unacceptable outcome, and will force the accompanying navi to rescue and eject their unconscious partner from the field (the equivalent of a human EJO).

The only other notable callout is that, while elemental attacks will still retain their strengths and weaknesses, their ability to affect the physical world does not carry over. For example, ice attacks do not actually freeze real-world objects, nor do fire attacks set items on fire. The field will simulate such effects, but the underlying objects will remain unchanged. HOWEVER, any explosive properties are still retained, as energy is energy, and kinetic energy will still interact with all objects in the same manner regardless of whether the entity is real or digital. The important thing to remember is that kinetic energy cannot leave the AAF; it will simply dissipate to nothing once it reaches the simulation edge. Any digital entity will get a sharp shock if they try to leave an AAF's boundaries (think of it as your body being disintegrated into nothing; you'd have the same painful reaction).

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Please let me know if this is out of the question, or if any changes would put it on the table.

I'm sure there will be other who will want to raise some red flags about this, and the site has traditionally had a stance about tangible real-world navi interaction etc., (don't even think the word copybot unless you want a rabid swarm descending upon you ^.^) however... Most of them aren't even watching, soooo, I'm intrigued.

My first question before I can say yes or no is: what humans are you planning on involving in this? If it's only your own characters specifically, then we might have some more leeway to get this working.

The plan would be only my operator at first. Without getting too involved into the story arcs themselves, the idea would be to pit my operator and navi against other story-driven navis, as the opposing navi’s operator would normally be engaged in other duties that would prevent them from engaging in battle (requiring their navi to engage in protection/distraction). It wouldn’t be until the end of arc… 5…? that a moderator would get the chance to operate both an operator and navi in these scenarios, but I would never be operating two or more humans at once.

Alright, so, next up - rules say you're supposed to give a detailed description of events and what happens, etc., but I've never been too fond of that kind of cart-before-horse spoilering... I do, however, need a *rough* outline of what you intend your events to be (it can be detail light - a bullet point synopsis that presumes nothing about outcomes is fine), and what rewards (if any) you hope to obtain if successful, as well as which bits you foresee requiring moderator input.

Lastly, if you're going to have characters and/or other navis of your own creation present and involved in combat, I need you to drop a registration sheet for them here (Like I needed to do for Vigilance, if you take a peek at my registration; this can also be detail light, but must have all their mechanical bits and pieces at minimum; alternatively, if the navi foes aren't vital or returning, you can ask for a generic navi of a stated power level and leave it to the mod to design).

I'll likely be the one running/overseeing it for you, and I'm flexible, just trying to tick the boxes.

Absolutely; this wasn’t the full registration, I just needed to know if that base mechanic would even be accepted before working on the rest.

Act 1 finishes in Chapter 8, with that being the first run of this sub-plot mechanic, so I’ll have a much more detailed run-down as it gets closer.

You will get a run sheet of the field, the players, and the three possible mission outcomes (depending on success/stalemate/failure) but more on that later. You’ll have more than enough creative freedom to make your own plays within the environment.

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll keep going with the planning. ;)