There are a wide variety of environmental protections afforded by Implants. Temperature Tolerance takes several stripes and enhanced forms, covering anywhere from 60 C to -200 C in the right environment. These sorts of protections are simple, but sometimes costly and follow a basic form - and they have a limit to how much they can protect. The Fat Storage (p. 197 Transhuman) augmentation is in a similar vein, allowing a body to more efficiently store water, and adjust fat distribution "on the fly" which does not grant a specific rating of protection, but rather increases overall tolerance by a rough percentage. But, nano-ecology groups like Black Eden have begun developing a new, more technologically advanced answer to the issue of environmental protection.
Thermal Regulation: This nanoware embeds temperature-sensitive nanites in all parts of the body. In cold extremes, the nanites can cause minute changes to increase heat transmission, generate small amounts of heat or energy to keep the body stimulated, or bind or destroy ice crystals directly like an advanced antifreeze. If it is too hot, the nanites act as a nanofluid which greatly enhances the body's natural cooling capacity, wick heat away from vital areas, and can even store the energy or convert it to other forms (such as if paired with Eelware). The end result is that much of the body acts like a temperature-sensitive smart material - making it ideally paired with actual temperature tolerance mods. This results in taking half DV (round up) from any damage which is caused by extreme heat or cold alone, such as from a severe environment. At the moment, the regulation is not fast acting enough or capable of storing enough heat to properly react to directed energy weapons - which often involve secondary damages besides flash-heating. [Moderate]
It should be noted that for an unprotected biomorph, Thermal Regulation may not seem to do much - but when combined with other implants to grant a morph greater protections it can combine to absorb a great deal of harm to the body in an emergency situations which cause extreme environmental exposure. When combined with Medichines to rapidly heal the damage, morphs can be very versatile to temperature extremes. As nanoware efficiency and capability arises, it may one day be possible to get nanites which can begin to absorb and transmit extra heat from energy weapons fast enough to alleviate their damage as well.
This is a really interesting idea, but I'm not sure that nanites are the best method of achieving it. Because of their tiny ratio of volume to surface area, they handle temperature changes very poorly, so their attempts to absorb heat would likely destroy them. And power sources scale down badly, so their ability to generate large amounts of power for heating would be limited.
ReplyDeleteA more viable alternative might be a cyberware implant that spreads a network of heat-conductive materials across the body. To deal with heat, it could open connections between the network and implanted heat sinks; for cold, it could activate implanted heating units powered by supercapacitors.
The same potential for alleviation of damage from energy weapons would still exist. Such a system would have to operate at far less than peak efficiency, in order to prevent the channeled heat from damaging the body. Improvements in thermal isolation and miniaturization of heat sinks and heating devices could make it far more effective.
Just a suggestion, of course, for you to use or ignore as you please. Your blog is a useful and creative resource. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the comment.
DeleteThis idea was originally from a player when I quizzed them on possible nanoware ideas - so it was originally very off the cuff. I thought about it some more and did some research into actual antifreeze/coolant properties nanoscale tech might help because of the comment and hopefully it sounds a little more technical and appropriate now.
The cyberware or even enhancement alternative is also a good one - and might be more appropriate for a GM who wants a firmer handle on nanotech in the setting (one who might frown at the Personal Power Plant implant, for instance). I also need to double-check the description on the Fireproofing armor mod as you've given me an idea for another advanced armor technology.