Go, and let the MCAS come back to life!

[Firebrand]

As you can see from the title, I've become interested in the MCAS. I'm wondering, if there were to be new equipment designed for it, what would people want from it? I'm already going to be working from the assumption that all new cores are fully capable of accepting any infantrymen regardless of their body type, be it Separa or Kodian or Elysian.

 

[Aendri]

If you design a core to accept that wide of a range of bodies, you're going to intrinsically make it much more massive and less flexible. It's just a bad idea. Ask the Army how trying to use a single, unisex set of equipment has worked out for women, and then tell me you can make an ARMORED system that will be capable of putting both a Kodian and a Phod in it without severe limitations. There's a damn good reason there are cores designed for specific species as it is.

 

[Wes]

One issue I've had with the MCAS is because it doesn't have a "standard" look, it's problematic to get artwork of it, and I'm the kind of guy that strongly prefers that everything in Yamatai has artwork.

 

[Eistheid]

The issue with giving the MCAS a standard look, is that the MCAS is designed specifically to fill in the gaps that the standard armors leave. Users are supposed to be able to assemble something that fits for a wide variety of differing races and even at the most basic, different sizes.

From my perspective the main draw of the MCAS is that it is modular and allows a player to craft something that is more personal than a Daisy or Mindy might be.

This however doesn't mean that I don't think that it could use some attention and updates. Perhaps if the system gets some work you could assemble and iconic selection of parts and commission art of that as an example of what putting together the system could be capable of producing. It might also be worth encouraging anyone who shows interest in the system to consider getting art of their own MCAS assembly done should the have the resources.

As much as standard art is good, it would be cool to see the variety and versatility of the MCAS even if it takes longer to come about.

 

[Aendri]

I'd say that the MCAS is the hardest thing in Yamatai to art, because there are so many core variations to make it actually perform as we need it to. The whole point of it was to give people who CAN'T use a standardized armor something, so trying to make an armor which by it's very nature is wildly different depending on who is using it have a single, standard look is just silly.

 

[Firebrand]

My idea for the MCAS is for there to be four 'main' Second Generation Cores, and Four main new heads. I'd shell out for art for each of the four new Cores, and the new helmets.

 

[Doshii Jun]

That's a financial commitment you do not, and dare I say should not, yet make.

Give it time, Kirk, before you plunk money down on this wonderful community of ours.

 

[Syaoran]

Before we get art for them the 4 cores should be made, and see if they're used.

Edit: It's also worth noting if you're making individual cores for different races, that a Kodian one is already on the approval board.

 

[Aendri]

And an Elysian and Separa one are already up as well.

edit: My bad, I thought Jaeger was working on the Separa one, not the Kodian one. That one is still in the works.

 

[Wes]

I think it would make sense to get a "main" design and have all the other parts be artistically based on it with appropriate variations.

 

[Aendri]

You can't really have a "main" design for something that literally covers the gamut of known racial profiles, Wes. Something that fits and works properly for a Separa is not going to look anything like the armor system that fits a Phod. That's the whole point of the MCAS. It's the alternative to the standardized Mindy/Daisy setup. THOSE have single frames of reference, and can be standardized in appearance and style. The MCAS, by its very nature, covers the specific stuff that doesn't fit a standard.

 

[OsakanOne]

Why not just say you have metals that aren't purely stationary or don't strictly have a single shape or size?

The socket has all the same ports, but the socket protecting it can shift to re-arrange the ports, their input requirements and the socket housing's shape and clasps to take whatever kind of plug it needs.

If a weapon does not expressly meet the requirements of a user, special modifications are often needed. In fact, equipment is often sold pre-modified to meet the needs of a specific, exacting and generally exclusive audience.

We're a high technology setting. We're allowed to fudge things a little: almost all starships have engineers and machine-shops who I would imagine are ESPECIALLY TRAINED TO DO THIS VERY THING. Relocate a few components.

Yes, it will look very different. It might need basic adjustments, extensions or even need conversions from other components borrowed from units in storage.

Conversions were done on medieval suits of armor all the time: those sodding things costed more than a house to make and if someone grew, suffered an injury or died in them, you didn't leave it for scrap: You made changes.

Given how manufacturing is in the SARP, I imagine this gear isn't just issued but it comes as a battery of parts in a case issued to a machine-shop or fab and then the proportions of common users are made and the parts are assembled. Given how there are high profile combatants, I wouldn't be surprised if they got specific custom orders every so often.

When technological proficiency, fluency and proliferation are so consistent, this honestly isn't a tall order.

 

[Aendri]

To me, it comes down to quality. Making a single system to accommodate such a wide range of body types would gimp it's ability to work for any ONE of those body types, where having a dedicated core for each would allow much greater specialization. Since we're already working outside of the standard, it makes sense to just go full bore ahead and make a system that is truly specialized for the races that can't use the standard.

 

[OsakanOne]

You don't need a totally new core though.

Imagine we need to meet the same core specs for six races.

Do we issue six unique models? Or do we start with a template or parts batch and then fab that into what's needed contexturally?

If all cores were dedicated, nobody would be able to use them: Lorath are generally taller and skinner than Yamataians with much wider hips and of course wings...

Nepleslians are generally far more muscular...

IDSOL are IDSOL

And these are the most human-like races there are. Adjustments would just be made. Think about 3D printing. If a ship makes its own armor, it can produce altered armor easily.

 

[Aendri]

The difference is that most of those are still FAIRLY close in body size and style. Not perfectly, but close. When you compare that to a Kodian, who can be 10ft tall and weigh in over 500lbs easily, to a Phod, who can be 4ft, the differences are much more exaggerated. Or an Elysian Patrician, who can have a 10ft wingspan, despite only being 7' tall, to a Separa'Shan, who can be quite long, but doesn't have that breadth, nor legs. The point of the MCAS isn't to provide armors for the average. It's to provide armors for the outlier.

 

[Syaoran]

The real question is, what purpose does making a standardized MCAS even serve? Think about it. If the MCAS was standardized to fit all races, why not put that technology into the MINDY and DAISY? I mean not only does it require massive fudging to get it to somehow fit everyone, but then at that point it's very existence becomes pointless.

This also isn't taking into account the natural weaponry changes that different body types would have. For instance, Because Elysian's have wings, they don't really get to use back mounted weapons, but instead they have wing mounted missiles. A phod, would naturally have some restrictions on it's load out simply do to space constraints. A separa'shan would have many more leg and thigh mounts logically. And a Kodian could probably carry 3 or 4 shoulder mounted weapons.

It's just simply is a waste of the MCAS tech if you try to standardize the core.

 

[Wes]

The MCAS does have a standard core, though. It's the Ke-M10-F3100, which is essentially a Mindy analog with flesh interior musculature and made with Nekovalkyrja in mind. There's also the Ke-M10-F3101, which is the synthetic interior version. Everything else is a variant or species-specific alternate. There are also standardized space and planetary configurations for the MCAS listed already.

The MCAS was never originally designed for Phods or Kodians. It was designed to replace the Mindy, Daisy, and Kylie, with system that allowed users to mix and match the parts from those three armors. But the M10 never really took off, and the Mindy and Daisy were good at what they did and never died off, and the MCAS has sat in obscurity for that last 6 years with little notice except for players who submitted new cores and parts to get something cool out of it, and got shoehorned into the "nonstandard" armor because of limitations of the Mindy and Daisy. But the next models of DAISY and MINDY are going to be custom-sized for individual soldiers, meaning they will be able to fit shapes and sizes of soldiers the Mindy/Daisy have never been able to handle before. If the Mindy has the stars and the Daisy has the Earth, where will the MCAS be useful? Honestly, I want to limit the number of power armor types in the Star Army, because every piece of Star Army equipment needs art, which I have to pay for.

 

[Aendri]

The MCAS already has its role, and you just said it yourself. The Mindy and Daisy are still standardized. It's never going to take their place as the standards, since they're so firmly entrenched and popular, but it's actually REALLY popular with a lot of the veteran players, who just like the customization, and anyone who plays one of the smaller races, since it at least gives them hope for having an armor they can use. Ignore what its original intent was, and push forward with what it's turned out to do really, really well, which is cater to the outliers and the non-standard crew. Let it be the system for everyone who either moves beyond the standard (like PA Aces), or the people who don't fit the standard to start with, instead of trying to make it standard.

 

[Syaoran]

@Wes what you said even more so supports a reason why -not- to standardize the MCAS. But also the MCAS never 'took off' in your eyes partly because one, the non Neko or Mikan races in Yamatai get hardly any attention in the first place. But then along with that the Mindy and Daisy are pushed forward so strongly. So of course new people wont bother with the MCAS, they have no reason to unless they are one of the rare new players playing one of the other races in the YSE.

If you want the Mindy and Daisy to be able to support any body type, go do that. That's a separate thing. But again, if you make this have a single core that supports every body type as well then you entirely remove it's lasting benefits. Like Aendri said this should be for Aces and those who don't fit the norm. If you fit into the norm, use the norm. Even if it was made only for customization originally it evolved beyond that because of standard YSE tech didn't support the races they were absorbing, but was still putting them in the military. Leave the standardized gear for the -standard issue- MCAS is special issue, so it should be specialized, and it can't do that if it fits every race.

 

[Aendri]

Kumiko, a Minkan, uses the MCAS because she's an engineer at heart, and loves that fact that she can pick and choose parts on the fly, all of the way down to the base, without having to jury-rig anything. It's all designed to go together like that. I've had several Elysians use the MCAS as well, just because the fact that there's an Elysian core for it means they don't have to worry about all of the options. They can just go with the standard setup, and still have a system that was designed with them in mind, no special modifications needed. Those are two wildly different perspectives on it, but both are equally valid, and don't apply when you're dealing with a standard Mindy or Daisy unit.