Modding Gear: Tech and Attachments for Weapons, Armor, etc.

So, originally I wrote this thread trying to find materials I wrote for mods, attachments, and other gear. Long story short, I must've deleted it. So I posted this thread as a cop-out, saying a lot of this stuff is open-ended. As, being said, it becomes incredibly open-ended when you go beyond just thinking about conventional FRAG firearms that exist today.

BUT, I noticed I had a lot of half-referenced content pointing back here. And some of my own mental examples require this. So, feel free to consider this LESS of a cop-out. As I reintroduce examples of things that exist in the world.

That being said, AGAIN, this is more of an open-air list of suggestions and examples. Not a defacto hard-list of what's on the Galactic Marketplace.

Effectively, almost anything can go within the realm of reason for equipment modifications. The values used in the Biotech modifications listing, and general system, need not be applied as equally to weapon mods. Some might require more power, some less, some contextually, some broadly. And that could be between two different implementations of the same mod on different weapons, two of the same mod applied on weapons of the same type of weapon but made slightly differently by the same maker, or applying the same mod on entirely identical objects with only the mod quality to judge.

This gets even more expansive with additional questions. Can you mod artifacts? Would you want to? What are the consequences? And that's just a branching segment of ONE of those questions. I'll leave you with whatever other ones you can think up without spoiling them. As I think there are some REALLY NEAT ONES to be found.

I will, of course, work with players in making, acquiring, and getting their hands on things they want to earn. Keyword at the end there. But, in any event, here are some suggestions with approximate requirements drawn from the Technological Extrapolation thread. See such for a general approximation of standards, and what my sort of head-space is for what requirements tech should have.

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Tool / Weapon, Collapsible: Requires negligible Power and Size. Allows an item used as a tool, like weapons or hand tools, to collapse inwards upon themselves in ways that make them more convenient to wear or carry. Additionally, such often includes additional points or methods to secure said item to one’s body while collapsed, in addition to normal ones that might exist when at full size.

LAZ Firearm, Collapsible: Requires nothing. A common feature of LAZ firearms in general. The natural compactness of their design, and easily distributed parts, make it possible to fashion a LAZ weapon that naturally folds in on itself. Without any technology needed. Almost like a stapler in general shape, with a hinge between the upper and the grip, the tiniest of LAZ pistols can be folded down to 2.5”x4” , while larger and more powerful ones will bit a bit larger. This can also allow the firearm to be affixed via magnets, belt-clips, self-fastening bolts, or other useful technology. An interesting upgrade of this is the Magno-Lock system, detailed below.

Firearm / Tool, Laser Sight:  Requires small size, negligible power. Laser sights are totally in vogue. Useful when you need to know where you’re pointing your delete key at. Whether it’s a nail gun, or a space-rifle.

Firearm / Tool, Additional Grip: Requires small size. For when you need a hand; an extra one. Usually foregrips on rifles are the most common.

Firearm, Barrel-mounted Hiders and Suppressors: Requires small or medium size. Suppressors are an ancient invention for firearms, though they come in many different forms across many different firearms. LAZ, PLAZ, and ARC weapons are often limited to flash-hiders or pattern-specific chokes, as sound is not emitted from the barrel. Axion and Zero Firearms (bolters aside) have a similar problem in that their payloads are far beyond super-sonic.

Firearm / Projectile Launchers, Sights and Scopes: Requires small or medium size. Ubiquitous for many users of ranged weapons. Whether a simple red-dot sight, or a huge telescopic scope with integrated read-outs and HUD, firearms often make apt use of these.

Firearm, Heatsink Adapter and Magazine: Requires medium size. Only useful for conventional Axion, Zero, LAZ, PLAZ, HAZ, PHASE, and PULSE weapons. And even then, only useful for when they undergo regular, prolonged fire. Such weapons often have ammunition stores that allow for hundreds, if not thousands of shots in the case of Axion/Zero weapons, before it has to be replaced. But, such weapons may not be able to reliably, or even safely, lay down hundreds of rounds in quick succession. Most weapons such as these have emergency overheating measures, but such disables the gun from use while the heat levels readjust. But what a Heatsink Adapter does is allow Thermal Heatsinks to be loaded into the gun, much like an archaic FRAG weapon’s ammunition magazine, to immediately cool the weapon for continued use. Such can be done while firing, and often such heat sinks come with the option of programmable magazines that can automatically insert heat sinks once a certain level of heat-buildup is reached. Usually such magazines can only hold two-to-five heat sinks, depending on the size of your gun. A large pistol would get two, a full light-machine-gun would get five.

Firearm, Additional Barrel: Requires large size, significant weight, and sometimes low power. Additional barrels often invoke the image of a double-barreled assault or sporting rifle fed by a single store of ammunition. And while this can be done, and often is on simple sporting-or-convenience weapons, it is not the most common combat application. With the addition of more computerized components, a second barrel can be introduced to a firearm as a replacement for the first; almost exclusively for Axion, Zero, LAZ, PLAZ, HAZ, PHASE, and PULSE weapons which will be sustaining large volumes of prolonged fire. Two barrels allows for a short downtime between shots, while the action of performing a barrel-swap is done precisely and hands-free. Three barrels allows for a seamless transition of barrels. As a primary barrel initially fires, it transitions to a tertiary barrel that maintains said fire until a secondary barrel has replaced the primary. While each barrel adds continued weight to the firearm, so too does it extend the health and effectiveness of prolonged fire. Additionally, if the weapon also has a Heatsink Adapter, an inserted heat sink can be made to affect the inactive barrels as well as the one firing, allowing effectively all three barrels to be cooled at once, instead of having to worry about cooling each as they become inactive.

Any, Mass Manipulation System: Requires Large Power, and requires a greater Size depending on the size of the object being modified. Axion and Zero technology are at the core of many technologies in the galaxy. So it goes to say that they can improve existing technologies when employed. Mass manipulation systems are among some of the most attractive for augmentation. This technology is the very core of Grav / Fell and Light weapon technology, and is frequently applied to armor, tools, vehicles, and much more. Making a person’s datapad or favorite knife able to flight or be feather light is a convenience. Putting a mass-reduction system on a massive machine gun to make it wieldable by a soldier is a tactical asset. Putting an additional layer of recoil dampening on a marksman’s rifle makes it that much more dangerous.

Any, Network Uplink / Hardlink: Requires small size and small power. Tired of things like Smart Homes and the Internet-of-Things? Well, you got off the bus a thousand years too late. It’s more expansive than ever. With information readings from any number of tools or items able to give you effective read-back. Usually to one’s benefit. It only requires having an uplink to the item in question to receive the information. Some methods are better than others, but often the less secure ones are plenty cheap. And having your firearm give you detailed HUD information on its placement, ammunition count, heat-readings, and other things can be really helpful.

Any, Sensory Dampener: Requires small size and power. While not able to completely nullify sounds produced by a given object or impact surface, a combination of conventional padding or impact- material, intelligent employment of buffering nano-machines, and careful maneuvering can result in much quieter workspace interactions. Such can also be employed in similar ways to reduce glare, contain vapor or gas, and other small interference. Common in many firearms, in particular tools, and some pieces of apparel. Such subtle manipulations, focused on reducing practical impacts caused by the user, are effectively impossible to detect. Energy based weapons such as LAZ. PLAZ, or HAZARD weapons utilize these exclusively in place of things such as barrel-mounted suppressors. Scaled up versions of these are what effectively all but the most jaw-droppingly expensive and experimental starships utilize for stealth.

Almost Any, Magno-Lock: Small size on weapon, at least small size on person, and at least small power. Many Ancient Human myths depict weapons which fling back to their wielder when thrown. While normally reserved for heroes of godhood, this little trick is not terribly difficult to accomplish. Through the use of a simple computer system that links a weapon to a point on the wearer's body, most often a holster or an extremity, the user can recall pieces of equipment dropped nearby to return to a place of origin. Often this is an immediate, and direct, straight line. Intermidden objects or person that move in the way may get hit with the force of what is called a "dodgeball." Not particularly dangerous for a non-threatening object, but potentially painful, or harmful if the object is itself threatening. A larger size for the device on a person allows for multiple affix-points for the weapon, while the size is universally small for the weapon itself. Small power allows for a weapon to be returned safely to the wielder at a speed of twelve km/h from a maximum distance of three yards. Medium power allows for a weapon to be returned safely to the wielder at a speed of twenty km/h from a maximum distance of nine yards. Large power allows for a weapon to be returned safely to the wielder - at least usually - at a speed of thirty-six km/h from a maximum distance of twenty yards.

Any, Minor Propulsion: Requires small power and at least small size. Relegated to more of an ‘oomph’ than anything resembling prolonged motion. Minor propulsion systems are easy to implement through a specialized Z-Forge, or a specialized apparatus that interfaces with a more powerful one. The matter stores of a Z-Forge can offload size requirements down to small, but may render fuel stores insufficient for prolonged outings. For fueling a propulsion system that manipulates an object over thirty pounds regularly, external fuel stores should be considered, upping the size requirement to medium. Such is the standard for things such as Jump-Packs. While propulsion systems of small size are sometimes found on certain tools, weapons, and other pieces of equipment. Such also applies to jump-propulsion on vehicles, though – such heavy objects often need quite a few separate instances of such a propulsion system to achieve lift. Since this requires no external transmissions or nano-machines, jump packs and minor propulsion systems are seen as incredibly robust to hacking and sabotage.

Firearm, Targeting Assist: Requires medium power and small size. Through use of Nano-Machines capable of tracking a target based on laser designation, or based on target-recognition algorithms. These programs are able to compute simple ballistics within short range, tracking information can be computed in real time and processed into useful metrics. Such enables both HUD read-outs, but more importantly, physically manipulates the firearm to accentuate accuracy in the user. While a convenience for hobbyists, and useful perhaps in some combat circumstances, as they are very easily compromised via sabotage. Manipulating what the Nano-Machines track can potentially throw the aim-assist entirely out of whack, requiring the weapon to be reset before it can be used effectively. A short, but potentially fight-losing setback. A more drastic flaw when aim-assist is used on an automatic weapon with a high rate of fire, is that similar sabotage could result in the weapon being carefully manipulated to place shots back upon the user, with the possibility of a prolonged bout of fire resulting in the user injuring themselves before they realize something’s wrong.

Armor, Automatic Escape / Ejection: Requires medium size, and small power. Careful design of most armors, interfaced with a small controller that is most conveniently accessed with some form of organic I/O implant, can allow for swift escape from a suit of armor that has been decided to be inconvenient for the user. Often employed by the most highly armored soldiers and troops in the rare event they come across a hacker or assembler that renders their armor a hindrance. This allows the fighter to alter the situation, and potentially reset the force multiplier in their favor. Such systems may also allow wielded weapons to be retrievable, or immediately propelled to the user’s hands, or simply leave them where they are if they too would be a hindrance.

Any, Autonomous Repair: Requires large size, large power, and Z-Forge. The staple of starships and space-stations everywhere. Autonomous repair is a feature which is largely thought to have initiated the development of Z-Forge technology, which in turn has made it far easier to apply across the galaxy. Autonomous repair uses a set aside store of raw matter, or Z-Matter in the modern parlance, which can then be used by nano-machines to reconstruct and repair an object. Whether in real-time, or after a period of dormancy. Such requires substantial computing powers and data to give nano-machines the wherewithal to rebuild structures in real time, as well as the store of matter to do so. While somewhat uncommon on personal equipment, some of the highest class armors offer this as a method to persist through the most devastating conflicts.

Armor / Vehicle, Major Propulsion: Requires large size, large power, and external matter stores on person-sized implementations. Limited to objects whose weight (with occupant) is over one-hundred pounds. Major propulsion allows for fully fledged flight in lighter objects, and limited aerial capabilities in heavier objects (unless supplemented with more). Such require ample space to both produce the intended reactions, as well as compute the delicate trajectories needed to avoid the destruction of a squishy flesh body. This almost always requires an additional space to store matter needed to synthesize fuel for lift on person-sized targets. Greater data retrieval for use in automated trajectory plotting makes for more opportunities for sabotage, but often the effects of such are minor staggers and turbulence, and fully set aside after a period of dormancy or a reset.

Any, Stealth Field System: Requires large power and medium size. Also imposes a mandatory maximum size and mass for the object affected; effectively all organics and organic-like inorganic lifeforms can utilize this, but most EXO formats and Full-Plate armor cannot. Stealth field systems are costly, difficult to produce, but very valuable to those that utilize them. Stealth field systems use AI (non-sapient) trained to organic and inorganic sensory input. This AI then operates a concert of nano-machines, physical apparatuses, and Z-Forge materials to effectively mitigate as many forms of sensory data emitted by the wielder as possible. Beyond simple sound and sight, through dampening and cloaking.  From what are seen as other common organic senses like smell or touch, to ones not usually considered. Stealth Field Systems are not perfect, but are highly developed, and are developed over years to ascertain the necessary AI responses. When a Stealth Field system is in use, unique radar signatures, haze or fog-like almost, shroud an area. This gives the obvious impression that a stealth field has been in use in that area, but pinpointing exactly where is usually impossible with a typical or cursory surveillance scan. Such systems are always hard-wired or protectively insular, to be safe from hacks and most forms of sabotage. Though, specialist attacks against technology work well against these, such as Nanopulse weapons, or many assembler based attacks on nano-machines.