Kaiju City Defense

Note: I may develop the idea further at a later date. If so, this post will be updated.


The base idea may remind you of many anime of yesteryear: Monsters attack the city one at a time, and it’s up to you to defend it. But unlike Evangelion, GaoGaiGar, or Go-Busters, you don’t have a giant robot. Instead, you have conventional weapons. Fighter jets, tanks, SAMs, etc.

You are awarded a certain amount of money at the end of each in-game month, minus repair costs.

There are three phases to the game.

The downtime phase is the default state of the game. This is when you buy and upgrade things. (Towers, units, structural armor, underground storage, outposts, etc.) Time passes in an accelerated manner, how fast is up to the player. At the end of every month, the player gets a paycheck.

The preparation phase has you placing any purchased units and making any other preparations such as ammo selection. You will also receive intelligence concerning your foe. Depending on how good your detection systems are, you will receive information on the enemy’s location, form, and maybe even weaknesses.

The defense phase starts when the monster comes within range of your defenses. This progresses in real time, as it heads toward the center of the city. Once it gets there, it starts to dig. Whatever it wants, it’s underground. This also happens to be where your headquarters is, so the longer it attacks the more it could get damaged.

• Towers can be swapped out during the defense phase, though this takes time.
• Monsters change tactics in response to player defenses
• Conversation segments where you have to brownnose diplomats for extra budget?

Eclipse Phase character concepts

If you've read AREva, you know that I like tabletop RPGs. However, the reason I stopped writing it is because we stopped playing it. Why? Scheduling issues. This is the bane of any RPG, and it's the reason these characters never got the chance to be played. However, good characters should not go to waste. Even if I'll never get to play them, I hope that someone reading this might.

These characters were made for Eclipse Phase. It's a very strange setting that takes place ten years after the singularity- an event where technology advances so much it radically changes our nature. In Eclipse Phase, your body might be a suave-looking man, a sexy lady, a walking tank, even a cloud of nanomachines. Anything you have the money to buy.

My character in the game was based around the concept of forking- copying your mind into a new body. Whenever he goes to some place he hasn't been before, he somehow acquires a new body and forks his mind into it. The forked personality then connects to a network he has set up that lets him know where all of his kin are. This way, he knows if he already has family wherever he's going. The way this would've worked in-game is that whenever the party goes somewhere, the GM rolls a die to see if any of his kin are there. If so, the GM then rolls on a table of pre-made NPCs to see who the party might meet.

My friend's character was a bit less serious than mine, and is based pretty much entirely in gameplay, with no backstory. He had an affinity for cheap bodies, and stuck to them exclusively. This is because he went through them very quickly. His strategy in battle was to charge the enemy, attack until he's killed, and charge back in with a new body. In effect, a one man blitzkrieg. Our GM had nicknamed him "Kenny."

Even if I never get to experience these two, I hope someone else might be able to. As always, this post is under Creative Commons. So if this missive inspires you, feel free to run with it. Just be sure to credit me somewhere.

Infinite Raceworks

One problem I'd realized with Infinite Mechworks is that getting a mech to walk is actually pretty damn hard. And while being able to design your own mech is very cool, (some might even say awesome) it's not for the light-hearted. That said, being able to design your own machine is a very neat concept. And so, I thought the idea might be better suited to a racing game.

Specifically, a sci-fi racing game. Think of it as a mix of F-Zero, Wipeout, and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. In order to keep the construction from being too daunting, you have a small number of adjustable parts to construct a chassis. The rest of the vehicle's parts are logical; an engine, cockpit, thrusters, and a hull. Once assembled, the game draws power lines in the most efficient way it can think of. These lines can then be modified by the player if they so desire.

Once the vehicle has been constructed, the player assigns commands to buttons on their controller. (Or keys, if they're using a keyboard and mouse.) For example, moving the left stick left or would turn wind flaps on a hover vehicle, the right trigger would activate the force pads at a certain power and turn on the thrusters. A weight inside the vehicle allows it to bank, and is controlled by the bumpers. All of these commands are chosen by the player.

There are three kinds of vehicles, classed by their mode of transportation. Traditional vehicles race on wheels, modern vehicles use force pads to hover and jets for thrust, and hybrids hover but can strategically deploy wheels for traction. Like Infinite Mechworks, a simulator is available. One of the most important features of the simulator is a wind tunnel; aerodynamics can be extremely important, especially if you're using a hover vehicle.

Now for the game modes. You can participate in single races and tournaments as in any racing game, but various limited modes are available as well. In stock races, you are given the same vehicle as everybody else, and have to rely on pure skill. Fix-up races give you a stock vehicle, and some cash to spend upgrading it. Drag races give you a budget that you have to spend on making the fastest, most efficient machine possible. Darwinist races take place across several tracks, and racers have to exchange a certain number of parts between tracks. Survival races last until only one vehicle is left functional- vehicles are often modified with spike pistons and other weapons for this mode.

Infinite Mechworks

This is an idea I had for a game, with major inspiration from Battletech, Lego, and Fallout. Minor inspiration comes from Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Sound of the Sky/Sora no Woto, Big O, and probably a few other things I forgot about.

So, it’s a mech game. Where you build your own mech. But not like Armored Core or Front Mission, where you buy body parts and weapons and put them together to make a mech. No, this goes into much more detail. Instead of buying arms, legs, weapons, etc., you buy armor plates, servos, and so on. (Hence Lego and Nuts & Bolts.) If designing parts is too much for you, you can buy schematics, or buy them pre-assembled.

Of course, you can try out your mech in a simulation to see how well it works. At first, your simulation only covers movement. You can buy software that contains extra simulations, for a price. (Or just pirate it, if you have the connections. The quality of the software varies, depending on where you get it from. Cracked simulations might be unreliable, honeypots, or just plain inaccurate.) Purchasable simulations include AIs to fight, firing ranges, obstacle courses, and so on.

The setting may seem a bit familiar to some of you. Some time in the future from our perspective, there was a war. A very large war, fought with weapons of immense power. This sent civilization back a few hundred years, but things have recovered since then. Modern technology is inspired by pre-war tech, but is has simpler construction and materials. Thus, mechs are common but lack the power and strength of their inspiration. (Hence Fallout, Sound of the Sky, and Big O.)

In the game, there are two kinds of components you can buy. Modern components are of varying quality, but are common and will work with almost anything. Components usually only work with other components from the same manufacturer, due to different standards. However, you can buy bridges that let you mix brands. Pre-war components are rare and expensive, but incredibly powerful. You can use them with modern components via a bridge, (or just by soldering it on in the case of armor plates) but the added power and stress costs means the resulting mech probably won’t last long.

The player receives job offers via email. What jobs you’re offered depend on your notoriety. These missions are from various interested parties such as corporations, governments, or just anybody with cash. You can also explore the world map, delving into ruins. However, all the low-hanging fruit was picked clean long ago. The only ruins left to explore are either treacherous to navigate, claimed by someone, or well guarded.

Like Snatch, but with cyberpunk (sort of)

The setting is inspired by Ghost in the Shell, but the game itself would be a lot closer to Shadowrun. Full-body cyborgs* exist, but are uncommon. The PC just so happens to be a full-body cyborg. Since he's an enforcer for a mobster, this comes in handy. One day he tries to screw over his boss, and gets put in a sexbot for his disloyalty. His first task is to shut up a mole for a rival mobster. It's possible to sell yourself to the other guy, but only if you do it right.

From here, you have a few options. Work for your boss and gradually regain his trust, or betray him and work for his rival. Each path has its own quests and storyline associated with it, as well as an ending.

Or, you could try to take down both bosses yourself. Might not want to do this right away, though. Keep doing jobs and making friends. Buy a safehouse. Once you're well-connected enough, you might just be able to pull off a mutiny. You can do it any time you want, but you might want to check if your friends have your back.

You upgrade by buying better bodies, armor, weapons, and firmware. You can also upgrade what you already have. Since your inventory is limited to what you could realistically carry, it's a good idea to invest in some built-in tools for your body. All the bodies you buy stay with you, and you pick which one you want to use for the mission. You can also arrange for a drop at a predetermined location, in case you need to swap during the mission.

*People with just a brain and some spine to call their own. Everything else is robotic.

Cat and mouse TPS

As the "cat", the player chases somebody through a procedurally generated urban environment. The player is always locked on to the target, and can adjust their aim with the mouse/right analog stick. Of course, the player has to dodge obstacles as well as whatever the "mouse" is throwing at them.

As the "mouse", the player is running away from somebody through the same environment. The difference here is that the player needs to get to a designated location. In order to lose your purseuer, you can shoot at things to create obstacles, take tight turns, go in unexpected directions, etc.

No matter who the player plays as, the game is about speed and quick reflexes.

Idea for an eroge

There are two kinds of eroge. Those that are plot with porn, and those that are porn with plot. This is the former, with the tropes of the latter.

A normal, average Japanese teenager wakes up to a normal day. At the breakfast table, his little sister seems a bit more reserved than usual. At school, he finds that his childhood friend is a bit shy about talking to him. The class president barks at him rather harshly- more so than usual. Everything seems a little bit off. It isn't for a few days that he realizes that he's in an eroge- a very smutty one at that. People he's known for his entire life have been reduced to stereotypes. Needless to say, he doesn't take this very well. After a slight internal breakdown, the game's first choice is presented.

This is where the game's save system comes into play. You see, this game doesn't have a normal save system. Instead, it tracks which choice points you've encountered, and which choices you've taken. As the game progresses this becomes a large map, filling itself with your choices. At any time you can exit to this map and go to any other point in the game you've already been to. This is essentially an automation of what eroge players already do- make a map of choices and save at every opportunity. The catch is that the PC remembers his choices, and new ones appear as he gathers more intel. Thus, the player might want to go down a bad end in order to learn something.

Colliding Worlds

I thought of this on the bus. Here's the chat I had with Blackmoon when I bounced the game idea off him. Additional notes are below.

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Joel:

I had an interesting idea for a game on the bus home.

Ever played Knytt?

mysticblackmoon:

Nope.

Joel:

Well, it's a bit like a Metroidvania, only there's no specific order and very few enemies.

Really though, the focus is the scenery porn.

mysticblackmoon:

Alright.

Joel:

Look it up some time.

Anyway, my idea was pretty much that, only in 3D and with Mirror's Edge or Assassin's Creed-style parkour.

mysticblackmoon:

Hm.

So it'd be kinda like the 2008 Prince of Persia, but not suck?

Joel:

Yeah.

Oh, and I liked that game.

mysticblackmoon:

It was pretty, but not fun.

Joel:

Well, I liked it. I guess we can agree to disagree.

I was thinking that the setting would be a bunch of different landscapes sort of shoved together.

mysticblackmoon:

Indeed.

Hm.

Joel:

If you can't imagine what I'm talking about, think a patchwork map.

mysticblackmoon:

No, I kinda kinda imagine.

Joel:

The plot (or what little plot there'd be) would be about this.

Basically, something has caused these plots of land to be removed from their original place and be smooshed together here. In order to get the land (and yourself) back to their original places, you have to collect these MacGuffins.

mysticblackmoon:

Hm.

You think you'll ever work on it?

Joel:

Maybe.

I'll put what I just said on my blog.

If I ever have the resources to make this kind of game, I'll probably go digging through my blog for inspiration.

That's where Obake came from, actually.

mysticblackmoon:

I see.

Joel:

Yeah.

It's very useful that way.

----

The PC is a short-haired blond women, possibly wearing a white hoodie. The parkour person with a hoodie is kind a cliché, though. I'm not sure if I want to do that. Hope is a possible name for the character. Dunno why.

As I hinted, the main focus of the game is the scenery porn. The plot coupons and parkour are there to give the game some actual content. Scenery porn is like a condiment- if used right, it can make something much better. It just can't work by itself.

The plot coupons give Hope knowledge and abilities. Say, the first plot coupon she picks up lets her sense what general direction plot coupons are in. Others might improve her parkour. In fact, maybe this is how she learns it. This also lets us explain the plot easily. Whenever she picks up a coupon, we're treated to a little video that shows what Hope has learned. Again, easy plot device.

Just an idea I had.

I first typed this up stream-of-consciousness to a friend of mine via GTalk, so that's why the paragraph breaks are the way they are.

The protagonist is a normal guy in high school/college/whatever fits the story best.

He's also kind of a loser.

So, this girl he's had a crush on for a while finally starts to take interest in him.

And becomes his girlfriend.

And has sex with him.

And becomes subservient to him.

And so does everybody else- he suddenly starts getting better grades, etc.

I'm not when he'd realize this, but he's a subconscious reality warper, not unlike Haruhi.

Even when he realizes this though, he can't control it.

The world starts to seem like a dream.

I'm not sure where I'd go from there, but whatever happens would be very fucked up, mind-boggling, weird, and very, very, interesting.

Escape From San Francisco

I've always thought that San Francisco is a beautiful city. I've also wondered why no sandbox games are set there. Sure, San Andreas has something resembling it and Crackdown is obviously inspired by it, but there's no games that actually take place in the city. I for one, would like to change that.

I don't have much of a plot yet, so for now I'll just put out bullet points.

• The PC is a cyborg- I've always liked the concept of a cyborg. The augs should be pretty obvious- it looks cool, and shows who and what the PC is.
• Mechanical monsters called "Jackals". Ten foot long black quadrupedal hunters with huge claws and more flexibility than seems possible. Nanotech, maybe? They also have hexagonal half-domes in place of heads. It's one big sensory organ- they can't sense anything else. It detects various forms of radiation (including visible light) and sound. The Jackals also have a very good sense of direction, and will not stop at any cost.
• Ooh! A revelation! The PC is an early cyborg, hence the appearance. The Jackals based off newer tech, which uses nanomachines to do most of the work. There should be big dudes with nanoaugs as well.
• The player should be able to move through the city very easily. Something a little like what games like Just Cause 2 and Prototype do. Some way for the player to get in the air quickly and easily. I also liked the building climbing of Assassin's Creed, The Saboteur, and Crackdown. Maybe have something like that, but more flashy and automated? Euphoria or another similar engine might be a good choice.

Shiny New Australia

An idea for a manga or something I had a while ago. One person (Let's call him Bob for now) has conquered the world. As a gift, he's given Australia to his best friend Alice. Alice believes that what Bob has done is utterly wrong, and does everything in her power to dethrone Bob and free the world.

So she accepts.

Well, she accepts, but she's really preparing for a huge coup, dismantling Bob's power in the meanwhile via underhanded trickery and other tactics worthy of a true Chessmaster.

Unfortunately, that's all I have for now. I'll have to mention this to some tropers, see what they think of it.

Unperfect Utopia

Fuck Utopia (Idea for GTA-esque game)

What would the underworld of a utopia look like?

I'd thought of both these ideas a while ago, but I never thought of putting them together. I might have to make this into a game one day.

Ideas;

• PC is an average Joe who starts to notice that he doesn't actually enjoy the utopia he lives in. He decides to do something about it, by causing chaos. Make things a bit more interesting. As the game progresses, he starts to seriously think about toppling the utopia.
• The game takes place in the capital city of the utopia. It is very clean, with an emphasis on bright solid colors.
• At the start of the game, the cops are unarmed, and mostly doing things like helping kittens out of trees. There's no crime, so the police is unable to deal with serious threats, such as yourself. This will help the player ease themselves into the game, and shows the state of the city. As the game progresses, they become better armed, more numerous, and smarter. In general, the police represents the state of the city.
• Everything is destructible, with destroyed things slowly rebuilding themselves via some sort of applied phlebotinum. Probably nanotech.
• What allies would you have? Maybe the underground I mentioned in one of the threads. Mr. Cales has a very nice idea there.
• The game's story changes depending on your actions. Not by way of choosing "good" or "evil" missions, but your general conduct.  A "good" PC will be a revolutionary figure, while an "evil" PC will be an immoral bastard in it for the fun. A "neutral" PC wants to topple the utopia, but hasn't given much thought into what comes after. He figures somebody will pick up the pieces, just not him.

Haven

This is something I made up in the shower (yet again) for Mach Racing. It's based on Big Blue and Green Plant from F-Zero, but most of it is my own material.

---

Haven lives up to its name in many ways. For some, it is a welcome retreat from their daily life. For other, richer folk, it is a place to live in solace. For those who wish to stay away from the public eye for whatever reason, it is a welcome hiding place.

It is a beautiful planet, its biosphere preserved by law of the local government. Human settlements are few and far between, separated from the rest of the area by powerful force fields.

Because the biosphere is so closely guarded, the populace can not feed off of it. Thus, Haven imports almost all of its necessities. Thus, a few sacrifices have been made. For example, race tracks have been built within various settlements for racers to compete in, but more importantly to provide the government with much-needed income. There are currently two such tracks on the planet, but there are plans for a third.

The first is built within the capital- or rather entwines it. The track dives and meanders between the buildings and the trees. It is somewhat controversial due to the noise and the way the track is built, but this will be rectified as soon as enough money is raised.

The second is built in one on Haven's floating cities. It goes above the main shopping district, passing by the commercial sectors, strategically avoiding the residential district but staying close to it, and finally going into the ocean. The course is a huge boon to the city, though it does have its detractors.

Shmup idea

Something I came up with recently. It's your standard vertical shmup with lots of bullets flying, big bosses, etc.

The special thing about this game is the customization. You can grab scrap metal from downed enemy ships to upgrade your ship in various ways. You could give yourself another gun, upgrade one of your current guns, fortify the hull, increase the ship's speed, whatever you want. Or, you could use the scrap to make an option a la Gradius. You also have different kinds of options, besides the usual extra gun. You can make an option that grabs scrap metal, an option that acts as a shield, or simply give an option a gun. The options themselves can be upgraded. For example, you could make a collector able to carry more stuff. You could also make it more durable, more maneuverable, etc.

What I'm trying to do with this game is to make sure that the player always has an objective beyond "get to the end of the level". I want to make sure that the player can always get more powerful. I expect that when I start to actually make the game, I'll be spending a lot more time making more and more upgrade paths than I will designing the levels.

Edit: This game is now under development. I'm working with some of the other Kunin people on it. For now, it's called Obake, though that is subject to change as there's already a game with that name.

Anyway, we're still in the concept stage as of now. (12-04-2009) I hope this turns out good.

Two more weapons

These ideas have been in my head for a while now, and I might have mentioned them before. For some reason, I've never written them down before. I typed this up after I read this thread on the TV Tropes fora.

Modded Jackhammer
Setting: Near-future, with a ton of Black Box-driven future tech
Plausibility: Possible, but might be cumbersome, unreliable, or inefficient
Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. An auto-shotgun based on the Pancor Jackhammer that can fire three different kinds of ammo. I might discard the Jackhammer idea however, and use an original design. Possibly one with three barrels, one for each ammo type. Said ammo types are; Standard 12 gauge shell, Dragon's Breath, and slugs.

Lightweight SMG
Setting: Same as above.
Plausability: Would probably work
A smallish submachine gun with a large cylindrical magazine. The main gimmick is that it's meant to be held Guns Akimbo. The recoil is low and the ammunition is caseless, so you don't need to worry about ejecting shells hitting you in the face. I even made a model in SketchUp. It also has a grip and laser sight in case you only have one, or don't have the Powered Armor it was designed for. (Said Powered Armor includes sight lines extending from the barrel as part of its HUD)

Three game ideas

Heroic Bloodshed Third-Person Shooter

The plot of this one will be worked out at a later date, and frankly it's not important. For a game like this, the plot is just windowdressing. The gameplay is standard TPS fare, but with your character growing in power as he racks up combos. The game starts off fairly realistic, but as your combo increases the art becomes more stylized, and so does the gameplay. You can pull off stunts, land precision hits without aiming, and do other fantastic things. This also affects things such as your health, enemy AI, and your ammo count. You have no HUD, letting the game manipulate the variables from behind the scenes.

Forever War

The setting is similar to Total Annihilation. Civilization got destroyed long ago and the military are the only survivors, fighting for a cause long forgotten. Soldiers are cloned and raised from birth to fight. As the campaign goes on, you gradually learn the cause of the war. So far, I have three ideas for the backstory.

1. The War was started by two generals who loved nothing but war. They conspired to create a climate of endless conflict to make their own paradise, at the expense of everyone else. Through advances in nanotechnology, they are still alive, and are still commanding their armies in their hellish paradise.
2. The same two generals created the war, but they're long dead. Nobody has any idea what's going on, just that everybody on the other side has to die.
3. The original conflict was small, and escalated out of proportion. It kept growing, until it engulfed all of civilization.

I'll probably end up using the first scenario, but the second might be a better choice.

The protagonist is a commander in one of these two armies, and eventually discovers the reason behind the madness. Seeing how pointless it all is, he strives to stop it the only way he knows how. War. He gathers people from both sides and leads a rebellion, taking on both sides at once.

The gameplay will be similar to that of a normal RTS, but on a planet-wide scale. Instead of bases, you have gigantic cities. Instead of units, you have armies. Despite the apparent similarities to the 4X genre, there is little to no micromanaging. Your cities automatically expand and gather resources to expand your control over the planet, and new cities are even made without you choosing where to put them. You just give the general orders. (i.e. "Expand this way, and focus on building mechanized infantry.")

Revolution

A sidescrolling shooter with themes of revolution and war. Each locale has its own color palette, reflecting the state of that area. You start as a revolutionary, helping to free a country from its oppressive regime. After many struggles, you finally dispose your rulers After this, you take help the rest of the world, destroying other totalitarian powers. Some see these acts as ones of heroism, while others say that your government is unjustly imposing its will on other countries when it has no right to. Eventually this results in an all-out war against your regime. Thanks to your efforts, you stay in power. Eventually, the protagonist realizes that the revolution he once supported has become the very thing it was fighting against, and takes his own life.

Survival horror war game

Most survival horror games tend to do with the supernatural. Resident Evil and Silent Hill are examples. However, I think that it might be scarier if there are no supernatural elements. Just reality. Now, what's the scariest place that can be seen in real life? War. In this game, you would be a civilian trying to escape a war-torn city. Just about anybody with a gun would fire on you, due to the heightened tension. Grab one if you want, but it would slow you down and make you a lot noisier. You'd also have the option of putting on a dead soldier's uniform, but soldiers might not be convinced of your disguise. If they seem suspicious of you, your best bet is to run.

The idea might need some tweaking, but I think it's pretty good. Also, what war should it should be set in? The Iraq War? Vietnam? World War II? Maybe a fictional war set Twenty Minutes Into The Future?

A better question is why I get my best ideas at one in the morning?

RTS game about the apocalypse

Just an idea I had a while ago.

So it's time for the apocalypse. Heaven and Hell are waging war on Earth, and humanity's cought in the crossfire. The nations of the world decide that they don't want this war, and don't want the world to end. So they fight back.

Heaven would probably be the faction most suited to newcomers to the genre, with powerful units being unlocked fairly early on. As a trade-off, they don't have any uber-powerful units. Hell would start out pretty weak but they get some great powers and debuffs. However, these powers require sacrafices, and are most of Hell's strength. Fortunately, they have a ''lot'' of sacrafices. Earth on the other hand, has TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture technology. Their campaign ends with them nuking Dis.

Also, both heavenly and infernal forces have upgraded their weapons since biblical times. Earth still has the best stuff, but their tanks can't shoot hellfire.

Bloodplast

Bloodplast is a very useful substance. You know how in some first-person shooter video games you can heal your wounds just by waiting a bit? Bloodplast attempts to recreate this, sort of. When a puncture wound is sustained on a suit of armor equipped with bloodplast, the stuff will expand to fill the gap and harden upon exposure to the air. It also helps soften blows. This is by no means a substitute for armor repairs, but it's the best we can manage. Bloodplast is also easier to destroy than the standard plates, due to its nature.

Keep in mind that you have a limited supply of bloodplast. To refill, inject a bloodplast syringe (the contents should be an opaque white) into the marked spot on the side of the plate over your heart. (Assuming that it's on the left.) There should be a small aperture that will open when the syringe is inserted. Once the bloodplast has been injected into the suit, wait a second and then hit the area with a fist. After the first whack, the bloodplast will begin circulating. NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO INJECT BLOODPLAST INTO ONE'S OWN CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. DOING SO WILL RESULT IN DEATH.

A character and some weapons

Gasp! A new post! Anyway, I've thought of quite a few things for Leonidas or Whatever I'm Going to Call This* over the past few days, such as weapons, a new character, and some badass creeds for the characters. Without further ado, let the blah commence!

Sniper: I'm not sure what to name this guy, mostly because I haven't decided on his heritage and personality. His weapons are an Akimborama** personal defense weapon for close encounters, and two shoulder-mounted computer-aided low recoil sniper rifles described below that are attached to his suit. He takes good care of them.

He will not be a Cold Sniper, but I haven't decided on his personality yet.

Sniper's special rifle: This isn't a customized rifle. This is an entirely new design built by RND specifically for its owner. It is a very long gun, almost Freudian in its proportions. The fact that it is also a part of its master's suit helps him steady the gun and handle the recoil. The gun is also entirely ambidextrous, allowing two of the beasts to be attached to one suit and subsequently dual-wielded.

It also is on a slide for when not in use. when the gun's master no longer needs his trustworthy companion, he will simply raise it up and slide it down along a mechanism built into the weapon. Once the gun has found its temporary resting place, it fits snugly across the back of its master's suit. When the weapon is needed again, it can be brought out is a second. Reloading is equally painless, as the magazine is stored on top for easy access and replacement.

If some long-range sniping is required, the gun's onboard camera will activate and zoom in, augmenting the user's manipulations of the controls with its own fine adjustments. The gun's master need not look through the camera itself- he can look through the camera and see what his gun sees. The controls are located on the handle for easy access.

Another fine feature of the rifle is the Gauss Accelerator at the end of the barrel. When the gun is fired, an electromagnet at the end of the barrel will activate, assisting the stalwart bullet on its journey. Once the projectile has passed, the electromagnet's job is done and thus it deactivates.

Super-silenced pistol: A long-range pistol used by this guy for when he needs to be stealthy. Considering his audacious personality and the company he keeps, it doesn't get much use. The design is now being used by the Japanese military.

The pistol is pretty normal, except that it uses rather large ammunition (caseless rifle rounds) and is entirely encased in a soundproof plastic and rubber combination. Because of these factors, the only sound from the gun that is audible to the ear is the click of the trigger, which is not covered for obvious reasons.

The weapon is notable for being completely silenced, yet very powerful due to the chosen cartridge. However, because of the chosen ammunition, the handle is somewhat long and has been padded at the sides to make up for this. The rounds are also slanted, and pushed into their correct position when loaded into the chamber.

The result is a totally silent handgun that can blow your arm off. What's not to like?

*I'm thinking I might use "Wars of Our Sons" as a title. How's that sound?

** Designed to be dual-wielded, but works great if one is held with both hands.