Hmm... Experiment, if you please?
"I think of it this way; She is able to speed along the ground due to these jets, but then, that is the point: She is still on the ground. Therefore, there is DEFINATELY something stopping her, and that is obvious. Maybe gravity combined with her weight halts her ability to go straight upward? I mean, I have no idea how heavy she is, but it could be plausible.
"In essence, I am saying that, combined with the force of downward gravity on her structure's weight, she would not be able to get any good upward motion. I mean, Combat Jump height would probably be feasible, but the jets would probably cut out from over-exhertion."
Or perhaps he is making stuff up. I would personally wait for the smart people, not the practical joker, but still...
[Edit: Or, something else I just thought up...
She has a human brain, right? Perhaps it IS possible for her jets to do that, but she just won't. Reason? Perhaps she has a fear of heights.
I know, weird answer, but it just came to me after posting.[/Edit]
Well.....
Crash's nozzles could work like a hovercraft, simply putting a cushion of air underneath herself would allow for hover inches off the ground only and not full flight.
I wasn't sure if you meant either, the rockets shot her hands toward an object striking the object with her hands, or if the exhaust part of the rockets on her hands hit the oncoming object with air pressure.
Well you might have to change her powers a tad for this part to work: Instead of having her rockets thrust her hands *INTO* the truck, have the rockets reverse and hit the truck with Jet like exhaust (which is powerful enough to blow over a truck, ive seen videos). All the while her Leg and back rockets push in the opposite direction , which would keep Crash stable. You could also so that the Extreme thrust into air isnt possible because whenever her Truck stopping move is active her other rockets automatically counter the force. Which means she would'nt be able to propel herself upwards even if she had wanted too. 
or you could get SJ
"PvP Messiah"
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In essence, I am saying that, combined with the force of downward gravity on her structure's weight, she would not be able to get any good upward motion. I mean, Combat Jump height would probably be feasible, but the jets would probably cut out from over-exhertion.
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Combat Jumping height is about all I'm after. Perhaps more, but with the way jump height scales in this game (judging from Super Jump), I'd say Comabt Jumping is about right.
The problem I keep running against, however, is the same as why firearms can't really knock a person back. Because if they could, they'd knock the shooter back an equal distance. Only in my case, it goes like - if Crash can counter the force of a truck colliding with her, what's stopping her from generating the same force?
However, your comment about "force of downward gravity on her structure's weight" has me intrigued.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I wasn't sure if you meant either, the rockets shot her hands toward an object striking the object with her hands, or if the exhaust part of the rockets on her hands hit the oncoming object with air pressure.
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A rocked-propelled punch is the essence of it. As long as her skeleton can handle it, the boost the nozzles provide just gives her punch extra kinetic force.
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You could also so that the Extreme thrust into air isnt possible because whenever her Truck stopping move is active her other rockets automatically counter the force.
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I tried the software limitation angle before, but I have a chior of geniuses who'd be more than willing to fiddle with her software and upgrade it. It's human technology, after all. Then I'd have to go into what they can and can't do, why and a whole can of worms.
BUT
I have one even better that still works with your basic premesis. Let's assume that the thrust from the nozzles is VERY powerful. Too powerful to propel her body up into the air without causing some kind of structural damage, or at the very least seriously taxing either the overall skeletal structure or the mounts of the nozzles.
Simply put, trying to jump up on the nozzles for any significant distance would require them to produce acceleration so powerful that it would run the risk of damaging things. Even a small hop would not be worth the stress, specifically when Crash'es limbs can produce jumps higher than is safe for the nozzles.
Simply put, the jet nozzles produce a LOT of thrust. They have some degree of control, but the technology is such that even at its lowest settings, it's still a heck of a lot. So when she has to counter forces lower than the lowest power threshold of her jets, the corresponding set of jets fire in the reverse direction, stabalising the forces. In fact, in this instance it might be simpler to go with acelleration, as I don't want to limit the stress factor on her skeleton in such a way.
So, yeah, I think that'll work. Thanks, guys
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Cooool
"PvP Messiah"
It sounded to me like you would be better served with Super Speed...
That or no travel powers at all, just fitness pool boosting your running speed or jumping height.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
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It sounded to me like you would be better served with Super Speed...
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Actuall, I did take Super Speed for Crash. At the time, I had no particular reason to take it, other than I had Super Jump and Flight and Teleport didn't fit her. However, recently I tried to picture her moving quickly, and the "anime slide" was the first thing that came to my mind. It looked really, really cool in my head, so I went looking for ways to justify it
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I had a thought prompted by her organic component rather than her robotic ones. A lot of injuries in car crashes and similar situations are brain injuries caused by the brain bouncing around in the skull due to severe deceleration.
Theoretically, Crash would suffer similar problems - depending on whatever extra shock-absorbing technology her titanium skull contains.
The core of your concept seems to be that she is the 'immovable object' when she wants to be. Perhaps that can all be tied in to protecting her organic brain from shock. As in your example - colliding with a truck would seriously injure a normal human - even in advanced cybernetic armour - if there wasn't some mechanism to absorb the shock and g-forces. Crash's jet-nozzle system seems designed to do just that.
But - if the nozzles are fired directly against gravity (as in a full-fledged attempt at flight) then her brain will be subjected to significant g-forces.
If I remember rightly, normal humans black-out around 8-10 Gs. Perhaps because Crash does not have a 'natural' biochemistry any more she is more likely to black-out at lower Gs - hence she cannot just blast-off whenever she feels like it and is limited to relatively gentle motions, such as her 'aerial glide'?
This is not perfect of course - you are dealing with forces that follow relatively simple laws, and you are trying to twist those laws so that Crash can do one thing (stop a truck without budging) and not another (flying) both of which are simple cases of energy and intertia.
As you also state that she has a team that could fairly easily overcome any technical obstacles then I think you need to look at biological limitations such as I've set out or psychological ones that have been raised such as fear of heights.
I see that your question has been answered but I also noticed that you hadn't thought of anything about how her muscles operated. A standard that I work almost all of my robots from is the concept of myomer.
Myomer is the term for a bundle of metallic fibers that are wound together and then attached to the chasis of the machine much in the same way that muscles are to bone. By applying an electrical charge, the myomer tightens exactly like regular muscles do. The more powerful the charge, the faster the myomer tightens. Of course one drawback is that an uncontrolled electrical surge, perhaps from combat damage, could cause the myomer muscles to flex erratically and may cause more damage to the frame.
I got this concept from Battletech and it's served me well so far.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Yeah, billions of people have now answered your question. XD But I have a simple thought of my own.
Say perhaps the jets could propel her into the air.
But she's gotta land. It seems highly probable to me that jets designed to super-charge punches, stop trucks, and super speed all over are not really gonna be designed to cushion a fall. Or to produce jumps that are at all easy to control. Software can only do so much, y'know. XD;;
And while perhaps her body could take it, it seems rather unlikely that it would be faster, or at all a good idea, to turn oneself into a high-tech, powerful cyborg shooting star. On the plus side, though, she'd definitely live up to her name. :P
But I don't know much about this stuff, so maybe there's already a foil for this. XD
I will try my hand at this.
Someone stated earlier about g's knocking out a human. I thought of something similar. In boxing you get a KO if you hit a guy in the right place and hard enough to move the skull and not the brain. The brain hits the side of the skull and thats what turns the lights out. I am sure the instant acceleration of a jet propulsion powerful enough to send a human sized chunk of metal 100's of feet in the air would be much more powerfu than a knockout blow. Her brain would hit the bottom of her metal casing probably hard enough to have the watermelon from ten stories above effect. Splort! You could have some advanced cushioning around her brain but technology isn't a cure-all.
Knockout effect wouldn't happen when she stops the truck either. She is not moving so her metal casing doesn't hit her brain.
I liked the myomer muscles. I don't know if I would call them that. Not sure if it is an actual term or a game term. I avoid terms from other games.
And for people arguing that she could get tech upgrades. Maybe she doesn't want any. Maybe the process of getting the metal body hooked into her brain was traumatic or painful so she doesn't want any more. To get an upgrade she has to go through intense trauma/emotion/pain/memories.
Personally i'd be wondering what would be powering these jets. I mean, that's actually the 'android/cyborg problem' isn't it? Does she need to eat? Does she require direct sunlight? Is it a battery?
No matter what it is, discharging that much energy in one direction would have some consequences. How heavy is she? If she's pushing the truck with her arms, what's keeping her body from going flying? The answer to that would, of course, be a counterthrust through her shoulders.
It still creates a problem, one I thought of for a bit and came up with a solution:
Instead of jets, how about magnets? This would solve a few things: You could have them wired to her brain somehow, and have her skeleton covered with them like muscles, so this magnetic force moves the body as well as offers its chief form of strength.
And magnetics aren't JUST restricted to metal. Gravity itself is like a gigantic magnet after all.
Plus it would give the 'No Flight' thing some merit: if she hovers, there's nothing for the magnets to be drawn to. Add to that possessing a human brain wouldn't allow her to make the obscenely high-end calculations needed for superjump.
Wow, a lot of good answers, and I like them all!
GreyScribe and Blood_Wolffe, I'd like to address your posts together, because they complement each other.
GreyScribe
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I had a thought prompted by her organic component rather than her robotic ones. A lot of injuries in car crashes and similar situations are brain injuries caused by the brain bouncing around in the skull due to severe deceleration.
Theoretically, Crash would suffer similar problems - depending on whatever extra shock-absorbing technology her titanium skull contains.
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Excellent! Excellent, excellent, excellent! Why try to twist on the upgradable mechanics when I can rely on the unupgradable biological parts. That will work.
GreyScribe
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If I remember rightly, normal humans black-out around 8-10 Gs. Perhaps because Crash does not have a 'natural' biochemistry any more she is more likely to black-out at lower Gs - hence she cannot just blast-off whenever she feels like it and is limited to relatively gentle motions, such as her 'aerial glide'?
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A bit of a limitation on your idea, but not as much as it appears. That's 8G of sustained acelleration for trained air-force pilots, and it comes from the flow of blood pooling at their legs and starving their brains of oxigen. At impact, I beelieve a human brain can survive a lot more without significant injury. But then:
Blood_Wolffe
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Someone stated earlier about g's knocking out a human. I thought of something similar. In boxing you get a KO if you hit a guy in the right place and hard enough to move the skull and not the brain. The brain hits the side of the skull and thats what turns the lights out. I am sure the instant acceleration of a jet propulsion powerful enough to send a human sized chunk of metal 100's of feet in the air would be much more powerfu than a knockout blow. Her brain would hit the bottom of her metal casing probably hard enough to have the watermelon from ten stories above effect. Splort! You could have some advanced cushioning around her brain but technology isn't a cure-all.
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Blood_Wolffe has a very elegant solution to this problem. Static or gradual loads, such as G-force from maneuvring a jet at high speeds tend to be much smaller than dynamic loads, such as acheived through collision for only fractions of the second. A human body dropping from 10 feet and landing on their head, for example, generate G in the dozens for just the instant of impact. And that ties in with something Hallucinogen said:
Hallucinogen
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And while perhaps her body could take it, it seems rather unlikely that it would be faster, or at all a good idea, to turn oneself into a high-tech, powerful cyborg shooting star. On the plus side, though, she'd definitely live up to her name. :P
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That, while I'm not sure it was intended like that, plays on my original idea of a limiting factor. The jet nozzles produce a LOT of force, even on their minimum settings. So if Crash tried to use them to jump, they'd shoot her straight up into the air with enough force to cause some serious brain trauma. That'll work perfectly
Hallucinogen
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But she's gotta land. It seems highly probable to me that jets designed to super-charge punches, stop trucks, and super speed all over are not really gonna be designed to cushion a fall. Or to produce jumps that are at all easy to control. Software can only do so much, y'know. XD;;
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And that is true, as well. Her jet nozzles are calibrated for high impact force to squeeze every last bit of power from them. What this means is that they're not very good at low-power burtst. Trying to use them for a landing is like trying to hammer a nail with a jackhammer. Of course, she is sturdy enough to weather a significant fall without serious damage purely on structural strength and muscule tension.
PlagueOfUndeath
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Personally i'd be wondering what would be powering these jets. I mean, that's actually the 'android/cyborg problem' isn't it? Does she need to eat? Does she require direct sunlight? Is it a battery?
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I like the self-contained power source idea, as used in things like The Red Planet (a nuclear reactor for the robot thing) or Unreal 2 (a fusion pack in in the unlimited ammo pistol). I'm not exactly sure on the technicalities, but I'm liable to go with Buzz Lightyear's crystallic fusion idea.
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Instead of jets, how about magnets? This would solve a few things: You could have them wired to her brain somehow, and have her skeleton covered with them like muscles, so this magnetic force moves the body as well as offers its chief form of strength.
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Magnetics is a cool idea, but I'd like to keep her "nozzle" concept seperate from the mechanical locomotion of her body. I can go with magnetics, actually. I never intended for these jet nozzles to be air and fuel-based. More like bursts of condensed energy of some sort. No reason that condensed energy can't be electro-magnicity. That will also give me a good excuse for why they have a cool-down - the condensors need to build up their charge between use. It would also make me limit them to single burts, however, which I'm not very comfortable with, so I'll have to invent some science to work this in I'm thinking I could model electro-magnicity after a physical model of air flowing through a narrow point, and I suppose that will work.
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Khellendrosiic
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I see that your question has been answered but I also noticed that you hadn't thought of anything about how her muscles operated. A standard that I work almost all of my robots from is the concept of myomer.
Myomer is the term for a bundle of metallic fibers that are wound together and then attached to the chasis of the machine much in the same way that muscles are to bone. By applying an electrical charge, the myomer tightens exactly like regular muscles do. The more powerful the charge, the faster the myomer tightens. Of course one drawback is that an uncontrolled electrical surge, perhaps from combat damage, could cause the myomer muscles to flex erratically and may cause more damage to the frame.
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Excellent idea! I was thinking something along the lines of shape memory metal, but that has never struck me as having much force. An metal that could be contracted by applying electrical current is a very good alternative, and for a few reasons. Firstly, of course, it works. More importantly, however, it mimmics human muscules, not just in operation but it appearance. An important part of this concept is that is must appear human, such was the design of the cyborg body. That fits that bill perfectly.
As Blood_Wolffe said, I probably won't keep the name of the metal or the technology, but I WILL keep the concept
Oh, and one more thing:
Blood_Wolffe
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And for people arguing that she could get tech upgrades. Maybe she doesn't want any. Maybe the process of getting the metal body hooked into her brain was traumatic or painful so she doesn't want any more. To get an upgrade she has to go through intense trauma/emotion/pain/memories.
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I suppose you have a point. I could bend that rule a little bit. Because the person who made her is a genius in his own right, replicating his work may prove incredibly difficult, so upgrades to her body aren't always possible. Cool, I'll use that
Overview
So, I've come to this conclusion so far. Crashe's jet nozzles (and I use the term jet loosely) are tuned to very high forces. Good for punching things and stopping things, but bad for controlled flight or jumps. Trying to jump would simply hurl her violently into the air, risking brain unjury and throwing any sembalnce of control out the window.
I still welcome more ideas, of course
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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It seems an easy thing to answer and almost always, the simplest solution is the best.
You have a cyborg who's body is constructed to be extremely durable. Wouldn't this mean that the body itself was intended to stay in one spot and not be moved?
If this is the case then I would simply go with the idea that it was never designed to get off the ground very far. For stability, staying as close to the ground would be most wise for the design.
These retros may increase speed and provide power, but in order to counter the innertia produced, your cyborg would need to be rooted; the retros also providing stabilization here too.
Once in the air though, the only thing to counteract the innertia would be the retros and it's far wiser a tactic to count on the strength and durability of the body first and foremost.
Your character doesn't fly because it would create a weakness. It's both design AND strategy.
I've been developing a character for a while now, and I'm running against a serious problem, concept-wise. Her powers, as I have designed them, would theoretically grant her abilities I do not want her to have. What I need help with is coming up with a plasible excuse for why she can't do what I don't want her to be able to do.
We'll call my character Crash. So let me explain what Crash is and what her powers consist of. One limitation that I'd like to point out before we begin, however, is that she's a science and technology-based character. So, anything about her needs to be based upon science and technology, albeit made-up such. No mysticism or magic allowed, and I'd like for the explanations to make sense, at least to me.
Now, Crash is a cyborg. In fact, the only human part that remains from her is her brain, encased within her reinforced metal skull. Everything else is pure machine, and a very powerful at that. Her skeleton is incredibly tough and nearly unbreakable. Her realistic skin is made of a soft and plyable material, but one that is very difficuly to tear or pierce. Her muscules, the nature of which I'm not sure of yet, are both incredibly strong and lightning fast, giving her both spierhuman strength and speed. Strength enough to tear metal like tissue paper and speed, along with her relatively light weight, enough to move fast and strike precisely.
The jewel of her crown (and source of my problem) is an array of jet nozzles scattered among key locations along her body that, while normally concealed, can be opened and fired at a moment's notice. Operating on condensed energy bursts, they can provide enormous latteral force in just about any direction she desires. That has a couple of positive effects.
Firstly, by firing them at precisley the right moment and precisely the right strength, she can effectively counter any force trying to push her or knock her over. So, she could stand in the middle of a street and literally stop an a18-wheeler at full throttle with her bare hands.
Secondly, these jet nozzles can assist her in her attacks, firing to propel her or her hands or feet into devastating strikes. Think of having a rocket strapped to your wrist when you're punching someone in the face. Like that. What this means is that Crash can, without almost any footing or anchorage, punch through heavy armour and thick metal.
And here is where the problem arises. For her "super human" mode of transportation, I have chosen an old anime stand-by - the aerial slide. Effectively, using her jet nozzles to create a ground effect, Crash can levitate herself about an inch off the ground and then slide along the terrain at tremendous speeds. However, in theory, she should be capable of a lot more in that regard.
For instance, why is she not capable of full flight? Surely these nozzles that provide so much force can muster enough thrust to elevate her off the ground. Of course, that's easily explained away by saying that they cannot sustain their thrust for more than a second or so, and that they have a bit of a cooldown period, making flight unfeasible. However, if they can produce enough force to stop a speeding truck, what happens if they produce that amount of force when there is no truch? Would that not be able to hurl her up into the air about a mile? So why can't they?
To that last question, I have no answer. And this is where I'd like to ask you for your help. Any answers are more than appreciated, as this is something that really bugs me. Thank you in advance.