[A17]Space Marines - as Lore as it gets - recent thoughts on Astartes

[SpaceDorf]

I got quite a bit together last year, before I had to stop because of .. reasons ..

Now I am willing to try again .. I am hopefull this project becomes my MS-DOS or IPod instead of my Moby Dick ..
but yeah, I am doing this for me, so no promises .. release date may be soon, early A19 or just in time for your dinner at Milliways.

What I want to do :

Space Marines based on the Warhammer 40k Lore.

Every implant and every ability of the angels of death.
Every weakness and rule for creation.
Of course somehow adapted to Rimworld as far as the game makes it neccessary.
But reaching for the most inbalanced Warrior Class known to Nerdkind shall be a long and bloody path for your colony.

What I have done so far :

A16 : created all the Implants
A16 : created Astartes Bodydefs
A16 : the geneseed
A17: updated to A17, all my old work seems to be still in tact.

What I worked on

A16: the link between human and Astartes

What I have planned
The whole nine yards :

- Geneseed is only harvestable from Full Grown Astartes

- Acolytes can only be young males ( i think 19 is the point where they get their second backstory ? )

- Every Astartes Implant is Grown from Geneseed.

- Every Astartes Implant has to be implanted or otherwise introduced to the Acolyte ( have to check lore )

- The Acolyte becomes a new Race, Bodydef somewhere

- The Acolyte gains his second Backstory, and New Traits

- Special Medical and Research facilities.

- Chances of Mutation and Corruption ( low )

- Space Marine Equipment can only be used by Space Marines.

- Space Marines cannot be poisoned, they can and will eat everything ( they don't have to like it though )

- In general, every described Implant does its job .. learning by eating, poison bite and special senses, and the ability to hybernate.

- Drugs, good or bad, don't work on Space Marines ( except luci I guess .. but .. I will think of something. )

- anything else I forgot ..

- a compability or special version for the Corruption Mod.

What I need :
Someone to draw cool SpaceGothik Stuff .. I am okay with pencils but I don't get along with software more advanced than paint.

Answers to a lot of questions, when they arise.

[SpaceDorf]

- reserved I -

[SpaceDorf]

- reserved II -

[SpaceDorf]

- reserved III -

[SpaceDorf]

From time to time I mull things over just to get a grip on them myself and to put them in perspective.

Based on the common Comic Book Discussion of Which Hero would win, I started to explain the Madness that is an Astartes Warrior to myself using the recent MCA.
This is what I came up with :

You take an Acolyte, the toughest and hardest human individual, let's call him Steve, and inject him with the geneseed.

Then you introduce him to the WeaponX Surgical Team while pumping him full of growth enhancers until he is between Colossus and the Hulk in size. In between you throw him either in Doctor X's fun room set to kill, or let team Hydra take over
to give him a bit of the old Winter Soldier treatment.

The surviving Neophytes now become Scout Marines. running around with the gun coulson used or other hand held anti-tank guns.

If they are able to distinguish themselves from that they get to wear a better version of the Iron Monger Armor, with cerebral interface, space and deep sea approved,  and nearly unlimited energy and get deployed in squads of ten.

And finally You put the Hulk into the Hulkbuster Armor, give him Cap's Shield and Mjolnir or a 20mm Anti-Air Minigun
and you got a Terminator Marine.

[Orpheus]

I would think that drugs would affect them to some extent, just with a reduced duration and no chance of addiction.  In earlier editions of 40k, Astartes had access to various so-called "combat drugs".  Also, there are numerous references in lore to the Emperor's Children and other Slaaneshi Marines using drugs for recreational purposes.  Granted, they were corrupted by the God/dess of Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll, but at least in the early stages they were anatomically the same as loyal Astartes.
Lore-wise, the process that creates a Space Marine has to begin before puberty, meaning you would need a pawn younger than any that you might normally encounter in the game (compatibility with Children & Pregnancy mod?).  And I don't know whether you could enforce this in-game or not, but they have to be male.  The gene-seed is derived from the Primarchs and by extension, the Emperor, and apparently is not compatible with female DNA (if I had to apply real science to this, I'd guess that maybe the implanted gene-seed is in the form of DNA that binds to a chromosome by replacing the missing leg of the 'Y' chromosome.  Since females aren't missing that section, there's nowhere for the new genes to attach).
An interesting footnote to this is that Astartes power armour apparently requires a Black Carapace in order to connect with the wearer's nervous system.  But yet in-game, the Sisters of Battle's armour is functionally identical, and there doesn't seem to be any lore contradicting this.  Since the Sisters can't have black carapaces, and in fact are not mentioned to be 'enhanced' in any way, their armour is objectively better than the Astartes version since it has identical capabilities but doesn't require major invasive surgery in order to use it.

[SpaceDorf]

Yes, there are special Space Marine Drugs .. or Space Marines just use more of them,
and some Implants even require special Drugs to activate them, deactivate them.

I think even without the Children and Pregnancy Mod you can have Pawns of 16 or 17 years ..
they have only one Backstory. the second Backstory is only given to Pawns older than 19.
That is what I want to use ingame as correct Age.
Lore Wise it is a bit complicated since some Chapters use different Methods and description states that there are
exceptions where the treatment worked on males up to 18,19,20 years ..

I don't know much about the Sisters and how their Armor Stats compare to the Aquila Armor in , but there are several weaker Power Armor Types throughout the Lore used by Inquisitors, Rogue Traders or lucky Guard Higher Ups.

The point of the Black Carpace is the neural link to the Armor, even Space Marine Armor can be used without it .. to a lesser extent. In the "Space Wolves" - Series of Books it is described that Space Marines even have a weak sense of touch
trough the Armor .. which would be something that could not achieved without the black carpace.
In addition, the black carpace counts as armor nearly as strong as the flack jackets.
In Shadowrun Terms it is the difference between someone driving a car and a Rigger .. being the car.

So a guy with major invasive surgery without armor could still rip the girls in armor a new one ..

[Orpheus]

Now I come to think about it you're right, I remember in one of the old novels an Inquisitor was able to wear armour that he took from a dead Chaos marine.  Almost certainly a dumb idea, but it worked for him without the carapace.  Though one would think that being two feet too short and about half the weight of the intended wearer would be an issue...

[SpaceDorf]

.. except for a badass Inquisitor

But yes, I also think the size difference would be more of an issue than the neural link .. like a child running around in a knights armor.
Still some Armors are inherited by other Marines, they can be fitted to the wearer to some degree .. since not all Marines are the same size as well.

So if it was an exceptional tall Inquisitor with a lot of padding .. it could work .. 

[sirskips]

you should drop this and just go help the corruption mod author he has already finished what your working in here.

[SpaceDorf]

not like I imagine it.

[Vlad0mi3r]

What about the Dark Angels.

When Lion El'Johnson was found by the imperium. The knights of the order were enhanced with bionics and surgery so that they could fight alongside Marines. True they did not get the bonus of Gene Seed but still enhanced enough to use Marine equipment and methods.   

[Cpt.Ohu]

not like I imagine it.

What exactly isn't as you imagine it?

The only thing I have done with Astartes at this point is lay down the groundwork of implants and a basic Astartes race. Implants have their own classes, can only be installed sequentially, and increase some base stats. Everything else will slowly be built upon this.

So far you have put together a lot of concepts that are difficult to do with XML only, so this will be an extensive piece of work. Now I don't want to criticize or deter you from starting your own project. I just know the effort that goes into creating such a system. I'm offering you the possibility to join and take over development of the Astartes branch of the mod. It's already about 80% your old Defs in there, and the assembly stuff is more or less a blank scaffold that you can slowly put your ideas into. I'm occupied with so many other areas you are basically free to do what you want with the Astartes. And you can use some of the stuff that is already there.

With me and the others that are helping out, you may actually get this thing off the ground in a reasonable time.

[SpaceDorf]

What about the Dark Angels.

When Lion El'Johnson was found by the imperium. The knights of the order were enhanced with bionics and surgery so that they could fight alongside Marines. True they did not get the bonus of Gene Seed but still enhanced enough to use Marine equipment and methods.

The enhanced humans were still smaller and like you said, not as good as other marines.
And I don't think they used the Stuff Space Marines where using by then, but rather worked with older Weapons and Armor Patterns the Empire still had from the Unification War on Terra and old Storm Warriors of the Emperor.

What exactly isn't as you imagine it?

I read your update on the Corruption Mod and thank you for the offer and I will consider it in all honesty. 
I am well aware that I am basically finished with what can be done by XML and that I have no Art sources of my own

My problem is, that I am a really slow worker concerning these things and I am not sure how to fit in an existing modding effort.
On top of that I have some medical and other private issues which slow me down even further.

I have solutions or ideas for most of the problems presented in the description post, or know of a mod that includes a solution.

[Chicken Plucker]

Hey Dorfy, I am willing to help with the textures. These are the space marines of Warhammer right? I am not in the know of the lore so I'm not aware of all the buzzwords involving them