NIF
Nanite Implant Framework.
What is a NIF?
NIFs are persistent (for most models) brain implants that function similarly to a computer. They can have specialized software installed onto them, referred to as NIFSofts.
The implants can be obtained through cargo and will require surgery from medical to have them implanted. Once the implant is installed and the user goes through the one time five minute calibration process, the user can obtain software for their device though the NIFSoft PDA app, or other means.
While using a NIF, the user will have to manage two different resources: power and durability.
Power: Drained through the usage of NIFSofts. This can be restored through the enabling the nutrition and blood drain modes in the settings.
Durability: Removed whenever the user dies or is hit by an EMP. A damaged NIF can be repaired by either undergoing the NIF repair surgery, or using the NIF repair paste item from cargo.
(Each type of durability loss has a cooldown to prevent a NIF from being eviscerated within mere minutes)
Persistence: Most NIF models (aside from a select few) are able to be persistent, meaning that if a user has one installed one round, and has pressed the button in the NIFSoft details, it will carry over to the next.
What is carried over: Durability, flavor text, calibration status, and the saved theme.
a few notes:
If a user has their NIFSoft get to 0 durability, they have one shift to have it repaired before it is deleted from their character. Persistence does not affect ghost roles. If a NIF user leaves the round without their NIF installed, they will not lose the NIF but they will have a set amount subtracted from their durability. NIFSofts. NIFSofts are software that NIFs run. NIF users can obtain these either through a NIFSoft app or cargo, depending on the NIFSoft.
How do you get one?
For the persistent ones, go to Cargo and purchase it.
Then, get a surgeon to Manipulate Organ your head and stick it in. Yes, even if you're a Synthetic and your brain is in your chest.
How do you use one?
NIFSofts
NIFSofts can be obtained by using the NIFsoft PDA app and buying them with credits or rewards points. TODO: Power cost might be off by a factor of 10.
They come in categories:
General
| Poem of Communal Souls | |
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| Description: The Poem of Communal Souls was the first commission the Altspace Coven ever took; a rare occasion for their involvement in NIFSoft development. This program was originally commissioned by a then-underground group of ravers as a sort of 'social contagion' for the purpose of spreading peace, love, unity, and respect. The software operates by allowing different users running it to ambiently share 'Verses' with each other, small portions of their unique nanomachine fields that carry user-set messages; sometimes actual poetry, short biographies, or simple hope to meet and bond with other NIF users. Each trade of nanomachine packets represents a physical memory of the user who traded it, some long-time 'Poets' surrounded with a dazzling rainbow of different past messages. | |
| Function: Your first NIFSoft! This one comes free. Do you remember Nintendo's "Streetpass?" That. You configure your display name and a cute message, and whenever you're near someone else with this NIFSoft, their message gets added to your log, and your message gets added to your log. Using the NIFSoft lets you view the log of all the messages you've seen, as well as edit your own and toggle your ability to send or receive. Note that updating your message does not update other folks' log without you going back near them again. | |
| Power Usage: None. It's free. |
| Soulcatcher | |
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| Description: The 'Soulcatcher' coreware is a near-complete upgrade of the nanomachine systems in a NIF, meant for one purpose; supposedly, channeling the dead. This upgrade, in truth, functions as a Resonance Simulation Device; an RSD for short, an instrument capable of hosting someone's consciousness, context or otherwise. 'Resonance', a term for the specific pattern of neural activity that gives way to someone's consciousness, was discovered in the early 2500s by researchers Yun-Seo Jin and Kamakshi Padmanabhan, coining what is now called 'Jin-Padmanabhan Resonance,' or 'JP/Soul Resonance.' This 'Resonance' gives off a sophont's consciousness, their sense of continuation, and their 'I am me.' This Resonance can vary in structure and 'strength' from person to person, and even change over someone's life. When the brain of a sophont undergoes death and stops neural activity, then Resonance dissipates entirely and lingering consciousness becomes essentially an echo, rapidly fading over time.
The earliest RSDs were massive machines, drawing incredible power and utilizing bleeding-edge, clunky software to 'play' someone's Resonance at 1:1 accuracy with their original brain. However, complications arose that are still being studied. Resonance is replicable and can be re-created artificially; however, like trying to duplicate genetic code, the capture needs to be extremely accurate, and rapidly put into place. Instruments such as RSDs are capable of picking up on lingering consciousness after the end of Resonance, and resuming it through artificial neural activity can give it strength to continue once more. RSDs such as Soulcatchers can only work at such a distance, otherwise running the risk of the Resonance essentially corrupting due to poor signal. It is currently impossible to run Resonance in two places at once, because the same Resonance over two places experiences interference; like noise canceling headphones. Slimes and other gestalt consciousnesses can modulate their harmonics to a degree, bearing a partial disconnect and bringing themselves into constructive interference with similar harmonic signatures. A deepscan of the person's brain is necessary to give their consciousness 'context;' running their Resonance and capturing their consciousness alone results in a person with their same original intelligence, but zero memories or identity. These scans rapidly become outdated due to the growth of the brain, and it is prohibitively complex to store them in their entirety. The first portable RSD, or Soulcatcher, was developed by the Spider Clan. These were initially designed for the captive interrogation of a person's consciousness without having to worry about the struggling of their body, and for dead or aging members of the mysterious group of orbital shinobi to be able to guide field operatives. These Soulcatchers are the main instrument to play Resonance, but recent advances in medical science have been leading to more. Occasionally, it is known for unusual sources of 'wild' Resonance, called Phantoms, to end up inside of the nearest Soulcatcher, a key finding its own lock; with a wide array of theories as to how these come into existence. Much as how some people intentionally become stable Engrams to achieve digital immortality, such as the witches of the Altspace Coven, it is possible for others to forcibly enter a Soulcatcher and act as a sort of Phantom by hacking their way in. |
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| Function: See the main guide for Soulcatchers. Lets ghosts join a chat room in your head and talk to you. They may or may not be actual ghosts of people. The NIFSoft Soulcatcher lets you save the room's description, title, and settings between rounds IF you set the NIFSoft itself to save between rounds. In your NIF, expand the option for the Soulcatcher NIFSoft, and scroll down past the description. Next to the Uninstall button, there's one for "This NIFSoft will not be saved between rounds." Toggle that to "Will be saved" and you'll get it for free next shift.
Using an Evoker Soulcatcher loaded with a soul, left-click yourself to move them from the Evoker's Soulcatcher to your NIF's Soulcatcher. Maybe. |
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| Power Usage: None? |
Cosmetic
| Polymorph | |
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| Description: This program is a large-scale refitting of the nanomachine channels running over the skin of a NIF user. This allows the nanites to reach under the skin and even into the very bone structure of the host; including incorporation of mimetic materials and femto-level manipulation devices all for the purpose of allowing the user to, essentially, shapeshift on a low level. However, despite the incredible complexity behind these processes, there are still limits on the range of 'forms' a user can take. Mass can neither be created nor destroyed, after all, and you can only distribute and rearrange it in so many ways across a functioning humanoid body; meaning, the user cannot adopt forms too far out of their 'true' one. | |
| Function: Lets you alter your body in cosmetic ways. Activating it pulls up a radial menu with three options: DNA, Hair, and Markings. Hair lets you change your hair settings, Markings lets you adjust your markings individually, and DNA allows you to change numerous traits. You can adjust your sprite's height, alter the appearance of your limbs, add or alter your wings or other mutant parts. It does not let you change your body color. | |
| Power Usage: 10% per activation? |
Utility
TODO: I don't know if this is true. I don't use Hivemind like, ever.
| Hivemind | |
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| Description: Hivemind is a program developed as a more reliable simulacrum of the mysterious means of communication that some varieties of slime share. It's built on a specific configuration of the NIF capable of generating a localized subspace network; the content the user's very thoughts, serving as a high-tech means of telepathic communication between NIF users. | |
| Function: Conjures a hardlight keyboard into your hand. Using the keyboard, you can connect to various other crew members using Hivemind, and broadcast a message to everyone you're connected to. You must approve people connecting to you, and a two-way connection is not implied; if you connect to them, but they don't connect to you, they see your messages but do not send you messages.
Hivemind is independent of telecommunications, and thus works even during ionospheric anomalies. |
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| Power Usage: 10% power per activation. 0.2% power per second. |
| Automatic Appraisal (Money Sense) | |
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| Description: Connects the user's brain to a database containing the current monetary values for most items, allowing them to determine their value in realtime. | |
| Function: When you examine an object or container, it also tells you the expected value for selling that object on the cargo shuttle. Equivalent to using cargo's Universal Scanner to determine the value, except at range. | |
| Power Usage: 0.5% per second. | |
| Obtaining: Cargo Techfab can print it for free. Can be ordered from Cargo. |
| NIFLink Holocaller | |
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| Description: This ubiquitous NIFSoft adds Scryer functionality similar to MODSuits to the user's NIF; allowing for real-time communication through AR hologlass screens from a hardlight projector sat around the wearer's neck. | |
| Function: Conjures a neck-slot "MODLink Scryer," which lets you talk to MOD suits over the telecomms network. It's a private call between the two of you. Scryers can be bought from... vendors? Loadouts? But this one is hardlight. The NIFSoft itself serves solely to summon the Scryer. | |
| Power Usage: 20% power to activate, 1% power / second. |
Fun
| Grimoire Caeruleam | ||||||||||||
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| Description: The Grimoire Caeruleam is an open-source, virtual decentralized directory of summonable objects originally developed by the Altspace Coven, a post-pagan group of witches first digitized into engrams in the year 2544. These summonable constructs, or 'Icons,' are comprised of delicate patterns of nanomachines serving as a framework and projector for hardlight; the name 'Caeruleam' referencing the blue light an Icon casts in the summoner's hand. While the Grimoire has served thousands thus far, Corporate interests have blocked all access to Icons capable of harming their assets. | ||||||||||||
Function: Lets you conjure a number of toys, to a maximum of five, or dispel any of the toys you have conjured. Using the NIFSoft brings up a menu to Summon or Dispel. Summon pulls up a radial menu of various toys, with several pages you cycle through with the Next option. Dispel brings up a list of all the toys you have conjured, and picking one adds it to your hand if you have one free, or drops it on the floor if you do not. All of the toys are made of Caeruleam, a legally-distinct analogue to hardlight.
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| Power Usage: 10% power per activation. No active drain. 0% power to dispel. |
| Grimoire Libidine - LEWD | |
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| Description: Grimoire Libidine, a fork of the Grimoire Caeruleam code, allows users to conveniently access an extensive database of various adult toys. | |
| Function: Lets you conjure a number of adult toys, to a maximum of five, or dispel any of the toys you have conjured. Using the NIFSoft brings up a menu to Summon or Dispel. Summon pulls up a radial menu of various toys, with several pages you cycle through with the Next option. Dispel brings up a list of all the toys you have conjured, and picking one adds it to your hand if you have one free, or drops it on the floor if you do not.
The list of toys is [INAPPROPRIATE FOR THE WIKI]. |
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| Power Usage: 10% power per activation. No active drain. 0% power to dispel. |
| Libidine Eye - LEWD | |
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| Description: Based on the hypnotic equipment provided by the LustWish vendor, the Libidine Eye NIFSoft allows the user to ensnare others in a hypnotic trance. ((This is intended as a tool for ERP, don't use this for gameplay reasons.)) | |
| Function: Activating the NIFSoft grants you a power in your action buttons to Hypnotize a target. Aggressively grab your friend and use the Hypnotize power. They will be asked if they consent to hypnosis, and it also will not work if they have their ERP Toy preference set to No. If they consent, you will be prompted to give them a hypnotic suggestion (or release them, cancelling the act). If you give them a hypnotic suggestion, it is handled the same as normal antagonist-driven hypnosis, except OOCly they are not compelled to obey it because this is just a roleplay fun NIF. Icon in the upper right of their HUD, the occasional big purple text printed in chat reminding them of their objective... | |
| Power Usage: 0.1% power per second. |
Information
| Grimoire Akasha | |
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| Description: Grimoire Akasha is a fork of the Grimoire Caeruleam NIFSoft that is designed around giving the user access to various educational hardlight books. Due to its educational nature and miniscule size, Grimoire Akasha is typically provided for free at most NIFSoft marketplaces. | |
| Function: This lets you conjure any of the manuals you can find around the station, e.g. Guide to Hacking. The ones that open a wiki page. Of note, you can't carve them into storage items. | |
| Power Use: 10% power per activation. No active drain. 0% power to dispel. |
Unpurchasable
| Libidine Contract - LEWD (From LustWish Contraband) | |
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| Description: Once installed, the Libidine Contract compels the user to follow the rules stored in the data of the NIFSoft. \n OOC NOTE: This is strictly here for adult roleplay. None of the laws here actually need to be obeyed and you can uninstall this NIFSoft at any time. | |
| Function: Purchasing this from the LustWish vendor gives you an installation disk. Using it in-hand lets you change the law imprinted on it, and using it on a person will (offer them the chance to?) install the Libidine Contract NIFSoft. When installed, activating this NIFSoft prints the configured law into the chat panel. No other effects happen. The law is not shown when first installing it, nor is it shown at any other time. Using a Libidine Contract install disk on someone silently updates their law, overwriting the old one with the new value, even if it is a physically separate install disk. | |
| Power Usage: No activation cost. No active drain. | |
| Obtaining: Only purchasable from a hacked LustWish vendor, under the Contraband tab. |
| Scrying Lens (Various Types) (From Department Techfabs) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Description: An umbrella term for all sorts of NIFsofts dealing with heads-up displays, this sort of technology dates back almost to the beginning of NIFsoft development. These 'softs are commonly used in the civilian field for integration with all sorts of activities; piloting, swordplay, scientific research, or even AI copiloting for important social interactions. While normally the nanomachines involved in the program's operation are used as a sort of artificial contact lens over the user's visual organs, NanoTrasen regulations have bid these particular forks to instead integrate with glasses the user's already wearing. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Function: When used in conjunction with a printable Scrying Lens Adapter on a set of compatible glasses, this NIFSoft allows using them as if they were a pair of HUD glasses for the HUD type specified by the NIFSoft. e.g. using the Security Scrying Lens NIFSoft allows you to view security records, a person's wanted status, etc. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Power Usage: 0.5% power per second. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Obtaining: Every Department Protolathe / Techfab can print a Scrying Lens Adapter and an appropriate Scrying Lens installation disk for the corresponding HUD. (e.g. Security can print the Scrying Lens Security NIFSoft).
A person can only have one type of Scrying Lens NIFSoft installed at a time; attempting to install a second one will fail. You'd have to uninstall the first NIFSoft type to be able to install the second, which consumes the disk, preventing quick swapping between HUD types.
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