H-ERT - The Guys in Yellow!

[Rushodan]

Alright - NanoTrasen and their research stations can be a horribly dangerous place - black koiz, bio-weapons, super diseases and more! Our current selection of emergency responders are not really suited to deal with any of these problems so this suggestion is to create a new breed of ERT, one that has the gear to cope with such threats. Hazard-Emergency Response Team.

The suits:
Unlike the combat focused ERTs, I would like to give them a voidsuit that is similar to the atmospherics voidsuits, meaning they have the ability to withstand high pressures/temperatures as well as keep out contaminants and radiation. Think of them like a futuristic space NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) suit. They would offer less protection against other kinds of threats however, as a trade off. A merc with an AR would probably wipe the floor with one of these guys. For color scheme I would go bright yellow or orange, like the radiation suits with black accents.

The equipment:
- Hazard barrier: Think of it like an advanced version of the inflatable barrier - able to block everything the H-ERT suits can, but with a longer deploy time. Can be used to keep an area air-tight but ideally used for creating safe zones / checkpoints. Resistant to fire damage. The door would be a variant of the airtight flaps - allowing passage of people, but not atmospherics.
- Mk21 Incinerator: Basically a flame thrower! Shoots out a line of flames that vanish after 5 seconds, possibly up to 4 tiles straight. Used to clean up areas that have some sort of bio-hazard, such as mass koiz spores or diseased areas. The limited range means they are not really intended for a gunfight.
- Thermal Grenades: A grenade with a 5 second fuse that can be used to clear out a pocket of infestation. Perhaps a spider nest that has been made in the janitor's closet and would be too dangerous to move in to flame.
- Mk22 Scanning Unit: Takes 3 seconds to fully scan a person, reports if they are infected with anything, such as koiz spores, perhaps the zombie disease (unsure of how that mechanic works) or anything else. Determines entry into a safe zone.
- MK23 NBC Body Bag: A bright yellow bag with orange warnings on it - used to deal with infected corpses. Marked for cremation by one of the station's units.
- Automatic .45: Reserve side arm in case of emergency - I don't want the H-ERT stuck in case of flamer unit failure or in case they get forced into a fight - they need a backup.
- MK24 Harness: A belt for storing the gear listed here. Fits the scanning unit, fuel tanks, grenades and barriers. Backpack will be taken up by a large air tank, while the suit will store the flame unit.

Thanks for reading this quick idea, I am looking forward to seeing what you guys think of this! Quick note to say this is just a first draft, so any suggestions, improvements or anything like that will be appreciated. Oh and the MK- names are just placeholders, leaving that open to whatever people think is best.

[Rushodan]

Response to a bit of discord feedback, leaving it here to avoid redundancy:

How often will it be called - surely it is pointless?

Is it something we are going to be calling more often than regular ERT? No. However I feel as if it could be a nice addition to improve the feel of some round types - especially when zombie style rounds happen. 

Ignoring event rounds however, I will list a few applicable situations where this type of ERT could be called:
-Pandemics medical fail to contain.
-Spiders security fail to eradicate.
-Koiz sci fail to contain.
-Engine explosions, combined with engineering ERT.
-When lings turn into their abominations - if they kill a whole bunch of stuff and cannot be contained.
-General non-combat emergencies where there is a biological threat.

[Snakebittenn]

We already have J-ERT. This is not necessary. 

[Rushodan]

1 minute ago, ParadoxSpace said:

We already have J-ERT. This is not necessary. 

I feel like J-ERT doesn't accomplish what I am trying to achieve with this suggestion - my understanding is that they just clean up huge messes. 

This does raise a possible modification to the idea however, expand J-ERT with the suggestions above so they can deal with all kinds of biological issues.

(Orange is also better than purple!)

[geeves]

I quite like this idea, actually. We could replace J-ERT which is a meme with this.

[KingOfThePing]

Give them half life hazard suits 

[Brutishcrab51]

J-ERT is literally a meme. This is J-ERT but not a meme. We need to step away from memes. I want this more than I have ever wanted J-ERT.

[Wigglesworth Jones]

After having to deal with a heavily altered exploding spiked black k'ois outbreak, I support this idea. A situation similar to this, such as a large-scale disease/k'ois outbreak that gets out of control, would warrant specialized response. While niche I believe that it would serve well to replace J-ERT. Like Brutish said, J-ERT are a literal meme.

[Happy_Fox]

This is definitely something I'd like to see. I'm not much of a sprite artist but I managed to put this together for sort of what I imagine the H-ERT suit to look like (with lights on), sort of a more serious looking anomaly suit with the telltale green visor of ERT:

Edited September 22, 2019 by Happy_Fox

[KingOfThePing]

Told you it fits, This is basically the HEV suit, only with a green and not an orange visor. Not bad.

[Shadow7889]

YES. YES. YES. YES. PLEAAAASE. 

J-ERT is useless and as already stated a meme. I would love to see this. 

[Nantei]

I am not against this, but I have concerns over interested/available devs to work on it, since it's a fair amount of work involved for something that probably won't be used super often.

[Happy_Fox]

Well I'm not a dev but I don't mind helping out with the sprites. It's a little rough at the moment but might help move things along a bit.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by Happy_Fox