Aurora powered Devices

[UTC-10]

The number of hand-operated portable devices that can be used because of the presence of the aurora is very limited (flashlight and short wave receiver).  These suggested devices would be obviously very limited for general use and like the flashlight may not be worth it for the character to be carrying around.  

During an aurora or in glimmer fog I have often thought "I wish I had an electric lantern", "an electric arc fire starter" or "a darn chemical and toxic gas detector".  Certainly wandering around Zone of Contamination or more particularly Forsaken Airfield a direction finding device might be useful in the glimmer fog to keep oriented.  

Being able to know (yes I know I can don the respirator) what the canister capacity was at a glance or just change the canister for a fresh one and discard the removed one all for convenience would seem somewhat useful.  

AURORA-Powered devices (formerly battery powered) whether during AURORA or Glimmer fog events.  

1.    LED Lantern (new)

        NORMAL lantern use - area illumination - powered during the aurora.  It can be left always on.  I thought that if the power source was the aurora then for ordinary use the device should be able to remain ON for as long as the aurora is in effect which should be the same for the flashlight.  No such thing as a "capacity" since the batteries would be nominally non-functional. Lantern has no turbo mode (anti-aurora wolf mode).  

2.    Arc-type Fire Starter (semi-new)

        NORMAL use - Device has capacity (heat limit) that should amount to five repeated uses (i.e. five fire starting attempts) in quick succession at which point the "capacity" bar is emptied and capacity would be regained as the device is allowed to cool off.  Once capacity is exhausted, the device cannot be used for until it has regained some capacity.  The device could be used for illumination though the light provided would be no better than that of a match and each use counts as a fire starting attempt.  

IRL such a device would be able to do hundreds of fire starting attempts on a single charge but for game purposes the aurora is a much less reliable power source so the mechanism is not quite so capable.  

3.    Chemical and gas detector (new)

        Device that can detect toxic gases and chemical contamination at least a short distance before the user reaches hazardous levels of the gas or contamination that may affect him.  Device has to be equipped.  

4.    Modification of Signal Void short-wave receiver to have option to home in on a region's transmitter.  (kind of new)

        The Signal Void receiver can be tuned (mode 3) to direction find a transmitter if the transmitter is within the region.  It provides direction information (signal strength and proximity) similar to the bunker and supply cache modes.  

        This can be problematic since the short-wave receiver has 0.0 kg weight as part of the Signal Void Tales and this modification would or should make it weigh something.  Perhaps an optional reward (so the player can choose to modify e.g. add components or not modify the device) for completing Signal Void Tales Part 2 unless there would be a Signal Void Tales Part 3 where it would be needed?

Without knowing anything about where TLD is going - I remember the ship in the December Devs diary - the modified receiver might be useful in signally the arrival of the ship which I am making the huge assumption would be the Trader's ship.  

QoL Respirator improvement 

        The respirator should show the condition of the canister.  While it could be checked by donning the respirator it might help if the respirator  in inventory or when selected displayed respirator condition (canister condition) so a respirator with a nearly "new" canister might be displayed as 100% (95%).  

        The respirator's canister should be replaceable at will by the character.  Whether the removed canister remains working would be up to the devs' decision.  This could be a feature to ensure that the character's can have a full canister in the respirator and not have to carry a separate canister though the speed that a canister would be used up might make this moot.