Sougenmu Somatic Link - Raito Labs (Custom Sandevistan) (2024)

The Blackwall. While its creation is still surrounded by mystery, everyone who dives into the net knows what it is capable of. Everyone knows that you can reach the Blackwall from anywhere with a simple link. Hundreds or even thousands of reckless netrunners have suffered the same burning fate, but... What if such tremendous power could be harnessed? What if we could use it for more than a measure against AI and against intruders?

Those questions were in Dr. Light's mind since he learned about the Blackwall's capabilities. With the rogue AI menace extinguished, he started to work in a way to redirect the Blackwall's fury against the real warmongers, the megacorps that rule it all.

First tests were a complete disaster, losing human and robotic volunteers alike, he quickly realized that he needed something new to deal with such power, a new way to gather the data needed to progress with his plan.

The answer was simple in concept, but extremely hard to achieve.

Mixing organic tissue and cybernetics, he was able to create a capacitor capable of sustaining the Blackwall overload just enough to get a closer look, and while it was completely impossible to avoid side effects on humans, robotic individuals were able to keep the test going on.

After the biocapacitor success, he discovered that the side effects were mostly caused by electric overload on the CNS, so the next step was discovering a way to handle that remaining energy.

To avoid CNS overload, the biocapacitor was inserted directly on the spinal cord and, using Sandevistan neural interface technology, it was able to integrate seamlessly with the neural system.

A second step was to deploy hundreds of dermal nanomachines on the subjects, something that would be impossible to power or control with conventional cyberware. Those dermal nanomachines are, currently, capable of refracting light in a synchronized way, which allows the user to blend with its surroundings almost perfectly.

Even with that power-hungry approach, the Blackwall side effects were too strong... But weak enough to be endured by a human.

First human tests conducted after that discovery were a complete success, but no one expected that the subjects could gain such absurd movement speed.

Powered by the Blackwall, test subjects were able to move faster and experience improved cognitive reflexes, along with faster neural synapse.

But as the Blackwall gives, the Blackwall takes: Someone linked to the Blackwall would still suffer physical damage.

To avoid the risk of losing more subjects to the cruel Blackwall fate, Dr. Light also added another layer of security: a fail-safe link interruptor when the subject's health was critical. Sudden interruption with Cyberspace, even in non-dive scenarios, can cause extreme neural overload, and this case wasn't different. To avoid that, this device will deplete its entire charge when the fail-safe is triggered, effectively protecting human brains from the horrors of the Blackwall.

After many iterations, a functional and safe enough device was created and ready to be shipped to the market and, as expected, the device was a total commercial failure, because obvious reasons: Everyone fears the Blackwall, even the most experienced mercs.

You can still find this system at Ripperdocs and our Virtual store... Just remember one thing: No one can handle the Blackwall power without consequences.

Sougenmu name was taken from a Zero technique from Megaman X5, which is also useed on Marvel vs Capcom.

Making this cyberware has been really difficult, likely one of the biggest challenges since I created Chronos. For me, Chronos sets a high bar regarding my future creations, especially on Operating Systems, as it is where I have more expression than with regular Cyberware.

I'm sure you know Time Dilation Overhaul mod. I f*cking loved it, specially the HP drain mechanic. I always wanted to do something like that. Sadly, just using TweaksDB comes with some limitations, and the way I've implemented the HP drain is not the most efficient one and nowhere near as clever as TDO's implementation: My HP drain consists of a continuous attack to the player. In the current iteration, it should do 5% HP per 0.5 secs, but I've discovered that frame rate could change that frequency, so I've created a custom attack to allow you to tweak it at your taste :). In other words: You are free to tweak it, with Sougenmu update I'm integrating a new way to edit all my items as easiest as possible by editing the yaml files themselves.

Mastering the use of this cyberware takes time and is not easy. However, it feels really good and rewarding when used properly, at least for me. Even I, the creator, struggle using it sometimes and get punished by my mistakes. I tested this against enemies enhanced by Enemies of Night City mod and Damage Scaling mod, with default EoNC settings and enemies doing 2x more damage, player 1x damage (so, same damage as vanilla). While harsh, this gave me a leverage on certain situations that maybe could be dealt with faster with a vanilla Sandevistan but, let's face it, vanilla Sandevistan systems are broken, specially Iconic Sandevistan. There is little to no tradeoff in using it, so this is my take on a tradeoff.

I know you may be a little worried about the stats, but, as always, first TRY IT, then consider balance. I'm still open to balance this even further, because balance on this cyberware has been a nightmare since I need to reward for the great HP loss but also stay somewhat "balanced" in terms of damage.

I'm sorry for delaying this that much. I hope this is good enough to live up to the expectations. Thank you for reading this.