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Does the nano-plague effect a human inside host armor, and does it affect splicer mounts? If it does cause damage to/through the host armor, the it isn't much fun to run out of ammo and be forced to slug it out with any of the N.E.X.U.S. robot troops, and a Dreadgaurd, Roughneck, and Outrider would do well in investing Bio-E into ranged weapons and features that increase their mobility.

Yes the plague affects HA and War Mounts. As for needing to invest in ranged weapons are an integral part of HA, I seriously suggest hand held weapons with the mods Slappy posted a while back. In particular I'm fond of the bio-e pistol and light rifles, in no small part because they dont need to be "grown" over several levels and free up points for other essential HA features like bio-e forcefields.

If it affect host armor and warmounts, how about melee weapons such as Acid Melee, High Frequency melee weapons, Splicer Melee (can't remember the name of the S.D.C. weapons turned into M.D.C.), blades/spur jutting off of the host armor, or melee weapons built into host armor? Do they suffer damage everytime they strike a metal alloy?

Plague affects *living* organisms and a functional NEXUS robot wont trigger the plague anyway so your melee weapons are safe until you start trying to beat on dead robots. Stuff built into HA has it's own rules for destroying by either plague attack if the wearer is stupid/careless or by deliberate attack (requires called shot with extra penalty for especially small targets like light cells).

So working N.E.X.U.S. robot won't cause the nano-plague to activate? My original question was motivated by a question a friend asked me yesterday, about whether everytime a Splicer punched a robot in melee combat would the said Splicer take damage from the nano-plague. If the plague isn't active on N.E.X.U.S. robots until they are disable, then I have my answer. Thanks.

Time delay aside, Carmen was very clear in laying out the fact that simply grabbing a robot to activate the plague in hopes of tearing it apart simply doesn't work. Didn't really detail *why* it doesn't work that way but it's enough for now that it doesn't work that way. The info you want is in the first part of the book where the history and current situation is discussed, about page 20 or so (book isn't handy or I'd give a better reference).

demos606 wrote:Time delay aside, Carmen was very clear in laying out the fact that simply grabbing a robot to activate the plague in hopes of tearing it apart simply doesn't work. Didn't really detail *why* it doesn't work that way but it's enough for now that it doesn't work that way. The info you want is in the first part of the book where the history and current situation is discussed, about page 20 or so (book isn't handy or I'd give a better reference).

I think he describes it as some link between active N.E.X.U.S 'bots and the plague itself, preventing a blood/gore splattered 'bot being affected for example, or suicide tactics. Only deactivated 'bots or the battle damage fragments of active 'bots lying around can trigger the plague response.

Cool, so my player whose host armor is heavily melee slanted can drop on back of that Battle Track and hack away without fear of activating the plague until the machine is no longer functioning. He'll be happy to hear that.

JTwig wrote:Cool, so my player whose host armor is heavily melee slanted can drop on back of that Battle Track and hack away without fear of activating the plague until the machine is no longer functioning. He'll be happy to hear that.

Until that Battle Track either:
a) Calls for assistance/reinforcements
b) The additional troops it rolls with turn and fire at you.

The Deific NMI wrote:

JTwig wrote:Cool, so my player whose host armor is heavily melee slanted can drop on back of that Battle Track and hack away without fear of activating the plague until the machine is no longer functioning. He'll be happy to hear that.

Until that Battle Track either:
a) Calls for assistance/reinforcements
b) The additional troops it rolls with turn and fire at you.

Thats what his team mates are for.

It does affect through HA and WM. But if your touching metal long enough to cause it your dumb. The effect is not instantanious to contact. You could walk across metal and not get infected as long as your not in constant contact... and no that doesn't mean you can toss a sword from hand to hand.