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Stalnoy Volk's Future tinkering
Stalnoy Volk's Future tinkering
#1
12/15/06
To: Douglas Sangnoir
From: Mikhael Mitvol
Regards: Suit changes.
Since you expressed some interest in the changes I've made to the suit and the thinking behind them, thought I would send you these notes I made. If you have any other questions, ask away.
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Since I brought myself and suit here to America, have been exposed to a much wider slice of the whole Superhero community here in Paragon City than existed back in the Motherland. Very interesting and enlightening.
In past, when in the employ of the Soviet (later Russian) military, upgrades to Stalnoy Volk suit had to be approved, which didn't happen often, given dwindling resources. Got bad enough that I was afraid that someday soon, they maybe decommission suit entirely! Contributed greatly to my decision to emigrate. Without suit, cannot walk!
Now, will be able to continue using suit and helping people. And maybe make some improvements? So many tech heroes here in Paragon. Compare notes, yes?
Stalnoy Volk V 1.0
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Am no supergenius, but familiar enough with the powersuit to work on it and even manage upgrades. Have been keeping up with the techbase in Paragon and considering improvements for suit.
Started with Supergroup colors. Applied clearcoat of electro-activated paint. Stuff comes standard and is used by almost all powersuit heroes in Paragon. Allows techno-armor heroes to change over to Supergroup colors at moments notice. (Heard Looney Toons used stuff on bike at some point in past. Ha! Bike has "secret I.D." as well!)
Stalnoy Volk V 1.0 in Supergroup colors.
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Satisfied with how that turned out. Got me thinking. Started looking into various materials and hit upon coating that increases armor's resistance to most forms of energy by at least 12%. Little more flashy than used to. But why not? Not like I will stand out after all!
Stalnoy Volk V 1.2
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Had unfortunate incident recently involving power feed to left gauntlet. Damn Freakshow slicers! Started getting more serious about design improvements. Never liked that main weapon array powerfeed went through cable going outside armor. But it was design flaw I'd resigned myself to back in Russia, since unlikely to be fixed. But now have more freedom to make changes. Should have done this sooner, really! Consulted with some other powersuit heroes and redesigned power feeds so that multiple lines run inside the armor, and made new armor sheaths for the upper arms.
Stalnoy Volk V 1.3
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No more slicing of powerfeeds. That's good. But having been through a few patrols and missions, noticed a drop in efficiency and power. Couldn't get as much range as before, and even up close not hitting quite as hard. No big difference, but don't like taking two steps back to take step forward!
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After some testing, decided problem was old capacitors in the gauntlets. Have been getting as much power as I had because generator was dumping it more quickly through old heavy duty cables and could dump a little extra to make up for the slack. But new multiple-line powerfeed wasn't allowing the "slop" to get by.
Have decided that the entire weapons array needs redesign. May as well do whole thing at once. Have discovered completely different projection style on Heronet tech chatboards. Energy blast output through ports on palms instead of around outer gauntlet edge. Is good design. Will streamline armor on arms. And hands still maintain flexibility. Must send letter of compliment to Stark Industries.
Stalnoy Volk V 1.4
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Redesigned powersupply and chestplate. New overlapping segments more flexible and easier to move in. Decreased weight as well, both in armor and power supply. Fit in new heat dispersion system as well. Productive week!
This may be last upgrade for old suit, though. Need to integrate systems better. Old linkages and joints needing more and more maintenence in order to get out in field. Might need to change entire frame. Will think on this later.
Stalnoy Volk V 1.5
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After a month of research, decided to build new Stalnoy Volk suit from ground up, incorporating all previous system upgrades and adding in new redesigns. Powertrain and sensor systems have been upgraded. Applied lessons learned on arms to slimming down leg armor and incorporating new segmentation. Air filter systems on helmet improved as well. This is Stalnoy Volk armor Version 2.0!
Stalnoy Volk V 2.0
((This is what comes of being bored and puttering around on the costume creator. I'm not going to make all those seperate little changes for the 3rd costume slot. But I thought I'd give a preview and show how the evolution would go. ))-Logan
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"This kind of thing tends invariably to devolve into the kind of "No, Nakajima, THIS is true power!!" argument that only really works if you're yelling it from the cockpit of a giant robot . . ."
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Re: Stalnoy Volk's Future tinkering
#2
Looking good. And I really like the "memo" format.
-- Bob
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...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...
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Re: Stalnoy Volk's Future tinkering
#3
Wow. This is cool. I really like the Soviet weapon aesthetic, and showing evolution like that, background tinkering and so on, is just neat. Like Bob said, couching it in terms of a memo exchange with Looney just makes it better. Also a nice look into the...background mechanics of the powersuit hero lifestyle. If you'd, ah, pardon the pun.
Mind, I'm not sure I like the v2.0 costume design...I really like the original Soviet-style suit. brilliant use of costume pieces, but the new design seems to lack a certain...I dunno, character. Granted, that's the point, I suppose, it should look more streamlined and less clunky, and it does achieve that, being visually distinct from the original. But is it too much of a change? I dunno. >_o
Gold has a certain charm, tho.
Stalnoy Volk is in the Infinity ECL, right? I need to meet him sometime...as Flu Shot. Flu's a powersuit hero as well, see...and I can just picture him insisting that Mikhael install better climate control. Air-conditioning, a heater...then he'd get all obsessive about the, er, bathroom plumbing.
(He's an Ice/Ice tank. His suit's a bipedal fridge. He's thus developed skewed priorities.)
-- Acyl
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Re: Stalnoy Volk's Future tinkering
#4
This is bordering on thread necromancy, but I've been kinda busy of late, and this feel thorugh the cracks. Plus I've been giving myself time to consider what you said about the look of the armor.
I find I have to agree. The Version 2.0 armor is lacking the personality of the earlier version. It looks cool on it's own, but... Heh. Kinda reminds me of the arguments me and other Star Blazers fans had about the Syd Mead design for the Yamato 2520 design. Came to the conclusion that the Y2520 was a BEAUTIFUL ship taken on it's own merits. But it... Just. Wasn't. Yamato.
These memos and pictures were on a "what-if" basis anyway. I have yet to make any of these changes. I think at this point we can take it as read that although it's some decent idea mongering, it's apocryphal at best.
But I will at some point have more costume slots to do things with. And I wonder what the heck to actually do with them? I was toying with the idea of a another "out of suit" costume for Stalnoy. Maybe formal military "dress blues" outfit? Hmm... Wondering where I can get info on what Russian Air Force formal dress uniforms look like... -Logan
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"This kind of thing tends invariably to devolve into the kind of "No, Nakajima, THIS is true power!!" argument that only really works if you're yelling it from the cockpit of a giant robot . . ."
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Re: Stalnoy Volk's Future tinkering
#5
You can even buy one.--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!

--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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Re: Stalnoy Volk's Future tinkering
#6
My suggestion would be to...use at least one costume slot for a v2.0 armour...but don't make the changes so drastic. What you need is visual continuity with the original suit.
Keep the Crey patterns for the chest and legs, maybe. Perhaps also the helmet faceplate (though other details of the helmet can change, I'd personally retain the mouthpiece). That gives a certain visual distinctiveness.
But use a standard torso rather than the robotic armed one, and "large" or "banded" gloves instead of the bulky gauntlets. That'd make 'em STILL heavy, but not as much, achieving the whole 'streamlining' idea. You could maybe switch the shoulderpads and boots as well. A certain amount of chunkiness is necessary, though, for it to look Soviet tech.
-- Acyl
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