u/Avalongtimenosee

Yesterday's episode just reminded me of this incredible blast from the past.

I read a YA thriller from 2007 by an Irish Author, where a child protagonist named Jimmy Armstrong, whose great grandfather was a technician who died on the Titanic, stowed away on the maiden voyage of "Titanic 2" as it departed Belfast, but before he can be kicked off in Miami a global pandemic devastates the world.

Now the people originally going on this luxury cruise are having to watch the entire world die to this virus as one of the only safe havens left, and issues like the crew vs wealthy passengers, having to resupply the ship, and even trying to find other ships in the fleet to make a flotilla come up.

Some lines like the protagonist getting involved with the ship's newspaper and being relieved none of the passengers are from Belfast so he didn't have to look up the local death toll, or the head chef/ antagonist saying the passengers at the buffet left enough food on their plates to feed 2 people in his village that suffered through famine stuck with me even years later.

One bit I thought was very clever as a kid was the protagonist and his friend getting locked in a deep freeze with no way to get help, but they use their DSLR that's linked to the newspaper's media server as a way to send an S.O.S to the newspaper's editor. For a tech savvy kid in the 2000s it was a great moment where the author really predicted how kids would intuitively understand technology.

So I decided to look up the name of this book from 2007 and I got whiplash from it's strangely prophetic title.

"Titanic 2020, by Colin Bateman"

Honestly a great YA thriller and a great first novel by the author.

If it's somehow in your local library, or even on kindle, it's definitely worth a read for your kids, especially since I can still remember it nearly 20 years later.

#I think the Maxigun could do with variable RPMs of 1000/1500/2000 and those different rpms should allow movement, but break your limbs in the process.

###The intention of the Maxigun is to be a portable form of sustained fire.

But you very rarely need or get to use that full duration of sustained fire, so the option to either sustain it for longer OR shorten it would be great. So if we can already do that, why not make things interesting?

##It would work as follows:

• 1500 RPM is still the default, it can be used safely at any stance. If you try to move while standing you have reduced movement speed and you take low limb damage every tick, if crouched your movement speed is reduced but no limb DoT.

• 1000 RPM can be used safely at any stance. You can also move at any stance but moving while standing means reduced movement speed.

• 2000 RPM can only be used safely when stationary AND prone/crouched, if you try using it standing & stationary you take limb DoT. You can move when crouched, but take moderate limb DoT, and if you move when standing you'll take A LOT of limb damage.

Before this would be hard to work, but the ability to easily change RPM with keybinds now lets you react to threats without needing to stop shooting.

This would require that this DoT affects limbs substantially more than your main health pool, so it's possible to break ALL your limbs without dying instantly.

Cumulative limb breaks will give you diminishing returns for moving as your movement speed and accuracy will get progressively worse.

The servo-assisted armour buys you more time before limb breaks, and if you have a player healing you (especially with the stim pistol) you'll also be able to move and shoot indefinitely.

Edit: Just imagine, 3 Players with Maxiguns slowly moving and shooting at 2000 RPM while a poor medic is running back and forth stimming, resupplying ammo and listening to these masochists shatter their bones apart just so they can dump 1000 rounds into some poor bugs every 30 seconds.