Health

From SteelStorm

Health

Health is measured in HP. Basically, you want to keep your HP above zero, so your character doesn't drop dead on you. Generally speaking, if your character is dead, than you've got some serious problems. It's also important to note that unless you're only doing melee combat against low-level things, your health is going to evaporate quite quickly against heavier weaponry or magic. An average character can take a good fist beating, maybe some stabs and light arrows - but a couple of heavy bolts or bullets, and they're going to be down for the count. Want to prevent that from happening? See below.

Note that if your HP falls below 10% of maximum, you are considered critically wounded, and your ability to successfully perform any tactic, offensive or defensive, is severely curtailed in any subsequent battles. If your HP hits zero, you are "dead" (specifically immobilized in a serious coma) but you can be revived by any of your party members who are capable of doing so up to an hour of game time later. After an hour has passed, certain things will happen if you have certain items in your inventory.

• All prospective travelers, as an ultimate safety precaution, are given an Order Biostatus Chip when they first venture beyond the protection of their own major city - the Order also often distributes such chips to small towns and outposts as well, in order to protect communities that are generally at higher risk of attack. When a character is killed, the chip relays their status to Order Shrine of the Living in the metropolitan area nearest to the character's hometown. Currently, there are three such shrines: one abutting the Order Compound in Forefront, one in the East End of Empirix, and one in an Order-controlled area of Seahaven. Upon receiving this signal, which usually takes about an hour, the character will be transported to the nearest shrine by Order clerics and revived. However, such transport is no-frills, and it means that everything on your person is abandoned in the field (save for basic clothing and the biostatus chip). Death is also bad for your character's short-term memory, which includes any tactics created or skills advanced on your journey, as well as other mundane things (like the combination to the locks on your workshop, for instance, meaning you may need to hack your way back into your own properties). Also, you are usually faced with a circle of clerics who stand around you for hours on end, lecturing you on the proper use of healing spells and lifesaving items. ANd, of course, if you're in the middle of a quest, you'll have to find some way to get yourself back to where you were, and hope the rest of your party hasn't left you behind.

• Members of the Order itself have more advanced chips, which allow them to be transported with their equipment intact, save for powered armor or vehicles which are too bulky to effectively teleport. They are also usually spared the lectures, as they are assumed to have perished, at least temporarily, in the name of the Order. However, the memory loss occurs regardless of which method is eventually used.

• Members of the Guild, or those who pay for the service, carry a Guild Biolocator Chip, which means they can be teleported to any major city or town where the Guild has a presence. This teleportation can be done with equipment as well, save for powered armor and vehicles. However, this service is not inexpensive, and must be prepaid - although it is provided without cost to those undergoing Guild missions, as it is assumed to be part of their compensation. Additionally, the Guild has teams which can be dispatched to revive a downed character on-site, saving them the hassle of being teleported to a new location, but the cost for this is very expensive, and only very high-ranking members of the Guild carry this by default.

Be especially careful when fighting zombies, or enemies that can zombify - otherwise, if you die on the battlefield, you could end up being resurrected as a zombie! If your other party members can subdue you intact, you can regain control over your mind - but you will remain a zombie (see the abilities section for more on what this entails).

Armor

You don't have too many health points, and they can be easily taken away by a skilled opponent - unless you're armored, that is! There are many types of armor available, with various amounts of protection, from basic (and mainly useless) leather armor all the way up to heavily armored mechs. Armor affords good protection against many types of attacks, and keeps your precious health intact. However... if your armor is broken down to a certain point, it will start to come apart, leaving you vulnerable to 5 points of damage per attack - and if your armor hits zero, it will be irrevocably broken, and unusable except to salvage as scrap metal. Severely damaged armor, though, can still be repaired by a skilled enough technician, although full repairs are unlikely to be completed with the tools at hand in the field, and most likely need to be done in a dedicated workshop.

Also, see Average Armor Points for different types of armor.