Handheld portable magnet

[SECBATON-GRIFFON]

[content][sprites]

What this does

adds this to scientist protolathes, requires nt experimental research, electromag 6, materials 5, engineering 5, data 4 and bluespace 4; made out of iron, glass, diamond and silver.
can adjust the range and pull speed, the fastest pull with max range of 7 should use up an ultra cell in about 4 seconds, RTGs in about 3 pulls at max range, and high capacity cells in 6 seconds on 1 range, 3 on 2 range, to give some examples.

only pulls "metallic" items, this is defined as anything in the game that can be recycled into iron in smelters or has the iron reagent in it. structures and heavier items are pulled slower.
only pulls robotic mobs that aren't anchored. bigger mobs are pulled slower.
opens lockers if nearer than half the range to them and unlocked
pulls items out of pockets if nearer than half the range
pulls any non-mob unanchored object (or mob smaller than another mob) its in towards something it can be attracted to, or just itself if on a turf.
can pull any mobs its being held by towards metallic walls if in space or somewhere without gravity.

Why it's good

some more NT research items for the protolathe

How it was tested

pulling it around items, closets, borgs and people with pockets with a normal cell, ultra cell, and rtg

Changelog

🆑

• rscadd: Adds handheld magnets to protolathes, capable of pulling in any metallic object or mob, or towards them if in or on anything that isn't a mob, or towards any metallic mob bigger than the current mob holding it. Requires a cell to operate.

[west3436]

post images and videos of this in use

[Eneocho]

I'd say this is more NT Experimental research than Illegal research.
For illegal research, we should add a decent amount of syndie goodies first.

[angryturnip]

what makes a magnet illegal?

[Dacendeth]

These seem to run out instantly on full power even with a 50k cell, also the admin spawn only one should probably not be able to have its cell removed.

[SECBATON-GRIFFON]

post images and videos of this in use

added a video

I'd say this is more NT Experimental research than Illegal research. For illegal research, we should add a decent amount of syndie goodies first.

fair point, done now

These seem to run out instantly on full power even with a 50k cell

turning down the range makes them last a lot longer

also the admin spawn only one should probably not be able to have its cell removed.

given that they're just for testing purposes this seems inconsequential to me. plus you'd wanna be able to test other kinds of cells too, which i've been doing

[Eneocho]

Good on the swap to NT experimental, kinda unsure on the power consumption. In practice this seems to make regular cells that aren't RTGs or Ultra caps completely useless for this device, cause you get 3 pulls with an RTG, then wait a bit and do 3 more pulls, and an ultra cap is big enough that you can justify carrying 2 or 3 cells and just swapping then recharging when using the thing.
Then again, it's a question of how balanced it feels, we can always tweak afterwards.

[wotisjanitor]

wait a minute, does this mean if I feed someone an ijzerkoekje i can pull them with a magnet?