Hey guys, how you doing? Sorry to say, but the next chapter ain't coming this quick. I just figured I'd best give a bit of clarification towards RoboCop's abilities given that this story is set post Rogue City. I've already done it for the SpaceBattles thread, no reason to not do it here.
For those who don't know, RoboCop: Rogue City is a video game interquel set in between the second and third movies and focuses on RoboCop investigating the cause of a recent crime wave in the city centered around gaining the attention of a 'New Guy in Town'. As Murphy investigates, he uncovers a rather deep conspiracy surrounding the New Guy and his plans, and how OCP factors into the mix. I won't spoil further than that here, but if you've read the first chapter you already know how the game ends anyway, so…
Still, the game's pretty fun, being mostly an FPS shoot-em-up kinda power fantasy, with RoboCop ripping through gangs of thugs like wet paper as RoboCop should do (at least on easier difficulties, the harder ones on the other hand…). Part of how he does that is through the lite RPG system, which allows players to upgrade RoboCop to fit their playstyle, which includes unlocking various abilities that expand RoboCop's ability to put creeps down.
Given that this story is set after the end of that game, it doesn't really make sense that he wouldn't have these abilities, but given that these abilities are gained through speccing into them, the only way he could feasibly get all of them is by doing a new game + run, and Robo here isn't a NG+ Robo.
So, Robo doesn't have all of them, but he still has a good few of his RC abilities to help him clean the mean streets of Kivotos. And as a heads-up, I am going to be taking a few liberties regarding some of these skills. I will point out when I am. Going down the list…:
Shockwave Skill. Skill Tree: Combat. The 'Shockwave' skill is intended for crowd control against mobs of mook enemies, and its use has RoboCop discharging it from his left forearm. There are two levels of this skill, both of which are different from one another. The first version, the basic one, is gained at Combat Level 2, while the final version is gained at Combat Level 10, which is maximum. Getting the final version overrides the basic version, however in the context of the story, RoboCop can use both, as they both provide somewhat different utilities that can be helpful to him in different situations.
Basic Shockwave Skill – Flash. The basic version of Shockwave is essentially an arm-mounted flashbang. Capable of stunning groups of enemies close to the player, Shockwave Basic is useful for breaching into rooms filled with enemies or buying time to heal while surrounded.
Advanced Shockwave Skill – Electrocute. The advanced version of Shockwave is essentially an arm-mounted taser/stun gun, electrocuting nearby enemies to death. This skill is much more final than the basic version, and is very useful at clearing out mobs of low level enemies, allowing the player breathing room to heal and focus on other threats. In this story, RoboCop can control the voltage of the shock, giving him a true non-lethal option against criminals, however this feature is far more useful in Detroit than in Kivotos.
Dash Skill. Skill Tree: Engineering. The 'Dash' skill is gained at Engineering level 2. RoboCop has always been a walking tank, that's just how he is. However in the context of a footchase, this makes him a bit useless, and while his weight prevents this from being fixed fully due to the stress that such movement could place on his systems and the dangers to bystanders due to the property of matter known as 'inertia', OCP did manage to find a solution. By overclocking his leg servos for a split second, RoboCop can 'dash' forward extremely quickly, covering several meters in the span of a single second. This is useful for bowling over criminals or getting to cover if things get hairy. Due to the risk of damage to his servos, RoboCop can't do this too frequently, and he can only dash forward, not sideways or backwards. Still, the option to become a cyborg bowling ball is a powerful one. Also, upgrading to Engineering level 6 allows RoboCop to hack enemy turrets, turning them to his side. This skill is rather niche even in the game as turrets don't show up until the late game, and only then in a few places. Still, he does have this ability, but given the fact that it requires him to use his data spike to hack them, and the fact that said data spike is not exactly a universal plug in Kivotos, means that this ability still remains niche.
Shield Skill. Skill Tree: Armor. Gained at Armor level 2, the 'Shield' ability is unfortunately not as cool as you would think. Rather than something like a riot shield like Robo got in his MK11 Guest Fighter appearance, the Shield skill is somewhat more passive. When activated, RoboCop passively takes 80% less damage for a few seconds, explained in this story's lore as coming from experimental OCP nanotech hardening his armor against shock. Due to the experimental nature, this effect lasts only a few seconds before needing to recharge, which does take time, necessitating good timing to make it work. Additionally, at Armor level 10 RoboCop gains the passive ability to make small calibery rounds deflect off of him occasionally to kill the enemies that fired them. This will partially happen here, however given the durability of the average student, a single ricochet probably isn't going to do much but surprise them.
OCP Recovery Charges. In Rogue City, RoboCop is unfortunately not completely immune to small arms fire, especially not on the harder modes. Such is the way of game balance. As such, RoboCop does basically need medkits to keep going, and in game the medkits are the OCP Recovery Charges. In this story's lore, when activated the Recovery Charges release a swarm of nanobots to repair breeches in RoboCop's armor and repair key internal systems that may have been damaged through kinetic impacts. Robo can only carry a few of these kits around at a time, and while RoboCop here is far more in line with his movie versions in how durable he is, the heavy firepower of Kivotos demands he at least have a fallback option.
Fuse Box Recharge. Skill Tree: Vitality. At Vitality level 2, RoboCop gains the ability to regain health from fuses boxes scattered throughout the levels. The basic version allows him to heal half his health, while the level 6 version allows him to heal entirely. In addition, these perks come with the ability to carry extra OCP Recovery Charges, up to 5 in total at Vitality level 6. Max Vitality level allows Robo to regenerate health up to 75%, but he does not have that ability here.
Ricochet Skill. Skill Tree: Scanning. At Scanning level 2, RoboCop gains the ability to ricochet bullets off of certain metal surfaces, which are highlighted when aiming and when enemies are near them. Doing so does not require the player to actually line up the shot, instead merely shooting the surface will cause the bullets to ricochet into the targeted enemy, regardless of the angle to the surface and enemy. In this story, this is mostly explained through RoboCop having advanced ballistic trajectory analysis programming, allowing him to both investigate the trajectory of bullets during an investigation, and it also allows him to make wicked crazy shots that ordinary humans would struggle to pull off. Also, at Scanning level 6, Robo gains the ability to instantly highlight every enemy in sight while ADSing, and level 10 makes the ricocheted bullets split, hitting multiple targets. He does not have either upgrade here, for both balancing reasons (latter), and because RoboCops targeting UI is too iconic to get rid of (former).
Slow Motion. Skill Tree: Focus. Upgrading to Focus level 2 allows RoboCop to enter a slow motion state, slowing the game speed down and allowing players to make more precise shots on enemies, even taking out multiple enemies in a single 3-round Auto-9 burst. This is the games way of representing Murphy's possession of 'the best reflexes modern technology has to offer', as Bob Morton put it. This one probably won't get much direct showing in the story, but it will be noticeable with him taking out enemies rather fast for a tank like himself.
Auto-9 Upgrade PCB's. One of the best things about Rogue City is the fact that, while you can use other weapons, RoboCop's iconic Auto-9 is your primary weapon throughout the game. It deals good damage, it has a high mag capacity, it has infinite reserve ammo – which I'm explaining in this fic through Robo having an internal ammo printer – and its three round burst allows it to OHK most mooks you can face. But the best part, is that the gun can be made even better. Early on in the story, you gain the ability to upgrade the Auto-9 through the use of printed circuit boards that can be found as you progress through the game. By equipping these PCBs with certain upgrade chips, you can vastly change how the weapon behaves. You can make it deal more damage, have more armor penetration, increase its magazine size (don't think too hard about this one), make it more accurate, etc. There are even additional effects specific to certain PCBs that make it even better, such as turning the gun full auto, giving it a high-damage semi-auto mode, making it pierce multiple enemies, even giving it an infinite magazine size. RoboCop here has several of these PCBs ready to go, and they will be referenced as we go forward, mostly to make Yuuka pull her hair out as to how the heck a circuit board can make a gun have infinite ammo.
And yeah, that's just about it. Again, sorry that this ain't a new update, but I'm a slow boi so the next one's a while out. And just so I actually have this somewhere in the story rather than buried in the reviews, one of the reasons its going to take a while for updates to come is that I'm also working on another story, my first one, on SpaceBattles. As I go forward, I'm going to be ping-ponging between the two stories – I'll update that one, then this one, then that one, you get it. So, hopefully I can at least work quick enough that the gap isn't too bad, but until then I hope you understand why its gonna take a while.
Still, thanks for giving this one a read guys, and have a good day.
Also play Rogue City its good. Not too well optimized though, lotsa frame drops and glitches.
See ya later.