Ril’s spacesuit involved a lot of thought. I try to ground the series as much as I can, so I try to think about what Roka and Ril would have actually stocked their ship with. Ideally, they’d get gear that could easily accommodate anyone in the crew as opposed to custom fit gear for each crew member. But that gear would then have to be able to fit over vastly different body shapes, which greatly complicates the design.
In Volume 1, I introduced the technology of body shells, which Hamron and his crew used. Those were just backpacks that generated form-fitting energy shields, which could easily accommodate different shapes. But that seemed like an expensive technology that Roka would not have sprung for.
I tried to think of lower-tech gear that could be a series of expandable cuffs and energy fields between them, so the same gear could fit on all bodies. But ultimately, it would’ve been too difficult to design and probably a bit too distracting to look at.
So I opted for a more traditional spacesuit, fitted to each character. Sometimes the easiest solution is probably the best solution.
I like your solution, no need for Ril to be stepping out of the shadows in an OP mech. Although now I’m wondering how your design would look like.
I don’t like the attitude of these dudes.
Go ahead and flush ‘m Ril!
Haha. Yeah, Tedeskians can be mighty jerky.
On one hand, spacing Tedeskians is on par with spacing a bunch of kindergarteners.
On the other, the way their eyes sort of just sit outside containment of their skulls means they’d probably pop out with comedically exaggerated force.
As for the suits. I imagine Ril, Sky, and Bocce could all wear a similar stretch undersuit, chest piece, and helmet. Ril would need special gloves and boots. Sky and Bocce could share gloves and boots. Roka and Cember could use the same chest piece as the others, but everything else would need to be unique. Bennesaud’s physiology I do not even know if he needs a suit or where he is breathing through. So altogether, the most expensive part of the suit with the bulk of the life support being the chest piece can be used by everyone but Bennesaud.
Well thought out, Exxos! And definitely a lot of the stuff I was trying to keep in mind as well. I actually plan to have a good number of the crew in spacesuits in the next story. So I was designing Ril’s spacesuit with an eye towards being able to use it there too.