/tg/Station 13

Bombs should, when detonated, fling a few bomb fragments all over the place. These fragments should, in turn, carry the bomb's forensic evidence (finger prints, fibers etc)(1). Additionally, scanning the fragments with a mass spectrometer(or another device) should reveal details about the composition of the explosive compound(2). Finally, the bomb fragments should help in determining what the bomb casing was made of(3)

Notes

1. Or, a subset of that evidence. So a random set of prints out of three on one bomb, for example.
2. So a syndicate bomb would say something like "unknown explosive compound" or a standard TTV would return "Plasma" etc etc
3. A TTV would give you parts of a plasma canister or an oxygen tank. A block of C4 would be a "miniature timing circuit" and so on.

I don't think that explosions being cold cases is that much of a problem, but adding some depth to a bombing investigation sounds like a lot of fun. Thoughts?

A "bombing investigation" as it is now is usually "execute the scientists, then call the shuttle".

With this change it will be "execute whoever was unlucky enough to first touch the fragment, then call the shuttle".

No, I like making my detectives run up to a ticking bomb and hope that the scan finishes before it blows.

Fires destroy evidence; bombs just spread it around a lot. Since the fragments would have the forensic evidence from the bomb itself, that should help catch bombers (in theory).

Make them partial prints so a detective has to scan several fragments (or, you know, do some investigating). That or get lucky.

The problem with that is that fingerprint strings are so short even a 4-5 character fragment is often enough to produce a single name.

DemonFiren wrote:With this change it will be "execute whoever was unlucky enough to first touch the fragment, then call the shuttle".

Maybe this'll teach people to stop touching my damn evidence!

Thunder11 wrote:The problem with that is that fingerprint strings are so short even a 4-5 character fragment is often enough to produce a single name.

Yeah. I'd love partial prints, but I just don't see a way for that to work.

OOOOOOO! OOOOOOO! Can they Embed too? Because Shrapnel!

ThanatosRa wrote:OOOOOOO! OOOOOOO! Can they Embed too? Because Shrapnel!

I can just see a man with a huge chunk of a digital display sticking out of his chest walking into Medical.
Shouldn't it be sticking in his chest, technically?

This would allow us to have proper fragmentation grenades

Yeah when I saw the title the first thing I thought of was shrapnel

Forensic evidence would never survive the blast but fuck yes I want shrapnel from explosions

being able to make actual fragmentation grenades would be neat, compared to current 'blow a big ugly hole inthe station' handbombs.

Since we are talking about shrapnel now, why don't we make it so that "sharp" objects (rods, shrapnel, etc.) have a chance to embed into walls or any kind of construction?

This way frag grenades and bombs would still damage constructions to an extent without blowing holes in the station.

Stuck objects could be removed with a crowbar/welder/wirecutters(?).

lumipharon wrote:being able to make actual fragmentation grenades would be neat, compared to current 'blow a big ugly hole inthe station' handbombs.

I'm suddenly reminded of the old-school quake fortress grenade that one of the classes had, that just fired a spray of nails in every direction instead of exploding. How hard would something like that be to make?

I could get behind greyshirt shrapnel grenades. Cable coil, igniter, bunch of metal, and a plasteel.

Luke Cox wrote:Forensic evidence would never survive the blast but fuck yes I want shrapnel from explosions

Even the type of bomb is useful forensic evidence, and should sometimes be available. Knowing if it was a tank transfer type is a big deal, and then lets the detective narrow down candidates based on the forensics of the toxins lab.

Making the fragments shrapnel hadn't even occurred to me but it make a lot more sense. Hell, if you look at the Syndicate Bomb sprite, those 'vanes' protruding from the sides would serve no purpose other than to create shrapnel to maim and kill.

i thought those were heatsinks to keep the bomb from overheating

I thought those were the bolts

Shaps wrote:I thought those were the bolts

this tbh fam, something like magnetic anchoring claws that dig into the plating to cause minimal destruction before causing maximal destruction

atmos pipe bombs too.

Its quite possible to make frags grenades actually...