((Holly molly this took a long time to write. Here, enjoy the treatise on my favorite form of transportation. And I honestly don't understand why bicycles are so underused in the Sci-Fi genre. I mean, they could be used to navigate around the ship, if nothing else.))
I don't see why that would be. Bicycles actually seem to me like something people would want, especially considering the alternatives. They do offer a lot of advantages that other things don't. If you think about the things offered, the choice is usually between some rocket powered vehicle, or walking on foot. I'll put down some of the benefits that bikes would provide:
1). I would expect them to be cheap. Considering we can get Gauss Rifles or Nukes for just several tokens, and we get the MKI suit for free, I wouldn't expect them to cost more than 1, perchaps even nothing, tokens. Maybe two, if economics of scale are taken into account, but not more.
Now, let's look at the alternatives. Jump Rocket pack: 7 tokens
Single Seat Rocket Bike:10 tokens MKIII: 12 tokens.
I believe there were also some kinetic amplified boots and spring powered ones, but I don't remember the price for them, and they have their own specific problems.
The only choice cheaper than a bike, would be to walk on foot, which is most people do. Let me make this clear: when most people can't afford or can't use a vehicle, there is room for improvement. I will elaborate later or the benefits of being on a bike versus being of foot.
2). Using a bicycle, a normal person can probably do 15-20 miles per hour. More if the terrain is good, the person tries his hardest, et cetera. Cyborgs, people with robotic legs, or otherwise enchanced people might do significantly more than that figure. But let's use 15-20 m/h as a benchmark, even through a robot could probably easily manage double that. A person without any vehicle will probably do around 6 m/h. That is a significant change, and can be worth investing in, especially I expect for Steve, who might be interested in Missions taking less time.
Think about the Samsonite Abyss, for example. It took the teams days to walk back and forth. Days, that could be reduced several times if they had a bike. The team would not be nearly as much worried, and wasting their time carrying dead teammates back if they could do it much, much faster.
Alternatively, there's also the Mission where the team had to enter the robot dweller area. It took them a lot of time to run to the center of the city, or to reach the end of city blocks. If they were roughly three times faster, they would not have had nearly as much trouble with the robots, and been much more responsive to the constant bombardment. Bicycles in that mission would be invaluable, but also affordable. Something, the other types of vehicles here were not.
3). Another reason for using bicycles, is that I believe they would respond well to anomalities. A bicycle is not a complex mechanism; it's so simple it can be understood at a glance by an observer. A lot of the problems that the more complex technology encounters. Stuff that messes with AI's, viruses, fire not working as in Samsonite Abyss, chemical reactions not accuring, absence of light, sound, and much else that would stop normal things here from working, would have no effect on bicycles. And in the event that something would cause them to not work, they are so simple, that what exactly would be wrong could be spotted very easily.
4). Bicycles are relatively light, unlike many other things offered here. It would therefore not pose a problem to carry extra parts, or even extra bicycles should one break. Because of it's weight, it could also be combined with other things. I can easily see someone in an MKIII using a bike for the majority of the route, and using rocket pods when the danger comes. It wouldn't be a problem to rise up into the air with a bike in hands, maybe even in one, or maybe it could even be strapped somewhere to free up the hands for weapons. Alternatively, one could rise up into the air without a bike, leaving it on the ground, and not worry too much about anything happening to it, because of it's cheapness and availability of spare parts.
5). Rocket powered things can't compare with bikes in terms of speed, but they always run out of fuel. And purchasing additional supply of fuel would cost extra, I'd expect. A bicycle, on the other hand, can theoretically run forever. If someone had robotic legs, which many people do, that would especially be true. Therefore, bicycles are a lovely choice in Missions with unknown fuel requirements, and can be effectively used over long distances.
6). Flexibility: Bicycles can fit in hallways. The tires can be adjusted to run on pretty much any terrain. They can be loaded with metal to make them better in low gravity. Bikes can ride on things that a rocket-powered anything would simply burn through, or a man standing fall through. They can be picked up and left, easily repaired, and anyone can understand how they work. They can be jumped on and off off easily, much more easily so if the seat of the bicycle is removed.
(Real life experience: it's a lot safer to ride on ice without a bicycle seat. If the bicycle starts sliding, it can slide however it wants and even fall, but I will remain upright. It's also a lot easier and faster to jump on and off without a seat. If something happens to my bike, I can jump off it immediately. It's harder to direct without hands or with only one hand, but it's never an issue with two. I would expect HMRC to get bicycles without seats, as seats are a luxury, and the ability to instantaneously dismount would be invaluable. Plus, their absence might actually help people with exoskeletons and robots fit on.)
7). Easy to learn: (puts meta-gaming glasses on) I don't think we will be making any Aux checks for using a bicycle, or even Dex checks unless we're doing something crazy.
8]. Safety: I notice, that with a lot of things here, misuse often brings significant danger to the owner. Amps, manipulators, nukes, but also rocket powered vehicles can be very dangerous at times, especially if they malfunction. In comparison to them, a bicycle is safe. Especially since we are wearing helmets and suits, we do not have much to fear from a bike. Not only is there no button that would explode it, but also if it malfunctions, even if somebody sliced it apart with a laser rifle, the worst thing that can happen is a bad fall, and most times even that can be avoided. I seriously doubt someone would be in high danger of breaking their limbs, and even the concussion might be avoided with the helmet on.
9). Potential: In addition to the things I described here, I would like to stress that the things I have described for bicycles are only the things I am personally familiar with. We have used them excessively when I was with the rebels, and I daresay they served us pretty well. But some better inventor than me, or even a simple tinkerer, could greatly expand on the idea of a bicycle. Systems could be attached to it, it's design could be improved to better suit the HMRC, and new uses for it could be found. I believe that the things that I have listed here only scratch the surface of what the bikes can be used for. If they become more available, that might change.
(And I also think it is a unique invention because it would be the only vehicle that relies not on rocket, but on human power.)
Bikes are not all wonder mechanisms, of course. They are still slower than rocket powered stuff, they are less flexible than being on foot, and they can probably be damaged pretty easily by enemy fire. It would also be a stupid idea to charge the enemy while on bicycles, as a single laser rifle sweep would send everyone tumbling. However, I believe I have outlined the many, many benefits they provide. And a bicycle can provide a good middle man between the things like MKIII and being on foot.
I will make a schematic as soon as I get out of the Briefing Room, but I would like your feedback on the idea. Would it be possible for me to have a prototype? There is one thing that I see in respect to bikes, that I can see as a genuine problem that I would like to avoid. I would like to avoid being the only one, on having only a couple people on the team have a bike. It is for the same reason that a knight can be expected to be a better warrior than a simple peasant, but testing it out with an army of peasants and only one knight on the one side, versus another army composed only of peasants is a bad idea. Most archers will concentrate on the knight, who will probably never reach the enemy. Similarly to this, if only one person has a bike, the enemy will concentrate the fire on him, which would not work out too well. That result would neither confirm nor deny the usefulness of a device, and be actually pretty pointless. In addition, a lot of the benefits of using bikes, such the faster group speed, can only be unlocked should everyone or at least half the people be equipped with a bike. However, I understand that a concept must first be tested before being used. Because of it, shall a prototype be granted, I will be willing to be the only one on a bicycle, however useless it might be in this particular mission I am going on. However, for not the current outgoing mission, but for a one where bicycles might come in handy, I ask that everyone not in a Battlesuit or Avatar in the outgoing group be supplied with a bike, but also with extra chains, wheels, tires, and one extra bicycle for the group.
((So, that's my point about bicycles. I was actually meaning to expand on this in a conversation, but hey, at least if feels like a very long message instead of constant monologuing. I wonder how many of you actually read through it...))
((By the way, Piecewise, what's your opinion on my musings regarding the diplomacy in this game.
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