Vacskin gland

Vacskin gland

This bionic gland releases a waxy substance that forms an insulating barrier on the skin, preventing vacuum burns but restricting movement. The gland also regulates blood oxygen levels, allowing longer survival in the vacuum of space.

Base Stats

Type

Medical Items – Body Parts

Tech Level

Spacer

Market Value

1230 

Mass

4 kg

HP

50

Creation

Crafted At

Required Research

Skin hardening

Skill Required

Crafting 8

Work To Make

26,000 ticks (7.22 mins)

Resources to make

15 + 5

Technical

thingSetMakerTags

RewardStandardMidFreq

tags

ArmorGland

techHediffsTags

Advanced

tradeTags

Bionic

The Vacskin Gland is an implant added by the Royalty DLC and Odyssey DLC that improves the host pawn's vacuum resistance and minimum comfortable temperature, in exchange for reducing their moving capacity

Acquisition

Vacskin glands can be crafted at a fabrication bench once the Skin hardening research project has been completed. Note that this research requires a techprint. Each requires  15 Plasteel,  5 Advanced components, 26,000 ticks (7.22 mins) of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter, and a crafting skill of 8.

Summary

Pawns that are implanted with a vacskin gland gain a bonus to Vacuum Resistance of +85%, and a reduction of their minimum comfortable temperature by −10 °C (18 °F). It also multiplies moving by a factor of ×90%. In turn, the penalty to moving reduces the move speed, hunting stealth, and melee dodge chance of a pawn.

It does not reduce pawn beauty or provide armor like the other skin gland implants.

Installation

Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 2x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

Removing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 1x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

If the operation fails, the part will be destroyed.

Analysis

The reduction in moving capacity of this implant is equal to that of an armorskin gland but with different benefits.

All skin-hardening implants are incompatible so they come with the cost of missing vacuum resistance or increased internal layer armor respectively. Since movement capacity adjustments affect the final result of a creature's movement speed, this represents a 10% reduction from effectively all movement offset bonuses.

Vacskin glands have relatively little effect on the surface, unless the −10 °C (18 °F) offset gives your colonists the opportunity to switch from heavier/less protective armor to something lighter/stronger: Surface-worn vacsuits and parkas to power armors and jackets/dusters respectively. High quality gear largely outcompetes the flat offset in this role, even in permanently frozen places.

In orbit, vacskin glands provide full vacuum protection with the vacuum resistant gene, any power armor or helmet, and vacsuits or vacsuit helmets. A colonist with the implant is significantly faster than a fully vacsuited pirate or sentry drones but likely not mechanoids or wasp drones. The constant -75 °C (-103 °F) temperature remains a significant obstacle to non-armor apparel, though most is potentially wearable. Even a nudist space colony might be possible, if properly prepared.

Vacuum resistances below 100% are not necessarily insufficient, since the amount of time a colonist can survive up to increases from hours to effectively days at a time as they get closer to full protection.

While this does mean that vacskin glands are useful to all spacebound colonists, it makes marine armor an even more attractive option, since the armor comes with even more temperature resistance, typically less movement penalty (-0.25 vs -0.46, excluding other offsets), and a naturally high rating of armor protection. There are significant combat threats in orbit too, so choosing to forgo vacskin glands also means you can still choose the surgical option with other skin hardening glands for even more defense at relatively small cost. Even in the case of a fully depressurized gravship or space base, restoring a breathable atmosphere only takes a small amount of time and steel, components and power, resources found pretty much everywhere in orbit.

Vacskin glands are certainly lifesaving implants in the right (or wrong) circumstances, but in the year(?) 5500, being prepared for space utilizes many options, and is just another part of surviving the rimworld.

Version history

• 1.6.4566 - Added.

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