Something about the whole Dr Who dummy thing kinda reminded me of a plotline I originally intended for my webcomic. Seeing as I've got some free time I thought I'd run it past you and see what you think of it.
(they aren't really similar at all, it just kinda reminded me of it somehow, lol)
A nasty alien empire wants to take over earth, so they develop a weapon that can turn our own technology against us.
It basically looks like a Compact Disc.
However, it actually has a layer of nanobots cultured on the underside of the disk. When inserted into any CD player, the lazer in the player shines on the nanobots and activates them.
They start eating away at the plastic in the disk and secrete a thick black goo to move around in.
The goo quickly flows over all the components in the Nest Object (the object that played the CD. This might be a hi-fi, CD-player, laptop, desktop, or even an entire car. If it has a cd-player, it can be a Nest Object). The nanobots try and find out what already exists in the object.
If they find a useful component, they'll keep it - if it's not useful, but contains useful elements, then they'll eat it and turn it into something else. They also take this opportunity to find the object's power source (a battery or plug socket) to provide additional power.
Once their power needs grow too great (or the battery runs out), they create fans to draw air past a layer of oxygen-processing nanobots, allowing the machine to respire just as humans do. Once this happens, the machine is able to cut away from the power source (so it no longer relies on the plug socket).
They build engines, motors, pistons, until finally you have a huge zombielike mech looking vaguely like the nest object.
What's more, they never really stop assimilating their surroundings. For example, if you blast a mech into the side of a lorry, you may think you've killed it... but it just infests the lorry and very soon you'll have a huge lorrylike mech chasing you!
If you make the mistake of piling up the 'dead' bodies of mechs you've beaten, then the whole pile will start sprouting legs and guns.
The reason I'm so excited about this idea is that it actually has the potential to be scary. They look really evil (cos the finished mech is usually an ugly-looking asymmetric monster of wires and pistons - like something out of Resident Evil, but with warped objects instead of warped people), but they also turn everyday objects into something that can kill you (this is probably why Dr Who reminded me of it).
What's more, you're forever worried about your situation (like the people in the Matrix avoiding crowded areas because of Agents). For example, a traffic jam may seem harmless enough, but if just one car is playing an alien CD then you could soon be facing a super-mech built out of over 100 cars, LOL!
You can also have an endless array of mech designs, because each mech is built using whatever's immediately available. They basically look like a walking, shooting, junkyard.
The potential for variety seems pretty much endless...
(oh yeah, and the most disturbing thought of all; imagine how many useful elements are in the human body. You *so* don't want this goo touching your skin...)
It's probably hard to imagine in your head, but I may draw some concept art of a few mechs just to show what I mean.
Wow. Now that sounds great! It could also make a great game. You could make it so that whenever you past a radio or something there's a random chance of it coming to life and attacking you. Where do you get these ideas from?
That's a mint idea - I'm sure I heard about something similar on Horizon or some such documentary program, only this nanobot goo could be science-fact, not fiction.
cool! that would make an awesome game!
and just think...what if they assimilated a space shuttle or something and went to assimilate the moon! into a MEGA mech. That would make a great end-boss.
heheheh
Although maybe if it tried to assimilate a human, it would end up deciding that the human was already the optimum design, and could not be improved upon, so would leave them relatively unharmed.
Well the nanobots take minute bites out of everything they touch, to 'taste' the chemical composition and see if 1) it's something they need, or 2) it can be reacted with something else to create a compound they need. So yeah, if they like some of the components in your cells, then they could well decide to eat you
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