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How powerful is Feruchemical zinc?


QuasarInTheMist

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A Sparker is a Ferring with the ability to store their mental speed.  This is obviously very useful for someone taking a test or something of the sort, but I've been thinking a lot about how useful it would be in a fight. 

 

Consider how much quick reactions matter in a fight.  How many times would being able to see a quick jab or slash coming and get out of the way would save you?  How many openings would dodging or parrying in this way give you? 

 

I can't help but think that taping stored mental speed would be immensely useful in a fight.  It'd be in the ballpark of atium (thought obviously not on that same level), since you'd be able to see and process a quick attack or subtle movement much faster. 

 

Imagine if you were being attacked by someone but the world was slowed down, say four times.  You can't move your body any faster that your assailant, but you could see and judge the trajectory of their weapon or fist and move to dodge or intercept the attack.  In a sword fight, you ought to be able to block most attacks given rudimentary training. 

 

You would be able to see opening much more quickly and exploit them, allowing you to go in for the kill or otherwise hit hard or drop your opponent. 

 

I fear I may have interpreted this a bit too similarly to slowing down time, but with it being called "mental speed" I think this is somewhat apt.  And perhaps I talk too much about sensory information, which falls into territory covered by tin.  Nonetheless, I think increased mental speed would allow faster processing of sensory input, upon which I base most of this argument.  And thinking more quickly should allow more deliberate planning of strikes in a hand-to-hand fight.  Let me know if you agree, disagree, or have other pertinent thoughts on Sparkers. 

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What Your3rdShadow said--if F-Steel grants reflexive (e.g., basic instinct, such as "avoid that wall") speed, F-Zinc grants planning and detailed analysis speed, with a slight boost to effective intelligence probably tacked on in addition (for F-Steel, the boost to reaction speed is the "bonus" secondary power component). If you have ever played the shooter "Superhot," I see that as being a good example of what deep tapping Zinc (or being a Zinc Compounder) would be like, as you have a far greater amount of time to think through actions, counter opponent's moves, etc.

Edited by Three1415
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What Your3rdShadow said--if F-Steel grants reflexive (e.g., basic instinct, such as "avoid that wall") speed, F-Zinc grants planning and detailed analysis speed, with a slight boost to effective intelligence probably tacked on in addition (for F-Steel, the boost to reaction speed is the "bonus" secondary power component). If you have ever played the shooter "Superhot," I see that as being a good example of what deep tapping Zinc (or being a Zinc Compounder) would be like, as you have a far greater amount of time to think through actions, counter opponent's moves, etc.

Great comparison with Superhot!  I'd forgotten about that game, but that is pretty spot on with what I'm thinking about Sparkers. 

 

And that's another great point you have regarding compounding.  Even if the power alone doesn't work as I'm invisioning it to, perhaps that's more in line with zinc compounding. 

 

Your3rdShadow, could you remind me where in BoM there was a character tapping zinc?  I either missed that while reading or I already forgot  it. 

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Great comparison with Superhot!  I'd forgotten about that game, but that is pretty spot on with what I'm thinking about Sparkers. 

 

And that's another great point you have regarding compounding.  Even if the power alone doesn't work as I'm invisioning it to, perhaps that's more in line with zinc compounding. 

 

Your3rdShadow, could you remind me where in BoM there was a character tapping zinc?  I either missed that while reading or I already forgot  it. 

 

When Wax confronts Suit in the airship, and the latter threatens to detonate his ettmetal bomb, Wax taps zinc, and, in the space of a single word from Suit, thinks through "dozens of different scenarios" before deciding on his final plan.

 

If that isn't bullet time, I don't know what is...

Edited by Three1415
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Because while that is certainly thinking faster, it's mostly a case of thinking to oneself being shown in that spoiler tagged scene you mentioned. At no point did that character actually react to something external or has made any note of even perceiving much else.

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Because while that is certainly thinking faster, it's mostly a case of thinking to oneself being shown in that spoiler tagged scene you mentioned. At no point did that character actually react to something external or has made any note of even perceiving much else.

 

I highly doubt that tapping zinc removes your ability to perceive the external environment, and honestly "thinking to one self" is pretty much what "mental speed" says on the tin. In BoM that character didn't think of much else at that point because thinking of anything else would have wasted valuable time, and it was him and the other character alone in a room; there wasn't exactly anything extraneous to consider. As such, I think it much more likely than not that Zinc does, in fact, improve your ability react to and consider things that are happening around you, even if you can't take accelerated direct action.

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I'm not saying he can't perceive, but that we don't actually know from that scene if perception is even affected.

Brandon has at one point described it as enhancing the ability to make logical leaps, so I always took it as speeding up the rate you piece together logical conclusions step by step.

If they can still properly perceive (likely a yes) they can analyze that information faster and arrive at a conclusion faster as well, but do their senses keep up with that? Or is anything faster than human dynamic vision still going to be essentially invisible? That feels to me more like steel territory.

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  • 2 years later...

I know I'm reviving a dead post, but I've put a lot of thought into F - Zinc (it'd be my F Twinborn metal if I could choose)

There'd be a bit of a bullet time thing going on, but more then mental side of it. Brandon has said that F - Zinc increases the processing power of your mind, as well as inable intuitive leaps. So they should be able to process fast moving things, even if not able to physically react. I think their sense of sight would keep up, because the external stimuli for that is light; for taste, smell, hearing and touch the external stimuli has a limiting factor on how fast they physical particles move/interact with receptors. Smell would increase for a F - Steel user because they are interacting the particles in the air with their nose faster (assuming they were moving of course). The F - Zinc user would probably be able to decipher sounds more quickly now that i think about that though. 

In a fight though, it would be extremely beneficial for a leader to have F - Zinc. They'd be able to analyze the enemy instantly and decide the best form of attack. The same on a smaller scale on a one on one attack (like how the RDJ Sherlock Holmes character would analyze his opponent and know exactly where/how to strike; not physical speed, but mental speed in that fight).

As an engineer IRL, I wish I had F - Zinc just about every day when presented with some new challenge that is going to take hours to solve. 

A Twinborn with A - Brass and F - Zinc would be able to determine a subjects emotional state (as much as possible) and determine the best combo of emotions to soothe to achieve their desired goal (this is preferable than a double Zinc compounder because of a WoB out there stating that a zinc compounder runs the risk of being lost in an "eternal single thought"

In short, not the most flashy but super useful in the real world and with some decent combat utility.

edit: corrected spelling, and added Twinborn thoughts

Edited by Kelkamer
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