Believe it or not, I've been thinking about that as well. The major limit on what he can do is time. Most of the ideas that he has for creating strains tend to fall under the heading of 'major rituals' and he needs to gather quite a few odds and ends in order to focus well enough. You saw some of the effort he went through for the memory strain. And that's probably been a year or two in the past, with no new strains since then. When he saw that he HAD created a new strain and played with it a bit, he considered what else he might want to make. The idea of the 'speed' strain is one such, and the 'weapons' strain - that one as something he didn't really even WANT to make, unless circumstances forced his hand - and I figure he has gathered the ingredients he needs for both. But he's got a lot on his plate. Mods for the Martian terraformers, asteroid farming, his Golden Apples....If he thought he had a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding, what he'd REALLY like to try to make is a Time Turner, from Harry Potter. He could really use one. And if he does go ahead and make the 'weapons' strain and get involved in the Boskone fight through that, then he won't be making the speed strain, quite possibly for months.
Trying to force the handwavium into a strain isn't something that he's going to be doing once or week, or anything like that. You're looking at months of effort in just getting what he views as the necessary ingredients for one of them...and even once he has them, he might not get around to doing a ritual until he has the time and/or inclination. *chuckle* Also - testing. Once he has a strain, he'll want to test it some, which means more experiments, which means even more delays. He likes to know what he's dealing with. If you see one new strain a year, he'll be pushing himself a lot. And that's if he even gets an idea he likes for one. The speed one is a logical followup after seeing the success of memory, and the weapons strain is his defender nature acting up. But since collecting the stuff for those two, he's not really been inspired for anything else, at least not yet. He probably will be getting an idea for an opposite to the weapon strain centered on creating healing items, but at the time he's making the weapons strain, that will just be the start of an idea. You've still got the planning, and the months of collecting, then. Does this seem a reasonable limit to you?
And I think I will write up the weapons ritual, then see what people think of it before deciding on the results. Work for you guys?
Trying to force the handwavium into a strain isn't something that he's going to be doing once or week, or anything like that. You're looking at months of effort in just getting what he views as the necessary ingredients for one of them...and even once he has them, he might not get around to doing a ritual until he has the time and/or inclination. *chuckle* Also - testing. Once he has a strain, he'll want to test it some, which means more experiments, which means even more delays. He likes to know what he's dealing with. If you see one new strain a year, he'll be pushing himself a lot. And that's if he even gets an idea he likes for one. The speed one is a logical followup after seeing the success of memory, and the weapons strain is his defender nature acting up. But since collecting the stuff for those two, he's not really been inspired for anything else, at least not yet. He probably will be getting an idea for an opposite to the weapon strain centered on creating healing items, but at the time he's making the weapons strain, that will just be the start of an idea. You've still got the planning, and the months of collecting, then. Does this seem a reasonable limit to you?
And I think I will write up the weapons ritual, then see what people think of it before deciding on the results. Work for you guys?