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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ BTL – Unlimited Pleasure?

Posted by: The Jopp Jan 26 2006, 12:36 PM

Ok, according to what they say about BTL is that once the program has run its course the user crashes. It also states that one can hack the “one-shot” rule for the BTL chip and re-use the chip.

Now to my question, how much editing/hacking of the program would be necessary to edit the actual end of the program so that it goes in an infinite loop? For a hacker with a BTL addiction of “Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy” it would be quite convenient if he would be on a permanent high (not that I’d like to see what happens to someone who’s crashing after a six month joyride in funland.)

Posted by: hyzmarca Jan 26 2006, 12:46 PM

I doubt it would be difficult but it would not be wise. Assuming that he has someone to change his IV bag every day (Not like he'll actually remember to eat or drink) he could suffer severe and permenant brain damage from such abuse.

Posted by: The Jopp Jan 26 2006, 01:07 PM

Actually, as long as it is moodchips then the user would be able to move around freely but would be very, very happy/sad/angry or whatever takes their fancy.

Still, after being happy for six months and the BTL stops, crashes, is disabled or whatever then you are in for at least a few weeks depression.

Posted by: BlackHat Jan 26 2006, 02:07 PM

The way I see it, you really couldn't run a BTL (even a "nice" one) 24/7... the main problem being that the peaked pleasure/sensation/happiness signals would cause your body to produce tons and tons of excess chemicals and hormones... your glands would overwork themselves, and dry up - or your body would just be so doped up on its own chemicals that at some point something would have to give. Maybe a liver. I dunno, I'm no doctor.

Of course, I think it would take a long time for that damage to accumulate, and in the meantime, it would just be like being on "happy pills" all the time. Your friends would think you were very weird, and you would think that they are fantastic.. .and that everythign is fantastic.

Posted by: The Jopp Jan 26 2006, 03:43 PM

Linked network BTL abuse?

Not sure about this, but since one can transmit freely in a linked network of Commlinks what’s actually stopping you from having one BTL user transmit the BTL data to a small circle of networking BTL junkies? This way they can have a shared experience and cut down on the BTL cost for themselves?

Posted by: The Jopp Jan 26 2006, 04:03 PM

Interesting interrogation technique actually…

Just have a Sim Module, trode net and a commlink.

Tie the victim in a chair, put trodes on him and put a commlink on his head with a skinlink and designed to “send” only – or pipe it from your own to the trode net.

Now we can have fun, leave the victim in a dark room and let them experience feelings like fear, terror (of darkness for example) a small room and being afraid of tiny rooms and other such emotions.

You use a cracked BTL chip with an increased playback length and unplug him the next morning and start asking him questions, if you don’t get your answers you just plug it in again.

Posted by: BlackHat Jan 26 2006, 04:06 PM

Copywrite code, probably. Unless the BTL was meant to be poly-POV and a shared sim-experience. Then it'd just be more expensive to begin with (in SR3 the cost was multiplied by the number of people who could use it). Of course, with the cracking rules, any hacker worth his salt could crack the thing, and transmit it to anyone who's interested... but they wouldn't be sharing the sim, they'd just all be experiencing the exact same thing... which for moodchips or something might be okay, but for tripchips or dreamchips it'd be kind of lame. I figure BTL junkies don't want to always watch the same thing over an over again. A video-game junkie eventually wants different games, and not everyone wants the same game. TV junkies don't all enjoy watchign the same channel. Even emotion-junkies might want different emotive tracks, or some variation in them at least.

So something like that would be good in a pinch, I imagine, or for a while, but they'd want to keep getting new BTLs anyways. At least, that's my take... a real junkie would probably take watchign the same cracked BTL over and over instead of going a day without a fix...

But considering how easy it is to crack programs... i don't think there would be a market for BTLs if a junkie could jsut crack one and enjoy it over and over whenever he needed a fix.

In SR3, the addiction rules from M&M required you to eventually move on to harder-moreadictive BTLs. That might be a good reasoning.

Posted by: Magus Jan 26 2006, 04:15 PM

Or could it be possible to load a BTL program into an agent loaded with attack ice, similiar to the psychotropic ice of the past to use on a corporate hacker? Hit them with Black Hammer to jam open the simsense feed and flood them with a BTL program?

Posted by: The Jopp Jan 26 2006, 04:26 PM

QUOTE (BlackHat)

But considering how easy it is to crack programs... i don't think there would be a market for BTLs if a junkie could jsut crack one and enjoy it over and over whenever he needed a fix.

I find it a bit silly that one can essentially hack copy protection without programs but oh well. Breaking copy protection for the average human since it would be defaulting to attribute as most people have a basic Electronics/Hacking skill of 0, not unaware but 0. This would mean defaulting at 2D6 since the average attribute would be 3.

End result, your basic BTL user and Average Joe would automatically fail with 2D6 against a threshold of 10-20 (even if it is an extended test)

As for professional crackers then they would probably flood the market for awhile until the real dealer either A: Hunts them down due to lowered profits or B: perhaps flood the suspected market with faulty BTL that has already been cracked and blames the new guys.

Posted by: FrankTrollman Jan 26 2006, 04:51 PM

If you looped the happiness, eventually you'd run out of happy. Joy is experienced by the release of chemicals from resevoires in your brain. While you aren't feeling joy, those resevoires fill back up.

But if you set yourself to release the happy hounds continuously, eventually those resevoires would dry up, and your ability to experience happiness would taper off.

-Frank

Posted by: stevebugge Jan 26 2006, 04:51 PM

QUOTE (BlackHat)

ANother thing that you may want to consider for someone on a continuous happy high might be some perception check penalties. Depending on what mood you're permanently in, it might hinder your ability to function effectively.

Take a suprise check for example, part of being able to avoid an ambush is that gut feeling something is wrong, a happy mood BTL wouldn't ever let you "feel" that something is wrong, you'd just be happy.

Posted by: Brahm Jan 26 2006, 05:31 PM

QUOTE (FrankTrollman @ Jan 26 2006, 11:51 AM)

For Your Information

Many anti-depressants are reuptake inhibitors, which effectively allows the recycling of dopamine and/or noradrenaline and some other stuff that escapes me right now. How you could duplicate that effect that with BTL instead of just causing a flood of release isn't clear, although how BTL works isn't really clear either.

But it does show that dopamine and noradrenaline are not destroyed directly in creating their effect, so it is not safe to assume that being overly happy will be a much larger drain on reserves. The result of the effects on body function, like increased heart rate or long periods of being awake, could however be a serious drain on the body.

Posted by: Angelstandings Feb 1 2006, 01:58 PM

It's not that you'd run out of happy, but that you'd eventually have to use the BTL to feel normal. It's as if you'd be causing a form of brain damage, since you'd be less responsive to normal feelings of pleasure -- exactly what happens from the abuse of known drugs (but we're reluctant to call it braindamage, but it essentially is).

Stop using it, and you'll experience extreme depression. Even if you get over that, the things that used to make you feel good will feel washed out and not as fun anymore. Your brain doesn't want to be happy all the time, and it will fix itself so that you will never experience happy again -- unless you increase the strength of the BTLs.

Not that the above would stop people from doing it... I think it's a great way to die slowly. "News at 10, the even darker side of BTL addiction: People who sim themselves to death."

Using it as a form of interrogation is definately a viable alternative to torture, since you don't have to try to keep the person alive -- just sane.

Posted by: ThatSzechuan Feb 1 2006, 02:33 PM

QUOTE (Brahm)

QUOTE (FrankTrollman @ Jan 26 2006, 11:51 AM)

Serotonin, not Dopamine.

Posted by: Brahm Feb 1 2006, 05:14 PM

QUOTE (ThatSzechuan)

Serotonin, not Dopamine.

Serotonin, that is the other one I couldn't remember. There are Dopamine uptake blockers. Maybe they don't exist in any prescription as on label anti-depressants, but they do exist. Cocaine is one example, which exists as a prescription medicine.

These drugs can also have effects you would not normally expect. A baby that is born with a coke addiction can have greatly increased motor skills. They are sometimes able to walk by 6 or 7 months of age.