Knowsoft Question, Short and to the point. Options

[PH3NOmenon]

How many knowsofts can I load up at once?


all it says in the BBB is that i need a sim module or a datajack. Is this one per active knowsoft?


Activesofts can only reach a combined rating of skillwire rating x 2, with a limit on individual activesoft rating equal to the skillwire rating. Is there such a formula for the knowsofts too?

Anyone that can enlighten me?

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[Liminaut]

Right. Computer memory is functionally infinite.

[PH3NOmenon]

Cute, all my players are spontaneously becoming fluent in as much as five languages...

[Protagonist]

[ronin3338]

Well, memory is infinite, but there should be a limit to how many you can access at once...

I don't have a BBB in front of me, but in the absence of RAW I would limit it to Logic, or something like that.

[hobgoblin]

as long as they can get hold of the language files that is.

but, as the world is now wirelessly allways connected. i would say that you dont have to buy the program, just rent it for as long as needed ;)

still, dont try to read poetry while using a linguasoft...

[ronin3338]

... or pick up a date...

[Rotbart van Dain...]

Why?

LinguaSofts work as Skills up to 5, which is quite impressive.

[ronin3338]

I can't speak for hobgoblin, but I was only being partly serious...

... besides, no matter how well you learn a language, you're still not a native speaker, and all it takes is one critical glitch to change:
"Hey babe, let me buy you a drink"
to
"Hey, I'll kill you in your sleep and molest your dog"

[Aku]

would the system*2 rule come into play here, possibly?

[ronin3338]

Something like that.. but which system?

[PH3NOmenon]

I was figuring out something along the lines of SystemxResponsex2 as a cap to how much Rating's worth of knowsofts you can have running at once... ample room to let players speak three languages and know the scores of the past Urban Brawl scores of the past 3 years.

But then, you don't even need a comlink to run a know- or linguasoft, so that kinda chucks that idea out the window.

So apparently your brain handles most of the processing for these softs, and as long as they're available for your brain to access you're free to load up as much you want.


If you were inclined to limit it, the only logical route to take would be to link it to Logic somehow.

[hobgoblin]

unless im mistaken, there is no skill rating for a native language ;)
basicly with a native language you allways get the needed number of hits (unless its some obscure subject you dont have a clue about, but thats more knowledge then language).

but when you start messing with a non-native language there becomes a chance that things go very very bad ;)

allso, linguasoft is a program. an advanced program maybe but still a program. i would expect it to have trouble with stuff like sarcasm, slang and other tone, context and other variables have an effect on the interpetation of the word.

like say the word bath. am i talking about a room, or taking a bath? what if the language your translating to have two diffrent words, one for taking a bath and one for the room. now how would the program know what word to use?

allso, the program would most likely have you deliver the words in a very flat tone (as it most likely cant judge the emotions your trying to deliver). thats why i commented that you should not try to read poetry ;)

[James McMurray]

My assumption is that the program is more than just a dictionary it's a full scale translation tool. If they can generate agents capable of piloting drones they can probably generate something capable of more than a lookup table of word meanings. The higher the rating the more dice you'll roll when the GM does decide something is complex or obscure enough to require a roll.

[hobgoblin]

piloting a drone can be damned simple. just look at the vehicles that navigated on their own using GPS and some other tech in a NASA race not long ago.

but yet we cant build a program thats able to do automatic translation from one language to another without some interesting results. ok, so bablefish is doing good, most of the time, but give it a text, then take the result and run it thru again. results should be entertaining.

and if we have those problems with written language, what then with spoken? i do belive that the UN still use human translators...

still, simpler topics have lesser tresholds, and your aided by AR if available (like say displaying a drawing of a toilet when asking for the toilet).

however, poetry and declerations of feelings are some of the most complex tasks we can use out language for. hell, not everyone get it right as a native speaker. often, its just as much about culture as it is about pure language.

[James McMurray]

The pilot program for drones does much more than just drive around. It does practically everything that the vehicle could be required to do. I'm leaving that statement openended because I don't have a book handy to come up with some examples of drone behavior that would be fairly complex.

Sure, translation programs aren't very good these days, but the knowsofts are being written in 2070. Presumably they'll be much better after 60 years of development. :)

I think the dynamics of using a program to fight three armed opponents, one of which is a troll using Jujitsu, another a dwarf with a spiked baseball bat, and the last a midget with a monowhip would be more complex than translating conversation, and you can do that with an activesoft.

There will be limits of course. For instance, I would probably start requiring rolls if the conversation is happening in a noisy area or switched to using lots of slang.

[ronin3338]

Reminds me of a ST:NG episode, where Troi tries to explain to Picard how difficult it is to translate laguages. Her example was harder, becuase she was talking about aline languages with no frame of reference, but it made a good point.

She pointed to her cup of coffee, said a word, and asked Picard what she said. He replied cup, but then realized she could have said drink, hot, beverage, or any number of things.

None of my PCs use linguasofts, but in situations where it matters, you have to take into account not just what's being said, but how it's being said and the context/setting in which you're saying it.

Edit: I'm not disagreeing wtih James, matter of fact I agree on several points. Luckily, language doesn't come into play much in my games :D

[Big D]

Simple? The systems used in the DARPA Grand Challenge were anything but simple.

There was actually a good, if short, Nova documentary on it recently. Stanford (the winning team) skimped on the hardware (they got a fully rigged-out vehicle from the manufacturer) and focused entirely on the software, and came up with some rather impressive image recognition code to support their navigation system.

At any rate, what *should* be the limit to actively running knowsofts is the reader that interfaces the software with the mind. However... "...size and transfer rates are no longer an issue." Which also seems to mean that you can carry around as many activesofts as you want, the only limitation is how many you can have *actively running* in your skillwires, and you can swap any or all of them out with a simple action. I assume that even if you buy your softs as sim chips, you can copy the data (after breaking protection) to your commlink and use it to manage what's running.

Does this mean that if you have the money, you can have rating 5 for every category of knowledge ever recorded by mankind on a soft stashed on your commlink for instant direct mental retrieval? Yes, I think it does. However, given how detailed knowledge categories tend to be, it might cost you a few billion to accumulate all of them, and millions each year just to catch the updates. Addiction (moderate/knowsofts), anyone?

Due to the cheap price of linguasofts, though... other than the edge issue, which shouldn't come up much in normal usage, there isn't much reason for even a face to blow BP/karma on languages, when you can max 2 linguasofts per BP or just buy them during play. At that price, might as well grab every major language, you never know when somebody is going to say something they think you aren't going to understand.

One further thought... how hard is it to make your own knowsoft? Also, is there any real benefit to putting such information on a knowsoft over just having it pop up in your AR display the instant you mentally (trodes/jack) request the data from the commlink? Does having a 3D floorplan of the target "seared, seared!" into your memory give you any boost over just seeing your average CRPG mini-map float over your left eye?

[James McMurray]

I meant simple in comparison to what a drone's pilot rating allows it to do in 2070 SR.

For stuff like minimaps I wouldn't ever bother with a knowsoft. Those are for things that you don't want to have to spend actions on using the search action to find the data. Knowsofts are IMO basically specialized encyclopedias with speed of thought indexed data. Just getting the data itself would be cheaper, would just require your commlink, but would take time to sort through.

[coolgrafix]

[Dranem]

I typically play it that Softs are chip based. Seeing as the datajack has 2 chip ports, that you slot 2 Softs at a time at most... and frankly - in many situations - why would you need more than one or two at a time?

[coolgrafix]

[Glyph]

[Ravor]

Well if I remember correctly, the fluff has always stated that Chipped Languages are 'flat' and easily recognized as being such, so using them might affect the runner socially.

Of course, I might merely be transposing 3rd Edition Fluff with 4th Edition Fluff again.