 Augmentation Q&A, Ask the developers and the authors |
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 Aug 1 2007, 07:36 AM
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#251
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Runner  Group: Members Posts: 3,314 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Lisbon, Cidade do Pecado Member No.: 185  |
Yes. The combos can get quite interesting. I believe the Nanotech rules in this Edition make it much more flexible, practical and versatile than previous versions. The reduced prices also help.
No. Just a fluke.
The Qualities were designed to work within the 35 point Quality limit and hence stacking was reduced (I suggest that even if you don't enforce the 35 point limit, you consider limiting stacking on the basis that both are rare genetic conditions). Though they aren't incompatible ruleswise, their basic concepts fluff-wise aren't entirely compatible either. Type O is a rare genetic condition, while Biocompatibility is a different (actually 2 different) genetic conditions which involves many of the same genesequences expressing in different ways.
They are considered innate qualities. Neither biotech nor genetech has been able to reproduce them through treatments - yet. Masking a DNA signature involves something a lot different than massive rewrites to your DNA (instead it makes changes to common polymorphic trait sequences) - something akin to changing only some of the reference points computers use to match your fingerprint. |
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Aug 1 2007, 12:52 PM
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#252
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Target Group: Members Posts: 47 Joined: 18-October 05 Member No.: 7,855 |
Ok, first question, and the most pressing for me: with the Enhanced Pheromone Receptors there are fun social bonus rules that I absolutely love. But can the same be applied to the cybersnout? They're basically accomplishing the same goals, but is there a difference between the data that they give? And it didn't say if the EPRs were incompatible with the olfactory booster, and if it isn't, can you just block out or tone down the nasty city smells? Could you do that with simsense?
With the blood circuit control, it mentions that. if needed, the circulation could be cut from wherever the wound is. But wouldn't that cause some bigger issues, like losing a limb because it dies? Does the system have safety parameters built in so an organ doesn't fail because its in an area where there's massive bleeding that's about to stop, or is that the way the cookie crumbles? The book mentions astral photography. Will this every be talked about in more than passing? Because, call me crazy, I tend to think that magic-technology interfaces are a big deal. But hey, that's just me... can you truly kill a cyberzombie? I mean, the soul's bound to the shell, so it seems like while you can shoot the thing to hell, it won't really be dead, only very, very damaged. And almost all damage can be repaired, especialy if its mechanical. Would splatting a CZ's brains all over the room permanently disable it (leaving the soul trapped in/on the components it was bound to), or would it actually kill it? And as for CZs suddenly getting good press when it finaly comes out, I'm pretty sure that the fact that those who undergo the procedure all are trapped in some existential crisis, or giving their ruger some head would spoil the deal a bit. That and the nasty marks they leave on the Astral. People are stupid, but I don't think they'd willingly thrust themselves into generations of private Hell. The cyborg thing holds more potential in my mind, but maybe because I've just been reading Richard K. Morgan again. Yeah, they aren't able to have everyone implanted with a cortical stack, but people said that they wouldn't be able to clone and genetically modify people. So why isn't brainswapping all that far off (in gametime, that is)? Considering how far they seem to have before cybermancy is "perfected," say that getting put into a new sleeve (to totally jack Morgan's term) might happen sooner. A metal body is preferable to your own body when every cell in your being is screaming for the sweet release of death. Yeah, I don't see CZs as playable. Eventually you'll either top yourself, or have a complete nervous breakdown. Mmmm, THAT'S a fun session, now isn't it? Oh, and leave the orgasm spell alone. My mage/face has that spell, and it's damn useful. When you need to disable someone, which is better: causing them impossible pain, or giving them one hell of a ride? And for faciness, nothing is more useful than shaking a woman's hand as you're casting orgasm at force 1. For some reason they'll be thinking of you in a very different light. "He just touched me and...oh, I'll gladly tell him when I saw [insert important character here]." 8) |
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Aug 1 2007, 01:34 PM
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#253
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Hoppelhäschen 5000 Group: Members Posts: 5,807 Joined: 3-January 04 Member No.: 5,951 |
Keep in mind that it's cyberware and thus, can be hacked, too... |
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Aug 1 2007, 02:32 PM
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#254
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 932 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Orlando, Florida Member No.: 1,042 |
Zeitgeist: I suppose that blood circuit control does what the rules say it does; it saves you instead of kills you. Notice that BCC only reduces damage, it doesn't eliminate it, so obviously the system is making trade-offs regarding bleeding.
You can assume that if they can implant a computer in your head, they can make BCC smart enough to be the help it's meant to be. |
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Aug 1 2007, 03:11 PM
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#255
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panda! Group: Members Posts: 10,331 Joined: 8-March 02 From: north of central europe Member No.: 2,242 |
and in a age where any lost limb can be replaced by either cloned or machine, this is a problem how? |
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Aug 1 2007, 03:20 PM
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#256
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Unless I've missed something, Brain Hacking was dropped between Man and Machine and AUG, is it slated to appear in Unwired or is it gone for good?
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Aug 1 2007, 03:54 PM
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#257
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Also while I'm thinking about Magical LOS and cyberware, since they aren't really "vision" per say Ultrasound Sensors and the new Radar Sensors do not allow for Magical LOS even if they display their data as such, correct?
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Aug 1 2007, 04:09 PM
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#258
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 138 Joined: 1-September 02 From: France Member No.: 3,208 |
The Great Ghost Dance was also, in part, sacrifice magic. I'm not sure its part of blood/death magic isn't, overall, a minority in the full ritual power (meaning the sacrifice part did overall fuel more of the rituals than the death magic part). |
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Aug 1 2007, 04:26 PM
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#259
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,219 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Lofwyr's stomach. Member No.: 1,320 |
Astral photography is kirlian photography.
Link for you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography |
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Aug 1 2007, 04:56 PM
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#260
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 524 Joined: 12-April 06 Member No.: 8,455 |
That's crazy talk. :) I would suspect that there would be serious problems involved with doing this, given the heavy voodoo requied just to keep the original soul chained to the body. An inhabitation could really wreck things. How about inhabiting a cloned jarhead? Less powerful, maybe, but far more versatile. With the proper skills, it could be your hacker, your rigger, your ride, and your sam (albeit not all on the same IP). Inhabiting a cloned brain allows for DNI use, bypassing the normal inhabitation limits on mechanical objects. I'm not sure that flesh or hybrid merges would have any difference, either, and a true form just means that you break out another cloned brain and try again (less ick than inhabiting innocent metas). In addition, if the jarhead was physically present (as opposed to remoting in from the safe house), the ally could still see and cast on the astral, which a normal cyborg couldn't do (one catch--what mental stats does an ally Inhabiting a freshly cloned brain, even a genetically optimized one, have?). Furthermore, if you retained the optic nerves on the cloned brain, and connected them to cybereyes, you could even have a cyborg that could cast normally as long as the jarhead was physically loaded in. To protect against headshots, just connect the cybereyes to magesight goggles and leave the jarhead itself slotted deep inside the chest. Is there a reason why the corps aren't trying stuff like this? It sure seems like allies are a relatively fast, simple, and more powerful way to do cyborg/CZ. They don't need IMS, they don't go insane at the drop of a hat, and they aren't tortured souls who could turn on their masters for revenge. The only catch that I can think of (other than karma requirements) is that they would be inherently loyal to their mage, not to the corp. But that can be handled more easily (corp keeps all the formula copies, only loyal or brainwashed mages are used, etc.) than going through all of the hassle of dealing with metahuman minds and souls. Or is something like that actually going on, and is just waiting for Arsenal to be revealed? |
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Aug 1 2007, 05:00 PM
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#261
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Perhaps the fact that less then 1% of the world's population are Mages puts a damper on the research?
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Aug 1 2007, 05:18 PM
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#262
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 875 Joined: 16-November 03 Member No.: 5,827 |
Not directly a rules question.
I bought the Augmentation PDF from battlecorps.com for 25$. Do I have the permission to legally print the PDF for personal use? Because reading Augmentation in the bath tube is a little bit problematic with a 19" monitor :-) SYL |
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Aug 1 2007, 06:07 PM
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#263
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Prime Runner Group: Retired Admins Posts: 3,929 Joined: 26-February 02 From: .ca Member No.: 51 |
Absolutely. |
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Aug 1 2007, 06:15 PM
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#264
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 524 Joined: 12-April 06 Member No.: 8,455 |
Still sounds easier than the massive voodoo actually *used* to create CZs. If there are mages guarding every major corp building, enough to build wards left and right, and enough initiates to conduct high-level magical research for every single corp worth its stock, there should be a few working for the AAAs capable of doing this. Unlike "natural" cyborgs, they'd never really be able to mass-produce ally borgs--but I'd think they could turn them out faster and easier (and far safer) than true CZs. Also, really stupid question: could you inhabit a metahuman, and *then* drive their essence below 0 (since you can inhabit objects with no essence just as easily)? Or does the act of taking a metahuman below 0 essence disrupt an inhabiting spirit just as it forces out a normal soul? If so, any mage working for a body shop could potentially produce ally CZs. |
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Aug 1 2007, 06:19 PM
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#265
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,089 Joined: 4-October 05 Member No.: 7,813 |
i would personally rule that installing cyberware into a flesh form inhabitation, you're going to cost the spirit essence, which means force... which means the spirit isn't going to be happy, to put it mildly =S
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Aug 1 2007, 06:24 PM
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#266
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
1% if six billion is sixty million. It isn't exactly a small number.
There are fewer dedicated professional research scientists in the world than there are mages in the world. |
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Aug 1 2007, 06:31 PM
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#267
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Sixty million Awakened people, not sixty million Mages, you have to account for the Adepts, Mystic Adepts, Mages, Astral Sight, Spell Knack, Spirit Knack.
And then after weeding out the Awakened Population who simply can't do what you want them to do you have to find the ones who have the drive and talent to make good researchers. |
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Aug 1 2007, 06:51 PM
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#268
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
Which, when you factor in the face that pretty much every major Science and Engineering University has developed a Thaumaturgy program, would be about as common as mundane research scientists.
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Aug 1 2007, 06:58 PM
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#269
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
I disagree because simply being Awakened doesn't mean you will become more driven or smarter then Joe Average down the street and I have yet to see anything that says magic favors smart and driven people.
Percentage wise? Sure you will have the same percentage of Mages who become research scientists as you have mundanes who become research scientists, but the actual raw numbers are going to be much, much smaller because you start out with a much smaller population to begin with. *Edit* Slight clarifaction. |
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Aug 1 2007, 07:04 PM
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#270
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
The actual number of people who attend excellent engineering colleges like MIT is limited not by the drive of the individual but by the capacity of the school. The same will be true when it becomes MIT&T. People get turned down, left and right, because of limited capacity.
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Aug 1 2007, 07:14 PM
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#271
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Sure, but you have to remember that the population of people who can apply to any given mundane classes are more then 100x the population of the people who can apply to any given magical class, and not everyone who Awakens is going to have the background, intelligence, drive, or even desire needed to excel as a magical research scientist just like not every Joe Mundane could handle being a researcher either.
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Aug 1 2007, 07:53 PM
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#272
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
Sure, but post-grad thaumaturgy programs will have about as many open slots of postgrade molecular biology programs and the like, and there will be more applicants than there will be slots.
Awakened individuals have more opportunities, per capita, than mundanes have. |
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Aug 1 2007, 08:25 PM
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#273
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Yeah I agree, Mages and Adepts do have more opportunities per capita then mundanes do. Where I disagree is with the notion that with more then a 100x population gap the increased opportunities will result in anything close to an equal number of magical researchers as mundane researchers.
Percentage wise there are roughly just as many idiot Mages as mundanes, and just as few exceptional ones. If you disagree with that then we'll just have to agree to disagree. |
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Aug 1 2007, 08:47 PM
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#274
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,748 Joined: 5-July 02 Member No.: 2,935 |
Dinnae forget theoretical thaumaturges.
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Aug 1 2007, 08:49 PM
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#275
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Hmm, excellent point as always Ancient History.
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