 What is Dunkie's thing for Optics? |
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 Jan 12 2004, 07:35 PM
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#1
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 777 Joined: 18-February 03 Member No.: 4,110  |
In his will, there's 20 million for research into advanced optics, and only 10 million for educational scholarships.
Has anybody figured this out? Does it have anything to do with needing LOS for casting stuff? Or maybe casting stuff at great distances, like into space? |
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Jan 12 2004, 07:41 PM
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#2
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 518 Joined: 24-February 03 From: Tucson Member No.: 4,153 |
That's a good question. Maybe he was afraid that the horrors are still going to come much sooner than expected so he wants to make sure humaniti has as much of a jumpstart technologically as possible.
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Jan 12 2004, 08:29 PM
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#3
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 160 Joined: 12-August 03 From: Sulphur, Louisiana Member No.: 5,418 |
Call me stupid, but what are these 'horrors' everyone keeps mentioning?
Sorry, but I've not bought a single sourcebook since Brainscan, and I've missed out on the past 2 game years of Shadowrun.. And I've never played EarthDawn or any of the other FASA games.. |
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Jan 12 2004, 08:42 PM
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#4
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Incertum est quo loco te mors expectet; Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,546 Joined: 24-October 03 From: DeeCee, U.S. Member No.: 5,760 |
Horrors are the 'unbeatable enemy' from Earthdawn. Apparently they will return to the world as soon as there's enough mana to support them. They're highly magical and very difficult to kill. Go look for the recent thread on 'can we beatt the horrors'. Just search for the word 'beatt' and you'll find it.
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Jan 12 2004, 08:49 PM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 160 Joined: 12-August 03 From: Sulphur, Louisiana Member No.: 5,418 |
I've actually read most of it, and though there's much talk about the 'Horrors', the entire conversation seems to assume you already know what a 'horror' is, so there's no much discussion about what they actually are..
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Jan 12 2004, 09:32 PM
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#6
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 777 Joined: 18-February 03 Member No.: 4,110 |
Well, I don't wanna derail this thread further, but I'll give a quick synopsis of what I know about "Horrors" All I know about them is what I've gathered from this board and I've only read a SR novel with them in it. I've never played ED and I haven't read any sourcebooks with them in it. If you need more information, you can try a search for any of a plethora of the Horrors threads. (I'm starting to get sick of seeing them all! ) Horrors showed up in ED times, and it was a mess, they couldn't be beaten. People retreated to underground cave like reinforced structures called Kaers. The Horrors raped the planet until they had to go. Survivors continue developing the planet further. Fast forward to "Current" SR time, which as you may know, is referred to the 6th World, due to the cyclical nature of mana ebb and flow. When mana/magic is strong enough, the Horrors will return. Somethings, like blood magic, practiced by folks like Aztechnology accelerate the process. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to optics and Dunkies' interest! |
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Jan 13 2004, 12:42 AM
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#7
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,965 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Edinburgh, Scotland Member No.: 2,032 |
I get the impression that the people who made Dunkie's will tacked random numbers onto stuff. Assuming that Dunkie did write his will though, and not some writer employed by FASA who didn't have the machiavellian planning ability of a dragon, i think it could still make sense.
The research into optics was possibly seeded by the fact that casters need to see targets to cast spells at them. In-fact the advanced fiber-optics systems into SotA2063are possibly already the fruition of this research. Also bear in-mind that much of the 20 million :nuyen: will probably go towards research grants for students doing PhDs ETC in the field of optics. Scholarships tend to be cheaper than grants: sholarships are just a money-off voucher for higher education; grants pay for someone's living expences, pay supervisor's saleries, and pay for hardware to do work on. |
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Jan 13 2004, 01:36 AM
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#8
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Manus Celer Dei Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 17,006 Joined: 30-December 02 From: Boston Member No.: 3,802 |
Optics are cool. Dunkie knows this.
Plus, there are always people giving money for scholarships. Maybe not enough money, but it's never bad press to give some cash to get some people through college. Optics, on the other hand, tend mostly to get attention from the people directly interested in optics as optics, not as a public relations move or attempt to gain a future employee. ~J |
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Jan 13 2004, 05:02 AM
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#9
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 777 Joined: 18-February 03 Member No.: 4,110 |
:nod: |
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Jan 13 2004, 06:08 AM
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#10
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 745 Joined: 26-July 03 From: Montréal, QC, Canada Member No.: 5,029 |
Wasn't this discussed at length in the old Corporate Security sourcebook?
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Jan 13 2004, 06:34 AM
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#11
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Old Man Jones Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 4,415 Joined: 26-February 02 From: New York Member No.: 1,699 |
(ponders constructing a 360 degree vision fiber optic helmet)
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Jan 13 2004, 09:16 AM
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#12
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 777 Joined: 18-February 03 Member No.: 4,110 |
Do you mean LOS or Dunklezahn's interest in optics? |
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Jan 13 2004, 12:40 PM
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#13
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Target Group: Members Posts: 33 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Jacksonville, NC Member No.: 568 |
Couldn't optics as be laser research? I thought i heard some where that the study and development of lasers fell into that catagory. Maybe there is something to that?
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Jan 13 2004, 05:06 PM
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#14
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 27-January 03 From: Kentucky, USA Member No.: 3,958 |
Yes, it was. There was a large section on control rooms with fiberoptics and mirrors designed to give a magic-user line of sight to many locations within the building. Perhaps Dunkie was wanting to create a "sniper-nest kaer" for magic users to pick off weaker horrors from relative safety. :D For the earlier poster: Horrors are essentially demons. Some are weak enough to be killed off by us, others are nigh-godlike in power. They seem to have no purpose but to destroy and corrupt, and take quite a bit of pleasure in doing so to metahumanity. A few managed to sneak into our 6th world because of the various blood magics being used, but the actual invasion cycle has been pushed back again because of certain NPC's actions. However, it could still be moved forward again if the use of blood magic continues unabated. Metahumans are not ready to fight them yet in the current SR timeline, so they were trying to raise the mana level artificially through blood magic to get the jump on us. |
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Jan 13 2004, 06:40 PM
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#15
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 777 Joined: 18-February 03 Member No.: 4,110 |
Just to clarify, this topic is more about speculation as to Dunklezahn's interest in optics than feasability and methods of magical security casting rooms, etc.
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Jan 13 2004, 06:47 PM
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#16
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Manus Celer Dei Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 17,006 Joined: 30-December 02 From: Boston Member No.: 3,802 |
You don't get a say in the matter :P ;)
Dunno. Not really sure we have enough to go on to make a guess other than just listing all the possibilities we can think of. Has the bequest been referenced at all in canon? ~J |
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Jan 13 2004, 07:17 PM
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#17
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,756 Joined: 11-December 02 From: France Member No.: 3,723 |
VisionCrafters is mentionned in New Seattle page 88. It's a company from Vancouver who bought Snohomish Opticals Inc. Snohomish Opticals in turn had a reputation for their ability to develop optical devices twice faster than the competition and Mr. Glass, the decker who ensured nobody ever found out how they did that. |
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Jan 13 2004, 10:31 PM
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#18
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,028 Joined: 9-November 02 From: The Republic of Vermont Member No.: 3,581 |
Manaball them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. |
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Jan 13 2004, 11:48 PM
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#19
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 777 Joined: 18-February 03 Member No.: 4,110 |
:D That was just my response to the people whining about "Haven't we gone over all this before, etc, etc" In fact, you've been one of the most true to the thread subject;
so thanks :) Also, thanks to everyone else who's contributed to the thread. |
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