Improved Sense: Scent and Olfactory Booster Comparison, So, what rating (1-6) of "sniffer" would Adept: Improved Sense Options

[CanadianWolverin...]

So, there I was, reading through Sensor Packages when I came across:

- Olfactory Sensor (Rating 1-6) table page 325 / description page 326

Olfactory Scanner: The olfactory sensor picks up and analyzes the molecules in the air. It works the same way as the olfactory booster (p. 331)

So off to page 331 I go to see:

Olfactory Booster: Known on the street as a "sniffer", "cybernose", or "cybersnout", the olfactory booster enhances, identifies, and records smells (and can play them back later). This opens a completely new world of sensual information for the user, because smell carries much more information than a normal metahuman body unconsciously produces odors corresponding to emotions (joy, fear, anger, etc.) Further the olfactory booster can continuously analyze the composition of air and set off an alarm if it picks up traces of explosives, ammunition propellant, or various substances used in biological and chemical warfare (see Scanners, p 254). A cut-off function allows the user to completely ignore intense odors. The olfactory booster is usually linked to the user's PAN to create an even more thorough AR experience.
Apply the olfactory booster's rating as a dice pool bonus for any Perception Tests involving smells.

So, I have a character who is an Adept with Improved Sense: Improved Scent page 188

Improved Scent: You can identify scents in the same way as a bloodhound. You can identify individuals by scent alone, and can tell if someone whose scent you know has been in the area recently with a successful Perception Test. The strong smells of most sprawls impose modifiers on the use of this sense.

That reads pretty powerful when compared to the above, I would think being as good as a Bloodhound is a pretty bad ass rating, but how do you think they compare? Is the Improved Sense: Improved Scent at rating 1 or higher when you use the power points on it? Do you have to buy it more than once to get it higher like as if it was a higher rating Olfactory Booster?

[knasser]

So, there I was, reading through Sensor Packages when I came across:

- Olfactory Sensor (Rating 1-6) table page 325 / description page 326


So off to page 331 I go to see:


So, I have a character who is an Adept with Improved Sense: Improved Scent page 188


That reads pretty powerful when compared to the above, I would think being as good as a Bloodhound is a pretty bad ass rating, but how do you think they compare? Is the Improved Sense: Improved Scent at rating 1 or higher when you use the power points on it? Do you have to buy it more than once to get it higher like as if it was a higher rating Olfactory Booster?

I think I wouldn't be keen on making the Improved Sense power have higher levels to get the maximum effect. It's priced about right to me and making it effectively more expensive to buy properly would make it much less attractive. I'm inclined to make Improved Sense: Scent equivalent for dice rolling purposes to the rating 6 cybernose for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'd like magic to be able to match technology in this instance. As it's a power that you either have or have not, then it needs to start at the maximum for that to be the case. Secondly, the cyber version has a number of advantages from being able to record scents to share with others (via SIMsense) or for other uses (imagine a pack of biodrones that had SIM modules so that you could relay a target scent to them!) and, very usefully, you can turn it down or off which you can't do with the adept power. As our Physical Adept with the power said to our Face with Improved Pheromones last session: "I don't like you, because your scent makes me inappropriately horny."

K.

[Glyph]

From the FAQ:

When an adept buys an improved sense on a power that has multiple levels (e.g., vision enhancement or sound filter) are they purchased as levels or does the adept gain the max value for just .25 points?

They receive it at the maximum level.

[Neraph]

Glyph, but what does "Maximum level" mean? 1 googleplex? Five? Threeve?

I think a good rule of thumb is at the Adept's Magic rating. The adept in my group runs with Elemental Strike, and that's how I rule it.

[BishopMcQ]

Running Wild gives you a Scent Tracking Table for the Bloodhound aspect (p. 206), otherwise, I would tend to say that the Improved Sense (Scent) would apply like the Olfactory Booster, which goes up to Rating 6 as I recall.

[Doc Byte]

That reads pretty powerful when compared to the above,...

Not really. There're some advantages of cyberware:

1. Recording function (+ send it over your comlink)
2. Playback function (AR)
3. Analysis library (you don't just notice the smell but you know exactly what you smell)
4. Cut-off function (not just the booster but all smells)

[CanadianWolverin...]

Not really. There're some advantages of cyberware:

1. Recording function (+ send it over your comlink)
2. Playback function (AR)
3. Analysis library (you don't just notice the smell but you know exactly what you smell)
4. Cut-off function (not just the booster but all smells)

Oh, I am aware of that, I was just meaning that knowing the parts per million a bloodhound can sample at compared to a human's nose that I have seen described on the Discovery Channel animal programs makes it seem to me like it, the Improved Scent, would be a high rating comparable to the Olfactory cyberware. So, it is somewhat reassuring that I see some who would rate it, the Improved Scent (0.25 PP), at a comparable rating 6 (dice) Olfactory cyberware.

As far as playback function and analysis goes, the description seems to suggest it is just as potent, the whole knowing just who and what stuff passed by some spot or downwind thingy. The real advantages I see to the cyberware appear to be the 1. and 4. you mention.

Thanks all for the information, thoughts, and comments. Oh, and did I somehow over look a FAQ somewhere? Sorry about that Glyph. May I have a link to that or did I overlook it at the top of the forums? Or was that just in the recent 4.5 stuff that I somehow overlooked?

[Doc Byte]

A dog is trained to recognize a single smell. (drugs, explosives, etc.) I don't think that the adept will recognize a smell he has never encountered before. But that's GM decision.

[CanadianWolverin...]

A dog is trained to recognize a single smell. (drugs, explosives, etc.) I don't think that the adept will recognize a smell he has never encountered before. But that's GM decision.

The interesting thing about those dogs is that they do recognize more than one smell, they are trained to alert their handlers to the presence/source of that smell. Recognizing smells and obeying the training of a human to direct the human to a recognized smell are different things.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfaction#Olfaction_in_animals
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenthound
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodhound

I understand what you are saying though, in the case of whether a smell would be new to a adept or not would have to be determined on a case by case basis, the adept however should be aware there is a distinct smell (given he has enough hits on his perception test, of course). So a adept with improved scent who has been around guns per se, should be able to recognize the smell of the parts that make up the projectile weapons (oil, cordite, etc) that have been in an area recently, let alone scenting that sweating, bored rent-a-cop if he is Bloodhound good.

The more I read about Bloodhounds, the more I am thinking rating 6.

[Glyph]

Glyph, but what does "Maximum level" mean? 1 googleplex? Five? Threeve?

I think a good rule of thumb is at the Adept's Magic rating. The adept in my group runs with Elemental Strike, and that's how I rule it.

The FAQ is only about improved senses, and their cybernetic counterparts generally have a maximum level, be it 3, 6, or whatever.

I would run elemental strike the same way.