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> Imaging Devices, Mages and Astral Perception, A Line of Sight Question
Ayeohx
post Oct 27 2009, 12:40 AM
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We've got a mage in our game wearing vision enhancing glasses. He uses them for AR and has flare comp, low light and thermo. He controls his commlink through trodes. Now that the stage is set I'm going to present the questions with what I think may be right answers.

Do the glasses interfere with casting spells?
I've always pictured AR glasses as having transparent lenses with a LED layer. When using AR only those spots where HUD info and notifications are popping up are blocking normal site. When image enhancing happens, such as lowlight or thermo, the LED screen fully lights up blocking standard perception. You can kind of get around blocking natural LoS with lowlight or thermo by using a picture in picture mode. A little box in the corner of the display with the enhanced image. Not effective for targeting and such but good for noticing movement and such. Similar to the picture in picture riggers get when controlling multiple drones.

Do the glasses interfere with astral perception?
If the LED layer is fully lit then yes, astral perception is blocked. If it's not lit then you can see through the glasses.

Can you set your glasses (or cybereyes) to block LoS to individuals when casting manaball?
If the LED layer can block LoS then why couldn't you use it to cover up friendlies that are stuck in your Manaball? If you can't see them then they are safe? And if this won't work for the glasses due to my above assumptions being incorrect then how about cybereyes? I suppose that it could be declared that even though the processors are blocking LoS the cameras themselves are not. Tough call.
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Tymeaus Jalynsfe...
post Oct 27 2009, 02:28 AM
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QUOTE (Ayeohx @ Oct 26 2009, 05:40 PM) *
We've got a mage in our game wearing vision enhancing glasses. He uses them for AR and has flare comp, low light and thermo. He controls his commlink through trodes. Now that the stage is set I'm going to present the questions with what I think may be right answers.

Do the glasses interfere with casting spells?
I've always pictured AR glasses as having transparent lenses with a LED layer. When using AR only those spots where HUD info and notifications are popping up are blocking normal site. When image enhancing happens, such as lowlight or thermo, the LED screen fully lights up blocking standard perception. You can kind of get around blocking natural LoS with lowlight or thermo by using a picture in picture mode. A little box in the corner of the display with the enhanced image. Not effective for targeting and such but good for noticing movement and such. Similar to the picture in picture riggers get when controlling multiple drones.

Do the glasses interfere with astral perception?
If the LED layer is fully lit then yes, astral perception is blocked. If it's not lit then you can see through the glasses.

Can you set your glasses (or cybereyes) to block LoS to individuals when casting manaball?
If the LED layer can block LoS then why couldn't you use it to cover up friendlies that are stuck in your Manaball? If you can't see them then they are safe? And if this won't work for the glasses due to my above assumptions being incorrect then how about cybereyes? I suppose that it could be declared that even though the processors are blocking LoS the cameras themselves are not. Tough call.


I would say that the glasses are definitely see through, regardless of whether your AR is actually running, AR is Semi-transparent so that you do not have perception problems (it would really suck to receive that ER data feed when you are in the middle of a car chase afterall) and it depicts this on the Cover of the SR4 BBB...

Thermographic and Lowlight would overlay these visual modes upon your field of vision... they do not block visual effect, but cannot be used to Satisfy LOS as they are electronic rather than optical, and would have to be turned off in order to target via Spellcasting...

The AR Views could (and probably should) induce a Distracted Penalty to other actions that you take, depending upon how invilved you were with them and what was actually going on around you, as would Astrally Perceiving and performing non-magical actions...

You can Astrally Perceive while wearing glasses, as you are no longer looking through the glasses per se, but shifting your vision into the realm of another plane of existence; glasses should not interfere with this at all...


There is a program called "Negator" that will block out sensory data in your field of view... but remember, such a program would be electronic in nature, and I would not allow a mage to "block" his teammates from view to allow them to escape the Manaball's effects... just do what any other Self-Respecting Mage would do in such a situation... provide your team mates with Counterspelling for just such an occasion.

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nezumi
post Oct 27 2009, 01:58 PM
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Assuming the glasses are in fact some sort of transparent LCD display, and not something like electronic zoom binoculars which recreate the image completely as a graphic image, I would allow for clear LOS. HOWEVER, once he begins cluttering that field of vision, he may suffer soft-cover modifiers. If his display is minimal, it shouldn't be a problem, but huge pop-ups, computer displays, and yes, IR/light enhancement effects would all cause serious soft cover modifiers.

You can NOT use it to block friendlies when doing your AoE spells like that. This was specifically brought up in 2nd or 3rd edition, regarding peering through a keyhole. If memory serves, the blurb basically said 'stop abusing the system. The GM should hit this hard with the GM hammer'. (I can look for the specific quote if you really need it.) In short, the answer is no, nothing so convenient as that. I'd give modifiers to his whole roll, for blocking large segments of his vision, but it wouldn't significantly help one character over another.

(And for the record, this probably helps your party more than it hinders it - remember this keeps the other guys from sniping the party with AoE spells the same way.)
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Heath Robinson
post Oct 27 2009, 02:07 PM
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If they are wearing glasses then, at worst, the character can just peer over the top of the glasses when they wish to cast. Any vision modes active would, I say, fill the entire disply region with digitally processed info - rendering the glasses effectively opaque for casting.
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Ravor
post Oct 27 2009, 02:11 PM
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Yet another reason to use cybereyes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)
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Tymeaus Jalynsfe...
post Oct 28 2009, 01:49 AM
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QUOTE (Heath Robinson @ Oct 27 2009, 08:07 AM) *
If they are wearing glasses then, at worst, the character can just peer over the top of the glasses when they wish to cast. Any vision modes active would, I say, fill the entire disply region with digitally processed info - rendering the glasses effectively opaque for casting.



Opacity is bad for survivalility... I would say that AR is viewabale through the glasses (see the Cover of SR4 BBB,... it is in his field of vision, but not at the range of the glasses he is wearing)... in other words he is interacting with both AR and the real world, which is why i might impose a -2 "Distracted" Modifier on some actions... but his vision is not clouded because this would render him ineffective...

Keep the Faith
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