Biodrones and Party Members, Technological Loa |
Biodrones and Party Members, Technological Loa |
Jun 21 2010, 10:01 PM
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#1
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 376 Joined: 20-June 10 From: Nerva L3 Station Member No.: 18,735 |
If you have an implanted Move-by-Wire system, can you let the party rigger ride you? And if you can, does the ridden character still get to take mental actions? That way your rigger can move your hackers meat-body without making them break VR. Good for when dumpshock is just not an option. Alternately, there is the stirrup interface, which isn't designed to take over a metahuman, but a willing user wouldn't need their will to be suppressed, so you could end up with a really cool duo.
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Jun 21 2010, 11:42 PM
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#2
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,654 Joined: 29-October 06 Member No.: 9,731 |
MBW is not rigger adaptation. There's nothing in it about being able to accept remote commands.
That said, I honestly can't see the point. If the rigger and the hacker are both zonked out in VR anyway, why not stick them both in the same van and have the rigger jump into an actual drone? It would certainly be far more useful than having him rig somebody else's body through a stirrup interface. |
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Jun 21 2010, 11:50 PM
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#3
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 515 Joined: 27-May 10 From: Helios Space Station, L3 solar LaGrange Point Member No.: 18,624 |
I would say no, unless the hacker had the MBW system slaved to a cranial comlink and the hacker and rigger took the in-game time to personally code a program for it, and the rigger had a ton of skills in pilot: anthroform. Even then, it wouldn't be a pretty sight. And it seems like more trouble than it's worth. Then the rigger is still unconscious somewhere while he's got the hacker acting under The Ministry of Silly Walks.
So, essentially, I'd say it either isn't possible, or just not worth the effort. |
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Jun 21 2010, 11:56 PM
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#4
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 376 Joined: 20-June 10 From: Nerva L3 Station Member No.: 18,735 |
Ok, but suppose you have a medical clone that you stick some Move-by-Wire or Skillwires into and slave it to your commlink. Since you are used to operating that particular anthroform, you wouldn't have to work so hard to pilot it, and you can keep your meat-body, your primary meat-body I should say, safe and sound. That way you could use K-10 and it only costs you the 40k the clone costs (not cheap, but interesting). You'd basically be making a personalized biodrone, wouldn't you?
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Jun 22 2010, 12:08 AM
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#5
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,654 Joined: 29-October 06 Member No.: 9,731 |
OK, that's a little bit less pointless. Yes, you can put a stirrup interface into a wimp (MBW is still not rigger adaptation; skillwires are even less so) of yourself and treat that as your "body." If you take this, I recommend the full-immersion lifestyle. Yes, it is a (particularly expensive) form of life insurance. I imagine, though, that eventually someone will notice you going through wimps on a regular basis and start to wonder why. As my father is so fond of saying, everything's a tradeoff.
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Jun 22 2010, 12:17 AM
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#6
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 515 Joined: 27-May 10 From: Helios Space Station, L3 solar LaGrange Point Member No.: 18,624 |
OK, that's a little bit less pointless. Yes, you can put a stirrup interface into a wimp (MBW is still not rigger adaptation; skillwires are even less so) of yourself and treat that as your "body." If you take this, I recommend the full-immersion lifestyle. Yes, it is a (particularly expensive) form of life insurance. I imagine, though, that eventually someone will notice you going through wimps on a regular basis and start to wonder why. As my father is so fond of saying, everything's a tradeoff. This makes much more sense to me. |
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Jun 22 2010, 12:25 AM
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#7
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 376 Joined: 20-June 10 From: Nerva L3 Station Member No.: 18,735 |
And now the munchkin question: Would you get the control rig bonus while riding your own wimp?
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Jun 22 2010, 01:15 AM
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#8
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 515 Joined: 27-May 10 From: Helios Space Station, L3 solar LaGrange Point Member No.: 18,624 |
I'd be personally inclined to say 'no', unless you took a specialization or something.
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Jun 22 2010, 01:39 AM
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#9
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Advocatus Diaboli Group: Members Posts: 13,994 Joined: 20-November 07 From: USA Member No.: 14,282 |
You get the VCR bonus whenever you're Jumped In.
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Jun 22 2010, 01:45 AM
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#10
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Target Group: Members Posts: 37 Joined: 20-March 09 Member No.: 16,997 |
I am imaging the face of your GM when you show him your purchase list at character creation and it has "Warform Wimp" on it.
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Jun 22 2010, 01:54 AM
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#11
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 376 Joined: 20-June 10 From: Nerva L3 Station Member No.: 18,735 |
The 85k for a wimp with a level 1 stirrup isn't that expensive given that rigging yourself would give you +2 to all of your skills, and 3 initiative passes. It actually costs about as much as it does to have the cyber/bioware to get the same bonuses. Neat.
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Jun 22 2010, 02:09 AM
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#12
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Advocatus Diaboli Group: Members Posts: 13,994 Joined: 20-November 07 From: USA Member No.: 14,282 |
Don't the skills work a little differently when rigging?
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Jun 22 2010, 02:53 AM
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#13
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 376 Joined: 20-June 10 From: Nerva L3 Station Member No.: 18,735 |
When the rigger is jumped into a drone, they use their own skills plus their VR mods. So I guess this is not really any different. Cool.
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Jun 22 2010, 03:00 AM
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#14
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Advocatus Diaboli Group: Members Posts: 13,994 Joined: 20-November 07 From: USA Member No.: 14,282 |
I guess I was thinking mostly of Gunnery. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Oh well.
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Jun 22 2010, 03:08 AM
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#15
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panda! Group: Members Posts: 10,331 Joined: 8-March 02 From: north of central europe Member No.: 2,242 |
hmm, wimps with stirrups, why do i get a BSDM vibe?
anyways, would be a interesting way for a e-ghost to "come back from the dead". |
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Jun 22 2010, 05:42 AM
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#16
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 821 Joined: 4-December 09 Member No.: 17,940 |
Ok, but suppose you have a medical clone that you stick some Move-by-Wire or Skillwires into and slave it to your commlink. Since you are used to operating that particular anthroform, you wouldn't have to work so hard to pilot it, and you can keep your meat-body, your primary meat-body I should say, safe and sound. That way you could use K-10 and it only costs you the 40k the clone costs (not cheap, but interesting). You'd basically be making a personalized biodrone, wouldn't you? I wouldn't consider you're 'used to that body' - you're not using your own nerve system with the accumulated 'formating' obtained by living with it for two decades. You're using a piece of electronic hardware to move a meat puppet around, with the same sort of feedback you get from a regular anthromorph. And compared to a regular drone, you'll face the problems of the comparatively slow nerve impulse transmission to the muscles rather than a drone's faster electronic 'nerve system'. On the positive side, you won't have trouble with drugs that mess up the higher brain functions, as the clone won't have much of them. And since using a clone of yourself has no special benefits, you can go for something better and biosculpt it to look like you (though don't hope passing a troll-based one for your dwarf PC... surgery can do wonders, but not outright miracles (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ) |
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Jun 22 2010, 06:02 AM
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#17
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 165 Joined: 3-March 09 From: A top-secret federal party facility. Member No.: 16,929 |
Got a page number quote on the wimp costs? I don't remember seeing it anywhere. My book-fu is weak, forgive me.
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Jun 22 2010, 06:39 AM
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#18
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 376 Joined: 20-June 10 From: Nerva L3 Station Member No.: 18,735 |
$imon$ez:
Augmentation 127: Full body clone: Type O 25,000 Full body clone: Cultured 40,000 Augmentation 126: Discusses clones and cloned organs. $imoff:: --$imon$ez in an open source [Knowsoft]::code provided by TrnZhX-- |
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Jun 22 2010, 07:12 AM
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#19
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 376 Joined: 20-June 10 From: Nerva L3 Station Member No.: 18,735 |
I am imaging the face of your GM when you show him your purchase list at character creation and it has "Warform Wimp" on it. I didn't see his face, but I got a good reaction anyway: QUOTE (GM WTF moment @ <00/00/00>) me: oookay, so what counts as "non customized gear"? Can I have a clone?
GM: ??? what? |
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Jun 22 2010, 07:27 AM
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#20
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,654 Joined: 29-October 06 Member No.: 9,731 |
Considering a cultured clone is grown from your own DNA, I would definitely consider it "customized gear."
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Jun 22 2010, 09:08 AM
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#21
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Great Dragon Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 5,082 Joined: 3-October 09 From: Kohle, Stahl und Bier Member No.: 17,709 |
The 85k for a wimp with a level 1 stirrup isn't that expensive given that rigging yourself would give you +2 to all of your skills, and 3 initiative passes. It actually costs about as much as it does to have the cyber/bioware to get the same bonuses. Neat. The problem is that the standard, force-grown wimp doesn't develop the neutral system required to use a stirrup interface (see the Biodrone chapter in Aug). What you need would be a clone which grew up normally or maybe at a slightly accelerated rate, both of which should be way more expensive...and you would no longer just be riding a braindead wimp, you would enslave a human being. |
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Jun 22 2010, 01:39 PM
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#22
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 376 Joined: 20-June 10 From: Nerva L3 Station Member No.: 18,735 |
The problem is that the standard, force-grown wimp doesn't develop the neutral system required to use a stirrup interface (see the Biodrone chapter in Aug). What you need would be a clone which grew up normally or maybe at a slightly accelerated rate, both of which should be way more expensive...and you would no longer just be riding a braindead wimp, you would enslave a human being. Yes, the ethical implications are fertile grounds for roleplaying. The development of the neural system does seem to be a problem, but isn't the stirrup interface just move-by-wire with a rigger adaptation? I'm pretty sure MBW systems replace enough of your Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) to get away with, at least for this. I would think the musculature would be more of a problem, given that they are called 'wimps' and all. To Tanegar's question: yes, but. Medical clones are covered by lifestyle, I believe, so you would just need your medical provider to give you your backup clone. Which I'm sure they'd be fully willing to do, and won't get you strange looks or anything. Maybe you'd have to steal it. |
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Jun 22 2010, 06:15 PM
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#23
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Great Dragon Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 5,082 Joined: 3-October 09 From: Kohle, Stahl und Bier Member No.: 17,709 |
The development of the neural system does seem to be a problem, but isn't the stirrup interface just move-by-wire with a rigger adaptation? I'm pretty sure MBW systems replace enough of your Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) to get away with, at least for this. I would think the musculature would be more of a problem, given that they are called 'wimps' and all. I agree that it technically should be possible (why should the clone need higher brain functions if you remote-control his somatic neural system?), but Augmentation says it doesn't work. Probably the powers-that-be wanted to avoid exactly this kind of body transfer shenigans (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) You could assume the tech exists somewhere based on Deus' and Proteus' research into making controllable human puppets, but then it should still be limited to top-secret corp R&D. |
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Jun 22 2010, 06:52 PM
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#24
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 376 Joined: 20-June 10 From: Nerva L3 Station Member No.: 18,735 |
I agree that it technically should be possible (why should the clone need higher brain functions if you remote-control his somatic neural system?), but Augmentation says it doesn't work. Probably the powers-that-be wanted to avoid exactly this kind of body transfer shenigans (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Body transfer? Nope, none in stock chummer, try next door. The best part of the Mirror biodrone (I like that name) for me is that it in every way isn't the kind of immortality that people want. It's a great plot device for exploring the aspects of Eclipse Phase and EtheReal that carefully ignore the transmission of consciousness problem that plagues every method of "immortality." I image a character, we'll use Simon, making a habit of rigging specially grown wimps (as suggested earlier, use genetics to make a wimp into a beast) and blasting them full of K-10 for hairy situations. If one of them survives long enough, it's personality will diverge to a greater and greater extent from the original Simon Personafix chip. How long before it figures out what is going on and comes after Simon with existential revenge in it's synthicardium? More plot that you can shake a spoon at. |
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Jun 22 2010, 06:56 PM
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#25
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 165 Joined: 3-March 09 From: A top-secret federal party facility. Member No.: 16,929 |
...for these reasons were cranial bombs invented.
EDIT: Especially if you set the trigger for the cranial bomb(area version) to the end of the K-10 duration. |
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