[SoA2064] Sota 64 Finally Options

[Edward]

Where dose it say fiberoptics affect LOS.

I was farley shore mirrors don’t and they work on the same principals as fibre optics.

Binoculars will extend LOS if thay are purely optical (I believe this is listed in MM under eyewear optimag and in SR3 street gear surveillance equipment binoculars. But I don’t have my books with me) so maybe a glass lens would work.

I can see a large range of experiments involving astral perception and prisms of various materials maybe mirrors of metal radicals or even oricalcom. Unfortunately I don’t have astral perception.

Edward

[Jason Farlander]

Edward, do you have SOTA63?

The prometheus system mentioned by mfb allows a mage sitting in an enclosed room and looking through a fiberoptic lead to cast spells at hapless runners. Anything that involves purely optical manipulation of light (no digitization or magic) can provide physical LOS.

[mfb]

also, SR3 page 181 states explicitly that optical lenses, mirrors, and fiber optics can enhance LOS. of course, it also goes on to say that cybernetic vision enhancements can as well, since they've been paid for with essence, which means that optical mag cyber is pretty much useless.

[JongWK]

[Nikoli]

What about Kirlian Photography? Though dismissed in the real world, it could be seen as a method for aural photography in SR

[Edward]

Fore some reason I believed a mirror dose not enhance LOS. Apparently I was wrong.

I do not own SOTA 2063 but Kremlin KOA dose and I have looked threw it a few times. I will have to look up that item when I am back in town.

It is interesting that somebody said the Prometheus system explicitly prevents astral perception so LOS is not tied to astral perception and aura camera would not necessarily work with a simple glass lenses.

It is strange that the electrical mag cyber wear specifically states it is not good to a mage inspite of the fact that SR3 says anything payed for with essence works. As the image magnification cyber wear came out after SR3 I would take the later reference as being an exception.

Kirlian Photography could be n interesting method. I have seen the results but I don’t know how they create them.

Edward

[Nikoli]

The film is sanwiched between two thin plates and a low current is passed through. Kirlian, the Russion that discovered this got a nasty burn to his hand the first time because he didn't know just how little voltage was necessary.

[Botch]

The magic camera operation is simple.

Open the battery compartment and you will find a little imp with a paintbrush and easel. Look behind the chip slot and you'll find a tiny scanner to digitise the image.

[bitrunner]

The Kirlian method (one of the methods) is exactly what is being talked about in SOTA64 - just as "ghost hunters" can capture strange images, presumably ghosts or spirits, using cameras that have natural optics and old fashioned film, it can be postulated that these were early successes in photographing astral entities...

not to worry too much...it requires special cameras (such as daguerreotype with silver plates) and long exposure times...an astral mage *should* be long gone by then...

[Vera53]

I am glad that they are making reference to something more real such as the Kirlian camera than silly imps with paintbrushes :silly:. In an awakened world Kirlian photography would have more value and acceptance than it does today in our boring mundane world. I am surprised that it took 50+ years of the awakening to develop useful application of such technology.

Can't wait to buy the book and read it. I hope my Local store has it in already. ;)

Veracusse

[RangerJoe]

[Nomad]

Since my FLGS doesn't yet have this in, I'd like to know about the spy gadetry.....what's new and exciting to torture my players with?

[hobgoblin]

[Nomad]

Here is my take on the magic camera arguement. The "lens" is a compound structure of two basic parts. The out portion is two thin sheets of transparent plastic, with a uni-direction coating (one-way mirror on the outmost one) which encase an awakened bio-lumenescent structure - (think along the lines of FAB). The light projected from this is then absorbed by hypersensitive reciever (similar to what is used in today's satellite, with the ability to divide up the spectrum into very minute wavelength differentiation). The resulting image is a "representation" of the astral plane without being truly astral in nature. Of course, this was developed without reading the book yet.

[mfb]

hobgoblin, that's a sensible argument, but it's weakened by the fact that there's nothing in the description of ultrasound cybernetic enhancements that keeps a mage from using that. given the extensive discussion of how magic interacts with ultrasound vision in that description, you'd think it'd have been mentioned if spellcasting and ultrasound cybernetic vision were incompatible. given that the data provided by ultrasonic vision doesn't even start out as light, it seems silly to me that electronic mag doesn't work.

[TheDude]

It appears that the only thing of importance out of the whole book is the camera ;).

[mfb]

i wouldn't say that. i want those new adept powers and metamagics.

[hobgoblin]

mfb, ultrasound isnt a hole. the point is that for the input to be useful for magic it have to be raw, unprosessed in any way. and ultrasound reciver that just acts on the sound in and dont try to interpet it before its feed to the visual system of the brain is just as useful as a raw image based on light. a digital zoom will most likely try to interpet what is lines and what is noise before passing the image on to the visual cortex of the brain.

ie, stronger sounds become stronger signals so in many ways ultrasound dont enable you to see shapes pr see but allow you to see brighter and darker spots of echo (and sounds weaken as they travel so therefor you can judge distance). and based on that general info you can make guesswork as to what shapes a thing have (or with high enough resolution you can in fact see the general outline of a object as a bright "aura"). basicly there must not be a chip or anything that tryes to interpet the image before its passed on to the magican.

a closed circuit camera on the other hand interpet the data into new data that the tv at the other end can use to rebuild a similar image on the screen.

they have in fact done replacement surgery based on passive chips placed inside the patients eye to replace the damaged biological "sensors" in there. and they are starting to develop lense replacements for patients with a common eye problem among older people (dont recall what its called in english). sooner or later one can replace the whole eye and even cure blindness as long as the blindness comes from damage to the eye itself and not the brain.

then its just a matter of patching this so that instead of useing visible light as the input its ultraviolet, infrared or ultrasound that is used to stimulate the nerves directly.

hmm, i wonder, could a flashbang give a ultrasound user the effect of "glare"?

[mfb]

dude, it converts sound into sight. there is no image, before the chips in the ultrasonic cyber do their thing. that's a whole lot of processing. you can't cast spells on things you can hear but not see--unless you have ultrasound vision cyberware.

[Ecclesiastes]

[mfb]

nah, this is only peripherally related to the camera. if we started a thread for the camera, we'd just derail that one instead of this one!

[Zenmaxer]

seconded, another thread for this please. dunnae mean to be a pain in the bum...
also I can think of PLENTY of ways to run a magical camera, and I'm sure there's a canon explanation. What you guys should remember is that what the canon says, goes.

[Kanada Ten]

[Req]

[Zenmaxer]

:: laughs :: touche, Req, and yeah I agree with you and Kanada. However for the purposes of discussing whether or not something works within the universe, based purely off of rules and fluff interpretations, if it's in the canon, it works. If you want to house rule it out of existence ::grins :: then shoot that rule till it's dead, but don't bother to point to spots in the canon that support you, because it's not relevant. Okay :grinbig: I'll stfu now.