Tech Predictions for SR4 Options

[Vuron]

So what technology predictions do you have for the 2070 timeline.

Note that a good deal of the one's I'll go ahead and predict I'm not sure I neccesarily want showing up but I figure they'll raise thier head up sooner or later.

Aerodynes- One of the coolest features of Bladerunner style cyberpunk this was one of the technologies that Cyberpunk 2020 always had and many feel like Shadowrun was lacking.

Full-Body Conversion Borgs- a shirow style cyberpunk thing that many shadowrun kinda adopted in cybertechnology to a mixed review.

Synthetic Humans- The lack of true AIs (with notable exceptions) has kept the development of synthetic humans from becoming a noticeable part of the shadowrun (although there have been some hints in some of the novels).

Biocomputers- Ever since gibson wrote Neuromancer biochips have been the preferred method for getting the sheer number of neural connections neccesary to achieve AIs. This might or might not be true for Shadowrun AIs. Getting the biochips out of the UV hosts and into more companies might be expected (and might explain things like deep resonance better)

Landmates- Always something more of a Manga/Anime cyberpunk feel powered armor seems to inevitably creep into high end cyberpunk sooner or later.

Man portable Railguns- Similar to the landmates in feel I predict them showing up sooner or later.

So that's my list do you guys have any ones that you either want or fear to have show up?

[Sepherim]

QUOTE]Aerodynes- One of the coolest features of Bladerunner style cyberpunk this was one of the technologies that Cyberpunk 2020 always had and many feel like Shadowrun was lacking.[/QUOTE]

I certainly hope not. I always thought it was a great feature for SR not to include such things...

[Austere Emancipa...]

I agree that more everyday technology would be welcome in the core books, so that you get a better feel for what the world in general is like, not just what criminals of the 2070s are packing. Of course that takes away space from the absolutely essential stuff to include, since it's hard to play SR without the guns and the armor and the B/R-equipment, so it's understandable that there's not that much of everyday tech.

I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that I'd like weapon and armor tech to advance at least to the level of current SotA, and for that tech to have logical rules. Predictions are hardly my specialty though, so I'll leave most of that to others.

[hermit]

[Vuron]

One thing I've always kinda hated is them introducing new technologies via novels and sourcebooks without following up the obviously successful technologies by having them become more common place.

For instance powered armor has definitely been within the SR canon since the London sourcebook introduced the Knights of Glendower. Granted it seems they've been at least sort of retconned out to a degree but we are talking power armor in 2053-2054 timeframe. It doesn't makes sense for the Tir nations and thier satelites to remain substanitial ahead of the SOTA in tech as well as magic.

Of course there are other problems with the current SOTA (tending to go with kewl topics) rather than increase the baseline but... I do stand by my predictions that sooner or later most of what I've predicted will be added in ;)

[Aristotle]

[Arethusa]

See the last few episodes of Stand Alone Complex's first season for a very good depiction of heavy armored suits used as urban, special operations tanks.

[BrazilRascal]

You guys are forgetting the mosr mind-bending, cutting edge, super-nano-quantic science breakthrough!!

----drum roll----

Cyber-radios that don't cost .75 Essence!


I surely hope they don't go the mecha route, though...I think the game has to preserve its gritty Blade Runner feel as much as possible, instead of embracing the teenager-in-giant-robot trend. Maybe they will come up with some cyberware piece that gives limites resistance to magic (say, an offshot of the karma hazing that gives cyberzombies their extra resist). Perhaps APDS and Av ammo won't be so outrageously hard to find. Or maybe the SOTA will be so that most common implants will get some essence cost reduction even in non-alpha grades, letting you get more for you 6 points of immortal soul and giving the game a sleeker, meaner edge overall.

[RunnerPaul]

I'd just like to see some of the "better" tech like Smartlink 2 become the "core book" tech. Just like no one sells a 14.4 modem anymore, it should be very hard to even find a Smartlink 1 in 2070.

[Vuron]

True Mecha should be avoided like the plague as well there are multiple other games that focus on that genre and do it extremely well. Trying to compete against either the wargamer style games (Battletech, Heavy Gear) or the softer anime style games (Tristat etc) is a losing proposition at best.

When I said landmates I was more mentioning the various mansized powered armors bristling with weapons that are so common in shirow-style cyberpunk. Of course the risk is making it too much of a Bubblegum Crisis.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

[Arethusa]

What, exactly, do you have against fully body cyborgs, androids, and powered armor suits?

What is wrong with you?

[Nikoli]

It's Shadowrun, not Knightsabres.

Let's keep the BESM aspects to a minimum.

[Lucyfersam]

There is one historical mention of something power armor like in SR, the Knights of Snowdonia in the London sourcebook are described as having crazy armor but being able to still move at impossible speeds (as I recall there is shadowtalk about one taking a panther round to the chest without denting the armor). Fuchi had a million nuyen bounty out for bringing in one of those suits, though with their collapse who knows if Novatech maintained that or anyone had the balls to do it.

[RunnerPaul]

I seem to remember one of the developers commenting that for it's weight and amount of coverage, the heavier security and mil-spec armors should be penalizing the characters' movement and reactions more than the base rule that's in place already does. The suggestion was that the reason that they don't was that those armors already incorporate minor strength and motion enhancements, just not enough that they felt it warranted the term "power armor". However, I didn't buy it when I first heard it, and I still don't, since there's nothing at all to suggest it in the item descriptions.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

[Vertaxis666]

[Nikoli]

Not to mention a Death's Head Transport to move them.

[hermit]

[frostPDP]

Well, my GM once allowed the whole cyber-suit thing to go through. Looking through Rigger 3 (Not a book I know like the back-of-my-hand) it would have to have been an Autoform or Walker + special design sort of thing, large-sized. I don't know specifically how he did it, but suffice to say it cost about 500K nuyen. It was, after all, a corp experiment...And he was, after all, quadra-palegic...And when he got faced with anti-vehicular rounds in an assault rifle, his mech was damaged severely...And it was impossible to go out in the street without the army getting called in on him...But anyway.

One of the big tech things will almost have to be automatons, but on a small level (I.E. power-suit armor refinements.) None of the goodies will be available to anything but the most well-connected SRs, but that's mainly because most of it will still be experimental. The main reason against large mech-type things is cost, which will also remain prohibitive, but also because the energy demands are fairly infeasable for now - The first Vector-Thrust craft were probably highly inefficient, as was the first cyberware.

Another advance is that most military (duh) and para-military groups will have ADPS/AV rounds, either because they become more street-available or because more runners learn how to make their own.

Wired 4? LOL no, that would be silly, but what is undoubtedly going to happen is that Betaware will become slightly more available, especially used. Furthermore, old normal-grade cyberware is going to be virtually eclipsed by Alphaware, so its possible Deltaware will become eclipsed as well? I'd hope not, but this looks to be a touchy balancing point.

Some things I'd really like that aren't always probable - Definitely less essence cost for a bloody radio. Bone Lacing also costs a little too much essence at the later stages, but then again its effects seem pretty useful so maybe its just a personal pet peeve that something taking up the same space (plastic and titanium do take up about the same space) without taking up much energy at all have different values.

Then again I'm a n00b with cyberware :) I just want to see it as a little more effective - Most people I play with are Adepts, which kills the variety a little.

[Vuron]

Well remember that aerodynes of a sort have been around since Shadowrun 1 in the form of panzers. I figure it's reasonable to expect the technology behind them to have emerged from exclusively military applications 20 years after the fact.

[GunnerJ]

Pardon me, what is this "aerodyne" everyone's talking about?

[Garland]

[Synner]

[akarenti]

I soppose someone should mention that Biocomputers are being created now in real life. They already vat-grew some rat brain cells and used them to coordiante a flight simulator. Don't remember where the article is, but someone posted a link to it on these boards a while ago, I think.

So biocomputing isn't exactly SciFi anymore. Add about 70 years, and I think that the technology might trickle into the hands of the general public (or at least smaller corporations).