Alright, let's say that for whatever reason, a character lost one of his eyes (got an arrow shot in his eye in battle, pulled out eye and arrow, declared that the essence of his parents could not simply be tossed away, swallowed eye). So, he wants a glass eye. But rather than just being a boring glass sphere, his eye has a flashlight in it. But it's not a cybereye. It's a spherical piece of glass with a high-powered flashlight inside. The flashlight is activated by touching the eye with a finger. Should the battery ever run out, then the user simply pries it out (it has a little string that hangs out of the socket), changes the internal batter, and then plops it back in again.

So, Dumpshockers, how much essence cost for losing the eye and getting the light?

I hope you know I was eating breakfast while I read that...sicko...

Basic prostetic replacements cost no essence because there's no interactivity between them and the nervous system. Though if they're a mage, they might take a hit on their magic rating from the wound.

The Abstruse One

what he said.

Not to mention that all of his ranged attacks now get a +2 penalty as the cyclops. Maybe more, seeing as how the cyclops at least has his eye in the middle of his head.

well that all-encompassing +2 to ranged combat is a little off kilter to real life. i was taught to fire handguns with only my handedness eye open, in my case my right. and according to my officer friend that's how he was trained as well, this way your vision's more closely aligned with the sights as you assume your standard firing stance. ::shrugs:: just my 2

I have always thought that the +2 for the cyclops was stupid. I would imagine that if such a creature actually existed, it would have some form of internal compensation that evolved to allow depth perception.

I would have thought that the modifier was more applicable to hand-to-hand or melee combat, seeing as you actually have to judge distances in that situation.

I'm not exactly a great marksman, but I don't think that one really needs to judge distance when firing a weapon, except in extreme cases. Most bullets follow a fairly flat trajectory, and sighting automatically adjusts for it at a given range. Long distance sniping does require that range be taken into account, but dynamic sighting with a rangefinder takes care of that... and you are still only using 1 eye with your scope.
Unless of course you plan on using a bow or crossbow, in which case accurate range-knowledge is essential. However, that would also require someone actually using a bow in Shadowrun. heh..hehe...heheheheheheh

True. The penalty should probably only apply if you need to gauge distance (significant windage, grenade launcher) and you don't have a rangefinder. Loss of peripheral vision could be quite a problem, though.

driving might be a problem, though

i would also point out the fact that bows go against impact armor, which is often a few points weaker than ballistic. The difference between them made a huge difference when our ork phys-ad started going william tell on some syndicate chumps.

I have different eyesight in my eyes. My eyesight is normally good enough to do without glasses unless working at a computer long term.

But if I try to

Play Badminton/Tennis
Shoot
Try to catch something small

without my glasses I normaly fail due to problems with my depth perception. With glasses it works just fine.


Birdy

Oopsie - seems you've started off a bow thread discussion again...

OK back to the topic poeple, the eye. The EYE! (Sorry, too much LotR) Anyhow, lets address the facts.

1) Normal humans need two eyes to correctly gauge depth/range - its the whole hunter evolution thing (RE: binocular vision to be more accurate and actually catch your dinner when you pounce on it).

Without both sets of data reaching your brain (where they are compiled by your grey matter and used to cross-check/triangulate the target to where you are - complex stuff we take for granted) your depth perception is a little buggered hence the +2 target modifier for ranged attacks. This would be for any stuff that relies on your hand-eye co-ordination IE: shooting from the hip, throwing grenades, projectile wepons like bows, etc.

However, I'd be inclined to let those who spend an action aiming up via scope or iron sights to ignore this penalty - the gun is already calibrated to take this into account. although, I wouldn't give them the -1 TN bonus either until they had aimed for another action. Sure you can overcome the disadvantage but it take a little longer than someone who isn't handicapped in this way.

2) If your character wants a glass eye, then why not. As it doesn't interface with the body/brain then its a no cost in Essence thing too. But hey, you're blind in one eye right? Some disadvantage - and don't forget the lack of peripheral vision on that side. You've just increased you chances of being "blindsided" Term. As long as its feasibly possible, then stick whatever you like into the new glass eyeball - heck one of those plasma globes would look pretty freaky huh? Overall its up to you to pursuade your GM - point him here if he wants to see the pros and cons of the argument.

3) Oh, and don't forget the surgery to get teh glass eye installed. Its actually quite complex and involves removing the old eye tissue (eyeballs are quite resilient) and then sticking in a sort of polystyrene ball to help the wound heal before sealing part of the eyelid skin over the back of the socket. It's messy and not for the squeemish.

As it happens one of my players and longtime friends is going for this operation next fortnight. He's now blind due to diabetes and a incident with a drunk driver on the M1 and has been regalling us with all the nice gory details during our weekly game session. I could get the full info of the procedure and possibly some full colour photo shots of the op itself if you're interested.

BTW: Abtruse, you should know better than to be eating whilst accessing these forums.

But here's the thing -

With short range shooting you don't need depth perception. Put sights over target, pull trigger. I shoot with only one eye open, because I'm cross-dominant (left-eye dominant, right handed) and I don't like shooting lefty. I'm actually a better shot with my right side, for some reason.

For long range shooting you gauge range based on the size of the target. Figure a human is 6 feet tall, go from there. That's how cheaper rangefinder binoculars work. Also, with scopes, you only use one eye for shooting anyway.

In other words, you normally only use one eye anyway, even if you do shoot with both eyes open. And having one eye won't really hurt you, especially if it's your good eye.

Of course, Raygun will probably come in here and inform me on just how horribly wrong I am.

I'm blind in one eye in real life.

I'm extremely accurate with bare rifle or crossbow - always have been. (Most people I've encountered who target-shoot seem to close one eye while targeting.) Still working at it with bare longbow though: for some reason I prefer to shoot left-handed - possibly because it's my left eye that works? - and my bow is right-handed. I suppose that puts me into something of Zach21035's position.

I've found no problems driving in everyday life. However, I miserably failed the test where you're required to align three miniature vehicles at eye level from 10' away. No problems judging distance in everyday situations, however. Go figure.

I'm guessing what makes the difference is context, possibly combined with any degree of height differential. Another factor might also be the extent to which you're used to perceiving through one or both eyes. For me, it's been most of my life. For someone who has been used to binocular vision most of their life and then loses an eye, it might be very different.

1. The concept of being able to support a high powered flashlight in something the size of your eye is completely absurd. There simply isn't space for the size filament and reflector or the power supply. The size of the eye would allow for a reasonably high intensity bulb with a decent reflector, making an pretty good flashlight, something similar to a large maglight. This leaves no room for power though.

2. As for the penalties for ranged combat modifier question, the +2 for ranged combat is very silly, as beyond somewhere around 10 or 15 ft., you have effectively monocular vision anyway, there simply isn't that much separation between your eyes. For the first 10-15 feet, the binocular nature of your eyes helps judge distance, beyond that it is solely based on size and occlusion clues.

Lucy

Ahem. An eyeball-sized flashlight (battery and all) is perfectly plausible; I have a moderately powerful flashlight that's about the size of my thumb, no doubt technology will have an eye-sized flashlight by 2060.

Hell, it's listed as a subsystem of the bright-lights in cybereyes. The trick here is have you ever tried to read with a flashlight that close to your face? You'll at least need flash compensation to deal with the light being so close to your only functioning eye.

target shooting involves using iron sights, shaodwruns involes snap shots from the hip (thats why you have a aim action). can some of you people go and test your snapshot accurasy with one eye closed and both eyes open please?

Also, the brain will tend to develop 'depth perception software' over time. I'm rather cross-eyed IRL, but am still ok at juding distances, by 'guessing' it's only when I'm tired or there are a lot of things, or the things are moving fast that I tend to run into trouble. If I had just lost one of my eyes, then I'd not have 20+ years of experience in 'guessing'. The +2 for the cyclops is a bit harsh, since they would have grown up like that, and have also developed good guessing skills.

Or you could possibly get a cloned replacement, this cost no essence I believe becauce it is an umodified organ. I think some would argue the point, but as far as I have read from the BBB is that cloned replacement organs and limbs have no essence cost. But that is an interesting idea though, have a glass eye with a flash light in it.

My sentiments are along the line of Bob's... I've only recently been told I have very little depth perception. Both of my eyes are fine, but I always fail that stupid 'pick the dots' test the optometrist gives you. Needless to say, I'm not completely useless at judging distances because I guess I've been able to compensate for not having perfect depth perception. I can shoot a bow better than most, and that's probably just from the brain adapting to the missing depth perception.

Needless to say, I'm not a fan of the +2 modifier, but I can see it if it's a traumatic even that causes the cyclops flaw (like losing your eye as an adult) because your brain doesn't have time to adapt like someone who's only had one eye his/her entire life.

The thing with the Cyclops is, in 2063, with YotC and SURGE, a lot of Trolls went Cyclops. Now, I'm guessing a few were already like that, so, if they grew up with one eye, they shouldn't have the TN modifier. However, if you SURGE into a Cyclops, you get it because (certain cirumstances aside) you're used to binocular vision, and now you have monocular.

The way I got to take care of this was to put a Rangefinder in his eye (decreased Essence and cost because it's only going in one eye ;p) to help nullify the TN mod. The Rangefinder tells you exactly how far you are, and you can judge what to do from there.