Dumpshock Forums > Shadowrun Phosthetics

Platinum

Mar 29 2006, 08:28 PM

In the future prosthetics could be majorly advanced, and do not really need to be linked into the CNS.... so my question is ... if you have your lower leg blown off and decide to not have it replaced with a cyberlimb, you could potentially just buy a cheap prosthetic limb that runs on muscle pulses, and works well. The other good thing is that if it gets shot you do not suffer any damage. (although you will have some penalties to movement, then you just whip out the old peg leg) Thoughts?

Moon-Hawk

Mar 29 2006, 08:41 PM

Yes, except for the "works well" part. Hooking it up to the CNS is what makes it work well, and not like the prosthetics we have today. It is not our materials or our motors or anything else that makes them suck so badly, it is the man-machine control interface. If it's working closely enough with your CNS to work well, then that's closely enough to cost essence. You could get feed-foward control by monitoring EMG signals, but without good feedback it's always going to suck and that's where the CNS connections necessarily come in. It is necessary for it to be that way for game balance, and that explanation should be sufficient to hand-wave it so.
That said, if someone wanted a "year-2000-style" prosthetic, sure, but I'd give it Agility 1, a low strength cap, minimal feedback, and it would not take abuse well.

Ankle Biter

Mar 29 2006, 08:51 PM

QUOTE (Moon-Hawk)

Yes, except for the "works well" part. Hooking it up to the CNS is what makes it work well, and not like the prosthetics we have today. It is not our materials or our motors or anything else that makes them suck so badly, it is the man-machine control interface. If it's working closely enough with your CNS to work well, then that's closely enough to cost essence. You could get feed-foward control by monitoring EMG signals, but without good feedback it's always going to suck and that's where the CNS connections necessarily come in. It is necessary for it to be that way for game balance, and that explanation should be sufficient to hand-wave it so.
That said, if someone wanted a "year-2000-style" prosthetic, sure, but I'd give it Agility 1, a low strength cap, minimal feedback, and it would not take abuse well.

I would also go with a lowered damage overflow/threshold, less limbs = less blood. Also lower the patient's body by one for each limb, for similar reasons to cyberlimbs increasing body, and that should discourage people from wanting one.

Platinum

Mar 29 2006, 09:32 PM

QUOTE (Ankle Biter)

QUOTE (Moon-Hawk @ Mar 29 2006, 03:41 PM)

Yes, except for the "works well" part. Hooking it up to the CNS is what makes it work well, and not like the prosthetics we have today. It is not our materials or our motors or anything else that makes them suck so badly, it is the man-machine control interface. If it's working closely enough with your CNS to work well, then that's closely enough to cost essence. You could get feed-foward control by monitoring EMG signals, but without good feedback it's always going to suck and that's where the CNS connections necessarily come in. It is necessary for it to be that way for game balance, and that explanation should be sufficient to hand-wave it so.
That said, if someone wanted a "year-2000-style" prosthetic, sure, but I'd give it Agility 1, a low strength cap, minimal feedback, and it would not take abuse well.

I would also go with a lowered damage overflow/threshold, less limbs = less blood. Also lower the patient's body by one for each limb, for similar reasons to cyberlimbs increasing body, and that should discourage people from wanting one.

Having a cybernetic limb or not having one doesn't affect your overflow.
You have less blood volume but you also have less muscles requiring oxygen and energy. The limb would have less integrity, so would be similar to second hand cyberware. It is not anchored to the body, so that is problematic, but its strength would be at least par with the body's. There are pressure sensors on the limb that press of the flesh so there is feedback to body.

bustedkarma

Mar 29 2006, 11:06 PM

Good article on cutting edge prothetics.
http://news.com.com/Prosthetics+go+high+te..._3-5816267.html

I read an article YEARS ago, about a....whats the best word to use here....."Religously Motivated" Soldier fighting in Serbia. He was an American, trained in Syria, and lost his leg (below the knee) in the conflict. Several years later, he was back on the battefield with a artificial limb.

Another article about amputees returning to combat
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/04/firs..._oif_amput.html

IMHO in 2050-70 cyber would have replaced this technology, and one would think, cyberlimbs were pioneered by the Prosthetic Industry/Military, and that their innovation replaced "conventional" artifical limbs, and thus wouldn't be available in the mainstrem. Maybe in the "boonies", but not in The Sprawl.

xizor

Mar 31 2006, 11:13 PM

for the feed back issue, why not make the limb equiped with trodes or a data jack?