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FanGirl
I've been struck by a brand-new character idea—a shy young hacker named Marty, who spends his hard-earned cred on upgrades and maintenance for his robot "girlfriend," which he built himself. I intend for Eve (as I'll call her until I can think of a better name) to be a fairly sophisticated gynoid; Marty designed her as a doting and supportive helpmate, and I think she’d meet the task well. Of course, she would be incapable of real thought or emotion, but she would look, speak, and act fairly realistically, and she’d always act in a convincingly sweet and attentive manner towards him.

I therefore have two inter-related questions:

1. How much nuyen should Eve cost at Marty’s chargen?
Since there aren’t any androids that I know of in the gear listings, I need to figure out a price for a homemade android. I figured that I could buy an entire “body” made of cyber-parts and add in an expensive commlink (with lots of software), but somehow it doesn’t seem enough.

2. What kinds of upgrades could Marty give her to make her “smarter” and more realistic?
Adding more and better knowsofts is the most obvious choice, but I know that software alone won’t “humanize” her.

Any input would be very much appreciated. Thanks much!
PBTHHHHT
...

it'd might be cheaper to have someone with a personafix chip... with the specifications that marty would want.
Gothic Rose
QUOTE (PBTHHHHT)
...

it'd might be cheaper to have someone with a personafix chip... with the specifications that marty would want.

Agreed. That said, I'd look at the costs for every single bit of realistic cyber-limbs you can find - realistic arms, legs, torso, skull, everything. Then look at the cost for pilot systems, and various programs.

I estimate it'll take a cubic-buttload of nuyen.
Abbandon
commlink -> sim module -> virtual person

Please say your not gonna use the android for battle or anything?

What kinda sex toys would they have in the future ?? Instead of making her out of cybernetic parts i would make her skeletal structure out of a medium or large size drone. I dont really know what you mean by having her be more human. You can have a list of hobbies or interests she has and you could make a program for her to randomly pick one to focus on each day.

I dont know though. I think if they was allowed everyone would become a rigger who gets to control a terminator. Or the game would turn into Bladerunner.

A hacker should be making enough money to acquire the services of a joygirl for a long period of time.
hobgoblin
a human size antroform with special autosofts should do the trick. put a blond wig on here and you have a excuse for when she dont understand the orders wink.gif
FanGirl
QUOTE (PBTHHHHT)
...it'd might be cheaper to have someone with a personafix chip... with the specifications that marty would want.

Oh no, it's nothing like that—Marty is a sensitive soul. No matter how much cheaper it would be to do so, he doesn't want to abduct and p'fix any one. In addition to his belief that bunraku puppetry is abhorrent, the fact remains that real girls just scare the crap out of him. To his mind, it's better to love a robot who will never reject him than a metahuman who could—even the best p'fixes can fail or be overridden, and then how would the puppet feel about Marty for what he had done to her?
QUOTE (Abbandon)
Please say your not gonna use the android for battle or anything? 

Hell no. Marty is too attached to her to let her leave his apartment, let alone go into battle.
QUOTE (Abbandon)
What kinda sex toys would they have in the future??

Marty's actually too bashful about sex to make Eve "fully functional" just yet, so they just cuddle.
QUOTE (Abbandon)
I dont really know what you mean by having her be more human.

I mean that her appearance and behavior would closely approximate that of a human. For example he'd respond to people's remarks with statements that make logical sense instead of non sequiturs, she would move gracefully and fluidly instead of jerking around awkwardly, and her speech patterns would be natural and not monotonous or sing-songish. In other words, it should take you a long while to figure out that Eve is a robot and not a person.
Crusher Bob
Touch Link, a high level agent, several skill softs. It's the future, she dosen't need a body.
ShadowDragon8685
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

You know, this is sounding more and more like a DM's sandbox. smile.gif

After all, what is "sentience." Where's the line beween an autopilot soft and an SK and an AI? Would you agree that an AI would be sentient?

What about a Ghost in the Machine that siezed control of Eve? Hey, that'd be an idea. He could use Eve to give some girl runner trapped as a Ghost in the Machine a body again. smile.gif

Oh, and as for synthetic sex toys...

www.fleshlight.com

That's 2006. Imagine what they'd have in 64 years. I'd expect that if he assembled her from prosthetics designed to look and feel real, they would in fact look and feel real. Don't skimp - go for Alphaware non-obvious cyberlimbs, the whole enchelada.
Kyoto Kid
,,..damn, the character Harper (who I stole as an NPC) from the vid show Andromeda already tried that by creating Rami into whom he programmed too much common sense for his own good.
knasser

Cloned body, vat grown from the beginning and genetically no higher brain functions. Approx: 150,000 nuyen.gif
Skillwires and basic feed yourself & follow instructions chips: 10,000 nuyen.gif
Cost of bribing your friends to shut up about it once they find out: More than you could ever afford.

A built from scratch robot would probably cost more than the biological approach. If you really wanted that, I'd work off summing the cost of all the cyber limbs plus torso and skull and then, say 30%. You'll then need to add some sort of control system, probably some sort of rigger control system with a decent rated pilot. That's your base system. As a GM I'd charge extra for cosmetic enhancements.

But maybe there are things like this mass-produced in which case you can buy off the rack. I think competition from Simsense would keep the market costs quite low.

The role-playing when your hacker finally falls for a real girl could be good though. smile.gif
Kyoto Kid
....Think Bladerunner.

....Think Replicants

Better than Human....
Abbandon
Can i be the first corp guy through the door/window into marty's house/place after the corps track him down and raid his place and i get to blow the head off or face off of his doll??
Slump
Don't forget to throw in an internal combustion engine. Nothing like a girlfriend who sucks diesel.
DireRadiant
QUOTE (FanGirl)
1. How much nuyen should Eve cost at Marty’s chargen?
Since there aren’t any androids that I know of in the gear listings, I need to figure out a price for a homemade android.  I figured that I could buy an entire “body” made of cyber-parts and add in an expensive commlink (with lots of software), but somehow it doesn’t seem enough.

2. What kinds of upgrades could Marty give her to make her “smarter” and more realistic?
Adding more and better knowsofts is the most obvious choice, but I know that software alone won’t “humanize” her.

1. Anthropomorphic Drone body. Without any examples in the RAW, I would just start with a base drone model, and add on the various cyber limb accessories to get the pricing and features you want.

2. Agent and specialized autosofts. What might be interesting is to have a group of agents running the drone, e.g one to drive, one to talk, and have them interact, which might generate some randomness and inconsistency in behavior, which might make her more lifelike.

Seems like skillwires are an implied requirement.
Phobos
IIRC Novatech, MCT and probably others have offered Pleasure Drones since the mid-60s, prices for basic models started at about 20k, more than that if you wanted a custom build one or one of the licensed celebrity models.

If you want to build one yourself, you need access to a Cybernetic and Robotics Facilities or you'll have to seperately order custom parts - in both cases expect about five times the normal price for your toy ...

oh, just in case someone asks : it's stated in the fluff part of one of the 3rd ed. sourcebooks, but don't ask me to look up the page reference.
ShadowDragon8685
Page?
Ankle Biter
The problem with this is that if you can build eve, the homebound human love doll, then Captain Munckhing can build Caine the Antrho death mech o doom. Game balance is the big problem with robotic anthroforms.

The reason I think that humanoform drones have so little info is that a drone rigger with high levels of gunnery and control autosofts would have a big advantage over meat runner opposition, with minimal personal risk. Especially when they start dropping gamma scoploamine and 7-11 grenades (or whatever that nasty goop was called).

They can be used as very effective suicide bombers, cos you can load them with all sorts of nasty and they will walk up to the mark and detonate without even reaching for a trigger. Using them as a waldo allows a Rigger to use all of their hardware abilities at range, and possibly with better eyes and more nimble fingers than their own, not to mention the silly initiative they get from being full VR. All in all it gives too much opportunity for game breakage.
Phobos
more or less OT :
Well, the problem with Mr. Munchkin exists anyway. He could do such stuff with Rigger 3, and he will be able to do even worse when Rigger 4 is finally published - and until then he can just point to FanPro (Quote : "Note that the Shadowrun, Fourth Edition will replace the Shadowrun, Third Edition rules set. Source material from previous editions will still be compatible." and build his contraptions using Rigger 3.
But this is not Mr. Munchkin, AFAIK, so why not help poor Marty get his RoboGirl on the track ? Though in 2070 the virtual pendant is much more common (what a surprise a prices of only a few hundred nuyen for the basic versions), the physical versions should probably have made a few leaps in technology towards even more "realistic" and "user-friendly" versions biggrin.gif

Back to topic :
So, if you really wanted to work out every detail of your baby, use the construction rules for Anthroforms from Rigger 3 for the hardware side of the problem, then use SR4 to calculate the cost for commlink hardware and software (+ Skillsofts, Knowsofts ...)
Better yet : simply ask your GM - (s)he has to approve anyway - and use the price range for comercial models as a guideline when bargaining wink.gif
Crusher Bob
Well the price for the modern equivalent (NSFW) is 6,499 USD plus shipping (500 USD for CONUS).

What's to stop Mr. Munch from using a steel lynx instead of a much more expensive anthro drone?
PBTHHHHT
Heh, reminds me of the time a coworker showed me the patent application for the sex doll that has a servomotors built in the waist area so you can have the gyrating hips. I kid you not. There's an entire area with examiners who focus entirely on 'entertainment devices' applications.
ShadowDragon8685
That thing is creepily lifelike. If I ever win a lottery, I'm gonna havta, just out of morbid curiosity if nothing else. nyahnyah.gif

Yeah. By 2070, she should be doing pretty well, especially if the person who owns and maintainances her is a clever rigger with medical and anatomical knowledge.


The real rub is in trying to figure out how she reacts to things. You could fill a mainframe with canned reponses, but it would be better to design a learning system and let her go from there. Of course, then you're essentially growing an AI, but... smile.gif
GB1
/rant
It's funny how when someone asks HOW to make/do something, there's always others that tell them to do something else!
"Don't do what you want for the pure enjoyment of it, no one would/should to that. You should do this... <insert min/max here>" nyahnyah.gif
(this is a slight at the internet as a whole, not just Dumpshock)
/end rant



Topic:
IMO: even though Sim sex would be better (or enslaving someone and rewriting their personality. Yuk!) there still may be a market for android girls/guys.
For example: Here in Toronto we've had DSL for about 15 years (The core downtown has been fully wireless on the street for 2 years).
Anyone can use the 'net to get any free porn they want. Meanwhile porn DVD's are still kicking hollywood's ass in sales, and there's even a porn theater walking distance from my place.

Not everyone wants, has the tech savvy, or coin, to get the "latest and greatest".
Most of us know someone that hates computers or can't program a VCR (like my mom, lol)

And some of us still paper/dice roleplay when not playing a MMORPG or RPG video game.


http://realdoll.com/
Started, and still owned, by a husband/wife team that used to do f/x for legit hollywood movies.
(While i would never drop $7,000us on a sex toy, someone must be. biggrin.gif )

If these guys team up with, say, Sony's robot division and Playboy, (or even NASA for long term flights to other planets, etc.) imagine what they could have in 60 years! wow!
Lagomorph
In sr3, I think in either SOTA64 or in Sprawl Survival Guide, they had a short blurb on athroform butlers. IIRC they were 3-5k. Since he's a hacker, he rewrite the software they use and get a contact to do the body work.

edit:

the whole purchasing cyber limbs and torso and head would work, but those are all designed to function while attached to humans, so a lot of the work and cost involved in those wouldn't really be representative of a human shell for a robot. Though I could see it end up being more lifelike that way.
MikeTrevin
It's worth noting ( as someone else already did in this thread ) that it is already possible to build a 'Terminator'. Has been at least since Rigger 3; I can't speak for before then. While such a machine would not show a human level of intelligence, it would at least be capable enough to really, really ruin your day. On the flipside... they weren't more Uberiffic ™ than any other drone with the same body/armor and one or two manipulator claws.

I think the big question here is how to give the drone enough personality to -seem- human for an extended period of time. Ignoring questions of sentience ( since that's not even the goal here ), that leads to the question- just HOW smart is a drone? Considering they are often referred to as 'dog brains', I'd be inclined to say not much. And Shadowrun doesn't -very- clearly indicate what kind of personality limits you could expect from a drone or Agent.

If it does say it somewhere, I missed it. Apologies in advance if so.

Since we seem to keep looking back to modern day times, however, the solution may be in programming. Some people burn a lot of effort into making programs that can pass a 'Turing test', but we've made no real inroads in the area.

http://iniaes.org/ for an example of what I'm talking about.

In 2060/70 though, we have sophisticated S-Ks that have become AIs, and the S-Ks themselves are probably sometimes at least 'smart' enough to mimic human behaviour. We've also got the advantage of catchwords like 'fuzzy logic' to play with when making our neat toys. However, S-Ks are specifically beyond the ability of a Shadowrunner to create; and again, there was nothing that said much about the personality of even a superwhamadayne fuzzy-logic Robot 5 'brain'.

Long story short- the body is not a problem. Indeed, making the body is laughable- she CAN be made.

But can she be smart? As a GM, I'd probably rule not- that seems like something better suited for large corporate programming teams, and less for a single home-bound shadowrunner.

Besides, I like working the electric sentience angle in my campaigns. My toys! Mine! Runners are supposed to discover them, not make them for themselves right off the bat! smile.gif
Shrike30
If I were your GM, I'd let Marty pick up the gynoid as a Loyalty 6, Connections 0 contact.

This is a flavor element for the character, not a walking, talking, cybergun-slinging death machine. If I had to assign stats, it'd basically be a fully-cyborged "character" (using the baseline 3/3/3/3 of all of the cyberlimbs/torso/head, with the bonuses for multiple limbs/torso/head figured in). Redline a commlink (that cannot be stripped out for other things, since it's a custom job), add skillwires, and pick a few skillsofts that "she'd" have (things like Ettiquette, Massage (Backrubs), Con, Cooking, Cleaning... hey, you said "helpmate"). Say that the copy protection on these is "unbreakable"... that is, it's basically a bunch of his custom-written software, that wouldn't actually work in a human.

If Marty wanted to add stuff that didn't make as much sense for the background (cyberweapons, combat/hacking skills, etc), then I'd actually charge him for it, since it might actually have a noticeable effect on the game. As is, however, "she's" just a very loyal (and kinda weird) contact.
Squinky
Nobodys really commented on the "Fantastic Lover" part of the title. Since skill wires only go up to like 4 (?) the crazy loving skill won't quite be that good.

I would personally allow the "creature" to simply be made from drone parts if the character had the right tools. I don't see why it would cost more than 20k, but I would give it 2's across the board. I don't think paying cyber costs is really appropriate, since those are made to connect to human systems. Programs instead of skill wires.
Shrike30
The "Plastic Fantastic" is a slang term referring to things that are newfangled, a little finicky, and made of plastic rather than something more traditional (like flesh and bone, in this case). "Lover" is the noun, in this case.
Gustave
One could most likely hack the software out of a virtual person(pg. 322) and put it in the android. If Marty has a lot of time on his hands he could probably program in a reliable personality(as apposed to just downloading one of the popular sim people).
X-Kalibur
Does this "Marty" happen to like Firefly/Serenity? wink.gif
Geekkake
QUOTE (X-Kalibur)
Does this "Marty" happen to like Firefly/Serenity? wink.gif

Funny, my first reaction was "McFly", rather than "Firefly".
maeel
QUOTE (Ankle Biter)
The problem with this is that if you can build eve, the homebound human love doll, then Captain Munckhing can build Caine the Antrho death mech o doom. Game balance is the big problem with robotic anthroforms.

The reason I think that humanoform drones have so little info is that a drone rigger with high levels of gunnery and control autosofts would have a big advantage over meat runner opposition, with minimal personal risk. Especially when they start dropping gamma scoploamine and 7-11 grenades (or whatever that nasty goop was called).

They can be used as very effective suicide bombers, cos you can load them with all sorts of nasty and they will walk up to the mark and detonate without even reaching for a trigger. Using them as a waldo allows a Rigger to use all of their hardware abilities at range, and possibly with better eyes and more nimble fingers than their own, not to mention the silly initiative they get from being full VR. All in all it gives too much opportunity for game breakage.

i wouldnt be sure about that, one of my 3rd ed. characs had such a monster, he used it as an exosuit/ powerarmor. with the limitations of Rigger 3 this thing was very well amored but the average troll was stronger. our gm actually managed that my char would only use it in certain situations, when stealth was really no issue and when of course bigger and nastier things were around...

to the topic: why dont make the machine and let a sprite live in it.. sure he is no technomancer, but the book does not say that there are no free sprites and it also doesnt say that those will only interact with technomancers..
hyzmarca
Make stuff up, handwave/handwave/handwave.

Basicly, there are no rules dealing with this specific scenario (outside of an April Fools joke). Start with an anthroform drone and a virtual person, make stuff up from there.
De Badd Ass
QUOTE (FanGirl)
I've been struck by a brand-new character idea—a shy young hacker named Marty, who spends his hard-earned cred on upgrades and maintenance for his robot "girlfriend," which he built himself.  I intend for Eve (as I'll call her until I can think of a better name) to be a fairly sophisticated gynoid; Marty designed her as a doting and supportive helpmate, and I think she’d meet the task well.  Of course, she would be incapable of real thought or emotion, but she would look, speak, and act fairly realistically, and she’d always act in a convincingly sweet and attentive manner towards him.

I therefore have two inter-related questions:

Any input would be very much appreciated.  Thanks much!

I had a similar idea - not the girlfriend part, the android helper part. I looked at how various drones were converted from Rigger 3 to Shadowrun 4 and came up with the following stats for a myRobot SDK.


myRobot
..Handling..............0
..Accel.................--
..Speed.................20
..Pilot.................3
..Body..................4
..Armor.................2
..Sensor................3
..Cost..................2,000¥

..Anthroform............Medium
..Height................1.8 M
..Weight................80 Kg.

..Response..............3
..Signal................3
..Firewall..............3

Attributes
..Body..................4
..Agility...............Pilot
..Reaction..............Pilot
..Strength..............6
..Charisma..............--
..Logic.................Pilot
..Intuition.............Pilot
..Willpower.............--

..Initiative............Pilot + Response
..Initiative Passes.....3

Standard AutoSofts
..ClearSight............3
..Maneuver..............3


Compare it to a Nissan Roto-Drone.

I punted on the whole Power Plant and Fuel section. There is nothing in SR 4 to compare.

You may think the price is low. This is a stripped model. Hardware and software options quickly raise the price.

QUOTE (FanGirl)
1. How much nuyen should Eve cost at Marty’s chargen?
Since there aren’t any androids that I know of in the gear listings, I need to figure out a price for a homemade android.  I figured that I could buy an entire “body” made of cyber-parts and add in an expensive commlink (with lots of software), but somehow it doesn’t seem enough.

I spent a lot of thought on this, and looked at how prices changed between Rigger 3 and SR 4. Finally, I just went with 2,000¥, the price of a Nissan Roto-Drone. That's fairly close to what I computed, and it is a nice round number. I feel that a Roto-Drone is complex enough to be comparable.

QUOTE (FanGirl)
2. What kinds of upgrades could Marty give her to make her “smarter” and more realistic?
Adding more and better knowsofts is the most obvious choice, but I know that software alone won’t “humanize” her.

Heh heh. One reason for creating the myRobot was to give my Technomancer's machine sprites a way to "materialize". That probably won't register at all on the humanization axis.
De Badd Ass
QUOTE (Lagomorph @ Jun 29 2006, 01:59 PM)
In sr3, I think in either SOTA64 or in Sprawl Survival Guide, they had a short blurb on athroform butlers. IIRC they were 3-5k. Since he's a hacker, he rewrite the software they use and get a contact to do the body work.

edit:

the whole purchasing cyber limbs and torso and head would work, but those are all designed to function while attached to humans, so a lot of the work and cost involved in those wouldn't really be representative of a human shell for a robot. Though I could see it end up being more lifelike that way.

The Butlers, Bartenders, etc. are in the Sprawl Survival Guide.

Rigger 3 suggests that a version of any cyberaccessory can be obtained for a drone at half price. I'd like to think that by 2070, these items would be "plug and play" ala Inspecter Gadget. Romove foot, attach skate.

As to the Plastic Fantastic Lover part: I wonder if an android girlfriend/boyfriend could compete with a BTL chip, a prostitute, or matrix sex. I'm not sure what the point would be. What would the 2070 edition of "The Sims" be like?
Kalvan
QUOTE (De Badd Ass)
I'm not sure what the point would be. What would the 2070 edition of "The Sims" be like?

It would be just like The Thirteenth Floor
FanGirl
I just want to clarify what exactly Eve is to Marty. Shrike pretty much hit the nail on the head: she is primarily designed as an Angel in the House. A sweet and virginal “girl next door,” Eve mostly cooks and cleans when Marty isn’t at home, and dotes on him incessantly when he is. She always agrees with his opinions and laughs at his jokes, congratulating him during his triumphs and consoling him during his tribulations. Although she is not actually sentient and does not feel real emotion, her affect is convincing enough to make Marty think that she truly loves and understands him. Of course, his judgment of her “understanding” is clouded by the fact that he’s fallen in love with her. He’s very devoted to Eve, and wants to see her happy more than anything else—which would be quite touching if it wasn’t so unsettling.

Now I’ll clarify what Eve is not. She is not a sexbot: in fact, Marty has not had any kind of sexual relations with her at all. He’s a little old-fashioned, and so he’s postponing the act until “the time is right.” She is also not a killbot: she’s much too docile for that. The only thing she can really do to “defend” herself from an assailant is yell “Help! Help! Help!” until someone comes to her rescue. (I should point out that a sadistic GM could have Eve stolen, converted into a killing machine, and then sicced on Marty. Marty would be forced to choose between destroying the love of his life and letting himself be destroyed by her, which would make for Dramatic and Poignant Roleplaying™.) Anyway, Marty wants to preserve Eve’s purity as best as he can, so he definitely won’t be installing any bizarre sex toys or guns in her. He doesn't even let her leave the apartment, for crying out loud.

Finally, I want to touch on why I gave the thread the title that I gave it. I was alluding to a song—Plastic Fantastic Lover by Jefferson Airplane. It was this song that gave me the inspiration for Marty and Eve. That's why Marty shares his first name with Marty Balin, who provided the vocals for the song; you can probably guess why my Marty’s last name is Jefferson.

Anyway, I think that about covers my clarifications for tonight; if you have any further questions that need addressing, I’ll answer them tomorrow. I want to thank everyone who has posted so far for their input—it’s been really helpful. Good night!
DireRadiant
I'd go for the Eve as a contact idea then.
emo samurai
Hmmm.... the possibilities....
Abbandon
I was gonna say she could be a mom or a little sister. But i knew he was gonna be banging that grade A piece of plastic.

I think that whole thing about him being innoscent and falling in love with eve is very unrealistic. Unless he had his manhood chopped off and surgically reattached he would be thinking about sex every day. And how could he ignore a moving realistic woman. Would he be like " Ummm, Eve go in the other room i have to have some alone time"

lol I can see him trying to hold back his desires until he is finally bursting at the seams to nail eve and then getting so into it he breaks her or he starts telling her all this wierd stuff to do and she gets totally confused and saying wierd stuff like " Is this some kinda new execersize program you would like me to learn" or "What is the purpose of this activity marty??"

That crap about a guy holding back and gradually falling in love with a woman only happens in chick flicks. I guess im being hard on this idea of yours but its just rubs me the wrong way....or maybe its the lack of rubbing.
emo samurai
If she can play a technomancer, then she can play a chick flick stereotype. nyahnyah.gif

And before anything happens between them, something will happen to her. biggrin.gif
Phobos
I guess the best way, then, would be to make her into a Dependent Negative Quality - Marty's attached to her, and even has to sink money into her to make her better - so she shouldn't probably even cost BP ... oh, and she might even be an embaressment to him should someone find out about his feelings.
+10BP should be okay then.


Oh, btw, Airplanes' 'Plastic Fantastic Lover' was love-hate-relatishionship with a TV biggrin.gif ... and perhaps some broken-up-relationship, but that's only what Jerry Garcia's Ghost whispers biggrin.gif
The term's meaning than started changing into 'sex toy' in the 90s and 2000s (which accordingly to Jerry Garcia's Ghost is not that far from the original meaning).
Funny how the Thread's title reflects through the posts within it ... Strange things with Names ...
ClickClash
I double-dog dare you to name her Mercy instead of Eve.

I also recommend you take a look at the novel Virtual Girl. Brilliant guy builds girl robot to be his devoted friend, makes her fully functional but has a big ole hang-up about purity and sex, so she has no understanding of sex at all. It migth suggest some things for your character's psych profile...
Shrike30
QUOTE (Phobos)
Oh, btw, Airplanes' 'Plastic Fantastic Lover' was love-hate-relatishionship with a TV biggrin.gif ... and perhaps some broken-up-relationship, but that's only what Jerry Garcia's Ghost whispers biggrin.gif
The term's meaning than started changing into 'sex toy' in the 90s and 2000s (which accordingly to Jerry Garcia's Ghost is not that far from the original meaning).

See, that's amusing to me because I picked up the slang as a shooter. There's a chunk of the community that thinks poorly of the trend in polymer-framed firearms (such as the Glock or the Springfield Armory XD)... they call 'em "Plastic Fantastic" or "Combat Tupperware," things like that. The double-entendré that now exists in my mind has me rolling.
Jaid
personally, i would price the drone at 3k instead of 2k... sure, it may be like the rotodrone in terms of complexity, but let's not forget the rotodrone doesn't come with two rating 3 autosofts either... which, incidentally, the doberman does have =P
Lindt
Funny, the first things htat came to mind was the Airplane song...

I kinda like the idea as charging it like a contact. Its good role play.
Cynic project
Make her a quality. SHe is very clearly a plot device and nothing more or less. An interesting one but still just one. You could charge him 5 points, and say that she helps him deal with stress and such, maybe give him a dice or two when healing at home. Or other small bonuses that would be given based on logical choses of the GM.
Kanada Ten
Wait... isn't this just covered by lifestyle costs? I assume most people have some form of this either virtual, domestic or a combo. It's so much fun when the repo men come... But I'd go with the 20-30k if you want ownership.

I have an NPC rigger who loves his car... and her personality (Queen B!tch v6.1a).
FanGirl
QUOTE (Abbandon)
I was gonna say she could be a mom or a little sister.  But i knew he was gonna be banging that grade A piece of plastic.

I think that whole thing about him being innoscent and falling in love with eve is very unrealistic.  Unless he had his manhood chopped off and surgically reattached he would be thinking about sex every day.  And how could he ignore a moving realistic woman.  Would he be like " Ummm, Eve go in the other room i have to have some alone time"

lol I can see him trying to hold back his desires until he is finally bursting at the seams to nail eve and then getting so into it he breaks her or he starts telling her all this wierd stuff to do and she gets totally confused and saying wierd stuff like " Is this some kinda new execersize program you would like me to learn" or "What is the purpose of this activity marty??" 

That crap about a guy holding back and gradually falling in love with a woman only happens in chick flicks.  I guess im being hard on this idea of yours but its just rubs me the wrong way....or maybe its the lack of rubbing.

I’m big enough to admit that my first instinct was to say something snarky about how, unlike you, not all men are pigs who are incapable of having emotional intimacy. But then I got to thinking about it and I realized that you were right: Marty does correspond a little too closely to what seems to be the universal male ideal among women, and that expecting a man to correspond to this ideal by denying his own sexuality is perhaps irrational. Yet I still want Marty to be kind of nerdy and wholesome, because I feel that these qualities are central to his character. So I’ve decided that he does have strong sexual desire for Eve, but he just tries very hard to repress it. The main reason for this unhealthy repression stems from—you might have guessed it—mommy issues.

I figure that Marty’s dad mistreated Marty’s mom for years: smacking her around, cheating on her, and just generally taking her for granted before his death (possibly in some sort of foolish motorcycle stunt) when Marty was very small. His mom, of course, was full of anger and resentment towards her late husband, and she dealt with her emotional baggage by unloading it onto her son. Her determination not to raise another abusive man ironically spurred her to become an abusive woman: she had no tolerance for any signs of belligerence, disrespectfulness, or sexual appetite that she noticed in young Marty, and always justified her severe punishments by reminding him of the terrible fate that he would earn if he disobeyed her: “Do you want to end up like your father?” With a childhood like that, it’s no wonder that Marty keeps such a tight rein on his natural impulses.

Still, Marty does have a few outlets for his sexual desire. For instance: I have arbitrarily decided that Eve does not yet have the motor skills to dress or undress herself, so he has to do it for her. He usually does so twice in a day (she wears pajamas to bed), but sometimes he does it three times (she has a party dress for special occasions). Sometimes, immediately after one of these “changings,” he needs to excuse himself to the next room for a few minutes. Not all that satisfying, I know, but it's better than nothing.

QUOTE (ClickClash)
I double-dog dare you to name her Mercy instead of Eve.

Why Mercy? Why pick that name over all the other fictional gynoid names? I must know!
ShadowDragon8685
QUOTE (ClickClash)
I double-dog dare you to name her Mercy instead of Eve.

*point, snort, snicker.*

Silly. Mercy's a gun's name! Just like Reason!
Drraagh
There are a number of versions of this sort of thing appearing in Anime from Video Girl Ai to Ah! My Goddess and so forth, and all of that is pretty much non-sexual. Now, there are also some for the more adult out there, but that doesn't fit with what you're going for.

In movies, we've got the virtual version like there was in 6th Day, the whole list of those in the Wikipedia entry and even various Matrix versions. I have to say I like the idea. The most recent project I had my character working on, even making use of gear they were stealing from runs, was to build a non-Matrix based video game system. Shaker table base to get the reaction of movement and then various other additions to it. Sort of a way to work the body while gaming, rather than just letting the mind do it.

Now, as for the personality, I would say it would just be random decision pathways like a SK. I don't know how many people actually watched Star Trek Voyager, but the novelization of the pilot had some scenes from the 'view' of the holographic Doctor, showing the trail through his data-pathways before he would make a decision to do anything. Now, the programming would have to be appropriated from somewhere, since it takes a lot of time to program something like that, unless you start off with just simple collision detection and add new pathways as needed. Then to make it more realistic, upgrades could be cannabalized code to add more options, a seris of moods set upon stimuli (lie being gloomy when its rainy, but then you wanted someone to comfort Marty, so I dunno), perhaps some fuzzy logic upgrades, things like that.
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