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two questions.

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Sun, 2010-09-12 03:41

OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture

two questions.

1. there were 3 space elvators on earth. One is still standing at kilimanjaro. Where were the other two? would Cayambe in equador be a good place for one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_Cayambe 2.What happens to an Async Ego in a pod morph? the first time I read [u]Morphs and Psi[/u] on page 220. I read it as a -30 penalty to use psi skills such as Control. Now I'm wondering if it might mean a -30 penalty to any skill affected by psi such as the psi-chi; Ambience Sence. Would an Async with ambience sence in a pod morph have a -30 penalty to Investigation, Perception, Scrounging, and Surprise tests? Here's the relevant quote

On page 220 it is wrote:
Pod-Morphed Asnyncs suffer a -30 modifier on all tests involving the use of psi slights

What do you make of it?

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Sun, 2010-09-12 14:48

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

Re: two questions.

1) There was one at Killimanjaro, one at, I believe, Panama, and one around the Philippines (I believe that one may actually have been mobile). I don't remember them saying that there are only 3 - I felt like there were more. Cayambe is a good location, but it's never mentioned. Given the prevalence of Portuguese, I would assume there's one under the direct control of Brazil (that or Portugal). 2) My understanding is that being in a pod limits ALL asynch abilities. That would include the psi-chi ones.

Sun, 2010-09-12 15:28

Demonseed Elite Demonseed Elite's picture

Re: two questions.

On the Earth space elevators, there are a few comments:

Sunward, page 55 wrote:
Even better, use one of the maintenance drones to get to the derelict spaceport attached to the sole surviving space elevator (the Kilamanjaro one, that is—the mobile Pacifc beanstalk went down during the Fall, crashing westward to Earth, and you can still see the scar where it lashed down across eastern Asia).

EP Core, page 37, in the BF 60-40 Timeline Entry wrote:
First space elevator on Earth finished. Two others in progress. Space traffic booms.

EP Core, page 90 wrote:
Earth once had multiple space elevators in operation, but with exception of the Kilimanjaro beanstalk, the others were destroyed during the Fall, wrapping around the planet as they crashed to Earth, leaving swathes of destruction.

Those are the only references I see. So there were at least two completed space elevators on Earth, but a third was at least under construction, if not finished.

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Sun, 2010-09-12 18:22

King Shere King Shere's picture

Re: two questions.

I know of one more reference. Highlighted the elevator part

Quote:
EP Core, page 33 Not all of the upper classes were wallowing in opulence while the planet starved and drowned. A few were looking ahead at the changes on the horison, scheming how to stake their claim. Some of these worked to expand their dominion building [b]a space elevator in sub-Sahara Africa[/b] and sending Robotics probes out to map the solar system in detail. They even founded the first stations on Mars and Luna then, more than fifty years before the fall.

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Sun, 2010-09-12 19:46

Demonseed Elite Demonseed Elite's picture

Re: two questions.

I'm guessing that the sub-Saharan space elevator is the Mt. Kilimanjaro space elevator, but I guess it's not certain.

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"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards." --The White Queen, [i]Through The Looking-Glass[/i] [img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_zGgz13n3uzE/TWWPdvGig-I/AAAAAAAACI8/y...

Mon, 2010-09-13 05:06

Rhyx

Re: two questions.

Quote:
2.What happens to an Async Ego in a pod morph? the first time I read Morphs and Psi on page 220. I read it as a -30 penalty to use psi skills such as Control. Now I'm wondering if it might mean a -30 penalty to any skill affected by psi such as the psi-chi; Ambience Sence. Would an Async with ambience sence in a pod morph have a -30 penalty to Investigation, Perception, Scrounging, and Surprise tests?

The way I'd always seen it is that an asynch in a pod can't use it's powers. The reason for that is that they pod is said to have a cyberbrain so the "brainy" part of the pod is all circuits. The fleshy bits is probably more neural, muscular, skeletal and maybe a cerebellum to assist in automatic functions like heartbeat and balance.

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Mon, 2010-09-13 08:58

OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture

Re: two questions.

thanks for the help :D It was the mobile pacific one I remembered but couldn't find, specificly the 'scar across asia' part. I was writing about a guy looking down at earth from orbit and seeing the scar but I couldn't remember where it was. So asyncs and pods don't work. In fact it seems worse to be in a pod then in a synth as far as game effects go. Back to the drawing board on that one.

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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

Mon, 2010-09-13 09:34

babayaga

Re: two questions.

OneTrikPony wrote:
So asyncs and pods don't work. In fact it seems worse to be in a pod then in a synth as far as game effects go. Back to the drawing board on that one.

Actually, my reading on that one is that you can use psi *from* a pod. But if you are required to make tests (typically psi skills) *to* use psi, you get the penalty. I'm somewhat uncertain about automatic sleights that give you bonuses to other actions. Would those actions be hit by the penalty. I'm inclined to say no, but I'd certainly rule that you can't be worse off using the sleight than not using it.

Mon, 2010-09-13 09:44

OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture

Re: two questions.

That's what I'm wondering. If an async with the Ambience sence slight is sleeved in a synth then they can't use the amience sense slight. If an async with the Ambience sence slight is sleeved in a Pod then they get a -30 modifier every time they roll Investigation, Perception, Scrounging, and Surprise tests. Because Ambience sence is a passive slight that is automatic with a constant duration. And the "Asnyncs suffer a -30 modifier on all tests involving the use of psi slights" Conversely if the Async has the Cognitive boost slight which is Active then they get a -30 modifier to all tests linked to COG. But only for Will/5 action turns and only if they use the slight. Additionally if they use the slight the strain is doubled. That's my strictest reading of the rules. And that's why, at my first reading, I read it to only affect Psi Skills. Because only Active slights have a strain value to be doubled. It could be that a GM would rule that an Async could 'turn off' off their Passive, Constant slights if they choose. Also, is there specific info on which parts of the brain are synthetic in a pod morph? I had always thought that it was just the cortex but now I can't find a reference.

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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

Mon, 2010-09-13 13:28

#10

Rhyx

Re: two questions.

Well What i'm basing my hypothesis on:

Quote:
Pg. 142 Pods (from “pod people”) are vat-grown, biological bodies with extremely undeveloped brains that are augmented with an implanted computer and cybernetics system.

however something else is troubling me:

Quote:
Unless otherwise noted, pods are also considered biomorphs for all rules purposes.

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Tue, 2010-09-14 11:57

#11

OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture

Re: two questions.

I'm not sure why pod brains are underdeveloped other than it makes pods cooler. the only info I can find is the sidebar on p.278 were it says that pods can be grown in 6 months to a year. Today we can grow a complete and working human brain in 9 months, albeit, the ones we make now are smaller and, initially have their Aptitudes capped at 5. It must be the process of packing all the development between 9 months and 18 years increasing the aptitude cap to 30 that creates all the problems. Essentially it seems to be a size issue.

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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

Tue, 2010-09-14 13:18

#12

CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture

Re: two questions.

The A-Sync problem in pods is something that has come up in my game a few times, and at the moment, at least until one of the Devs clarifies it, we played it as any Psi-Gamma roll that uses one of the three Psi skills as being at a -30 modifier. Otherwise it makes Pods not only useless for Psi characters, but potentially worse than Synths, which we didn't think was really right. And the reason Pod brains are underdeveloped is because of the way they are designed to be modular and easy to produce. A normal Morph takes at least twice as long as a Pod to push out, and they tend to be more expensive. By only partially growing the Pod to maturity and then augmenting everything else with cybernetics they get something that is atleast close to biological on the cheap. And when dealing with the masses cheaper is always better.

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Tue, 2010-09-14 13:26

#13

OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture

Re: two questions.

Hmmm. So really people are doing it both ways. Thanks for the input. I'm undecided but, I think I'm going to stick with what I've got. I'd allready started writing about this character before I realized I might have made a mistake.

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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

Tue, 2010-10-05 13:30

#14

Decivre

Re: two questions.

OneTrikPony wrote:
2.What happens to an Async Ego in a pod morph? the first time I read [u]Morphs and Psi[/u] on page 220. I read it as a -30 penalty to use psi skills such as Control. Now I'm wondering if it might mean a -30 penalty to any skill affected by psi such as the psi-chi; Ambience Sence. Would an Async with ambience sence in a pod morph have a -30 penalty to Investigation, Perception, Scrounging, and Surprise tests?

Perhaps, but I might also allow the async to choose not to utilize the sleight. Just because it can be on at all times with no penalty (in a biomorph) shouldn't mean that they can never shut it off.

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Tue, 2010-10-05 13:40

#15

Decivre

Re: two questions.

OneTrikPony wrote:
I'm not sure why pod brains are underdeveloped other than it makes pods cooler. the only info I can find is the sidebar on p.278 were it says that pods can be grown in 6 months to a year. Today we can grow a complete and working human brain in 9 months, albeit, the ones we make now are smaller and, initially have their Aptitudes capped at 5. It must be the process of packing all the development between 9 months and 18 years increasing the aptitude cap to 30 that creates all the problems. Essentially it seems to be a size issue.

The brain seems to be the part of the body that is hardest to grow using nanotechnology. This is largely presumed from the fact that a severed head thrown into a healing vat can grow back the rest of the body in a matter of days, while a brand new biomorph requires three years to finish production. This implies that something in the head is the hardest to produce (and that's likely the brain). Further evidence is shown since pods have partial cyberbrains, and take less time than biomorphs to produce, while still requiring more time than, say, a synthmorph. Also note that the times to produce a morph are based upon full-grown adult morphs, and not children. I'd imagine that new infant bodies are significantly easy to produce using modern processes, but no one really wants to buy a body that they can't use for another 10-20 years of maturation. The transhuman processes for creating new morphs entail age acceleration to get them to a usable age within only 3 years time... speeding the process of physical maturation by 7-fold.

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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]