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Infomorph Enhancement

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Unity Unity's picture
Infomorph Enhancement
Here's a question I've been wondering about: are enhancements limited solely to those who are sleeved into a physical morph, or are there 'software' versions of various mental enhancements that you can download for your Infomorph to boost themselves with? I'm pretty sure the corebook doesn't spell this out, but...
Marek Krysiak Marek Krysiak's picture
Re: Infomorph Enhancement
Mercurial Investigator from Core Book sample characters has got no implants - only ego traits, while all the other characters do possess implants (or enhancements if they are synthetic). Even Flat Jovian Spy. But I see no reason (other than game balance - and we all know EP is generally as balanced as ice skating schizofrenic on acid) - to disalow infomorphs certain mental augmentations. But those are usually doubled as Ego Traits: Math Wiz (Ego Trait) and Math Boost (implant)... So I would say: No, augmentations are for physical Morphs. (Does it mean I'm discriminating? OMG: I'm a fleshist...)


Rhyx Rhyx's picture
Re: Infomorph Enhancement
Yep I think you're a fleshist! :P I would see absolutely no reason why you could not emulate a lot of the implants found in the book. After all, cyberbrains (found in synths and pods) are nothing but brain emulators so why can't you have an augmentation emulator in your emulated brain? Just pay the standard price for them under the same rules for the brain only stuff. I mean there is no good reason for example for an infomorph not to have a cortical stack, it's called a backup or a redundant system like today's Raid array! Sure if you go off on a mission that stack might need to go in the Ghostrider but still no good reason for you not to be able to have one. Enhanced senses are another mess because they are more of a sensor function than anything. If your camera has IR then you have IR but if your camera doesn't. It's not something you can lug around as code. Best you could hope for is to have blueprints to a puppet socked bot and use protean nanoswarms as "hands" to make and change your bots according to your desires but that requires access to a Fabber or CM. But now we open up a whole new can of worms as in what exactly is the difference between a bot with puppet sock, cyberbrain, a ghostrider and protean swarms to use for customization and a making a case morph or Synthmorph using a CM?! Fleshy Mental Augs: I see nothing here than can't be brought along or emulated as code. Cyber Mental Augs: Dead switch (hey if you want a self destruct to mangle your code, be my guest), Mnemonic Augmentation, Multi-Tasking, Multiple personality (run yourself in parallel, why not!). And that would be pretty much it in my opinion.
CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture
Re: Infomorph Enhancement
I would also add a few of the Nanowares to that, specifically; Mental Speed Oracles Skillware If you do this make sure to make it clear that for some reason or other only InfoMorphs can make use of the code variant of these implants. Otherwise you might get sleeved players grabbing for them to let them simply copy paste them into any new Synthetic morph they happen to be riding in.
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Unity Unity's picture
Re: Infomorph Enhancement
Of course, one thing we should note is that Infomorphs already come with a single enhancement, standard. Mnemonic Augmentation. And they have a Speed of 3 for anything they're able to do by default. So some enhancements are inherent to the condition; still, yeah, some nice mental augs...
Marek Krysiak Marek Krysiak's picture
Re: Infomorph Enhancement
I agree that most of those augmentations could be emulated – it’s only a matter of altering your code. Maybe some augmentations would require specific hardware to be run on (compatibility issues), but I don’t think so – in EP Egos are relatively “low requirement” programs. Ehm, mental implants for ego: one cost category up? It’s just another thing that GM and players would have to keep track of – which augmentation is physical, which is mental… I think I’d have to get augmented myself to remember all this while simultaneously telling the story, role playing NPC’s and telling the player not to spill his tea on the damn character sheet… Those are three mental actions, you see...


kindalas kindalas's picture
Re: Infomorph Enhancement
Check out what RobBoyle said about this topic [url=http://www.eclipsephase.com/skillsofts-and-infomorphs#comment-3794]HERE[... or read the quote below.
RobBoyle wrote:
Though it's not in the book, I would also allow infomorphs to use skillsofts. I agree that there would be skillware emulation software, and I would also still enforce the 100 point limit. (This is probably what the synthmorph version of skillware is too.) Somewhere down the line we will have more options for infomorphs, including noting exactly what implants can be emulated in software form. For example, all bioware mental augmentations, emotional dampers, multi-tasking, mental speed, and skillware will probably be available in a software form. Maybe something like neurachem, too, or at least Level 1 neurachem.
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Unity Unity's picture
Re: Infomorph Enhancement
Oh, official word then. Nice. Okay, that's comforting.
Madwand Madwand's picture
Re: Infomorph Enhancement
I've always assumed that the augmentations Rob Bolye is talking about ARE software-only for synthmorphs and infomorphs. How else would a synthmorph use them? There's no fleshy "brain" to modify, they HAVE to be software to run on a cyberbrain. Note that narcoalgorithms, particularly physically addictive ones (which can't harm synths or informorphs) already provide a way to boost many attributes for infomorphs. Kick is especially nice.
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Infomorph Enhancement
I also think software versions of most enhancements could be done. After all, interfacing the software in (say) Oracles to a software mind is much easier than interfacing it through nanomachines and biology. In fact, some of these enhancements might be cheaper this way (but maybe that is a game balance can of worms we do not want to open too widely). In addition, at least in my take on the setting there are edits that inserts new functions into your neural network directly, turning them into parts of the ego. This is halfway between psychosurgery and implants: http://www.aleph.se/EclipsePhase/Neuralware.pdf http://www.aleph.se/EclipsePhase/Neural%20hacking.pdf http://www.aleph.se/EclipsePhase/Pathotronics.pdf Minds are software, and hence upgradeable. Too bad about the licensing fees and nagware...
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