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Concept Morphs

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Sat, 2015-01-03 19:49

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

Concept Morphs

For a while now I’ve had some ideas for morphs that I’ve just not been doing anything with. I haven’t the time or the skill to properly stat them up, even with the morph generator in Transhuman - I tried for one and ended up with it costing less than a baseline version! So here, for your perusal and usage, are a few concept morphs with some of the inspiration behind them. Keep in mind a lot of these can simply be done as variants, I like to think of them as “Local Flavor”. :) Swarmanoids : I like the idea of swarmanoids,but I’m less sure they’re put to as many uses as they could be. Piranhanoid : I’ve mentioned this one before on another thread. Early on I wanted to make an aquatic swarm but couldn’t think of a decent reason to do so. There wasn’t a job undersea that couldn’t be done better by a larger single morph. After Transhuman came out with the “Diamond Jaws” augmentation did it click - a security morph based on a school of piranha! That would be useful for driving off unfriendly (or TOO friendly) wildlife and skeletonizing any trespassers! Besides the required Pressure Adaptation and other mods for undersea living i think Eelware would be common. I’ve toyed with a flight movement system - for B-movie greatness- but there aren’t that many habs with gas atmospheres where this morph would be found. Nanovore : Reading somewhere about how long it would take to sweep a room for nanotech , i thought that a swarm would be able to spread itself out to more efficiently cover the space to be cleared.A bit of the idea came from a scientists account of seeing Ladybugs eating aphids I also really liked the idea of pitched battles at a completely different scale, with microbots trundling in like AT-ATs to wipe out the nanobots. To that end the Nanovore would have nanoscopic vision and fractal digits and possibly injectors to act as a spray weapon. Medichines or a guardian nanoswarm would be likely to prevent infection. Paparazzi : Okay, this is just a bit obvious. A media swarm useful for being a supermobile cameraman capable of following a subject anywhere they go (good for that professional parkour video, or Cops-style documentary) . Sure, some may be used for keeping tabs on a metaceleb or hyperelite without their knowledge. But...what’cha gonna do? Sensory enhancements and high speed mobility systems are a must. Shuriken : Admittedly I don’t know if this one would work, but it sounds cool so here it is. a combat swarm designed to attack its target by sacrificing points of Durability for damage. Built in blades(claws?) and rocket motors turn the microbots into a storm of whirling death...maybe! :) Also, this... WARNING! TVTropes link detected!... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SynchronizedSwarming should be a skill available to swarmanoids, it would be fun! Zero-Cost Morphs : I thought it was odd that biomorphs and infomorphs have free options but synthmorphs and pods don’t. Inflatomorph : I had been struggling to think of a synth that would rate being so cheap that a case was a better option. Then the trailer for Big Hero 6 came out and when I saw Baymax ...well...a good idea is a good idea! Then I remembered a much older precedent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQbj9uvYL8I . As it turns out Baymax has an endoskeletal frame and the inflatable shell is for psychological comfort. For the morph itself, it would be made of smart fabric with the required sensors and power supply distributed throughout. Humanoid shapes would predominate, for ease of integration into most settings, but really any biomorph shape could be manufactured. Most could simply pump in ambient atmosphere to maintain proper shape but, like the Thanksgiving Day balloons of old, a lower density gas or liquid could be used to provide a neutral buoyancy. This option has proven popular with uplifted cetaceans and rumors often swirl of a secretly funded full scale floating whale morph! Mechanically, my thoughts are that this is a pretty weak morph SOM-wise, probably in the teens or twenty max. To make it zero cost I thought that sacrificing the inherent synthmorph armor would be a good exchange. It should be noted that I’m not terribly fond of Inflatomorph as a name. Ballute was my initial choice but as that references a specific portmanteau of Balloon and Parachute it wouldn’t do. Scaffold : The idea for this came from thinking about the “Body for Every Mind” doctrine on Titan. The lack of metals for synthmorphs means biomorphs dominate production and the facilities run 24/7 to keep up with demand. So it stands to reason that someone would take advantage of the fact that human bodies don’t really -need- to have all the organs that they do http://www.livescience.com/27896-pope-one-lung-organs-you-can-live-witho... . The result would be a small sized pod built around a 3d printed skeleton, probably with a reduced number of fingers and toes, of very generic appearance. If I’m being unforgiving I give it a oddly shaped head to reflect that since there’s no brain theres no need for a full cranium! The reduced organ count would make its wound threshhold lower and increase the chances of a critical hit. More insidiously, there could be social penalties even in Titanian society for persons occupying an obviously inferior morph. Biomorphs : I know that as a group neo-cetaceans got a lot of options to start with,but I’ve liked whales since I was a kid so I made a few more! Surya variants : A thread on RPG.net asked what surya do and that got me thinking. The baseline surya is modeled after a sperm whale and in keeping with their advanced sensory organs I thought they could act as Solar storm watchers, using entangled communications to get word out in advance of a major outburst. After that it seems reasonable that solarian society would want to be as independent as possible, thus the Rorqual suryas were created. Rorqual A : modeled on a Blue whale form, this surya uses its magnetic fields to funnel solar wind into its mouth where the plasma is cooled and processed into fuel for local fusion reactors. Occasionally these surya are also used as transport for material and morphs not adapted to the coronal lifestyle. Rorqual B : These Humpback whale designed surya are some of the most dynamic fliers of the corona. Purposed with the acquisition of non-solar material as it falls into the Sun they must respond quickly to any opportunity that presents itself. Frequently hunting in pods and using teamwork with formation flying to maximize the yield of any comet or asteroid they come upon.Some specialize in flare riding - seeking exotic material or even some antimatter. Many have backup rocket systems just in case a stray flare carries them too far from Sol. Airwhale : Cetaceans evolved to live in water. As only a few locations match those conditions neo-cetaceans have found themselves at a disadvantage too often for their liking. To even the field while still retaining a sense of oneself several neo-cetacean groups commissioned the Airwhale morph. Borrowing even more heavily from bat genetics that neo-avians, Airwhale is designed to operate comfortably in low and microgravity environments. With long, webbed forelimbs featuring an independent thumb and forefinger bumping around a hab is a thing of the past. Wide tail flukes move enough air for regular propulsion while seal-like back flippers allow better movement in higher gravity locations. The head is extensively remodeled to accommodate a more bat-like echolocation system and binocular vision. The deliberate retention of the “dolphin smile” along with the large mobile ears makes the morph surprisingly disarming to many transhumans, a trait those sleeved into it take advantage of! Nix / Nixie : This one is relatively recent. As part of the development of morphs specifically for Titanian wilds exemplified by the Hulder and Ariel morphs,some neo-cetaceans were eager to swim in natural lakes and rivers like their forebears. This cryo-dolphin design takes its cues from the several species of dolphin that lived in the rivers of old earth. The most notable diference being the placement of fractal digits along the typically long beak to gather carbonaceous compounds. Others : Mahogany Albatross : Functionally this serves the same purpose as the Cloud Skate. It’s a large avian biomorph adapted to live in the skies of Neptune. Designed to stay aloft almost permanently, it has long narrow wings like its namesake, prehensile feet, and circadian regulation to stay awake until it reaches an aerostat. Built for neo-avians who want to soar in the endless blue instead of the relatively confined space of Mahogany. There’s some speculation of trying the morph out on Titan as well. Synthmorphs: I only have a few ideas outside the swarmanoids detailed above. And one of those is more for laughs than anything serious :) Eelanoid : Pretty easy to figure out- its a slitheroid adapted to aquatic environments. Reamer : A stripped down “civilian” marketed version of the Reaper. Popular amongst alpha-type executives who want to get the intimidation of the original without losing the luxury appointments! “ I’d love to spend the weekend with you sweetie , but Boss Killbot says we’re pulling extra shifts!” - soon to be former employee overheard on Progress

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Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Sun, 2015-01-04 00:45

Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture

Nix(ie) Feedback

I like the Nix(ie), but seeing as I'm a bit unsure of how much liquid-coverage there is on Titan, would it maybe benefit from an enhanced Swim Bladder that could take advantage of the low-g, high-density nature of Titan to provide some limited flight capability? Also, would you mind if I took a stab at statting it up somewhat? EDIT: Also, with the Scaffold, I don't really see a need for an gastrointestinal system at all. Replace it wholesale with a Disassembler-Maker nanosystem that filters nutrients directly into the bloodstream. Maybe add a Protean subsystem that turns the unnecessary bits of whatever you eat into pellets that are stored somewhere in the abdominal cavity for easy removal.

—

In other words, firing off a laser with a sufficient TWR for the recoil to be noticeable would require a post-miracle-tech laser weighing less than a disposable plastic spoon and powerful enough to shoot down Death Stars? -- ShadowDragon8685

Sun, 2015-01-04 06:24

ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture

Chernoborg wrote:Piranhanoid

Chernoborg wrote:
Piranhanoid : I’ve mentioned this one before on another thread. Early on I wanted to make an aquatic swarm but couldn’t think of a decent reason to do so. There wasn’t a job undersea that couldn’t be done better by a larger single morph. After Transhuman came out with the “Diamond Jaws” augmentation did it click - a security morph based on a school of piranha! That would be useful for driving off unfriendly (or TOO friendly) wildlife and skeletonizing any trespassers! Besides the required Pressure Adaptation and other mods for undersea living i think Eelware would be common. I’ve toyed with a flight movement system - for B-movie greatness- but there aren’t that many habs with gas atmospheres where this morph would be found.

Most habs have gas atmospheres? And in any which are in microgravity, a swarmanoid moving with vectored thrust would be pretty mobile, too.

Quote:
Nanovore : Reading somewhere about how long it would take to sweep a room for nanotech , i thought that a swarm would be able to spread itself out to more efficiently cover the space to be cleared.A bit of the idea came from a scientists account of seeing Ladybugs eating aphids I also really liked the idea of pitched battles at a completely different scale, with microbots trundling in like AT-ATs to wipe out the nanobots. To that end the Nanovore would have nanoscopic vision and fractal digits and possibly injectors to act as a spray weapon. Medichines or a guardian nanoswarm would be likely to prevent infection.

Whilst a cool idea, I imagine the function - using micro-sized robots to annihilate nanoswarms - would be best performed with a swarm of dumb bots, not a morph.

Quote:
Paparazzi : Okay, this is just a bit obvious. A media swarm useful for being a supermobile cameraman capable of following a subject anywhere they go (good for that professional parkour video, or Cops-style documentary) . Sure, some may be used for keeping tabs on a metaceleb or hyperelite without their knowledge. But...what’cha gonna do? Sensory enhancements and high speed mobility systems are a must.

It's all fun and games, until someone breaks out that Dazzler that actually destroys cameras. :) But basically, it sounds like a Swarmanoid version of the Gargoyle. That's not a bad thing.

Quote:
Shuriken : Admittedly I don’t know if this one would work, but it sounds cool so here it is. a combat swarm designed to attack its target by sacrificing points of Durability for damage. Built in blades(claws?) and rocket motors turn the microbots into a storm of whirling death...maybe! :)

This seems more like it would be a weapon system of swarming bots than a swarmanoid. That said... I can kinda see how it would work.

Quote:
Inflatomorph : I had been struggling to think of a synth that would rate being so cheap that a case was a better option. Then the trailer for Big Hero 6 came out and when I saw Baymax ...well...a good idea is a good idea! Then I remembered a much older precedent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQbj9uvYL8I . As it turns out Baymax has an endoskeletal frame and the inflatable shell is for psychological comfort. For the morph itself, it would be made of smart fabric with the required sensors and power supply distributed throughout. Humanoid shapes would predominate, for ease of integration into most settings, but really any biomorph shape could be manufactured. Most could simply pump in ambient atmosphere to maintain proper shape but, like the Thanksgiving Day balloons of old, a lower density gas or liquid could be used to provide a neutral buoyancy. This option has proven popular with uplifted cetaceans and rumors often swirl of a secretly funded full scale floating whale morph! Mechanically, my thoughts are that this is a pretty weak morph SOM-wise, probably in the teens or twenty max. To make it zero cost I thought that sacrificing the inherent synthmorph armor would be a good exchange. It should be noted that I’m not terribly fond of Inflatomorph as a name. Ballute was my initial choice but as that references a specific portmanteau of Balloon and Parachute it wouldn’t do.

I'm pretty definitely sure that, no matter how cheaply you make it, there are resources going into making a synthmorph, so it's not, strictly speaking, going to be "Free," in any sense of the word. Though frankly, the Case is so fucking terrible, especially after Transhuman lumped them with Planned Obsolescence too, that taking one at chargen should actually give the player like, 10-15 CP to spend on other things.

Quote:
Scaffold : The idea for this came from thinking about the “Body for Every Mind” doctrine on Titan. The lack of metals for synthmorphs means biomorphs dominate production and the facilities run 24/7 to keep up with demand. So it stands to reason that someone would take advantage of the fact that human bodies don’t really -need- to have all the organs that they do http://www.livescience.com/27896-pope-one-lung-organs-you-can-live-witho... . The result would be a small sized pod built around a 3d printed skeleton, probably with a reduced number of fingers and toes, of very generic appearance. If I’m being unforgiving I give it a oddly shaped head to reflect that since there’s no brain theres no need for a full cranium! The reduced organ count would make its wound threshold lower and increase the chances of a critical hit. More insidiously, there could be social penalties even in Titanian society for persons occupying an obviously inferior morph.

You [b]don't[/b] need much in the way of metals for synthmorphs. To let Momo von Satan put it better than me:

Metal Pigs wrote:
Fullerite plating made from aggregated diamond nanotubes. It's in our sidewalks, fuckers; compressive strength like nature never bothered with. Also carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes, everywhere, and not the crappy kind kids on Jupiter design for science projects. No: beautiful, multi-walled nanotubes, honeycombs nestled in honeycombs. Fucking honey-flavored, sp[sup]3[/sup]-bonded masterworks, all out of carbon silt from the dunes. MWNTs bring the tensile strength. You can make sidwalks, space elevators, or a pigsticker out of this carbonaceous beehive dream shit.

It's not for lack of metal that Titan isn't making a great deal of synthmorphs, because quite frankly, you don't need much in the way of metal to make a synthmorph. And frankly, the Titanian Commonwealth as-written wouldn't even [i]dream[/i] of offering a fucking useless, nightmarish freak-morph for general "Oh, you want a body? Have this." use. The voting public wouldn't stand for it, anyone who seriously proposed that would be facing a vote of no confidence inside the day. I'm not saying it doesn't have a place in-setting, I am saying that that place is most definitely not inhabiting Saturn's best moon. That's more like the kind of thing some assholish hypercorp would dream up for indenture use in some ass-end of nowhere habitat out near the kuiper belt.

Quote:
Rorqual A : modeled on a Blue whale form, this surya uses its magnetic fields to funnel solar wind into its mouth where the plasma is cooled and processed into fuel for local fusion reactors. Occasionally these surya are also used as transport for material and morphs not adapted to the coronal lifestyle.

Cooling plasma inside a biomorph seems like, well, a [i]really[/i] bad idea, even if that biomorph is a Surya, and I would imagine that magnetic scoops on the shielded solar habitats, able to work constantly, would be [i]far better[/i] at this than a Surya spending all of their time running in and out with big gulps of plasma.

Quote:
Rorqual B : These Humpback whale designed surya are some of the most dynamic fliers of the corona. Purposed with the acquisition of non-solar material as it falls into the Sun they must respond quickly to any opportunity that presents itself. Frequently hunting in pods and using teamwork with formation flying to maximize the yield of any comet or asteroid they come upon. Some specialize in flare riding - seeking exotic material or even some antimatter. Many have backup rocket systems just in case a stray flare carries them too far from Sol.

Acquiring non-solar material as it falls into the sun sounds like a pretty suicidal game, as anything close enough for a Surya to grab is close enough that it's beginning its terminal fall, and it's going to have redonkulous acceleration towards the sun that said Surya(s) will need to arrest. Now, whaling stuff that's falling into the sun - matching velocity, mining what you can and pulling out before it's too late - isn't a bad idea, but I'd imagine that things falling into the sun are very, very rare, given that most shit will be orbiting the sun. Also, antimatter? That's one of those things that's [i]definitely[/i] best left to machines. From very far away.

Quote:
Airwhale : Cetaceans evolved to live in water. As only a few locations match those conditions neo-cetaceans have found themselves at a disadvantage too often for their liking. To even the field while still retaining a sense of oneself several neo-cetacean groups commissioned the Airwhale morph. Borrowing even more heavily from bat genetics that neo-avians, Airwhale is designed to operate comfortably in low and microgravity environments. With long, webbed forelimbs featuring an independent thumb and forefinger bumping around a hab is a thing of the past. Wide tail flukes move enough air for regular propulsion while seal-like back flippers allow better movement in higher gravity locations. The head is extensively remodeled to accommodate a more bat-like echolocation system and binocular vision. The deliberate retention of the “dolphin smile” along with the large mobile ears makes the morph surprisingly disarming to many transhumans, a trait those sleeved into it take advantage of!

There [i]really[/i] just aren't going to be many habitats with enough air and open space for a full-sized whale to fly around on. The atmosphere of Titan is the only one I can think of, between its low gravity and really super-dense atmosphere. Hell, there is the swim bladder aug that lets you get bouyancy in an atmosphere, too. I don't see many being made before the project is axed, though. I mean, one airwhale would require a [i]lot[/i] of resources, resources that could go into making more Hazers. Maybe if they kept it strictly to the smallest ones, like Beluga-sized...

Quote:
Nix / Nixie : This one is relatively recent. As part of the development of morphs specifically for Titanian wilds exemplified by the Hulder and Ariel morphs,some neo-cetaceans were eager to swim in natural lakes and rivers like their forebears. This cryo-dolphin design takes its cues from the several species of dolphin that lived in the rivers of old earth. The most notable diference being the placement of fractal digits along the typically long beak to gather carbonaceous compounds.

This, I could see. Possibly moreso than the Hulder, in fact. This, I don't have a problem with. Also, you could make it dual-purpose (or dual-porpoise) by giving it a swim bladder to let it achieve neutral bouyancy and swim through the air.

Quote:
Reamer : A stripped down “civilian” marketed version of the Reaper. Popular amongst alpha-type executives who want to get the intimidation of the original without losing the luxury appointments! “ I’d love to spend the weekend with you sweetie , but Boss Killbot says we’re pulling extra shifts!” - soon to be former employee overheard on Progress

If you're that executive, you can just swing an actual Reaper. :P

—

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Sun, 2015-01-04 11:05

Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Quote

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Quote:
Nix / Nixie : This one is relatively recent. As part of the development of morphs specifically for Titanian wilds exemplified by the Hulder and Ariel morphs,some neo-cetaceans were eager to swim in natural lakes and rivers like their forebears. This cryo-dolphin design takes its cues from the several species of dolphin that lived in the rivers of old earth. The most notable diference being the placement of fractal digits along the typically long beak to gather carbonaceous compounds.
This, I could see. Possibly moreso than the Hulder, in fact. This, I don't have a problem with. Also, you could make it dual-purpose (or dual-porpoise) by giving it a swim bladder to let it achieve neutral bouyancy and swim through the air.

Did you see me mention that earlier? I have been trying to do calcs on how big/light that airswimming bladder would have to be to achieve neutral bouyancy in the Titanian atmosphere, but I'm having little luck.

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Mon, 2015-01-05 17:07

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

Bursting Eagerness : Glad you

Bursting Eagerness : Glad you like the Nixie, I look forward to seeing it statted out. The idea for the Scaffold was that it was built out of readily available organs..just less of them. The line from Robocop about him having a simplified digestive system came to mind...makers do baby food, right? :) ShadowDragon8685: Wow! Let's see...

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Most habs have gas atmospheres? And in any which are in microgravity, a swarmanoid moving with vectored thrust would be pretty mobile, too.

I...cannot believe that I didn't think of microgravity habitats! I was so focused on the undersea locations like Ceres or Europa where the habs are full of water. Flying Piranhanoid is GO!

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Whilst a cool idea, I imagine the function - using micro-sized robots to annihilate nanoswarms - would be best performed with a swarm of dumb bots, not a morph

While generally true, I think that many of the synths and pods available are stuff that people wouldn't have used pre-Fall.

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
But basically, it sounds like a Swarmanoid version of the Gargoyle. That's not a bad thing.

Yeah, I knew there was a bit of overlap there.

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
It's not for lack of metal that Titan isn't making a great deal of synthmorphs, because quite frankly, you don't need much in the way of metal to make a synthmorph. And frankly, the Titanian Commonwealth as-written wouldn't even dream of offering a fucking useless, nightmarish freak-morph for general "Oh, you want a body? Have this." use. The voting public wouldn't stand for it, anyone who seriously proposed that would be facing a vote of no confidence inside the day. I'm not saying it doesn't have a place in-setting, I am saying that that place is most definitely not inhabiting Saturn's best moon. That's more like the kind of thing some assholish hypercorp would dream up for indenture use in some ass-end of nowhere habitat out near the kuiper belt.

I think I came across as more harsh with this morph than I intended.The pinhead thing isn't how I usually think of them. Though, if anywhere would be cool with Scaffolds it's the Commonwealth.

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Cooling plasma inside a biomorph seems like, well, a really bad idea, even if that biomorph is a Surya, and I would imagine that magnetic scoops on the shielded solar habitats, able to work constantly, would be far better at this than a Surya spending all of their time running in and out with big gulps of plasma.

Indeed, I couldn't think of a better way to write what I had in mind. Imagine the Surya using its magnetic fields like a shock cone on a supersonic inlet. As the plasma flows around the cone it gets compressed and heated, then as it passes by it decompresses and a small amount cools to be drawn into the storage systems. Yeah, it's crazy handwavy but Suryas pretty much exist on handwavy!

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Acquiring non-solar material as it falls into the sun sounds like a pretty suicidal game, as anything close enough for a Surya to grab is close enough that it's beginning its terminal fall, and it's going to have redonkulous acceleration towards the sun that said Surya(s) will need to arrest. Now, whaling stuff that's falling into the sun - matching velocity, mining what you can and pulling out before it's too late - isn't a bad idea, but I'd imagine that things falling into the sun are very, very rare, given that most shit will be orbiting the sun. Also, antimatter? That's one of those things that's definitely best left to machines. From very far away.

I figured most anything falling into the sun- and there's LOTS of stuff falling into the sun- would lose a considerable portion of its mass to vaporization, and THAT is what the Suryas are after. Also, much of that wouldn't sink down very far and could be caught again on flares and prominences. OK, I was reaching on antimatter. Small amounts are produced by solar flares and could possibly be harvested ,but its mostly positrons anyway which may not be worth it:P

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
There really just aren't going to be many habitats with enough air and open space for a full-sized whale to fly around on. The atmosphere of Titan is the only one I can think of, between its low gravity and really super-dense atmosphere. Hell, there is the swim bladder aug that lets you get bouyancy in an atmosphere, too. I don't see many being made before the project is axed, though. I mean, one airwhale would require a lot of resources, resources that could go into making more Hazers. Maybe if they kept it strictly to the smallest ones, like Beluga-sized...

BWAHAHAHAHA! I can't believe I missed that detail too !*AHEM* Yes, I'm thinking Beluga to Dolphin sized.

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
If you're that executive, you can just swing an actual Reaper. :P

This is just me introducing the Eclipse Phase equivalent of the Hummer :) And finally....

Bursting Eagerness wrote:
I like the Nix(ie), but seeing as I'm a bit unsure of how much liquid-coverage there is on Titan, would it maybe benefit from an enhanced Swim Bladder that could take advantage of the low-g, high-density nature of Titan to provide some limited flight capability?

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Also, you could make it dual-purpose (or dual-porpoise) by giving it a swim bladder to let it achieve neutral bouyancy and swim through the air.

Great minds..eh? Actually I kind of like it as just an aquatic morph. I'm not certain that even Titans high density/low gravity can support a workable float bladder. Wings may be the way to go, like modifying the pectoral flippers to act like a titanic hummingbird...and ...hmmmm !

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Tue, 2015-01-06 00:53

Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture

The Nixie is statted as best

The Nixie is statted as best as I can think of here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZbOxInjiJgETaGHIWVl7ekZbwxylPnJqsFqk... [s]For the possible Titanian air-cetacean, It's good to keep in mind that Titan has an atmospheric pressure that is half again* that of Earth at the respective surfaces. Combined with a surface gravity of about one-seventh of a g*, you end up with (I think) about ten-to-twelve times as much lift from a pressure difference on Titan than on Earth. That shrinks the necessary size to hit neutral buoyancy quite a bit.[/s] See post below. Also, think of how fucking awesome it would be to see a whale burst out of the Titanian haze like it's trying to hit escape velocity. *: Pulled from the Titan wikipedia page. EDIT: Instead of wings, perhaps something like a Gliding Membrane stretching from flippers to tail?

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Tue, 2015-01-06 00:52

Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture

Lift Calculations

Okay, so I'm running some estimations of how much lift you can create with a pressure difference on Titan. Titan measurements from wikipedia. Using H[sub]2[/sub] as a lifting gas. Density of H[sub]2[/sub] @ 93.7 K and 146.7 kPa (Titanian surface avg) = ~0.64074 kg/m[sup]3[/sup] Titanian surface avg Atmospheric Density = ~5.168 kg/m[sup]3[/sup] [url=http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=75] ref[/url] Thus, using F[sub]B[/sub]=(density[sub]atmo[/sub]-density[sub]gas[/sub])*gravity*volume F[sub]B[/sub] = (5.168 kg/m[sup]3[/sup]-0.64074 kg/m[sup]3[/sup])*(1.372 m/s[sup]2[/sup])*(1 m[sup]3[/sup]) = ~6.2114 N So we end up with ~6.2114 N of lift for every cubic meter of hydrogen. Even though the Titanian gravity is just 1.372 N/kg, which lets one cubic meter of hydrogen lift about 4.5 kg of mass to neutral buoyancy, an "air-swimming" bladder seems to be unfeasable as an internal augmentation on Titan. However, a normal swim bladder filled with hydrogen could assist other modes of flight. Please let me know if you see anything I did wrong with my calculations.

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Tue, 2015-01-06 02:55

ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture

Hrm...

Hrm... I'm not an expert, so I can't really second-guess you numbers. But my gut is saying that, even if making a dolphin float in Titan's atmosphere isn't going to fly, you might actually be able to make one of the really fuckhueg ceteceans float - in this case, the square-cube law would actually be working for us, if we assume a radically altered airwhale which was mostly volume for hydrogen, and the rest of it is largely super-advanced, ultra-low-density body structures... Maybe, anyway. Of course, at that point, you might as well make a synthmorph hydrogen balloon. (Interesting point of fact: on Titan, you [b]can[/b] make a hot-hydrogen balloon! Hydrogen is entirely inert without oxygen, which the surface of Titan is noticeably lacking in, and with the cryogenic cold out there, you'll get good effect from heating up the balloon itself.)

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Tue, 2015-01-06 13:06

Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Hrm...

ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Hrm... I'm not an expert, so I can't really second-guess you numbers. But my gut is saying that, even if making a dolphin float in Titan's atmosphere isn't going to fly, you might actually be able to make one of the really fuckhueg ceteceans float - in this case, the square-cube law would actually be working for us, if we assume a radically altered airwhale which was mostly volume for hydrogen, and the rest of it is largely super-advanced, ultra-low-density body structures... Maybe, anyway. Of course, at that point, you might as well make a synthmorph hydrogen balloon. (Interesting point of fact: on Titan, you [b]can[/b] make a hot-hydrogen balloon! Hydrogen is entirely inert without oxygen, which the surface of Titan is noticeably lacking in, and with the cryogenic cold out there, you'll get good effect from heating up the balloon itself.)

I'm no expert either. I pulled equations from wikipedia and a couple ballooning sites. I could definitely see an enormous air-whale working as either a weird-as-fuck biomorph or a Baymax type synthmorph. For the biomorph version, external bladders would probably be best, and you could end up with something like a living zeppelin (which I think is fucking awesome).

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Thu, 2015-01-08 04:39

#10

Chrontius

Chernoborg wrote:For a while

Chernoborg wrote:
For a while now I’ve had some ideas for morphs that I’ve just not been doing anything with. I haven’t the time or the skill to properly stat them up, even with the morph generator in Transhuman - I tried for one and ended up with it costing less than a baseline version! So here, for your perusal and usage, are a few concept morphs with some of the inspiration behind them. Keep in mind a lot of these can simply be done as variants, I like to think of them as “Local Flavor”. :) Zero-Cost Morphs : I thought it was odd that biomorphs and infomorphs have free options but synthmorphs and pods don’t. Inflatomorph : I had been struggling to think of a synth that would rate being so cheap that a case was a better option. Then the trailer for Big Hero 6 came out and when I saw Baymax ...well...a good idea is a good idea! Then I remembered a much older precedent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQbj9uvYL8I . As it turns out Baymax has an endoskeletal frame and the inflatable shell is for psychological comfort. For the morph itself, it would be made of smart fabric with the required sensors and power supply distributed throughout. Humanoid shapes would predominate, for ease of integration into most settings, but really any biomorph shape could be manufactured. Most could simply pump in ambient atmosphere to maintain proper shape but, like the Thanksgiving Day balloons of old, a lower density gas or liquid could be used to provide a neutral buoyancy. This option has proven popular with uplifted cetaceans and rumors often swirl of a secretly funded full scale floating whale morph! Mechanically, my thoughts are that this is a pretty weak morph SOM-wise, probably in the teens or twenty max. To make it zero cost I thought that sacrificing the inherent synthmorph armor would be a good exchange. It should be noted that I’m not terribly fond of Inflatomorph as a name. Ballute was my initial choice but as that references a specific portmanteau of Balloon and Parachute it wouldn’t do.

A second point of note - these things will pack into perhaps a cubic foot. You know what else packs that small and houses active egos? Spares. Those things that every gatecrasher develops a phobia surrounding. I can see inflatomorphs serving the same role on such ops, at the cost of somewhat larger packed size and perhaps modified with the same fast-initiation cyberbrain used in a Spare. Also, some people are waaaay too fond of pool toys.

Chernoborg wrote:
Scaffold : The idea for this came from thinking about the “Body for Every Mind” doctrine on Titan. The lack of metals for synthmorphs means biomorphs dominate production and the facilities run 24/7 to keep up with demand. So it stands to reason that someone would take advantage of the fact that human bodies don’t really -need- to have all the organs that they do http://www.livescience.com/27896-pope-one-lung-organs-you-can-live-witho... . The result would be a small sized pod built around a 3d printed skeleton, probably with a reduced number of fingers and toes, of very generic appearance. If I’m being unforgiving I give it a oddly shaped head to reflect that since there’s no brain theres no need for a full cranium! The reduced organ count would make its wound threshhold lower and increase the chances of a critical hit. More insidiously, there could be social penalties even in Titanian society for persons occupying an obviously inferior morph.

A hobbit-sized pod with a cyberbrain and lots of empty space inside makes sense from that angle, but also would have relatively enormous capacity to be filled up with aftermarket mods at your leisure. Aftermarket mods, or fullerene-stabilized antimatter... On the other hand, stripping out a digestive tract in favor of an implanted maker actually makes a great deal of sense, and I had a character who swallowed a maker once, (don't ask how it harvested urine for its nitrate content. Just... don't.) so ... Come to think of it, how long will a nuclear battery run a combination maker and oxygen reformer? This could be a [i]very[/i] viable chassis for creating a vac-compatible morph adapted for working in shirtsleeves on an asteroid mine.

Chernoborg wrote:
Nix / Nixie :

Really rather brilliant.

Chernoborg wrote:
Mahogany Albatross :

I can see it.

Chernoborg wrote:
Reamer : A stripped down “civilian” marketed version of the Reaper. Popular amongst alpha-type executives who want to get the intimidation of the original without losing the luxury appointments! “ I’d love to spend the weekend with you sweetie , but Boss Killbot says we’re pulling extra shifts!” - soon to be former employee overheard on Progress

Hilarious! Even if it's only a nickname for a reaper with the weapons removed, anecdotes about the original Reamer will likely spread like kudzu.

Thu, 2015-01-08 11:34

#11

Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture

Chrontius wrote:On the other

Chrontius wrote:
On the other hand, stripping out a digestive tract in favor of an implanted maker actually makes a great deal of sense, and I had a character who swallowed a maker once, (don't ask how it harvested urine for its nitrate content. Just... don't.) so ... Come to think of it, how long will a nuclear battery run a combination maker and oxygen reformer? This could be a [i]very[/i] viable chassis for creating a vac-compatible morph adapted for working in shirtsleeves on an asteroid mine.

I think that this is the basic idea behind the Long-Term Life Support implant from Rimward.

Rimward p189 wrote:
The biomorph is adapted for harsh environmental conditions and can survive for long periods of time as a closed system thanks to symbiotic bacteria and nanomachines. This augmentation allows any biomorph or pod to recycle air, food, and water for up to one year. This augmentation’s implanted miniature maker allows the morph to process ice and various simple organic chemicals into air, water, and food. The morph need not eat or breathe but must ingest about five kilograms of ice and carbon grit per day. It must also balance out or replenish chemical reserves once a month, either by exchanging with other similarly augmented morphs or applying a Low-cost chemical reserve pack.

I bet that you could put together a working digestion and lung replacement with a mini-maker, respirocytes, and eelware; provided that the maker and respirocytes are designed to use the eelware for energy. It wouldn't keep you from having to eat, but it might let you not breathe as long as you eat and drink. To get something for vac work, I would just add Vacuum Sealing and prerequisite Bioweave Armor.

—

Mon, 2015-01-12 20:27

#12

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

Firstly, I'd like to say how

Firstly, I'd like to say how much I appreciate your thoughts on the morphs I've presented. For the Inflatomorph, would Smart Bubble make a better name?Checking it's over and yeah, the Spare is a really good match for stats. This,http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FacelessMasses is kinda what I have in mind, a ubiquitous weak morph that security forces could handle with a pointy stick.Or even a really light equivalent to the case for Venusian aerostats. The big whale version has given me an idea for a short fiction. I've never written anything like that so we'll see how it goes.

Chrontius wrote:
A hobbit-sized pod with a cyberbrain and lots of empty space inside makes sense from that angle, but also would have relatively enormous capacity to be filled up with aftermarket mods at your leisure.

This reminds me of the character from Neuromancer who replaced one of his lungs with a holo-projector. Figuring that Minimized Biology could be a morph trait then you could have it's flip side of Backup Organs where the biomorph has duplicates of critical parts distributed throughout the morph. This would be more feasible with pods as the cyberbrain could coordinate the redundancies better. I see this as a feature on combat biomorphs to improve survivability.

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Mon, 2015-01-12 22:26

#13

Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture

The whale version would be

The whale version would be awesome as hell for Venus.

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Sun, 2015-03-15 21:46

#14

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

First Chord

Hey! It's my 200th post. And I've had this story idea rattling around for quite a while. So here it is! Be kind, I haven't written a story in a really long time! Many thanks to jKaiser for providing visual inspiration http://jack-kaiser.deviantart.com/art/EP-Forum-Request-Synthtaur-Metal-4... and The Spouse for feedback and editorial help! Vox stared out into the haze. It had been an interminable standard year since the last concert... the near disaster. The equipment was becoming too powerful for the ices that made up Titans “bedrock” to handle. Even just moving it to the concert site was proving disruptive. But he wouldn’t back down, the pursuit of the perfect sound was when he felt most alive. A drop of ethanol slid down his face and boiled away as it reached his lips. It was an rare mod for synths to have an functional mouth and vocal tract, but Vox had wanted to feel himself make the sound in a way a speaker just couldn’t provide. Around him stood the rest of his band, darkly resplendent in their nightmarish synthtaur morphs In that moment, Vox reflected on the efforts of the past year. The inspiration had come from a seemingly inconsequential bit of trivia he heard as a child. Speaking with the engineers at TAU about the new project he had envisioned and ensuring that the resources needed were granted to it had been easy enough. More difficult was finding the special technicians to get the optimal performance from the new “equipment”. Using his civilian identity, he had proposed a strengthening of the friendship between the Commonwealth and Atlantica. In a show of goodwill he egocast to the oceanic bubbleworld with the genetic coding for several species of fish to assist the colonies’ biodiversity and tickle the palates of the residents. As an emissary of Titan, he was sleeved into a water breathing body and given a bodyguard, a young Neo-Orca named Scylla. Throughout his stay he took in the local music scene but hadn’t found anyone to his liking. As his time drew to a close, his mood grew increasingly dour. Near the end of the stay Scylla confronted him, asking outright if he was Vox. Ordinarily his identity was carefully protected with biometric masking, but his method of speaking had tipped her off. It turned out she was a fan, and knew where to find who he needed for the concert. With her assistance the pieces fell into place quickly and the project was ready in time for this year’s concert. Deep in the wilds of Titan a crowd gathered around the raised ice platform. Waiting for them there was Vox and the rest of the band, standing like statues of the Gods of Metal. The crowd murmured as they noticed that, besides the band, there wasn’t any of the other equipment. Vox stared into the haze. On cue, four enormous black shapes materialized in the fog. The forms gracefully swimming through the air as they had through the waters of old Earth, Vox’s special project: Leviathans! In near silence they swept around the audience so that everyone could take in the majesty of each impossibly huge construct. After one circuit was complete, they spiralled inward in a synchronized dance until they were nose tip to tail. As one, the Leviathans dipped their heads down and raised their tails relying on discreetly placed thrusters for maneuvering, while still moving closer. Once they were vertical, with only the tips of their flukes and flippers barely in contact, did Vox give the signal. On the tops of the Leviathans’ heads, now facing out towards the audience, protective panels began sliding open and lights flicked on to make the true purpose of these great morphs apparent. The Leviathans -WERE- the sound system for the concert. Vox had recalled that Blue whales had been capable of making a sound as loud as a old jet airliner. He had commissioned the morphs to take advantage of many of the same features as a living whale but to best use them he wanted egos that could make adjustments instinctively- as if they had been doing so their entire lives. Scylla, who was now out in the audience in an Amazon morph, had been crucial to his success. When the cables dropped down from the Leviathans to each band member the audience began to cheer. Vox had always believed the first chord was crucial to how a concert would go, and that was never more true than right now. Taking up his mic, an antique style slightly modified for Titanian conditions, he watched as his guitarist plugged in and synched up with the overhead colossus. As the first power chord shock cloud raced through the crowd, the corners of his mouth pulled into the closest he could come to a smile.Tonight, they’d be heard from Aarhus to Hell!

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Wed, 2015-06-24 22:02

#15

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

More fun with morph ideas!

Here's some more concepts I've had kicking around since last time, once again feel free to use these as you wish! ( I'm still no good at statting anything ) Vactopus : I loved making this word! It’s pretty self explanatory- an octomorph kitted out to function in space without a suit. Rocket propulsion, vacuum sealing, bioware armor,and oxygen reserve as usual - although I seem keen on making it a large sized morph for some reason. Imagine that pouring itself into your airlock! Yeti / Sasquatch : A big morph for Neo- Hominids, using Gigantopithecus DNA to make a morph capable of surviving the wilderness spaces of Mars ( Sasquatch) or Titan (Yeti). Throw in some vacuum sealing and it could pop up anywhere really. Probably could build this using a Bruiser with the appropriate implants. [s]Kitsune : This came up on another thread, but where the author wanted a shapeshifting fox I had the idea to go with the spirit of the concept. A kitsune is similar to a ghost with some extras features to enable its infosec speciality. Holo projectors for misdirection and skinlink to enable contact subversion of pods and synths.[/s] Crud! The holos are a robotic enhancement not for Biomorphs. Back to the drawing board for this one! Heikegani : A novacrab morph used exclusively by the Go Nin Group. Inspired by the legends of the ghosts of drowned Samurai returning as crabs with human faces on their backs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heikegani . Go Nin offers these pods to personnel who have lost their original morph in service to the company but are too useful to have out of action for a length of time. I’m kind of split on how to go with this one. It’s either a combat oriented crab with 4 legs with grip pads, 4 arms + ambidexterity ( a terror when using two guns), and 2 claws with hand lasers - I couldn’t put mini missiles as a weapon mount but the wrist rockets could go there just fine *or* a small crab used as an “atonement” morph with the offending egos face biosculpted onto its back. Not terribly useful but -very- in tune with Go Nin! Trold : Ok, not one of mine as it was mentioned in Rimward but here’s my take on it. Trold are a small humanoid morphs designed for maximum heat conservation and minimum space requirements to make the most out of cramped cold living spaces available early in Titans colonization. To this end it has temperature tolerance(cold), prehensile feet, limber, muscle augmentation, carapace armor, and can roll up into a ball and use the utility ducts as transit paths...what? why yes I DID see Frozen, why do you ask? Linnorm : Another from Rimward, and subject of an excellent write up by Repreive here http://eclipsephase.com/morph-linnorm-old-pre-fall-morph-developed-titan. While his was a huge dragon styled morph, mine is a human scale biped inspired by this art from Wayne Barlowe’s Expedition http://aliens.wikia.com/wiki/File:Am_wayne_barlowe_prairie_ram.jpg. It’s a Titanian wilderness morph that walks on it two arms (no legs) and has a whip-like prehensile tail to help manipulate objects. Zaphod : Another attempt by Cognite to push the boundaries of Transhuman intelligence. This one off morph has two complete heads on one body. Alone that’s merely unusual, but where it becomes dangerous is that the morph has been infected with Watts-MacLeod enabling the brains to multiplex together and effectively double its processing power. Run as a single ego printed onto both brains the resulting individual was exceedingly clever and imaginative but also irresponsible, untrustworthy,and hedonistic. A charismatic extrovert, it was only a short while before he escaped the labs and was presumably heading to the scum barges. Several ego hunters have been hired to retrieve the subject without success to date. ** WARNING! Subject is dangerous to self and especially to others! DO NOT ENGAGE IN CASUAL CONVERSATION OR ACCEPT DRINKS!!** Cognite denies everything of course and is rumored to be working on a follow up using Neo-Synergist technologies. Langstrump : A custom morph requested by an eccentric Titanian, the Langstrump is a Neotenic morph optimized for strength and durability. The original uses cutting edge biochemistry and implants to achieve its goal of being the “strongest girl in the solar system”, however a production model is in the works which is within Transhuman range. Miscellaneous Ideas : Stymphalian Bird : I cannot for the life of me decide if this should be a morph, a neo-avian battlesuit or a variation on Smart Skin that allows a birds feathers to act as blades. Garuda: This is more definitely a battlesuit with wings, the leading edges of which can double as plasma swords able to deliver slashing blows in flight and swinging forward into hand for melee combat. Tatzelwurm : Based of of a creature of legend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatzelwurm .It resembles a cat with a long snake-like body. I just really see one of these being a genetically engineered pet of an Titanian Oligarchs not any kind of morph really.

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Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Wed, 2015-06-24 22:30

#16

MrWigggles MrWigggles's picture

Would it be okay... if I toss

Would it be okay... if I toss in the idea of a Honey Badger uplift and accompany morph? Just watched this serious nature docu about the honey badger. They're excellent problem solves, and extremely tough morph, and they're inherently very independent.

Thu, 2015-06-25 04:58

#17

Armoured

Tatzelwurm and other creatures

The Tatzelwurm immediately makes me think of a swarmcat variant, effectively being a slitheroid-shaped cat. As an aside, one of the images I most want to see from the EP setting is a Scum "Cat-show" (though given the Scum, more like a genehacker bring-and-share) with multiple swarmcat variants in frame. Bonus points would be given for making every cat cute, no matter their bizzare adaptations! :3

Thu, 2015-06-25 19:39

#18

jKaiser

If we uplift honey badgers,

If we uplift honey badgers, we win against the TITANs.

Thu, 2015-06-25 20:51

#19

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

but honey badger don't give

but honey badger don't give no fuck

Thu, 2015-06-25 21:07

#20

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

And who will save us from the

And who will save us from the exsurgent infected honey badgers, hmmm? They look just like regular honey badgers but don't care on a cosmic level - they're x-risk proof ! Make me wonder if we should start a bestiary thread?

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Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Sat, 2015-06-27 12:12

#21

Kojak

Harpy

Harpy The Harpy is the Fury’s big sister; it’s a combat morph that takes everything the classic does and takes it up a notch. Decked out with enough top-of-the-line implants to go head-to-head with a reaper and come out on top, its expense makes it rare. It’s used only by the deadliest (or wealthiest) mercs, ego hunters or gatecrashers. Implants: Adrenal Boost, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Bioweave Armor (Heavy), Cortical Stack, Cyberclaws, Eelware, Endocrine Control, Enhanced Vision, Enhanced Hearing, Hardened Skeleton, Medichines, Muscle Augmentation, Nanophages, Neurachem (Level 2), Reflex Boosters, Respirocytes, Skillware, Toxin Filters Movement Rate: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 40 Speed Modifier: +3 Durability: 55 (65) Wound Threshold: 11 (13) Advantages: +10 COO, +5 REF, +10 SOM, +5 WIL, +10 to one other aptitude of the player’s choice Credit Cost: Expensive (minimum 75,000+)

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sat, 2015-06-27 13:21

#22

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

Nice! Maybe put wings on it

Nice! Maybe put wings on it for keeping in theme? :) I've often had fun played the variant game with the Fury: Amazon : a fury with Enlarged Size Valkyrie : a Fury optimized for vehicular combat - skinlink, g-tolerance Gorgon : A Fury with carapace armor, claws, and maybe hand laser. Would that be good for operation in vacuum?

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Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Sun, 2015-06-28 05:31

#23

Kojak

Chernoborg, I hope you don't

Chernoborg, I hope you don't mind, but I liked several ideas of yours so much I decided to stat them out for my own campaign. Here's the vactopus: Vactopus Uplifted octopi often find themselves engaged in zero-g work due to their inherent advantages in that environment. For those who find themselves in vacwork and are squicked-out by sleeving into a novacrab, renowned morph design hypercorp Acumenic has begun offering the vactopus morph, optimized specifically for vacwork without the vulnerability of a cyberbrain. Implants: 360-Degree Vision, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Bioware Armor (Heavy), Cortical Stack, Extra Limbs (8), Grip Pads, Oxygen Reserve, Polarization Vision, Vacuum Sealing Movement Rate: Walker (4/24), Thrust Vector (8/40) Aptitude Maximum: 30 Durability: 35 Wound Threshold: 7 Advantages: 8 Arms, Beak Attack (1d10 DV, AP -1, use Unarmed Combat skill), Limber (Level 2) trait, +20 Free Fall skill, +5 COO, +5 INT, +5 SOM, +5 to one other aptitude of the player’s choice Notes: Non-Mammalian Biochemistry trait CP Cost: 55 Credit Cost: Expensive (40,000+)

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Mon, 2015-06-29 00:20

#24

Kojak

Here's another of Chernoborg

Here's another of Chernoborg's concepts I statted out: the heikegani. Heikegani Novacrabs have gained popularity among some security firms thanks to their durability and intimidating appearance. The Go-nin Group in particular is known for their heavy use of the novacrab, and so they began producing the heikegani, a combat-focused variant that often accompanies their gatecrashing expeditions. Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Carapace Armor, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Endocrine Control, Enhanced Respiration, Gills, Grip Pads, Hand Laser (4), Hardened Skeleton, Mnemonic Augmentation, Neurachem (Level 1), Oxygen Reserve, Puppet Sock, Reflex Boosters, Respirocytes, Temperature Tolerance, Vacuum Sealing Movement Rate: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 35 Speed Modifier: +2 Durability: 45 (55) Wound Threshold: 9 (11) Advantages: 10 legs, Carapace Armor (11/11), Claw Attack (2d10), +10 SOM, +5 to three other aptitudes of the player’s choice Notes: Non-Mammalian Biochemistry trait CP Cost: 70 Credit Cost: Expensive (minimum 40,000+)

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Mon, 2015-06-29 00:26

#25

Kojak

Here's the third of

Here's the third of Chernoborg's ideas I statted: the garuda. Garuda As blackbirds have become more popular among uplifted corvids, demand grew for a more robust, combat-oriented version. The garuda exists to answer that demand. Along the leading edge of each wing is a plasma sword, which can telescope out up to two meters or detach into the morph’s hands. Armor and a bolstered structure make it the toughest avian morph to date. Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Chameleon Skin, Chemical Sniffer, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Enhanced Vision, Heavy Combat Armor, Invisibility, Neurachem (Level 1), Puppet Sock, Reduced Signature, Structural Enhancement, Telescoping Limbs, Weapon Mounts (External, Fixed, 2), Wings Mobility System: Walker 2/16, Hopper 4/20, Winged 8/40 Aptitude Maximum: 30 (20 SOM) Speed Modifier: +1 Durability: 30 (40) Wound Threshold: 6 (8) Advantages: +5 COO, +5 REF, +5 to one other aptitude of the player’s choice, +15 Flight skill, +10 Blades skill, Armor 4/4 (20/20 with Heavy Combat Armor), plasma wing attack (DV 3d10+8, AP -8) Notes: Plasma sword wing mounts can be detached and used as plasma swords (DV 2d10+8, AP -8); when attached, Credit Cost: Expensive (minimum 45,000+)

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Mon, 2015-06-29 01:06

#26

Kojak

Beholder

Beholder An upgrade of the observer morph, the beholder is a favorite of intelligence analysts and covert investigators. The fact that it usually costs twice as much as a standard observer keeps its use limited, however. Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Circadian Regulation, Cortical Stack, Eidetic Memory, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Smell, Enhanced Vision, Math Boost, Mnemonic Augmentation, Oracles, Skillware, T-Ray Emitter Movement Rate: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 35 Durability: 35 Wound Threshold: 7 Advantages: +10 INT, +10 COG, +5 REF, +5 to one other aptitude of the player’s choice Credit Cost: Expensive (minimum 40,000+)

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Mon, 2015-06-29 02:24

#27

jKaiser

I'm reminded of a failed game

I'm reminded of a failed game I planned, based around the morph design business, specifically these two and the interplay between them. [strong]The Oirbsen[/strong] Biomorph - One of the design bids in response to TerraGenesis' call for a dedicated aquatic combat morph following the discovery of a resource-rich ocean exoworld, the Oirbsen is essentially a Fury variant crossed with an Aquanaut intended as a medium-high price range amphibious assault body. Visually, it resembles a hairless cross between the two, with the addition of collapsible swimming fins along the calf and forearm and subtly thick-skinned appearance due to its standard-issue modified carapace armor that, along with a hydrostatic adaptation, allows it operation in tremendous pressure environments. Unfortunately, the Oirbsen, despite being a truly capable morph, lost out on the bid and indirectly bankrupted its design house when the prototype genetics were pirated by Rising Tide, who forwarded them to another design house, which produced the Undertow. Fallout from the debacle quickly shut down the project, though the genetics were picked up by a security firm who now produce modest numbers of the morph, and it has a niche but loyal market amongst gatecrashers and the Europan Defense Force. [strong]The Undertow[/strong] Pod - Consisting of a sophisticated blend of Oirbsen meat and security pod-esque cybernetics, the Undertow rapidly filled the aquatic underworlds of Ceres, Europa, and Enceladus after its introduction. Outwardly it closely resembles its genetic "parent" design, though it is almost universally seen with neo-Orca-like black and white patterning. While not quite as effective or durable as its biomorph sire, the Undertow makes up for it in being vastly cheaper and easier to produce. Despite being mostly known as a terrorist weapon, modified and rebranded versions have started to filter into the market due principally to its appealing cost-effectiveness. I never got as far as statting them out.

Mon, 2015-06-29 10:14

#28

Trappedinwikipedia Trappedinwikipedia's picture

I have a couple of old ones,

I have a couple of old ones, based around some pre-fall mil-spec stuff I was working on. Pilot: A biomorph which stems from the brief period between resleeving technologies advancing into usability, and the invention of proper cyberbrain emulation. The Pilot morph is one of the most grotesque morphs to come from this time period. It is a small precursor to modern neotenic phenotypes, and lacks eyes and most other delicate facial features. The body in general is extremely short and stocky, with a rebuilt circulatory system with a complex system of added valves preventing blood from flowing away from the brain in certain high-G maneuvers. The Pilot morph flew the last generation of manned fighter aircraft, before being quickly replaced by direct-sleeving into the machine. In the modern era, Pilot morphs are rare, as they have significant disabilities, requiring external camera streams in order to see, but still see use in certain extreme sports areas. Ogre: This synthmorph formed the core of synthetic military units pre-fall. A roughly human shaped morph, the Ogre stands nearly 2.8 meters tall when fully erect. Its limbs use an inhuman joint system, giving it a 360 degree range of motion from every joint, notably, this allows Ogres to "lizard walk" a method of moving which allows the large Ogre to move quickly over terrain, while exposing less than 50 cm of vertical height. Most Ogres lack a true face, and mount a weapon on their head mount. In the modern post-fall world the Ogre has fallen out of favor in much of the system. Lower gravity allows the flying Reaper more flexibility, and the sheer size of the Ogre can be a detriment in built up habs. The Ogre still sees a fair amount of gatecrashing work, and the Martian Rangers maintain a significant number of surplus Ogres as a quick-deploying reserve.

Tue, 2015-06-30 03:30

#29

MrWigggles MrWigggles's picture

Kojak wrote:Spoiler:

Kojak wrote:
Spoiler: Highlight to view
Chernoborg, I hope you don't mind, but I liked several ideas of yours so much I decided to stat them out for my own campaign. Here's the vactopus: Vactopus Uplifted octopi often find themselves engaged in zero-g work due to their inherent advantages in that environment. For those who find themselves in vacwork and are squicked-out by sleeving into a novacrab, renowned morph design hypercorp Acumenic has begun offering the vactopus morph, optimized specifically for vacwork without the vulnerability of a cyberbrain. Implants: 360-Degree Vision, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Bioware Armor (Heavy), Cortical Stack, Extra Limbs (8), Grip Pads, Oxygen Reserve, Polarization Vision, Vacuum Sealing Movement Rate: Walker (4/24), Thrust Vector (8/40) Aptitude Maximum: 30 Durability: 35 Wound Threshold: 7 Advantages: 8 Arms, Beak Attack (1d10 DV, AP -1, use Unarmed Combat skill), Limber (Level 2) trait, +20 Free Fall skill, +5 COO, +5 INT, +5 SOM, +5 to one other aptitude of the player’s choice Notes: Non-Mammalian Biochemistry trait CP Cost: 55 Credit Cost: Expensive (40,000+)

First, I really dig the name. Wouldn't it just be 4 extra limbs? And there no temp. adoption. So you'd still need a vac suit?

Tue, 2015-06-30 19:31

#30

Kojak

MrWigggles wrote:

MrWigggles wrote:
First, I really dig the name.

All credit goes to Chernoborg upthread, he came up with it. It is a great name, isn't it?

MrWigggles wrote:
Wouldn't it just be 4 extra limbs?

No, for whatever reason, the standard the other multi-limbed morphs seem to go by is that all morphs with more than four limbs count all their limbs as "extra" (see the novacrab and octomorph in the Morph Recognition Guide for examples).

MrWigggles wrote:
And there no temp. adoption. So you'd still need a vac suit?

No, temperature adaptation (as far as I can tell) doesn't affect vacuum operation; the vacuum sealing trait is the one that allows it to operate in vac.

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Tue, 2015-06-30 20:52

#31

Trappedinwikipedia Trappedinwikipedia's picture

Vacuum sealing already covers

Vacuum sealing already covers -75 through 100 C temperatures, its actually more powerful than temperature tolerance.

Wed, 2015-07-01 22:40

#32

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

Kojak wrote:MrWigggles wrote:

Kojak wrote:
MrWigggles wrote: First, I really dig the name. All credit goes to Chernoborg upthread, he came up with it. It is a great name, isn't it?

Aw Heck! You guys make me blush! :) Seriously, I'm glad you like the ideas and are willing to share some of your own. I'm perfectly okay with opening up the thread for anybody's ideas to hash out, which is good as it may be awhile before I post some more! Trappedinwikipedia: I like the pre-Fall "antiques" particularly the Ogre! jKaiser : You know for the story I wrote up above I had an image in mind for Scylla in her Amazon of a humanoid with orca patterned skin! It's a pretty compelling visual. I think next time maybe more socially oriented morphs. There's got to be some niches we're not seeing there!

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Wed, 2015-07-01 23:19

#33

jKaiser

Well, aided by some wine, let

Well, aided by some wine, let's ponder what's out there. We already have the sylph for your glitterati needs, but not a whole lot besides. I guess you could roll the Galatea in the "social" bracket. Actually, it has me thinking on the relatively free-love culture the books tend to espouse, and the oddity that there's a high profile pod optimised for sex, but no by-book-biomorphs fit that mold. The simplest factory defaults as I see it would be a morph rigged with sex switch, pheromones, and drug glands (hither). I'm sure there are plenty of limited run scum morphs out there, but for the sake of the thread and high-profile morphs: [strong]The Oiran[/strong] Sleek, svelt, and the subject of seemingly infinite tabloid coverages, the Oiran morph originated out of Lunar design houses, a design born of rebellion from the comparatively conservative Lunar culture. At first glance little distinguishes an Oiran from a Sylph or a high-end Olympian, but this is part of the design ethos. The Oiran seduces up close, close enough to smell the pheromone-laden perfume and notice the perfect skin and complexion. Oiran feature an expanded version of the sex change implant, with a uniquely augmented skeletal system and enhanced neurocomputer control system allowing for a fine-tuned metabolic system, which in turn allows an Oiran to change not only its sex organs but also its build and musculature, given proper dietary support. It has similar genetics to a pleasure pod, allowing additional gential muscular control, purring, and the baseline genetics emphasize smooth muscle movement, bequeathing the nickname of "sex snakes" to the morphline as a whole. While the base geneline for Oiran is common enough, often exhibited as a step above pleasure pod consorts (and a few high-end dollhouses do run Oiran morphs equipped with cyberbrains, particularly in the Belt), this morph is perhaps second only to the Exalt for the sheer number of variants on the market. There's a minor social stigma attached to the Oiran that rather parallels the stigma attached to willing prostitution in centuries past, that of someone who is embracing and almost weaponizing their sexuality and looked down upon for it while at the same time undeniably drawing others to them. Egos known to be sleeved in Oiran as a result are often stereotyped as subversive hedonists, and are sometimes seen as threatening or debaucherous, but the line has never failed to turn a profit for its producers.

Sat, 2015-08-08 23:17

#34

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

So, after setting myself the

So, after setting myself the challenge of making more socially oriented morphs I’ve had some ideas deemed worth sharing. Here they are! Laureate : Everybody wants to be the life of the party, the center of attention always ready with a clever bon mot or jibe as the situation demands. The Laureate is the morph for you. With improved intelligence ( though not as extreme as a menton), and an emphasis on wit and savvy the Laureate is well suited to dominating a social scene. Even if witty repartee isn’t your strong suit the Laureate comes with a “Cyrano” option - a Ghostrider module with a social wingman installed to guide you through any situation in style. Akula : The latest morph from Gekko Technologies morph division. The Akula takes a standard Exalt and optimizes it for the cutthroat world of hypercorp business practices. By inducing a mild Antisocial Personality Disorder users can make the sort of difficult decisions without being hampered by such things as morality or conscience. Along with some neurological boosts ( SAV, INT, circadian regulation,eidetic memory,oracles) to assist with the rapid assimilation of information and snap decision making to fully take advantage of rapidly evolving situations. “This is just perfectly like Gekko Tech! Take a glitch in their production line and make it a feature!” “ Yeah, that’s just what we needed! A bunch of bespoke sociopaths who look just like every other friggin Exalt in Progress!” “ I’ve heard that one of the Genehackers made it so that when they kick in the APD the morphs eyes turn black...dead eyes, like a doll’s eyes!” “ I hate you.” Magnus : The Magnus isn’t a particular line of morph as it is a category. Oligarchs being who they are have a desire for the best of everything , including their custom morphs. Starting with the baseline Remade and customizing to the clients preferences. Frequent priorities are striking looks, survivability, and enhanced senses for the more hedonistic elites. These morphs generally exceed many of the limits of morph design, but that’s the advantage of extreme wealth - getting what you want. Authority : A security synthmorph doesn’t seem like it would belong in a social morphs list, but it does. Much of a law enforcers job is to establish control over a situation *before* it spirals into violence. The Authority synth is built with subtle psychological cues in its very structure to convey that sense of command (low bonus to intimidation) as well as other systems useful to frontline policemorphs - flight system, eelware, sound system, security armor and holographic projectors. XPR : As XP feeds become more popular throughout the solar system as a way for egos in synths to feel alive again the need for recording specialized morphs increases. An XPR is a biomorph with a suite of enhanced senses for hi-fi broadcast, a sharp mind for on the fly experience improvisiation, and the durability to survive when things go wrong. Striking looks and Puppet Socks are also common mods to add to the fantasy and for high paying customers respectively. Guru : “Oh man, I just feel sooo connected to everything in this morph!” Initially designed to aid in the psychological healing of egos, Gurus have made quite a splash in the civilian market. Boosts to WIL and COO along with a slew of mental and physical enhancements -direction sense,enhanced sight, hearing, and smell, eidetic memory, circadian regulation, endocrine control, hibernation,limber, and oracles add to and egos sense of awareness and control of the morph they inhabit. Protocol Pod : Even with the availability of translation programs for virtually any language there are ample opportunities for an outsider to commit the kind of faux pas that gets someone tossed out of an airlock. The Protocol Pod is in the testing phases as an attempt to smooth out cross-cultural conflict by having an intermediary that isn’t emotionally invested in either group yet intimately familiar with the nuances of both. To that end the pod is equipped with Hyper-Linguist , Multiple Personalities, and Skillware to quickly download any culture skills they might need. Default AGI personalities tend toward a stuffy, formal persona which makes it all the more shocking when they slide effortlessly into guttural street slang complete with proper body language! This effect is amplified when combined with smart clothing. Mook : Everybody has seen Mooks on the vids. Tall, threatening, seemingly invincible, and most often roughing up a shop owner for a local gang. Mooks are barely morphs to begin with, usually being cases or for moderately wealthy users pods with minimized biosystems. The idea is to present a big, scary army of bodies at your command, the sort of force that regular folk cower in fear from. They’re usually a paper tiger though as one or two real hits will disable them handily. Some clever con artists even mimic the look of the local Mooks to enjoy some of the gangs Rep. Leeching like this is a dangerous game if the gang has some real muscle to send after the culprit. I've rather liked this whole "Morph Challenge" thing. I'll have to try it again sometime!

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Sun, 2015-08-09 01:11

#35

Kojak

Just like your previous set,

Just like your previous set, these are fantastic. Mind if I stat them out and post them here?

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sat, 2015-08-29 12:35

#36

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

A new morph challenge has appeared!

And that challenge is.... Transhumanity' s Best Friend! All the discussion on potential uplifts and caribou herding got me thinking about what animals would we take into the future and how we would adapt them to our purposes. So that's the next batch of morphs upcoming. After that will be Halloween costumes- that won't be at all serious though :). Kojak : As always, go for it! I'm going to try taking another crack at the process as well. It's silly for me up with this stuff and not follow through with stats!

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Sat, 2015-08-29 19:17

#37

Kojak

Oh, man, I totally forgot to

Oh, man, I totally forgot to do the statting out of those morphs...whoops. Well, soon enough.

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sat, 2015-08-29 22:35

#38

Kojak

Ok, here's the Laureate.

Ok, here's the Laureate. Laureate Everybody wants to be the life of the party, the center of attention always ready with a clever bon mot or jibe as the situation demands. The Laureate is the morph for you. With improved intelligence ( though not as extreme as a menton), and an emphasis on wit and savvy the Laureate is well suited to dominating a social scene. Even if witty repartee isn’t your strong suit the Laureate comes with a “Cyrano” option - a Ghostrider module with a social wingman installed to guide you through any situation in style. Enhancements: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Ghostrider Module Movement Rate: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 35 Durability: 35 Wound Threshold: 7 Advantages: +5 COG, +15 SAV CP Cost: 40 Credit Cost: Expensive Notes: Ghostrider module carries modified muse with the following stats: SAV 30, Academics: Psychology 60, Persuasion 30, Protocol 30, Interfacing 40, Professional: Cool Hunting 60, Programming 20, Research 30, Perception 30, plus three other Knowledge skills at 40

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sat, 2015-08-29 23:52

#39

Kojak

Akula

Akula The latest morph from Gekko Technologies' morph division. The Akula takes a standard Exalt and optimizes it for the cutthroat world of hypercorp business practices. By inducing a mild antisocial personality disorder, users can make the sort of difficult decisions without being hampered by such things as morality or conscience. It also includes some neurological boosts to assist with the rapid assimilation of information and snap decision-making to fully take advantage of rapidly evolving situations. Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Circadian Regulation, Eidetic Memory, Oracles Movement Rate: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 35 Durability: 35 Wound Threshold: 7 Advantages: +10 INT, +10 SAV, +5 to three other aptitudes of the player's choice CP Cost: 35 Credit Cost: Expensive

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sat, 2015-08-29 23:57

#40

Kojak

Magnus

Magnus The Magnus isn’t a particular line of morph as it is a category. Oligarchs being who they are have a desire for the best of everything , including their custom morphs. Starting with the baseline Remade and customizing to the clients preferences. Frequent priorities are striking looks, survivability, and enhanced senses for the more hedonistic elites. These morphs generally exceed many of the limits of morph design, but that’s the advantage of extreme wealth - getting what you want. Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Bioweave Armor (Light), Circadian Regulation, Clean Metabolism, Eidetic Memory, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Respiration, Enhanced Smell, Enhanced Vision, Medichines, Striking Looks (Level 2), Temperature Tolerance, Toxin Filters, any 10 other implants of the player's choice Movement Rate: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 40 Durability: 40 Wound Threshold: 8 Advantages: +10 COG, +5 SAV, +10 SOM, +5 to three other aptitudes of the player's choice, Armor 2/3 CP Cost: 120 Credit Cost: Expensive (minimum 150,000+)

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sun, 2015-08-30 00:00

#41

Kojak

Authority

Authority A security synthmorph doesn’t seem like it would belong in a social morphs list, but it does. Much of a law enforcers job is to establish control over a situation before it spirals into violence. The Authority synth is built with subtle psychological cues in its very structure to convey that sense of command as well as other systems useful to frontline policemorphs. Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Mash Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Eelware, Holographic Projector, Light Combat Armor, Puppet Sock, Sound System Mobility System: Walker (4/20), Thrust Vector (8/40) Aptitude Maximum: 30 Durability: 40 Wound Threshold: 8 Advantages: +5 COO, +5 REF, +5 to one other aptitude of the player's choice, +10 Intimidation skill, Armor 10/10 CP Cost: 50 Credit Cost: Expensive (minimum 30,000+)

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sun, 2015-08-30 00:27

#42

Kojak

XPR

XPR As XP feeds become more popular throughout the solar system as a way for egos in synths to feel alive again, the need for recording specialized morphs increases. An XPR is a biomorph with a suite of enhanced senses for hi-fi broadcast, a sharp mind for on the fly experience improvisation, and the durability to survive when things go wrong. Striking looks and puppet socks are also common mods (to add to the fantasy and for high paying customers, respectively). Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Endocrine Control, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Smell, Enhanced Vision, Mnemonic Augmentation, Puppet Sock, Skillware, Striking Looks (Level 1) Movement Rate: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 30 Durability: 40 Wound Threshold: 8 Advantages: +10 INT, +5 REF, +5 to two other aptitudes of the player's choice CP Cost: 35 Credit Cost: Expensive

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sun, 2015-08-30 00:39

#43

Kojak

Guru

Guru “Oh man, I just feel sooo connected to everything in this morph!” Initially designed to aid in the psychological healing of egos, Gurus have made quite a splash in the civilian market. Boosts to willpower and coordination along with a slew of mental and physical enhancements add to an ego's sense of awareness and control of the morph they inhabit. Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Circadian Regulation, Direction Sense, Eidetic Memory, Endocrine Control, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Smell, Enhanced Vision, Hibernation, Oracles Movement Rate: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 35 Durability: 30 Wound Threshold: 6 Advantages: +10 COO, +10 WIL, +5 to one other aptitude of the player's choice CP Cost: 45 Credit Cost: Expensive (minimum 30,000+) Notes: Limber (Level 2) trait

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sun, 2015-08-30 00:50

#44

Kojak

Protocol Pod

Protocol Pod Even with the availability of translation programs for virtually any language there are ample opportunities for an outsider to commit the kind of faux pas that gets someone tossed out of an airlock. The Protocol Pod is in the testing phases as an attempt to smooth out cross-cultural conflict by having an intermediary that isn’t emotionally invested in either group yet intimately familiar with the nuances of both. To that end the pod is equipped with hyper-linguist and multiple personality mods, along with skillware to quickly download any culture skills they might need. Default AGI personalities tend toward a stuffy and formal persona, which makes it all the more shocking when they slide effortlessly into guttural street slang complete with proper body language! This effect is amplified when combined with smart clothing. Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Hyper Linguist, Multiple Personalities, Puppet Sock, Skillware Movement Rate: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 30 Durability: 30 Wound Threshold: 6 Advantages: +5 COG, +10 INT, +5 SAV CP Cost: 30 Credit Cost: Expensive

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Sun, 2015-08-30 00:51

#45

Kojak

Man, that was fun! Chernoborg

Man, that was fun! Chernoborg, if you come up with more cool ideas, throw them up on here, I'd be happy to stat 'em out.

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Tue, 2015-10-13 09:46

#46

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

Transhumanity’s best friends.

Transhumanity’s best friends..Animal Morphs! I've limited this to animals that would have some level of individual experience or training worth saving (read : cortical stacks). Titan: Cute and Fuzzy CATASTROPHE! the release of engineered prey animals into a predator free environment has led to a population explosion and the loss of prime feeding grounds for the Hulder’s caribou. Not willing to risk further damage with bioplagues or nanotech , several predator species were engineered to both reduce the population and , thanks to specialized disassembler swarms in their digestive tracts, re-seed the environment with hydrocarbon compounds . Titanian Shepherd : drawn from Great Pyrenees stock this is a large white canid tasked with the immediate protection of the caribou herds. In the low Titanian gravity the Shepherd can leap to considerable heights to defend it’s herd. In case it’s taken even higher, it has gliding membranes to slow and control its descent . Diamond jaws and bioweave armor ensures that the shepherd can dish out and take a beating Cryoraptor : a large raptor generally used as free roaming predator but increasingly popular among the Hulder for falconry. Gyrfalcon territoriality was encouraged to ward off Ariels from Hulder territory. A layer of nanotech infused insulation doubles as the morphs shape adaptable flight surfaces. Haze Lynx: The ground force in the Hulder communities effort to curb the rabbit population. Lynx were chosen for their prey exclusivity so as not to pose a threat to the herds. Intelligence is heightened somewhat over baseline to enable sharing of simple information - prey locations mostly. Commands, however, are often utterly ignored Riding Caribou : Many caribou herding cultures also use the animals for utilitarian matters such as riding and pulling sleds. Since large size of the Hulder morph makes the standard Titanian Caribou unsuitable for riding a larger, enhanced version was commissioned . It has yet to be seen if these steps will curb the burgeoning “rabbit” problem. Already there is chatter on the Hulder networks of at least one individual, a grey and white male dubbed “the Rascal”, who seems frighteningly adept at avoiding traps, predators, and hunters alike. Stories of his exploits border on the unbelievable, whether this is due to sheer luck, genehacking, or possible TITAN influence is unknown. Of additional concern are rumors that Profunda is working on a new prey animal based on aquatic birds to take advantage of the many lakes and mares on Titan. Variable-Geometry Horse : A zoosynth that makes use of modular design and shape adjusting to provide the best fit to the situation :Swift riding horse, sure-footed pack donkey ,or powerful draft pony. Ego sharing enables the morph to have the optimal somatic profile per format. Schutzsynth : A generic term for a series of zoosynths modeled on canine neurology. Larger models are typically deployed as guard/security synths . Smaller models are enjoying a vogue amongst the hyperelite as “sleeve pets” - companion animals capable of acting in the defense of their owner Chryse Camel: Few animals are as well adapted to spending as much time in hostile wastes as the camel. So it is of no surprise that transhumanity brought the animal to the wide deserts of Mars. with the requisite suite of enhancements to be able to survive and the creation of several “oases” similar to ecostations but made to encourage the hardier plants of the terraforming process. It was hoped that increasing the camels intelligence would make working with them easier, in practice it hasn’t worked out that way. Void Lion : All quadrupeds have a difficult time in microgravity. Smart sea Lions are an increasingly common sight as ship’s mascots and habpets. Genehacking has made possible an astounding diversity of morphologies for the discerning owner. Security, companionship, tracking, and space rescue are tasks to which Void Lions have been set to. Void Lion shows are becoming popular at the larger habitats. Pack Manatee : A quirky sight around some of the larger Anarchist habs, Pack Manatees see use as a sort of living taxi for times when residents have a load to haul or simply don’t feel like paying attention to their trip. Equipped with a high visibility yellow envirosuit covered in SmartGrip panels and loops for quick attach/release of cargo and riders these smart manatees use their prodigious memory to easily navigate even the most complex beehive habitats. On their own Pack Manatees tend to congregate around the feed pellet stations scattered throughout the hab, contributing feedstock to the stations is considered a civic duty. Fetch : A tiny smart marmoset particularly popular with Neo-Avians, who are fond of carrying a primate on their shoulder. When needed they can be jammed as a set of particularly dextrous hands. Sphinx : A borderline fully uplifted feline. Sphinxes occasionally see use as information couriers using quantum encryption to secure data until it’s “riddle” is answered. Others act as guards, using smartclaws and a venomous bite to take down intruders who fail their tests. NeoHippus : The current best result in efforts to bring the horse to fully uplifted status. NeoHippus morphs harken back to the smaller, polydactyl ancestors of the modern horse. This results in something of a loss in terms of speed and load carrying but a gain in the animals ability to manipulate objects to encourage cognitive developement. Much like other smart animals the equines are given a transgenic larynx, so finally there ARE horses who talk! Xenohound : A smart canine most commonly found in the security zones of Lunar colonies and alongside Theseus morphs. A biomorph was used to prevent brainhacking and to retain the instinctual use of the morphs enhanced olfactory senses. This is used to detect the extremely early stages of TITAN nanoweapon modification . To back up that early detection, the Xenohound has many of the same survival mods as the Theseus.

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Tue, 2015-10-13 17:45

#47

Kojak

It almost seems like this

It almost seems like this latest bunch would work better as smart animals (for use with the Animal Handling skill), rather than straight-up morphs.

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Tue, 2015-10-13 18:31

#48

Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture

That is correct. Part of the

That is correct. Part of the idea came from El Destino Verde part 2 in Firewall. The loss of a well trained and experienced animal who is familiar with their owner seems a tragic waste. So I figure there are animals with cortical stacks or at least backups and these are morphs for them. I imagine that you'd have to resleeve such egos into the exact same morph as humans can understand that they're in a different morph but and animal wouldn't even know where to begin. At best they could deal with general phenotypes - canids,felines, equines....etc.

—

Current Status: Highly Distracted building Gatecrashing systems in Universe Sandbox!

Tue, 2015-10-13 18:54

#49

Kojak

Chernoborg wrote:That is

Chernoborg wrote:
That is correct. Part of the idea came from El Destino Verde part 2 in Firewall. The loss of a well trained and experienced animal who is familiar with their owner seems a tragic waste. So I figure there are animals with cortical stacks or at least backups and these are morphs for them. I imagine that you'd have to resleeve such egos into the exact same morph as humans can understand that they're in a different morph but and animal wouldn't even know where to begin. At best they could deal with general phenotypes - canids,felines, equines....etc.

Ohhh, okay, I see what you're getting at. That's a very cool idea.

—

"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Mon, 2015-10-19 01:24

#50

Chrontius

So I figure there are animals

So I figure there are animals with cortical stacks or at least backups and these are morphs for them. I believe it's canon in one of the books that some pets and working animals are given stacks, and that it's a relatively recent development.

Tue, 2016-02-09 12:47

#51

Kojak

Theophilus

Theophilus Designed in incredible secrecy on Bright specifically for Project Ozma's secret cadre of async operatives, this morph is a product of Acumenic's black labs deep within the bowels of the station. It was developed after Acumenic got their hands on an example of the rare faust biomorph, and represents an improvement on that relatively primitive design in nearly every way. Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Bioweave Armor (Light), Circadian Regulation, Drug Gland (Comfurt), Eidetic Memory, Endocrine Control, Muscle Augmentation, Neurachem (Level 1), Oracles, Reflex Boosters, Respirocytes, Skinflex Movement: 4/20 Aptitude Maximum: 30 (40 INT) Speed Modifier: +2 (neurachem and reflex boosters) Durability: 55 (includes Tough bonus and respirocytes) Wound Threshold: 10 Advantages: Exceptional Aptitude (INT), Innocuous trait, Psi Chameleon trait, Psi Defense (Level 2) trait, Tough (Level 2) trait, +5 COG, +10 WIL, +15 INT, +10 REF (from reflex boosters), +5 SOM (from muscle augmentation), Armor 2/3 Disadvantage: Addiction (major, to comfurt) CP Cost: 95 Credit Cost: N/A

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"I wonder if in some weird Freudian way, Kojak was sucking on his own head." - Steve Webster on Kojak's lollipop

Concept Morphs

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