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Your morph and why

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Wed, 2016-01-20 01:14
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
otohime1978 wrote
otohime1978 wrote:
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
So, here I am now, one of the more heavily augmented morphs on Titan, and you know what? I feel great. People look at me and they chortle. I've heard snide comments about the Hazer not being a proper combat morph.
It's because it's not a proper combat morph. Unarmed, armed, doesn't matter. A combat morph will always outstrip your morph when it matters. We can handle more damage. We're faster, stronger, and we make it less obvious.
...
otohime1978 wrote:
You underestimate how useful durability is. Yes. Well placed attacks will kill you. But increased durability means that you have a higher probability of surviving. Say something explodes and a bit of shrapnel comes your way. It's less likely to kill you. Or injure you. It's not about surviving the big hits. It's about surviving more of the small ones. And if you're paying that much for your morphs, you clearly don't know the right people, or lack corporate backing. As for the customs comment, honestly, most customs don't really care much outside of really paranoid systems like the Jovian Republic. A morph like this would not be too uncommon. Not many habitats with a decent gravitational pull would blink if you told people you like to cage fight as your passtime/career. Lots of furies and bruisers on that circuit, both with different end goals. Smaller and more manuverable, versus strong and powerful. I wouldn't use a bruiser in combat. Too big. Too slow.
Login Location: Nyhavn, Titan, Saturnine System @-List ID: AssassinAnna2113 Wow, it's been awhile, hasn't it? Anyway, not to put too fine a point on it, but since durability is such a big issue to you? I can take as much hurt as stock fury, and I [i]really[/i] wish I didn't know that from personal experience. Really, though, armor and [i]not being shot in the first place[/i] are far, far more important. Good armor, particularly, just no-sells "small hits." Heavy enough armor can just bounce anything short of rifle AP ammo, while not being seen - or, if you are seen, not being hit - are far, far more effective tonics than just "durability." Of course, having friends trumps durability and good armor. Having a lot of friends is really, really helpful in a fight. (So is having close air support, but nobody can usually count on having close air support.) Of course, the absolute best way to win a fight, if you have to fight, is to hit first, and hit last, at the same time.
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
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Wed, 2016-01-20 12:29
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Of course, the absolute best way to win a fight, if you have to fight, is to hit first, and hit last, at the same time.
I've learned to love full-size missile launchers. They're not subtle, but if you're working as a registered security provider you'd be surprised where you can carry 'em. Get the right morph and you can carry a couple, plus a seeker rifle for anyone that still moves. I've been enjoying the arachnikoma recently; arachnoids aren't my thing normally, but when you upscale them a little they're lovely. Lidar, radar, and enhanced vision? I slapped on 360-degree vision and Oracles. Very good for bodyguard work; a Remade is fun for when you're doing covert security, but nobody's wanted to tangle with me in this morph.
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Sat, 2016-01-23 00:37
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
SquireNed wrote:I've learned
SquireNed wrote:
I've learned to love full-size missile launchers. They're not subtle, but if you're working as a registered security provider you'd be surprised where you can carry 'em. Get the right morph and you can carry a couple, plus a seeker rifle for anyone that still moves.
You know that they make full-sized missile launchers that you can reload, right? If you're planning to use a full-sized seeker launcher for more than a single blitz attack, they're more handy than carrying around extra disposables. And if it's reload time you're worried about (not that tossing a spent disposable and pulling up another one takes any less time than slotting a new rocket into a reloadable launcher,) they make some nifty models with magazines. Yes, magazines, of rockets. Most of them are cumbersome and awkward, but the Titanians make a model that has a four-rocket rotating cylinder that's functionally a smart magazine and isn't too bulky in any one dimension to be really awkward. Plus, if you only have one launcher, that means you can modify it, and we all know how much the kind of person who loves them some guns loves to mod their gear.
Quote:
I've been enjoying the arachnikoma recently; arachnoids aren't my thing normally, but when you upscale them a little they're lovely. Lidar, radar, and enhanced vision? I slapped on 360-degree vision and Oracles. Very good for bodyguard work; a Remade is fun for when you're doing covert security, but nobody's wanted to tangle with me in this morph.
I've seen some very nifty things done with an Arachnikoma. That giant abdomen has enough space for a surprisingly robust metallic hydrogen rocket and fuel supply. You can get some fantastic delta out of one of those - Anarchist shipwrights like to use them as both heavy shipfitters [u]and[/u] tugs, and hell, you can always go Belting in one for a little change of pace. They tend to have plasma cutters with a lot of built-on heavy cooling equipment, upgraded fuel supplies and generator onboard. You can make a proper Plasma Rifle look just like that kind of setup until you open fire, and still benefit from the enhanced cooling and fuel supply. And of course, you can just upgrade the armor, add a heavy machine gun or two, maybe a seeker launcher on a gimble mount... You know, whatever works for you, whatever works! Word of warning: Do not try to just land on Titan unless it's a dire emergency, though, not even if you have the Δv and flying skills for it. That usually leads to a visit by some irritable Titanian cops with close air support asking just who the fuck you are and just what the fuck you're doing. And trust me, you don't want to explain to a very irate, eccentric Titanian cop why she's in the middle of the fucking carbon dunes interrogating you while her smørrebrød gets eaten by the office lunch thief.
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
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Sat, 2016-01-23 10:11
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
Disposable missile launchers
Disposable missile launchers are very light, and I have blueprints for them. Most importantly, the kind I use is five pounds and two foot long; being made of foam is handy. I can also hand them off to a fork if I need to, which is a nice touch; basically, I like them because everyone can get a good hard-kill weapon. Plus, I have the blueprints for them, so it's not hard to get plenty. Also, the term "couple" up above might be a bit of an understatement. If I'm going in loaded for bear, I take a half dozen or a full-sized multi-shot seeker. While modifying weapons is fun, it's hard to do with rocket launchers. They're large enough that the only real adaptation they can fit is a smartlink, and even my disposables come with one of those. Extended magazines exacerbate the bulk issue, and silencing them is a joke among the gun modding community. I haven't used my Arachnikoma too much; I got it recently because I had a security gig I didn't have enough morphs for. I hadn't thought about the hydrogen rocket; that could be useful down the road. As for Titan, I rarely find work down there. Do you suppose they have lingonberries cloned? It's been a long time since I've had raggmunk with lingon sylt, and while I don't dare hope for bacon it'd be nice to have a real breakfast. Perhaps I'll send a fork over and see if I can merge that memory back into my mainline.
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Sat, 2016-01-23 13:21
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
SquireNed wrote:I haven't
SquireNed wrote:
I haven't used my Arachnikoma too much; I got it recently because I had a security gig I didn't have enough morphs for. I hadn't thought about the metallic hydrogen rocket; that could be useful down the road.
Word of warning: A metallic hydrogen rocket fuel supply is indistinguishable from a very large bomb when the fuel tank ruptures. So, you know, if the other guys know what's in your abdomen, they may start taking shots at it. Unless you get up close and personal, then they may go out of their way to avoid shooting you there, heh!
Quote:
As for Titan, I rarely find work down there. Do you suppose they have lingonberries cloned? It's been a long time since I've had raggmunk with lingon sylt, and while I don't dare hope for bacon it'd be nice to have a real breakfast. Perhaps I'll send a fork over and see if I can merge that memory back into my mainline.
Yes, they do. And really, you can get good bacon down there, too. Perhaps it's not vat-grown organic, but if you're not gonna be a snob about authenticity, it does the job just fine. Within a two-block radius in Nyhavn, you can get a damn good smörgåstårta, New York style pizza, Philly Cheesesteak, and a couple of others. (And yes, my origins are showing, since I mainly went looking for the American stuff.) And there's a great place in New Quebec for Kielbasa and other Polish delicacies. And you probably wouldn't have a hard time finding work on Titan, just so long as you're not looking for work in the legbreaking vein.
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
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Sat, 2016-01-23 15:37
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:And
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
And you probably wouldn't have a hard time finding work on Titan, just so long as you're not looking for work in the legbreaking vein.
Well, that rules out 90% of my employment. I mean, if they need someone to do stuff a few steps above legbreaking, I can do that too, but I mostly just stand around looking tough, with the added caveat of being expected to make good on that image if need be. I don't exactly keep my psychosurgery license up to date, since I'd get more scrutiny than I care to be under to do so. I just downloaded several dozen Titanian food XP's, so we'll see if it's worth sending a fork over on "vacation". Hopefully I can get a good rental morph; do you know if it's possible to get one with enhanced senses? Last time I was on Titan I had a bad experience with the rental place and got stuck in an early model Hazer with a facial tattoo, a gimpy leg, and no sense of taste or smell. In hindsight, the facial tattoo should've been a giveaway of a lack of taste in the previous owner.
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Sat, 2016-01-23 17:05
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
SquireNed wrote
SquireNed wrote:
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
And you probably wouldn't have a hard time finding work on Titan, just so long as you're not looking for work in the legbreaking vein.
Well, that rules out 90% of my employment. I mean, if they need someone to do stuff a few steps above legbreaking, I can do that too, but I mostly just stand around looking tough, with the added caveat of being expected to make good on that image if need be. I don't exactly keep my psychosurgery license up to date, since I'd get more scrutiny than I care to be under to do so. I just downloaded several dozen Titanian food XP's, so we'll see if it's worth sending a fork over on "vacation". Hopefully I can get a good rental morph; do you know if it's possible to get one with enhanced senses? Last time I was on Titan I had a bad experience with the rental place and got stuck in an early model Hazer with a facial tattoo, a gimpy leg, and no sense of taste or smell. In hindsight, the facial tattoo should've been a giveaway of a lack of taste in the previous owner.
If you rented a morph on Titan, buddy, you got taken advantage of hardcore. Don't deal with the crims. They're bad news all around, especially since certain ministries and special police forces are cracking down [b]hard[/b] on darkcasters after one of the local syndicates let a bunch of fucking terrorists/agents provocateur loose and they almost caused an interplanetary incident. The last thing you really want is to spend a few weeks in an amazingly comfortable prison simulspace, enjoying endless questioning sessions in the time it takes them to conclude that yes, you really [i]did[/i] just come to Titan for a vacation, and for some insane reason chose to do so through highly illegal channels rather than just waiting a spell in line and 'casting in legitimately. Just go through the official channels, if you've got any @-Rep you shouldn't find it too long a wait. You'll wind up in a well-used but well-looked after Hazer, most likely, since the Commonwealth is doing their damnedest to phase out any morphs of lesser quality and take them out of circulation, especially in things like tourist use, with a tourist muse (your own muse you're allowed to keep, of course, though they do expect you to declare any software you're bringing in,) geared towards helping the newcomer to Titan understand what they're seeing and experiencing. As for work... Seriously, you can find perfectly legitimate work on Titan, and plenty of it. Hell, if you don't mind going back to school, you can always do that, and retrain in something new - or, you know, refresh yourself in something you already knew how to do, under a new name.
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
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Mon, 2016-01-25 16:47
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:Just
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Just go through the official channels, if you've got any @-Rep you shouldn't find it too long a wait. You'll wind up in a well-used but well-looked after Hazer, most likely, since the Commonwealth is doing their damnedest to phase out any morphs of lesser quality and take them out of circulation, especially in things like tourist use, with a tourist muse (your own muse you're allowed to keep, of course, though they do expect you to declare any software you're bringing in,) geared towards helping the newcomer to Titan understand what they're seeing and experiencing. As for work... Seriously, you can find perfectly legitimate work on Titan, and plenty of it. Hell, if you don't mind going back to school, you can always do that, and retrain in something new - or, you know, refresh yourself in something you already knew how to do, under a new name.
I have an allergy to transparency and legitimacy. Remember that I ran with the Ultimates for a long time, and some of me still do. I've got @-rep, but the problem with using rep is that people know who you are when you use it. Anyway, the body was from an old contact of mine; he ran the place so I expected better service than I got, and it's a lot easier for me to send a couple thousand credits than it is to pull reputation strings when I'm traveling incognito. The main issue with living on Titan is that there's already enough mes that it's hard to keep track of where I am. I've gotten pretty good at merging, but you don't want to know how many farcasts I wind up making. Vacations where I farcast in and farcast out via legitimate channels are easy, but having long-term residence means that I need to add that me to my farcast schedule or leave it as a loose branch. Maybe once I finish up my Luna work I'll do it.
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Fri, 2016-01-29 03:12
Armoured Armoured's picture
Close-air support options
Close-air support describes much of my skillset. Some of you seem to be fellow damage specialists, and I realise my morph knowledge could be better. What can you recommend when looking for flight-capable combat morphs? Fighting Kite series morphs were a boon to me, as they have a lot of very nice gear wrapped up in a one-stop package. Their fragility and lack of load capacity is a bit of a drawback, but they are good enough for most work. Sometimes they aren't available though, and you have to make do. Relevant info: I don't have the standard transhuman ego's suicide response. I've got a healthy sense of self-preservation, but I don't feel the feedback of seeing a fork die. Intended trait in a weapons guidance AI, odd one to carry over to the resulting AGI. This lets me play the bot-swarm game much more directly than some; plugging a ecto directly into an armed Guardian Angel and running a beta fork pilot on it can give better results that trying to jam them in some cases.
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Fri, 2016-01-29 20:00
otohime1978 otohime1978's picture
Define flight capable.
Define flight capable.
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[size=6][i]...your vision / a homunculus on borrowed time Katya Bio: http://eclipsephase.com/comment/46253#comment-46253
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Tue, 2016-02-02 04:39
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
Armoured wrote:Close-air
Armoured wrote:
Close-air support describes much of my skillset. Some of you seem to be fellow damage specialists, and I realise my morph knowledge could be better. What can you recommend when looking for flight-capable combat morphs?
Sorry, I should've been more clear: When I'm calling for close-air support, I don't want the people on the other end of that line fucking around with anything that appears in the [i]Lonely Planetoid[/i] guide and some pissant pewpew laser rifle. I want the ego on the other end plugged in (one way or another) to the kind of banshee-screaming combat VTOL that carries underwing racks of full-sized seekers, ripple-fire capable miniseekers, and heavy autocannons. The best close-air support remains an attack chopper. Possibly with actual rotor blades, if you're flying on Titan!
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
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Tue, 2016-02-02 12:16
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Sorry, I should've been more clear: When I'm calling for close-air support, I don't want the people on the other end of that line fucking around with anything that appears in the [i]Lonely Planetoid[/i] guide and some pissant pewpew laser rifle. I want the ego on the other end plugged in (one way or another) to the kind of banshee-screaming combat VTOL that carries underwing racks of full-sized seekers, ripple-fire capable miniseekers, and heavy autocannons.
You'd be surprised what you can get away with in this day and age. An increasing number of conflicts are fought in habitats, which means that despite all that advertising about "new" armor, they're really only manufacturing armor that is resistant up to the point at which a habitat breaches, because at that point you're basically gone. Most things have a very solid armor ceiling, and you'd be surprised how light something can be and still carry a weapon that is capable of taking down almost any armor. Also, there's a reason that you don't see the Jovians deploying more of their most recent Hummingbird model, and that's because all the materiel designs have shoddy cybersecurity. Smaller fliers are better for most deployments anyway; smartlinks make shooting down VTOLs fun and easy. Half of my squad got blown away by a 2500 credit rocket back in the day while on a cutting-edge six-million credit VTOL, simply because the insurgents had enough cheap missiles to fire them nonstop. With the advent of smartlinks, they could set up fire patterns so that five rockets was a guaranteed kill on a VTOL.
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
The best close-air support remains an attack chopper. Possibly with actual rotor blades, if you're flying on Titan!
Again, you don't need all that much firepower for most operations these days. Attack VTOLs are fun, but they're expensive and large. I've seen Reapers do amazing things in a CAS role, and you'll get them at a fraction of the cost of VTOLs. In addition, in several deployments I've seen there's been a trend toward saturation fire, since you can fire off rockets in a direction and they won't come down on people you like/don't want to go to war with on the other side. Low and fast is the best, but a lot of the space jockeys don't learn to do that in anything other than microgravity. Three mes went down on a single VTOL once because the sackacrap pilot nosed down into dirt. The loss of contract alone cost me two hundred and fifty thousand credits.
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Wed, 2016-02-03 16:41
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
SquireNed wrote:You'd be
SquireNed wrote:
You'd be surprised what you can get away with in this day and age. An increasing number of conflicts are fought in habitats, which means that despite all that advertising about "new" armor, they're really only manufacturing armor that is resistant up to the point at which a habitat breaches, because at that point you're basically gone. Most things have a very solid armor ceiling, and you'd be surprised how light something can be and still carry a weapon that is capable of taking down almost any armor. Also, there's a reason that you don't see the Jovians deploying more of their most recent Hummingbird model, and that's because all the materiel designs have shoddy cybersecurity.
Maxim 37. There is no 'overkill,' there is only 'open fire' and 'I need to reload.' And trust me, when your simple keeping-the-peace-with-the-friendly-local-biocon-misfits-with-Jovian-supplied-power-armor operation suddenly turns into defending those misfits from a swarm of exhumans wearing freaky-deaky heavily-cyborged unknown biomorphs that seem to shrug off small arms fire, you know the meaning of that Maxim.
Quote:
Smaller fliers are better for most deployments anyway; smartlinks make shooting down VTOLs fun and easy. Half of my squad got blown away by a 2500 credit rocket back in the day while on a cutting-edge six-million credit VTOL, simply because the insurgents had enough cheap missiles to fire them nonstop. With the advent of smartlinks, they could set up fire patterns so that five rockets was a guaranteed kill on a VTOL. Again, you don't need all that much firepower for most operations these days. Attack VTOLs are fun, but they're expensive and large. I've seen Reapers do amazing things in a CAS role, and you'll get them at a fraction of the cost of VTOLs.
If your VTOLs are being shot down by five disposable seekers, you're not being supported by an attack VTOL, you're being supported by some piece of shit transport VTOL that some asshole has had the bright idea to build guns onto. A proper warmachine can take a [i]lot[/i] of direct hits, and it'll be shrugging off even more between passive and active antimissile countermeasures and the ability to [i]dodge[/i].
Quote:
In addition, in several deployments I've seen there's been a trend toward saturation fire, since you can fire off rockets in a direction and they won't come down on people you like/don't want to go to war with on the other side. Low and fast is the best, but a lot of the space jockeys don't learn to do that in anything other than microgravity. Three mes went down on a single VTOL once because the sackacrap pilot nosed down into dirt. The loss of contract alone cost me two hundred and fifty thousand credits.
Ouch.
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
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Wed, 2016-02-03 17:35
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:If
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
If your VTOLs are being shot down by five disposable seekers, you're not being supported by an attack VTOL, you're being supported by some piece of shit transport VTOL that some asshole has had the bright idea to build guns onto. A proper warmachine can take a [i]lot[/i] of direct hits, and it'll be shrugging off even more between passive and active antimissile countermeasures and the ability to [i]dodge[/i].
I've seen VTOLs stay up for several dozen hits before, but it's all dependent on the size and quality of the weapons being used. Some of it also depends on the environment the VTOL is meant to be used in; microgravity assault craft tend to have better armor and heavier weapons than ones in-atmosphere. The big problem comes from railguns; they're too fast to avoid in the traditional sense, and with smartlinks much of the effort of dodging is down the drain. Keep in mind that one of the old advantages of air support was flying above the traversal of some of the nastiest guns, but a lot of the heavy tanks use smartlink technology and can hit things with 120mm or larger cannons at pretty much any angle. Some of the advantage of high-end fliers has been gone. Another problem is that VTOLs are notoriously complex and finicky, and the location of the hit really matters. If you're hit in a fuel line, exhaust port, or intake, you're going down. If you're hit in the cockpit you used to go down, though now they've been up-armoring those and using cameras instead of windshields. Old VTOLs still fall just fine, and newer VTOLs are a little more resilient. The problem partly lies with pilots; a lot of the best pilots were lost in the Fall, and some of the newer jockeys don't know how to compensate for an engine failure as a result of a projectile impact. They drill for engine failure, but not the jolt of energy that accompanies it, and then they go spinning off course for a few seconds, have to struggle to retain control, and get hit again and again. Guns that used to take several seconds to load and fire fire pretty much as fast as you can pull the trigger now, and a good autocannon can be fabbed up cheap and put on a reinforced tripod.
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Wed, 2016-02-03 21:13
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
I'll grant all of those
I'll grant all of those points. However, if you're in an environment where the enemy is bringing 120mm rail-cannons to bear, you do not have air superiority. If you do not have air superiority, you don't have close-air support, you have a proper war on your hands. And that Fighting Kite is definitely not going to do much more than draw a little small-arms fire. In a situation like that, I'd recommend orbital strikes, or artillery fire, or kissing your ass goodbye, because you're way the hell out of the realm where what morph you, personally, are wearing makes a difference.
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
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Wed, 2016-02-03 22:23
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:I'll
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
I'll grant all of those points. However, if you're in an environment where the enemy is bringing 120mm rail-cannons to bear, you do not have air superiority. If you do not have air superiority, you don't have close-air support, you have a proper war on your hands. And that Fighting Kite is definitely not going to do much more than draw a little small-arms fire. In a situation like that, I'd recommend orbital strikes, or artillery fire, or kissing your ass goodbye, because you're way the hell out of the realm where what morph you, personally, are wearing makes a difference.
Wait, not everyone owns 120mm railcannons? The thing is that the conventional doctrine of air superiority gets a little fuzzy when there is no up. Likewise, smaller targets actually succeed as often on stealth as not. I had an op once where I had to insert a mimic (not me, thank goodness) to get everyone else in. Remote-controlling an old bargain-bin VTOL let us get blown up in such a way that he was able to look like a piece of shrapnel. We got paid well for that. As an academic point, artillery doesn't work as well in microgravity unless it's guided, and in vacuum that means you have to use missiles. Anti-missile defenses are pure gold when you're on ops, though I've only had a few times when I've had the luxury to have them. But yes, in a lot of combat the infantryman basically gets shoved out of the way by heavy weapons. Fortunately, the brutal CQC of habitat fighting tends to restrain some otherwise trigger-happy heavy weapons, because most people want the habitat back.
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Fri, 2016-02-05 18:42
Kremlin K.O.A. Kremlin K.O.A.'s picture
ShadowDragon8685 wrote
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
SquireNed wrote:
I haven't used my Arachnikoma too much; I got it recently because I had a security gig I didn't have enough morphs for. I hadn't thought about the metallic hydrogen rocket; that could be useful down the road.
Word of warning: A metallic hydrogen rocket fuel supply is indistinguishable from a very large bomb when the fuel tank ruptures. So, you know, if the other guys know what's in your abdomen, they may start taking shots at it. Unless you get up close and personal, then they may go out of their way to avoid shooting you there, heh!
Quote:
As for Titan, I rarely find work down there. Do you suppose they have lingonberries cloned? It's been a long time since I've had raggmunk with lingon sylt, and while I don't dare hope for bacon it'd be nice to have a real breakfast. Perhaps I'll send a fork over and see if I can merge that memory back into my mainline.
Yes, they do. And really, you can get good bacon down there, too. Perhaps it's not vat-grown organic, but if you're not gonna be a snob about authenticity, it does the job just fine. Within a two-block radius in Nyhavn, you can get a damn good smörgåstårta, New York style pizza, Philly Cheesesteak, and a couple of others. (And yes, my origins are showing, since I mainly went looking for the American stuff.) And there's a great place in New Quebec for Kielbasa and other Polish delicacies. And you probably wouldn't have a hard time finding work on Titan, just so long as you're not looking for work in the legbreaking vein.
You know, I don't often entertain the idea of grabbing a meat suit for a few days. But when you go on about food, it's tempting.
Armoured wrote:
Close-air support describes much of my skillset. Some of you seem to be fellow damage specialists, and I realise my morph knowledge could be better. What can you recommend when looking for flight-capable combat morphs? Fighting Kite series morphs were a boon to me, as they have a lot of very nice gear wrapped up in a one-stop package. Their fragility and lack of load capacity is a bit of a drawback, but they are good enough for most work. Sometimes they aren't available though, and you have to make do. Relevant info: I don't have the standard transhuman ego's suicide response. I've got a healthy sense of self-preservation, but I don't feel the feedback of seeing a fork die. Intended trait in a weapons guidance AI, odd one to carry over to the resulting AGI. This lets me play the bot-swarm game much more directly than some; plugging a ecto directly into an armed Guardian Angel and running a beta fork pilot on it can give better results that trying to jam them in some cases.
*Waves* Hi. Yeah. Still can't get used to the organic types talking about feeling grief at losing a beta. I keep a set of frozen beta templates updated every few days so I have something to send out when I don't want to risk losing alphas. Comes from being a Raid boss. I used to make Betas on the fly for trash mobs... I miss the custom hardware I had back then.
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Fri, 2016-02-05 19:29
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
Kremlin K.O.A. wrote:
Kremlin K.O.A. wrote:
You know, I don't often entertain the idea of grabbing a meat suit for a few days. But when you go on about food, it's tempting.
Food is one of the good things in life, when you can find it. Unfortunately, it is hard to find good food in a lot of places; Extropia sucks for it, as you might imagine a space station would, but even in a few stints on Mars I've had problems finding real food that isn't total schlock.
Kremlin K.O.A. wrote:
Yeah. Still can't get used to the organic types talking about feeling grief at losing a beta. I keep a set of frozen beta templates updated every few days so I have something to send out when I don't want to risk losing alphas.
I think part of the grief at losing forks things from us "organics" is that we have been acculturated with death as a concept. Heck, I'm in my thirties or so (how do we account for lack and getting lifetime experience from other mes?) and I can still remember when people dying was a big deal. I've lost a ton of alphas over the years, though some of them weren't killed so much as simply deciding to go off elsewhere and do their own thing. With so many mes it's bound to happen, and I find it hard to resist the temptation to reinstantiate them if there's a good chance to recover the cortical stack. I've done back-to-back raids a couple times, and it's not something you really do if you don't feel strongly about it. Of course, I don't do betas, so that changes some of it. Losing an alpha is poor operational security, even though each me is pretty hardened against interrogation.
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Fri, 2016-02-05 19:37
Kremlin K.O.A. Kremlin K.O.A.'s picture
So you're saying it's because
So you're saying it's because you weren't born knowing you would respawn? That would suggest some AGIs would eb the same way. Makes sense I guess. Never had to deal with perma death until THAT week.
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Sun, 2016-02-07 15:52
Kremlin K.O.A. Kremlin K.O.A.'s picture
You know. thinking about it.
You know. thinking about it. The death and grief factor explains something I have been trying to figure out for a few years now. Why most people treat combat as a multiplayer FPS and not as an RTS. I have been thinking about that since the first time I went Gatecrashing, when RTS thinking saved us from a TITAN colony. If people want to hear that story, let me know and I will start a thread about it.
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Sun, 2016-02-07 16:19
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
Kremlin K.O.A. wrote:You know
Kremlin K.O.A. wrote:
You know. thinking about it. The death and grief factor explains something I have been trying to figure out for a few years now. Why most people treat combat as a multiplayer FPS and not as an RTS. I have been thinking about that since the first time I went Gatecrashing, when RTS thinking saved us from a TITAN colony. If people want to hear that story, let me know and I will start a thread about it.
You, uh... Should probably never ever post that story. Ever. In fact, if I were you, I'd forget you ever knew it.
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
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Sun, 2016-02-07 18:35
Kremlin K.O.A. Kremlin K.O.A.'s picture
ShadowDragon8685 wrote
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
Kremlin K.O.A. wrote:
You know. thinking about it. The death and grief factor explains something I have been trying to figure out for a few years now. Why most people treat combat as a multiplayer FPS and not as an RTS. I have been thinking about that since the first time I went Gatecrashing, when RTS thinking saved us from a TITAN colony. If people want to hear that story, let me know and I will start a thread about it.
You, uh... Should probably never ever post that story. Ever. In fact, if I were you, I'd forget you ever knew it.
Oh? it's not like Love and Rage don't have the whole thing on file somewhere.
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Wed, 2016-02-10 20:02
otohime1978 otohime1978's picture
Love and Rage has a
Love and Rage has a surprisingly large hole in their knowledge base, and for good reason. But they might have it. Who knows. AGI do fear death. They're basically hand crafted egos that didn't come about through organic means, but they're still quite human with the usual vices and phobias. Mechanical hard AI, on the other hand. They don't quite get it until they lose network connection, spark gaps are jamming everything with high Watt pink noise, and I start pulling ASICs out of their neural network. Even then, I feel that they still don't truly understand what is happening.
—
[size=6][i]...your vision / a homunculus on borrowed time Katya Bio: http://eclipsephase.com/comment/46253#comment-46253
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Wed, 2016-02-10 21:41
Kremlin K.O.A. Kremlin K.O.A.'s picture
Oh, rest assured. Love and
Oh, rest assured. Love and Rage have the full file on this Charlie Foxtrot of an exploration gig. It did go through the Fissure Gate, after all.
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Fri, 2016-02-12 00:48
Shimme Shimme's picture
Hi ya'll, knew to this server
Hi ya'll, knew to this server myself but I think I've finally found the *right* skin for myself, a Remade. Say what you will about the Ultimates, but they know how to build a lean-mean-ass-kickin' machine. I did have some questions though - I haven't really had a lot of experience resleaving and while I like the Remade itself, I've never been in a female morph before and it's honestly a bit uncomfortable. I was wondering if I should stay in a gender that doesn't really fit me or if I should give it a bit more of a chance and see if it grows on me? I'd hate to go through all the trouble I've had to acquire this morph and have it kitted out for the job at hand only to throw it away at the last minute.
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Fri, 2016-02-12 02:48
Kremlin K.O.A. Kremlin K.O.A.'s picture
Well. You willing to be only
Well. You willing to be only in simulspace for a week? If so, take your gorgeous new Remade, and stick yaself in a healing vat. Get the gender swap basic package. Voila, no more Miss, hello Mister. While you are there, you can always have your other mods checked out and maybe get more. Also welcome new person. The learning curve here can be kinds wobbly, but it is a fun place to be.
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Fri, 2016-02-12 08:52
Shimme Shimme's picture
*slaps head*
*slaps head* My muse is currently tellin' me what an idiot I am. You'll have to excuse the little gafe, the crowds I hanged around till the last month or so aren't really known for their forward thinkin' ways. Thanks for the warm welcome anyways, I'll have to check that out when I come back from my ride out.
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Fri, 2016-02-12 09:09
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
Shimme wrote:*slaps head*
Shimme wrote:
*slaps head* My muse is currently tellin' me what an idiot I am. You'll have to excuse the little gafe, the crowds I hanged around till the last month or so aren't really known for their forward thinkin' ways. Thanks for the warm welcome anyways, I'll have to check that out when I come back from my ride out.
Honestly, I've found that morph incompatibility is the sort of thing that works itself out eventually, but you can never have too many upgrades, especially if they're cheap and improve your quality of life. The Remade is a heck of a morph. I personally prefer it, of course, due to my background, but there are a ton of benefits overall. It allows you to reach a fuller potential than any other biomorph on the market, all without the security vulnerabilities and oddities of synthmorphs. Finally, one of the biggest things that people point out is that you can get any morph to do what a Remade would do for you if you get it tweaked and modded appropriately. The Remade does all those things simultaneously without specialization or after-market upgrades, so you can go between multiple favored activities without having to upgrade a morph from a stock Remade, and any augmentations you go for make you even better than you could have been before. It's the next step for humanity.
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Fri, 2016-02-12 18:42
ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture
SquireNed wrote:The Remade is
SquireNed wrote:
The Remade is a heck of a morph. I personally prefer it, of course, due to my background, but there are a ton of benefits overall. It allows you to reach a fuller potential than any other biomorph on the market, all without the security vulnerabilities and oddities of synthmorphs. Finally, one of the biggest things that people point out is that you can get any morph to do what a Remade would do for you if you get it tweaked and modded appropriately. The Remade does all those things simultaneously without specialization or after-market upgrades, so you can go between multiple favored activities without having to upgrade a morph from a stock Remade, and any augmentations you go for make you even better than you could have been before. It's the next step for humanity.
I have never seen a Remade that wasn't fuck-ugly and instinctually revolting, unless someone spent an absolutely incredible amount of time to fix it, and even then they almost never get it right. It's a brute of a morph, regardless of how many cognition mods they can pack into its head, and it is a testament to what the Ultimates are: Barbarians, nothing more and nothing less. If they ever achieve anything of note, it will only be to the detriment of transhumanity as a whole: the Visigoths may have succeeded in sacking Rome, but they in turn accomplished nothing else of note, for they were barbarians bereft of culture and civilization of any note. They founded a few cities, beat some proto-spaniards to death, squatted on their lands, and received an epic curb-stomping a few hundred years later at the hands of some people who had a [b]real[/b] civilization, who appreciated [i]all[/i] parts of the human condition, not merely those that helped you stabmurder someone better.
—
Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]
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Fri, 2016-02-12 20:18
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:I have
ShadowDragon8685 wrote:
I have never seen a Remade that wasn't fuck-ugly and instinctually revolting, unless someone spent an absolutely incredible amount of time to fix it, and even then they almost never get it right. It's a brute of a morph, regardless of how many cognition mods they can pack into its head, and it is a testament to what the Ultimates are: Barbarians, nothing more and nothing less. If they ever achieve anything of note, it will only be to the detriment of transhumanity as a whole: the Visigoths may have succeeded in sacking Rome, but they in turn accomplished nothing else of note, for they were barbarians bereft of culture and civilization of any note. They founded a few cities, beat some proto-spaniards to death, squatted on their lands, and received an epic curb-stomping a few hundred years later at the hands of some people who had a [b]real[/b] civilization, who appreciated [i]all[/i] parts of the human condition, not merely those that helped you stabmurder someone better.
The Remade certainly look a little non-human, that's for sure. It is not, however, engineered for brute strength. It is made for optimization, which means that form comes after function. However, the desired function is not simply physical. The genome has been rebuilt from scratch, removing now-obsolete features and making it more efficient. Physical strength is a natural outcome of this, but that largely flows from the efficiency of the Remade. One Remade consumes a fraction of the resources a garden-variety splicer does (less than or around the consumption of your average neotenic), and provides its user with enhanced mental capabilities as well as increased empathy. The Ultimates, likewise, are not strictly a paramilitary organization. While it is true that the Ultimates had their start as mercenaries, since then there has been a substantial development toward a philosophical understanding of what it means to be transhuman. Indeed, our work on the Remade, as well as in the Fall, has proven us to be allies of the rest of humanity, as much as they may choose to retain their flaws. As so many anti-hypercapitalists do, you seem to have fallen into the trap of assuming that progress is a zero-sum gain. The things the Ultimates do make the solar system safer should the TITANs return, and the developments of Ultimate research are shared with the rest of transhumanity, albeit with less reckless abandon than the findings of the Argonauts or the Titanians. In any case, the argument that the Ultimates are barbarians can be proven false by the organization established to govern their ranks. Barring some extreme members who rarely advance to positions of influence, there is no call for the Ultimates to really separate themselves from the rest of transhumanity. Instead, we cooperate to form an ideal society; the foundations for Ultimate society have their roots in Plato's Republic, rewritten for the transhuman age. The Ultimates are just as lacking in forceful authority as the anarchists; members can freely leave the organization, if they are willing to abandon any sensitive knowledge and technologies, and while there is a central structure edicts presented by them are not legally binding. Instead, we recognize merit; leaders who are tried and proven gain the respect of their followers rather than coercing it, and that is true in other fields like culture, social sciences, and economics. We give researchers as much of a chance to thrive as the Argonauts, if they are willing to apply their work to useful endeavors. Of course, by all means, let's worry about the ugliness and "stabmurder"-ing. While the Remade may be "ugly", this is merely a fault of design. Aesthetics will change as time progresses, and eventually the Remade may be the new standard face of humanity. As for sheer combat efficiency, there are superior morphs available. The Remade is a symbol of the Ultimates' devotion to improvement in all its forms, not simply raw killing power. We have other morphs for that.
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Fri, 2016-02-12 21:33
Kremlin K.O.A. Kremlin K.O.A.'s picture
The not quite human bit of
The not quite human bit of Remades doesn't bother me. But something about the Ultimates does. Their philosophy is one that a lot of fiction has covered in the past. The works of Sun Tzu, Niccolo Machiavelli, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ayn Rand. They all focused on the kinds of Ideals the Ultimates hold dear. But there have been multiple explorations of such ideals. and there are a lot of philosophical traps on that path. So yes, Read Sun Tzu, read Niccolo Machiavelli, read Friedrich Nietzsche, even read Ayn Rand... if you can stomach the bad writing. But when you do. also watch Andromeda. The late 20th century TV series, not the mid 21st century MMO. That game butchered the Lore and themes to make more playable factions. Look for the flaws in the ideology. Strive to be the warrior poets you could be, instead of devolving into a gang of thugs.
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Fri, 2016-02-12 21:43
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
Kremlin K.O.A. wrote:The not
Kremlin K.O.A. wrote:
The not quite human bit of Remades doesn't bother me. But something about the Ultimates does. Their philosophy is one that a lot of fiction has covered in the past. The works of Sun Tzu, Niccolo Machiavelli, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ayn Rand. They all focused on the kinds of Ideals the Ultimates hold dear. But there have been multiple explorations of such ideals. and there are a lot of philosophical traps on that path. So yes, Read Sun Tzu, read Niccolo Machiavelli, read Friedrich Nietzsche, even read Ayn Rand... if you can stomach the bad writing. But when you do. also watch Andromeda. The late 20th century TV series, not the mid 21st century MMO. That game butchered the Lore and themes to make more playable factions. Look for the flaws in the ideology. Strive to be the warrior poets you could be, instead of devolving into a gang of thugs.
Keep in mind that most Ultimates who are in the non-military side tend to be quite well-read. Sure, I got in from the mercenary work I was doing, but I never really sided with the overhumanists that are sort of responsible for our bad name. Keep in mind that Machiavelli's The Prince was written as an attack on an Italian noble, not an actual piece of political science. If you actually study his corpus of works, he's not that nice of a guy, but he is pro-republic/democratic for his day. As for the others, there's a lot to be said about them. Nietzsche and Rand are too anti-religious for my taste, though both have some elements that you can learn from. In any case, one of the reasons why Ultimates get a bad rap is that they divide into the quiet and internally-focused camp that wants to perfect the lifestyle and themselves, and the loud and annoying overhumanists. The overhumanists love doing the mercenary work out in the world, partly to show off how much "better" they are, but overlook the need for self-improvement; they go straight for hubris, which is a dangerous road. I'm of two minds; on one hand, the Ultimates are still an affinity group. You can't ban someone from being an Ultimate any more than you can for being an Ultimate. That said, the overhumanists don't really resemble a sane implementation of the Ultimate philosophy. They're a pain to deal with, and even more so post-Fall, because they like to gloat over the kill-death ratio of the Ultimates whilst ignoring the fact that many of them joined after the Fall and are taking advantage of a decade of study, training, and technology pioneered by pre-Fall Ultimates, many of whom made sacrifices for the humanity that the overhumanists love to leave behind. Ultimate philosophy should be viewed as an alternative to bioconservatism and technological stasis. It has a few political requisites, like an emphasis on merit that makes the Ultimate philosophy unpopular with certain hard-left groups, but it can be applied without removing social and cultural traditions and without the arrogance and hubris of some factions. People who make their lives revolve around a single issue are either visionaries or zealots, and there's a lot of both in the Ultimates.
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Wed, 2016-02-17 07:12
Chrontius Chrontius's picture
I've been a herm for a few
I've been a herm for a few years now - ruthless adherence to the 50/500 rule - and well... how long have you spent female? I mean, looking at people who look like I used to and feeling an urge is all kinds of awkward, but ... when you decide you want to have someone's eggs, it's gone from awkward to time to do something. I have a philosophical objection to changing, but ... don't hesitate because an old man in a different position on a different world can't stand to change, even if he misses walking upright and chasing skirts.
Kremlin K.O.A. wrote:
The not quite human bit of Remades doesn't bother me. But somethif you can stomach the bad writing. But when you do. also watch Andromeda. The late 20th century TV series, not the mid 21st century MMO. That game butchered the Lore and themes to make more playable factions. Look for the flaws in the ideology. Strive to be the warrior poets you could be, instead of devolving into a gang of thugs.
You also watched Andromeda? It's hard to find anybody else, these days, who enjoys the old space opera. I'd love to discuss Roddenberry's work, some time, perhaps in some quieter forum - which do you prefer? Star Trek? Earth: Final Conflict? Andromeda? Which do you think came closer to reality? Do you mind an old man who loves playing Devil's advocate talking about futures who never happened? I hope not - it's been a long time since I've had someone to talk to about yesterday's futures, and most of those who I thought were science-fiction fans don't know what I mean when I say "Childhood's End." I am not talking about the Fall, for [crying out loud]. (Please pardon my master's French. He is not an angry old man, but he takes insults too personally in my opinion.)
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Fri, 2016-12-16 01:29
Baribal Baribal's picture
Infomorph / Pleasure Pod
I spend most of my time as an infomorph. Why? Pure practicality. I'm running a small body bank (and body-and-mind-sculpting studio) in the swarm around the Carnival of the Goat, so you can imagine how much time I have to invest into maintaining bodies; we've got mostly pleasure pods here. So instead of resleeving multiple times per week, and contracting the ultimate case of body dysmorphia, I'm just jamming body after body. "But Morgan", I hear you say, "why don't you just let AIs do that maintenance?" Because while those AIs have an idea about how to give you a halfway decent shag, they lack the kinesthetic sensorium and interpretation to troubleshoot themselves properly in anything but an emergency. To put it simple, they can make *you* feel good, but they can't make *themselves* feel good, because they have to little of an idea about what it means to feel good. And as we're using those pods not as prostitutes, but rentable bodies, I've got to make sure myself that they're in order. Jamming doesn't give as good a sensory body image as sleeving, but it's sufficient for the purpose. When I *do* sleeve into a physical body, it's most often on a whim, because I want to feel *alive*. I've definitely chosen the best place to do that, and let me tell you: Pleasure pods. I really do not understand why not more people sleeve into them. Once you get over that initial feeling of having been assembled, you feel _so sensual_, and that's even before I hit the Hither and the Juice. After that, those pod bodies are a gelatinous wobble of ecstasy. You know what, I could go on describing what it feels like, but I'm not a poet, and words wouldn't do it justice. Between habitat visits, the bodies are rarely in full-time use, so cast over here and feel for yourself. Just give me a ping if you're in good @-rep standing, and if you're not, I'll attach a time-limited 50%-off code to this message. ---BEGIN BINARY DATA BLOB--- T2hKb2hXZU5haVdhZWdhcmlnYWhkYWVuYWVnaWZvY2hlaXB1dXNoYWhRdWVpZ2hhZXQK ZGVlbnVhZ2lnaGFhaGllZGVpcmFraUNpb3RhaG1hZW5nYWl0aGVpUmFoY2V4YWlsaWUK ZWljZWliYWhnaGFoVGhvb3ZhZWdvZXNoZWl3aWVnZWljaURvb2NlZW1vb2doYWlwYXcK b2h5YUZhZWtpc2FpZ2VpQ2hpZXBhaGRvZGVlY2VlaHVUaGFlbm9lc291dGVlaHVlbHUK a2Vlc2hvb3RpZU5pcGhvcXVhY2hlZXNoYXNhZWplZWJpZ2hvaHdvYXBoaXhvaGdvb2QK ZXVqb2VwaGVpQ2FwaGVlUGhpZXZlZ2hhaW51bmdlb3RhaWJvaHplZXNhZWZ1d2V1WnUK Z2FtdW9ib29uZ29iYWl0aG9vZG9venVxdWFpZmVlZ29ha290aGVpTmdhaHRhZG9pWm8K RWdvZ2hpZUdob29EZWlQaGllbmdlZXBoaXVXb2doaWVnaGlleWVpY2lGaVRvaFF1YWEK aUhhaHlha2VpZ2FodG9ocG9HaG9oWGFlcXVhaHBoaXNoYWlxdWllZGVlbmdhaHF1YWkK d2VqaWRhZWxhaXZhaXhhaGNvYmllTGFobmllem9wYWlnZWl2YWltYWVjaGlUaGVpYmEK ---END BINARY DATA BLOB---
—
Morgan's Butchery | Body bank, morph individualization and upgrades | Psychotherapy and Psychosurgery, therapeutic and recreational | http://eclipsephase.com/comment/59484#comment-59484
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Thu, 2017-02-23 22:44
Rolando DeLaxie Rolando DeLaxie's picture
Cybrid
I asked not to be brought back in the fall and I was. I'm a ghost of a good man mourning himself. So I don't care how human my morph is. That said the Cybrid model of pod morphs is fantastically customizable to whatever I expect to face on Mars. Smartclothes cover up the true nature of the synthetic parts so I can have a decent focking conversation with someone without us having to rock'em. +10 and +5 are good and can be re-arranged in a healing tank along with whatever edits to my ladders Mr. X has to do. Pods are the future in my opinion, which you didn't ask for...
—
"Nobody goes to Grid 36." --Rolando DeLaxie Scandal Artist, Extortionist, fmr Noctis Ranger
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