Interesting. Transhuman suggests a speed cap of 8/40, which is probably accurate for game balance, but isn't really realistic. That translates to about a ~24 mile per hour sprinting speed, which is well and dandy for for Walkers, but modern day humans have broken that record, so think what an Olympian could do. This is part of the reason that I include the AMCS Traits, so that you can fine tune things. Now that I know where to find the information (literally four pages from where I had Transhuman open, RIP my Research skill), I'll move some of those factors in. When I get off work tonight I'll be creating a couple more morphs. Holler if there's any particularly design you think is underserved (such as neo-avian), and I'll prioritize that.

I've been trying to reverse-engineer a morph every day, and also make a new morph. Today I made my own take on a Reaper/Terminator hybrid (mostly inspired by the Terminator), then compared it to the Terminator using AMCS. The Reaper wound up cheaper in AMCS than in vanilla, with a CP cost of 90 and a credit cost of 90k (vanilla morphs tend to link up CP and credit cost very well in my system, which is interesting; I forgot to add the aptitude bonuses which led to an 80/80k split in an early test). The Eradicator runs 60 CP and 75k credits, and it's better armored *and* more durable (prior to structural enhancement), but doesn't have some of the fancy features, such as 360-degree vision or the obscene number of limbs and weapon bristles. The Eradicator also comes with a synthetic mask, because why not? I'm hoping that AMCS runs no more than a 50% cost discrepancy on the more fluffy vanilla morphs (like the Galatea), and a 10% cost discrepancy on the more realistically balanced ones. I want most of this to be an undershot on CP, since CP as a resource is seriously undervalued in morphs as it stands.

Okay, new version up, let me go over the full list of morphs in it: Amorphic: This is a cheap exotic morph. Really created for being interesting, but you could theoretically make an infiltrator or specialist who uses it. Includes advanced rules for dealing with morphs that don't have dedicated limbs and such. Hard to use, because of that -60 integration/alienation penalty. Totally not inspired by a certain web-comic. Blurbird: The Blurbird is an alternative flying neoavian, because the Chickcharnie just doesn't do it for me. Fast as all get out, and not entirely practical, but it's affordable and really dang fast. Did I mention that it's fast and it flies? What more do you want? Coriolanus: I've mentioned that I hate the Fenrir execution a lot, so here's my take on it. Better for squad-support, with a single ego. Gives up (almost) all the tank connotations in favor of flying pretty darn fast. It also happens to have more than twice the durability of the Fenrir, which also means that it's nigh-impossible to wound without a critical hit of some sort (or a big gun, such as those found in AUGC). Eradicator: He's back. This morph is a high-end combat morph for those who can't afford a Reaper, or who want to make an action movie homage. My morph designs trend toward the durable, but the Eradicator has the same toughness as a Fenrir, and armor to match. Beyond that, it's just a decent combat morph, more or less analogous to a Fury made of metal. Mercury: I can't believe it's not an Amorphic! Seriously, though, the Mercury is to the Amorphic what the Fury is to the Exalt. It's not an across-the-board improvement, but it's somewhat more powerful. Omni-Oct: Power to the (octopus) people! An affordable octomorph that is more or less a Case analogue. Actually decently powerful, if you're fine with the low aptitude limits, because of the fact that it's got all the octomorph features you love (360-degree vision, anyone)? The new Amorphic rules are pretty... exotic? I've basically gone full concept mode on them and ignored any sort of balance concern or the like; amorphics take wounds non-stop, but also heal back from them. Their Death Rating is huge, and they heal Wounds before healing durability. They aren't as fast as standard morphs, but they have an arbitrary number of limbs. You'll have a heck of a time sleeving into one (-50 penalty at least), and they have limited armor, but they also recover from unconsciousness quickly, can fit through (but not necessarily into) small spaces, and basically can only be killed with a ton of pain. EDIT: I've been doing some data analytics while waiting on laundry, and here are some observations I'm drawing from the huge table of morphs I just posted: High Aptitude Maximums are really rare (fewer than 5% of morphs), but they're not reserved exclusively for high-end morphs. The Digger actually averages less than 1 CP per aptitude limit, but it's not really limited to that. Durability has little to do with morph cost and the features morphs have, and more to do with whether or not a morph is designed to be tough. A lot of cheap morphs have crummy durability, sure, but the morphs that have a lot of durability make it a core morph focus and it takes up a sizeable chunk of the morph's cost. The Nautiloid has a ~.7 CP:DUR ratio, and the Sundiver has a ~.58 CP:DUR ratio. Fausts, unsurprisingly, have the least DUR to CP in EP (~2.4 CP:DUR), but surprisingly the Rover follows that up with a slightly lower precise 2.4 CP:DUR. The CP:DUR ratio doesn't necessarily measure the cost of durability, but it can roughly infer the amount of durability to cost. Both vanilla Neo-Avians and the Blurbird have more or less the exact same proportional CP:DUR (~1.33r for the blurbird versus 1.25 n-a). The 1.25 ratio tends to be about the golden point where you see "average" morphs, including three or four uplifts, with specialist morphs (like the Faust) sliding toward more CP:DUR and less specialized morphs (Cases or big and touch morphs like the Nautiloid) sliding toward fewer CP:DUR.

ThatWhichNeverWas wrote:

I think the lack of Uplift morphs is (partially) intentional - uplifts are supposed to be rare, and the lack of dedicated morphs is a story point. It's also worth remembering that not everything "needs" to be a dedicated morph - that's what Augmentations are for. If you want something fun for your neo-avian, put him into an octomorph with Wings, or a case with a mobility system and the small size trait.

I was under the impression that there were a limited amount of uplifts, but that morphs that might appeal to those uplifts are not necessarily rare. That is; the uplift process is unique to each species, and as such we're not uplifting every last species out there, and the population of actual uplifts is relatively small. However, with forking, egocasting, and morph tourism, it's not necessarily unbelievable for somewhere that has never been graced by a neo-avian to stock a compatible morph, just for those who want to give flight a spin in something resembling a bird.

New version up. I added some fluff, because why not? EDIT: Does anyone else feel like a lot of morphs are *not* made for microgravity/vacuum? For instance, not having simple things like magnetic systems. Likewise, what exactly are the robotic enhancements that allow movement through vacuum? They seem to be limited pretty much exclusively to Thrust Vector, and I think that's probably an error.