The rules for upgrading a biomorph are pretty simple (take some time in a healing vat), but how do you upgrade a synthmorph? Say you want to add some new cyberimplants, nanoware, do the equivalent of some cosmetic surgery, or upgrade from a Synth to a Steel morph, how does that work? Here are some options:
1) Just create a new morph via cornucopia machine and sell off the old one or keep it as a backup. This only takes a few hours, but this option seems annoying and wasteful. It shouldn't be this hard.
2) Use a healing vat. This might work, but it's an odd choice as a synthmorph is very hardy and doesn't require the advanced life support a vat supplies. It also takes longer than just printing out a new morph if you use the rules for upgrading a biomorph.
3) Use a protean swarm to build a new morph, using the old morph as the supply of raw materials. Presumably this is easier than using normal feedstock as most of the components you want are already created for you so the swarm can take shortcuts. Unfortunately there aren't any rules for how much time this might save you.
4) Use medichines. Effectively, these perform a similar function to a protean swarm. In theory, it seems like you could feed them your new preferred blueprint and they would reconfigure you to fix the "damage". No rules on how this might work, either.
5) Visit a synthmorph "shop". They use normal manufacturing processes (enhanced, naturally, but perhaps still understandable to a modern roboticist) to take you apart and put you back together they way you want, perhaps with new parts as desired, much in the way you might upgrade a car today. This method seems very wasteful and much more expensive than using a swarm to do the upgrade.
6) Something else...?
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, as it's been bugging me for a while.
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How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
Mon, 2011-10-17 18:18
#1
Madwand
How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
Mon, 2011-10-17 20:12
#2
LostProxy
Re: How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
If you want to upgrade from a Synth to a Steel you do it the same as everyone else. You get the new morph and you resleeve. You just can't upgrade it like sticking a new engine in a car. As for the implants I would say it's the same as everyone else. Low invasion procedures that use nanotech to modify and add components. Wouldn't even need the healing vat.
If you want to be nicer you could allow the player to take his old synth body and have it broken down as materials for building a Steel morph. However you would either need a big fabber or the technical expertise to put all those pieces together.
Mon, 2011-10-17 22:27
#3
Tyrnis
Re: How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
Yep. If you want to upgrade to a different morph type, you're looking at buying a new morph. Hopefully you can get a good trade-in value on the old one. Not really different than changing from a Splicer to a Fury in that regard.
Think of upgrading a synthmorph as taking your car in to a mechanic. Some implants are relatively easy -- pop out those old optic systems and insert the new ones, now you have your enhanced vision. Others may require substantial rebuilding or replacing portions of the frame.
Essentially, you need a snythmorph repair bay and someone with the appropriate hardware skills as opposed to a healing vat/medical facility and someone with appropriate medical skills.
Thu, 2011-10-20 08:22
#4
Xagroth
Re: How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
Hardware: Synthmorphs is your friend.
Creating a synthmorph can take about half a year per the rules (if I'm right), meaning that, while more easy to get that biomorphs, they are not a matter of few hours. Most likely, the artificial brain requires an extremely complex and careful fabrication process, but that doesn't take into account its recycling into another body...
Anyway, I think you can use a cornucopia machine big enough for the morph to fit in. And pray you are dealing with professionals, because you get what you pay for. Usually, in a dark alley, they will take your morph and snuff the ego...
Thu, 2011-10-20 09:01
#5
Smokeskin
Re: How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
EP p. 276:
Synthmorphs like cases and synths can be
produced in a day, whereas more complicated models
can take a week or more
Thu, 2011-10-20 10:37
#6
CodeBreaker
Re: How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
I believe you are mistaking Pods and Synths.
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Thu, 2011-10-20 11:37
#7
Madwand
Re: How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
I assume the figure for taking a day to a "week or more" are for using classic production methods. It should still only take a few hours using a cornucopia machine, no matter the complexity. You would obviously need to find a cornucopia machine large enough, but large models do exist. Human-sized models should be fairly easy to manufacture as they can come out of the machine head-first, then body, legs etc. Or just use a protean swarm and don't worry about size.
Thu, 2011-10-20 16:58
#8
Xagroth
Re: How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
Yes, it seems so ^^U
As for the week process for the more complicated one, the silver-camouflage of the Steel morph might go with the "more complicated", or the Reaper's "intelligent casing" or whatever it was. I suppose the cost in time can be credits cost divided by 2.000 in hours.
Thu, 2011-10-20 17:40
#9
Madwand
Re: How do you upgrade a synthmorph?
The core book makes it clear that the time required to construct any item is logarithmic in the cost, not linear. Thus it should be very rare to take more than a few hours to construct even the most expensive synthmorphs using a cornucopia machine or protean swarm. Obviously for some very large items (such as habitats or large spaceships) this scaling does not continue to apply, but it isn't clear how nanotech methods work at these scales and in any case typical synthmorphs aren't large enough to worry about this.