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Old 08-12-2010, 09:46 AM   #32
Kromm
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Re: Altered Time Rate and RoF

I'd call "Warps Time" a 0% modifier on ATR that extends your advantage effects to any inanimate object you're carrying or holding. (This is a weird power, so let's assume that some observer effect or psi distortion keeps it from affecting people.)

Pros: All your gear works faster. Use full RoF during each maneuver, regardless of the gun; get the benefits of potions, combat drugs, etc. you take in fewer real-world seconds; make quick draws from power holsters within the space of a maneuver; self-sealing armor seals more rapidly in real-world time; and so on. Yay!

Cons: Poison and bombs (like sticky grenades) harm you more quickly once they're in/on you, from your enemies' point of view; comms devices get frequency-shifted and transmit gibberish or go off the net; anything that needs batteries runs out faster, and beneficial drugs and potions have shorter duration, in real-world time; and so on.

So robots with ATR – assuming you solve the real-world problem of matching their sensors, target recognition, and decision loop to their mechanical movements, which is currently unsolved – lack this. The downside is that they can't fire built-in machine guns twice at full RoF, and things dependent on physical relaxation times (like most self-sealing defenses and many fire-suppression systems) or chemical reaction times (like anything actuated by an explosive charge) work no faster. The upside is that they deplete their power cells or fuel at the listed rate, can use ordinary radios, and don't get blown up twice as fast by limpet mines or corroded twice as fast by nanites.

If you could selectively affect things known to you, that would be ATR (Selective Effect, +20%; Warps Time, +0%) [120/level]. You'd still have to be aware of the things you wanted to affect, of course. If you didn't need that, and always got all the good and none of the bad, you'd have ATR (Reflexive, +40%; Selective Effect, +20%; Warps Time, +0%) [160/level]. If your advantage influences people you grab, then add Affects Others, at +50% per person you can affect. You'll still want Selective Effect unless you really want all your enemies getting multiple maneuvers per second when you wrestle with them.
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