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swordtart · 08-19-2017, 03:12 PM

I recall that article and it was one of the things that started the engineering question in my head all those years ago.

My concern was that the numbers in the article were rather arbitrary. I was trying to come up with something that was tied into the rules already present.

I also agree with the "plug and play" argument, but I see it a little more like PCs of old where the components were technically interchangeable, but as the standards were loose you sometimes had to be a bit creative or accept a limitation, as technology moved on there comes a variety of competing standards, plug an play is for the ones that won the standards battle, but connecting up the passed up standards is much harder (try wiring a WANG daisy wheel printer up to a BBC model B or running an android app on your windows phone for example).

I would be happy that the engineering skill allowed you to play tunes in the design trade space (maybe you could make a component lighter or smaller but it would cost more for example). I wouldn't have this as a simple roll once against the skill and hey presto. I would expect there to be a significant design period with costs several times that of the donor component. It would require some significant investment.

08-19-2017, 03:12 PM	#4
swordtart Join Date: Jun 2008	Re: Engineering Skill I recall that article and it was one of the things that started the engineering question in my head all those years ago. My concern was that the numbers in the article were rather arbitrary. I was trying to come up with something that was tied into the rules already present. I also agree with the "plug and play" argument, but I see it a little more like PCs of old where the components were technically interchangeable, but as the standards were loose you sometimes had to be a bit creative or accept a limitation, as technology moved on there comes a variety of competing standards, plug an play is for the ones that won the standards battle, but connecting up the passed up standards is much harder (try wiring a WANG daisy wheel printer up to a BBC model B or running an android app on your windows phone for example). I would be happy that the engineering skill allowed you to play tunes in the design trade space (maybe you could make a component lighter or smaller but it would cost more for example). I wouldn't have this as a simple roll once against the skill and hey presto. I would expect there to be a significant design period with costs several times that of the donor component. It would require some significant investment.