Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupert
My reasoning is that you shouldn't get a cost break for something that doesn't limit your use of the abilities. As the abilities cannot be used at the same time anyway, allowing one to be bought at a huge discount in exchange for the abilities locking each other out is more than a little dodgy, IMO.
Would you let someone buy normal ground Move and Swimming Move with one the AA of the other?
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By the rules, yes.
As the GM, I'd then ask for an explanation for it, and only accept it if it makes sense within the context of the setting, just as I do for any ability, whether an AA or not. The "just because" explanation wouldn't fly in my game, but if it was part of speed power - and thus can be neutralized - sure.
While not being able to use all the AA abilities at the same time is a potential drawback of using AA, it's not a guaranteed drawback and doesn't always apply. After all, an AA of a bunch of instantaneous effects is legit, and you can't use those at the same time anyway, so what's the drawback of AA in those cases? And using AA for multiple Innate Attacks is a legitimate build mentioned in the rules.
It's even easily explainable in the specific example of the spaceship movement we're debating: power is diverted from one motor train to another, and you can only power one at a time. This is the equivalent of where you are assigning your Power Points for High-Energy Systems in
GURPS Spaceships (p.9). If the intention is to keep to the spirit of
GURPS Spaceship design parameters, it's almost a mandatory that you build all High-Energy Systems of your robot as a multiple slots of an AA or Modular Ability.. unless you have enough power to power everything at once, in which case, they're all purchased at full price.
The often overlooked drawback of AA or Modular Ability, that would apply even in this case, is that if any ability is neutralized, it neutralizes the "slot", not just the ability. You therefore can't change it to something else.
The question you need to ask is what neutralized these effects. In the case of a robot/spaceship, it would be a variation of paralysis, sleep, unconsciousness, etc., defined with a variation of the special effect of "drain power." (i.e., affects machines) Someone drains the power from your ship's flight ability, the power is gone and can't be moved to other forms of vehicular movement.
I think what you're discussing is therefore a potential legit build using AA or Modular Abilities.
To me, what I always examine before I decided on whether to allow AA or Modular Ability is whether I can come up with a rational explanation for locking a slot if an ability is drain. For example, before allowing a "magical powers" Modular Ability, I see if I can explain why a "drain fire powers" used on your magical fireball ability when it's in the slot of a magic Modular Ability suddenly stops you from using your magical flight, ice storm, shapeshifting, mage armor, etc. Now, I can see blocking the slot with a "drain mana/magic" attack, but not a "drain fireballs". But by the rules, the drain fireball would lock the slot. However, this illogical effects are rare. I think it's only happened twice in all my campaigns since 4E came out. And in the magical Modular Ability, I do have drain mana effects, so ultimately I allowed it. The two times the strange effect did come up, I handwaved it away and told the player "that's why you got the point discount, just accept it."
You might, depending on what Neutralize powers or effects are available in the setting, come up with similar logic issues to address for your robot spaceship... but then again, for this example, you might be able to use the good old Star Trek principle and state that the strange enemy phaser shot that just grazed the ship's hull overloaded the power relays and have shut down a whole bunch of systems across the ship (i.e., you can't move the power to what you need, thus the slot is locked down).
So, long story short, yes AA is a legitimate build. But is it a built you should use? That depends on a lot on the setting. In this case, I'd rule yes as well as all the abilities have a "technological" power source and can all be affected by things that affect tech.