How do you upgrade a tattoo computer?

[Fred Brackin]

Just incidentally, a full body tattoo computer is probably not a good idea for anyone with a nonsedentary lifestyle. The rules in UT say that a printable computer is ruined everytime the surface its' printed on is penetrated (specifically when "the surface its on is broken").

This would be at least slightly less annoying if your full body printed computer was in your clothes instead of on your skin.

Things like this are probably why the subject hasn't come up before.

More importantly it makes the printed computer on the Military CyberSuit a bad idea. Even if it's printed _under_ the armor layer your suit goes dumb even if you survive the that first penetrating hit.

Printed computers are probably a bad idea generally. They're -1 Complexity without giving you a price break and have storage reduced by a factor of 1000x. I suppose that disposably cheap Printed computers might be used in trivial roles but serious use would be highly probable to avoid the option.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Printed computers are probably a bad idea generally. They're -1 Complexity without giving you a price break and have storage reduced by a factor of 1000x. I suppose that disposably cheap Printed computers might be used in trivial roles but serious use would be highly probable to avoid the option.

I suspect that printable computers are supposed to have reduced weight and volume; given how much of the weight and volume of computers lies in support structures, this is fairly plausible. Still, I have to agree that there seems to be relatively little purpose to printable computers.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I suspect that printable computers are supposed to have reduced weight and volume; given how much of the weight and volume of computers lies in support structures, this is fairly plausible. Still, I have to agree that there seems to be relatively little purpose to printable computers.

A Tiny computer is $50 and .05 ounces. So already you're looking at a cufflink-sized conventional computer. How much smaller are you looking for?

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

More importantly it makes the printed computer on the Military CyberSuit a bad idea. Even if it's printed _under_ the armor layer your suit goes dumb even if you survive the that first penetrating hit.

Right. But lots of interconnected smaller ones could give you extreme redundancy, and if the option to network 20 of them for +1 Complexity were ported in from TS or wherever, you could have a viable backup for the "ordinary" compact computer otherwise controlling the c-suit.

The stick-on general purpose computer is another application for printed computers. Instead of V-tags stored on a server somewhere, you can give every item and place of interest a localized, self-updating tag that can be queried without gear or an uplink. "Wrench tag, when were you used last?" "Unused since tag was installed." "Under-the-table tag, can you verify?" "Negative; tagged wrench was moved about the room last night from 0312 to 0320 and again from 0541 to 0543."

[wellspring]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

More importantly it makes the printed computer on the Military CyberSuit a bad idea. Even if it's printed _under_ the armor layer your suit goes dumb even if you survive the that first penetrating hit.

Great point. I was meaning to mention this back when I first noticed it a few months ago. It's a crippling disadvantage as written.

The version I've used has been to do away with the printed computer on cybersuits altogether and assume a built-in Small computer (with the Fast option for Military Cybersuits). This doesn't change anything about the computer's game stats except to add (.5-(.05*2))*.8 = .32 pounds to the cybersuit's weight, which I hand-wave away on a 50lb suit. Even less with Compact. It's assumed to be stored in the suit's small backpack, and at TL11 you still get Complexity 7 (or 8 with military). Hopefully with the Hardened option.

Fred's cufflink computers are an equally good resolution. Though they're .05 lbs, not ounces. At this TL, unless you're in a world like Caliph where biotech has been held back, I'd imagine that most soldiers have implanted computers anyway.

[wellspring]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

Right. But lots of interconnected smaller ones could give you extreme redundancy, and if the option to network 20 of them for +1 Complexity were ported in from TS or wherever, you could have a viable backup for the "ordinary" compact computer controlling the c-suit.

We've got a race condition on replies here. ;)

I'd love to see this written up as a special "distributed high-redundancy" option for things like cybersuits and bush robots, and it makes perfect sense. The main issue is that, without some kind of house tweak, the printed option rules this sensible system architecture out.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by wellspring

Fred's cufflink computers are an equally good resolution. Though they're .05 lbs, not ounces.

Yes, typo. It's less than an ounce though. Blow $50 on the Compact option and it's down to 175 grains.

The potential issue with Jeff's ditributed back up network is that a man-sized and shaped suit has room for 20 square feet/5 lbs of computer. That's one Personal size or 10 Small. All at -1 Complexity and a huge storage space penalty too.

You could have up to 100 Printed Tiny Computers but even with 20 of them linked to together to get +1 Complexity you're spending 20x to get back to standard. You could have one Fast Tiny Computer instead and get +1 C over that and in something so small it's not a significant target.

That may be the central issue with Printeds. They give you less performance at the same price. Maybe if you had a really low Complexity use where you could use a Slow Printed Computer in an essentialy throwaway role where the (presumably but not officially) low weight and volume would matter.