Notes on Using GURPS Ultra-Tech (4e) in TS: Chapter 1

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Biotech Euphrates started out operating from a tanker, so I think it should be compact and probably not-too-expensive.

Oil tankers are massive and relatively expensive ($40+ million). Whichever pricing or mass we use, a converted oil tanker could fit a huge number of biofabs/biofacs and even at the most expensive pricing, ten human-sized tanks would only match the price of the ship (and the fusion reactors likely weren't that cheap, anyway.

I don't think Biotech Euphrates and their initial investment of hundreds of millions of GURPS $ (or billions) are the best example of a biolab operating on a shoestring budget.

On the other hand, a lot of vignettes and flavour about the setting implies that biolabs are extremely cheap compared to other settings. For that reason, I would be inclined to use the 3e pricing of a 100 ct biofac as justification for reducing the Bio-Tech/Ultra-Tech pricing per pound of capacity by an order of magnitude or so.

But I still don't know how small and how cheap the most mundane biofab models are in Transhuman Space. Clearly, something smaller than 100 cf exists in the setting, but there should be some economy of scale. Biofabs sized to make biological microbots should not cost a hundred or thousand times less than a human-sized model, though they should obviously be somewhat cheaper.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Oil tankers are massive and relatively expensive ($40+ million). Whichever pricing or mass we use, a converted oil tanker could fit a huge number of biofabs/biofacs and even at the most expensive pricing, ten human-sized tanks would only match the price of the ship (and the fusion reactors likely weren't that cheap, anyway.

I don't think Biotech Euphrates and their initial investment of hundreds of millions of GURPS $ (or billions) are the best example of a biolab operating on a shoestring budget.

On the other hand, a lot of vignettes and flavour about the setting implies that biolabs are extremely cheap compared to other settings. For that reason, I would be inclined to use the 3e pricing of a 100 ct biofac as justification for reducing the Bio-Tech/Ultra-Tech pricing per pound of capacity by an order of magnitude or so.

But I still don't know how small and how cheap the most mundane biofab models are in Transhuman Space. Clearly, something smaller than 100 cf exists in the setting, but there should be some economy of scale. Biofabs sized to make biological microbots should not cost a hundred or thousand times less than a human-sized model, though they should obviously be somewhat cheaper.

The point isn't that tankers are cheap. The point is that they weren't rich enough to outright bribe a small poor government to operate on their territory, and that they made the first of their world-changing inventions and production compact enough to operate out of a tanker-sized area. The world is big, but they managed to shake it.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

The point isn't that tankers are cheap. The point is that they weren't rich enough to outright bribe a small poor government to operate on their territory, and that they made the first of their world-changing inventions and production compact enough to operate out of a tanker-sized area. The world is big, but they managed to shake it.

Well, sure, but nothing about that really requires that man-sized Biofabs be cheaper than $4,000,000 each. They were canonically funded by a multi-millionaire.*

What I'm looking for is some sense of what GURPS Wealth level should be required in the setting to be able to own a human-sized Biofab/Biofac. If we go by the $50,000 in the Transhuman Space book, it's Comfortable Wealth to be able to afford one, Wealthy to be able to afford one and still be able to afford other things. If we use the Bio-Tech/Ultra-Tech pricing, no one below Multimillonaire 1 can afford one.

I'm also looking for a fair THS price on smaller Biofabs, ones that are suitable for making bacteria, viruses and maybe biological microbots. Well, and an intermediate-sized model, one that can grow spare organs and body parts, not a whole adult-sized bioroid or even carry a fetus to term.

*In the sense that he was regarded as ultra-rich in-setting, not that he merely owned more than two millions of Euros or Dollars or whatever (which, while impressive some years ago, is probably rather mundane in 2100).