[Basic] Skill of the week: Computer Operation/Programming/Hacking

[johndallman]

Computer Operation, Computer Programming and Computer Hacking are the skills for getting computers to do things via software. They are IQ/E, IQ/H and IQ/VH (cinematic) respectively. On a conventional technology path, they appear at TL7 and Computer Operation becomes a very common skill at TL8. Alternate-tech paths might make Computer Programming very widespread too; several attempts were made in that direction during the historical TL7, but they were unsuccessful.

Computer Programming doesn't actually have Computer Operation as a prerequisite: until the middle of TL7, it was common to do programming entirely on paper. Computer Hacking does require Computer Operation. Electronics Repair (Computers) defaults to Computer Operation-5. At TL8+, Computer Operation is a prerequisite for Research, and provides many people's default for Typing.

Computer Operation is a "use" skill in the design/repair/use triads of B.190, and Computer Programming is a "design" skill. High-Tech and Ultra-Tech have Operation as the repair skill, which works for installation and configuration problems, but not always for actual bugs. Fixing those is going to be Programming, with a large penalty if you lack the source and appropriate tools. Spaceships has Programming as a repair skill.

Computer Programming uses the Inventions rules, and often requires knowledge of the field the program is about. This is realistic; Mathematics is often useful, but not always. "Systems programming", writing operating systems, device drivers, and similar code within complex application programs is based on Mathematics (Computer Science), which often isn't terribly mathematical in the conventional sense. High-Tech reminds us of the importance of TL modifiers and has a table of program prices vs. Complexity. Software Tools, described in High-Tech and Ultra-Tech, are very necessary for programming.

Computer Programming (Artificial Intelligence) is written up as a variant skill, with no default in either direction to ordinary programming, which allows you to use social skills on AIs. I suspect this only works if you can modify the AI, which definitely isn't the case for end-users in most ultra-tech settings. This is supported by the description of Digital Mind.

Realistic "Computer Hacking" is a combination of skills, described along with the cinematic skill. The latter is described in Action, for the present day and near future.

Equipment for computer skills is described in High-Tech and Ultra-Tech, with more detail for the present day in Action.

Computer Operation and Computer Programming appear on templates in just about every high-tech setting book. Madness Dossier's Brain Hacking requires Computer Hacking. Magic has Awaken Computer, which can bestow all three skills under the wrong circumstances, and allows Hacking as a core skill for Ritual Magic in the right campaign (as does Thaumatology, and RPM). Powers has weird ways to use Hacking, and Psi-Tech deals with teaching computers to use psionics via Programming. Reign of Steel: Will to Live has plenty of uses for Programming vs. robots. Social Engineering describes the uses of Operation and Hacking in verifying and falsifying documents, and "social engineering" ways of getting through computer security. PU3 and PU7 have examples that include all three skills.

I don't think I've ever used Computer Programming in a game (that's the day job), and Computer Operation has mostly been in Transhuman Space games, although we've usually had an AI around who did most of it. What have you done with these skills in GURPS?

[Flyndaran]

Where does it say that Computer Operation the skill is required for TL 8+ Research?
I disagree that anyone conducting research past 1980 needs advanced computer skills. No one needs that just to access known databases and search engines.

[Phantasm]

Hacking was used by an ex-Imperial Watcher (basically, an intel analyst) in a SW game I ran to hack (colloquially, "slice") into an HK-50 droid via its internal radio to send it override commands. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing on the part of the player, too. A little bit later, she used Programming (AI) to wipe the droid's memory and program herself in as the droid's master.

Haven't really used the skills much otherwise.

[whswhs]

A thing that I came up with for GURPS Steampunk was a variant on Computer Programming for working with rooms full of human calculators collectively carrying out big algorithms, as in de Prony's work on mathematical tables during the French Revolution. I think it may have defaulted to Administration and/or had Administration as a prerequisite.

Bill Stoddard

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Where does it say that Computer Operation the skill is required for TL 8+ Research?

B217, in the heading of the Research skill.

I disagree that anyone conducting research past 1980 needs advanced computer skills. No one needs that just to access known databases and search engines.

From late TL7, when on-line databases became commercially available via dial-up, to about 1997 when web search engines started to get good, getting useful information out of online services required actual skill, although it wasn't that hard to learn (hence IQ/E). Nowadays, search engines provide significant bonuses to unskilled usage, although one can still do better with Research and Computer Operation skill.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by johndallman

B217, in the heading of the Research skill.

From late TL7, when on-line databases became commercially available via dial-up, to about 1997 when web search engines started to get good, getting useful information out of online services required actual skill, although it wasn't that hard to learn (hence IQ/E). Nowadays, search engines provide significant bonuses to unskilled usage, although one can still do better with Research and Computer Operation skill.

I think that might be confusing gurps Skill with what we call skills in common language.
Carpentry's easy as well, but far more difficult than using search engines.

[johndallman]

Ok, here's a challenge for you. The operating manual for the torpedo tubes used in WWII US submarines is on the web. My GM did not find it before he gave up looking. I did. Can you?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Ok, here's a challenge for you. The operating manual for the torpedo tubes used in WWII US submarines is on the web. My GM did not find it before he gave up looking. I did. Can you?

What's your case for that being a Computer Use feat rather than a Research feat? Research is certainly the governing skill roll for such searches.


I would say that you need to be able to use a computer to do TL8 research (Though you can still do TL7 research in many archives). Computer Operation has the usual issue that these days the computer operation side of such tasks is made mindbogglingly trivial by user-friendly design.

I would argue that having a default for Computer Operation should suffice to learn TL8 Research, at least in the latter stages of TL8. If you have no default or for some other reason cannot operate computers at all, you're out of luck. EDIT: And you might have some difficulty if you can attempt such rolls, but are bad enough at them that a +10 TDM nuisance roll has a significant chance to fail.


EDIT2: I think I found it.

Spoiler:  

http://maritime.org/doc/fleetsub/tubes/index.htm

[Xplo]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Computer Programming (Artificial Intelligence) is written up as a variant skill, with no default in either direction to ordinary programming, which allows you to use social skills on AIs. I suspect this only works if you can modify the AI, which definitely isn't the case for end-users in most ultra-tech settings.

It should arguably work like Psychology on AIs, requiring no modification to predict behavior (and possibly no observation period to predict behavior for "stock" AIs); alternately, if there is a Psychology (AI) skill that does this instead, it should have a default to Comp Prog (AI). Either may get a substantial bonus to understand or predict consumer AIs that are designed to behave predictably.

I don't think I've ever used Computer Programming in a game (that's the day job), and Computer Operation has mostly been in Transhuman Space games, although we've usually had an AI around who did most of it.

Programming plays a similar role to enchanting. The primary use of it will be off camera, probably during long stretches of downtime, to make Kewl Stuff (in this case new software), and it won't have any place at all in fast-paced campaigns. However, there are a few cases where being able to make a minor new program is useful during an adventure, just as it can be handy to whip up a Powerstone on the road. Things that might qualify as "minor" include writing a script to perform simple actions with computer files (find these, delete those, send every copy of this to x@y.com), getting one application to use another application's output as input, or making minor functional modifications to existing open source software.

(Some people might argue that these are all uses of Comp Op, and that really, only compiled code or machine language written from scratch count as programming. I say "bah"; these are not tasks that non-programmers would typically attempt. Allow either skill to work if you like, but you will be devaluing Comp Prog if you do.)

A programmer with Gadgeteer or Quick Gadgeteer could theoretically write entirely new software very quickly, if you want a cinematic hacker who can program all the street lights to send a message in Morse code or brainwash an AI or something before the guards break through the door, or someone who can quickly reverse-engineer alien software or something like that.

(You could go one step further with this if the character has Gizmos as well, since each Gizmo could be a piece of software that our cinematic computer wizard writes on demand using only an impressive display of rapid typing, virtual object-dragging, or staring significantly into space while neurally interfacing.)

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

It's kinda like Area Knowledge vs. Hiking:
You need AK to know where to hike, but Hiking to get there in a reasonable timeframe and without complications.

Assuming reasonable fitness and ideal conditions, no Hiking skill should be required to get from one end of a level, improved urban trail to the other in a reasonable timeframe and without complications - you just walk there. Yes, technically there's a small possibility of a collision with a jogger or a minor sprain or cramp, but do you really want to simulate that? Are you running an Ordinary Joe Has A Life Filled With Insignificant Perils campaign?

As much as possible, search engines are intended to be the equivalent of level, improved trails. So are consumer operating systems, for that matter. Using one on the other is worth a huge bonus to Computer Operation skill for "an easy task". In theory, you might want to have a player roll Comp Op before making any search using a computer, but anyone without substantial IQ, TL, or familiarity deficits should have a high enough effective skill that it makes sense to waive the roll and move on to rolling Research rather than waste everyone's time testing the tiny chance that the PC will actually forget how to use a freakin' search engine. If the only one who can do the search is an old geezer who's a TL behind and thinks computers might be powered by hamsters and the government can see him through the monitor, then have him roll...

If you're attempting a difficult search using a standard search engine, that's normally a harder Research roll; knowing how to request advanced Google searches or coming up with good search strings isn't Comp Op! Comp Op would be used when searching for files or other information on a computer using OS commands, which largely limits it to late TL7/early TL8 systems, although in a hacking context you could assume that the hacker is looking for information that's hidden, not indexed by the OS, or not searchable with the available search bar parameters, in which case they would need Comp Op even on modern or futuristic systems.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Xplo

Assuming reasonable fitness and ideal conditions, no Hiking skill should be required to get from one end of a level, improved urban trail to the other in a reasonable timeframe and without complications - you just walk there. Yes, technically there's a small possibility of a collision with a jogger or a minor sprain or cramp, but do you really want to simulate that? Are you running an Ordinary Joe Has A Life Filled With Insignificant Perils campaign?

Fine, make that Navigation vs. Piloting/Shiphandling. If my comparison is genuinely incomprehensible, I'll to rephrase it tomorrow.

But the point is, a prerequisite seems like a reasonable approximation of having skill 10+, a familiarity, and the right to claim the big positive TDM for simple searches.
That being said, who told you that all TL8 Research is limited to google searches? There are more obscure cases where one has to dig through tags, tables, code etc. . . . research isn't just school-level reference article work.