Military Cybershells - just how ubiquitous are they?

[Phil Masters]

Because they're self-motivated heavily armed death machines. You've got to trust the inhuman mind (or, just possibly, the formerly-human but dedicatedly transhumanist mind) running them not to decide to use those capabilities. But everyone knows that the minds installed in combat shells will be, specifically, designed and trained as killers.

They're really highly disciplined and law-abiding killers, of course. But trust rarely comes cheap.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Because they're self-motivated heavily armed death machines. You've got to trust the inhuman mind (or, just possibly, the formerly-human but dedicatedly transhumanist mind) running them not to decide to use those capabilities.

How does that differ from a guy walking around in full armor with an assault rifle? (or the TL 10 equivalent).

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Anthony

How does that differ from a guy walking around in full armor with an assault rifle? (or the TL 10 equivalent).

Very little, if you don't know anything about the guy. But if the guy is identifiable, and has deportment appropriate for a community or tribe member, that's reassuring that he has something like normal ties and behavior and fear of ultimate consequences and needs to be provoked along the spectrum from Friendly Defender to Grim Reaper. Death-dealing combat machines can conceivably go from 0 to amok in nothing flat.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Keiko

Have the THS authors ever made any statements about the biotech vs hardtech issue one way or the other?

Yes, IIRC in the corebook and some of the promos it's said that hardware always has the edge in raw speed but can't match the better meatbrains for IQ, for instance.

( I'll need to edit this post to include a page reference when I can get unpacked. )

EDIT: TS corebook p.25, BOX "Human Obsolescence..."

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

Very little, if you don't know anything about the guy. But if the guy is identifiable, and has deportment appropriate for a community or tribe member.

So it's sort of a 'looks human' modifier. Looking at the cover of UT for 3e, we can guess that that's a man in a battle suit, as distinct from the robot. Should the robot and the man in the battle suit have the same reaction modifier, or should it be different?

Taking a SWAG, we can split the -4 Monstrous into:
Visibly Armed: -1
Visibly Armored: -1
No/Obscured Face: -1 (also applies to an opaque helmet)
Inhuman Shape: -1

That means the battlesuit (which could actually be a robot still) would only have a -3, because it's more human-shaped.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Anthony

So it's sort of a 'looks human' modifier. Looking at the cover of UT for 3e, we can guess that that's a man in a battle suit, as distinct from the robot. Should the robot and the man in the battle suit have the same reaction modifier, or should it be different?

Taking a SWAG, we can split the -4 Monstrous into:
Visibly Armed: -1
Visibly Armored: -1
No/Obscured Face: -1 (also applies to an opaque helmet)
Inhuman Shape: -1

That means the battlesuit (which could actually be a robot still) would only have a -3, because it's more human-shaped.

Not just shape, but activity. A conventional AFV is nothing humanlike in shape, but under operation it can display hesitation and obstacle avoidance, etc that suggest it's under human direction. A RATS or something with lots of joints and directives to maintain optimal readiness from moment to moment might be seen as shifty or twitchy, or possibly snakelike if it employs gradual, flowing motions.

None of this is likely to be rational or articulable by the people in question, and eventually most of them can come to get used to it if the behavior continues to appear self-consistent and harm fails to come.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

How does that differ from a guy walking around in full armor with an assault rifle? (or the TL 10 equivalent).

That guy gets negative reaction modifiers too. The RATS can't stop being a RATS short of downloading into a less threatening shell (and it loses the disadvantage when it does so).

[MatthewVilter]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Most of the biotech stuff is presented as 4th wave, which implies that is is in fact becoming obsolete in a 5th wave society.

It does not imply that to me at all. Computers are 3rd wave, does that mean they are obsolete in 4th wave societies?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by MatthewVilter

It does not imply that to me at all. Computers are 3rd wave, does that mean they are obsolete in 4th wave societies?

Only if something came along in the 4th wave that was better.

[MatthewVilter]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Only if something came along in the 4th wave that was better.

Well TL 9 computers are better than TL 8 computers...

And 5th wave bioroids are better than 4th wave ones...


I guess I just see bioroids and cybershells as filling different roles. Sometimes bioroids are better, sometimes cybershells are better. You can make a Cyberdoll+SAI that is better at customer relations then your average bioroid but it will cost a lot. Similarly, you can suit up a human or bioroid in top-of-the-line power armor to take on average combat cybershells but it will cost a lot.