09-16-2014, 10:34 PM | #41 | |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
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Most coding would by a Simple invention and often with working protypes or examples. Really new stuff like a language tends to take a couple of years and would be complex. But making a new game edition, tweaking an OS, new drivers or a new UI usually is not that hard according to GURPS resolution.
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09-17-2014, 04:03 PM | #42 | ||
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
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The everyday job of an engineer isn't "inventing new things", it's running tests, making models, measuring things, or even manufacturing parts (and dealing with the money people or administrators who do it for you). GURPS doesn't require that you even roll for this stuff separately, it just gets subsumed into the Invention rolls and monthly job rolls. Just like the everyday job of being a warrior is training, physical conditioning, maintenance, and dealing with administrators and other organizational types. You can't claim +4 to +5 to all rolls in mortal combat because "this is his job" because mortal combat isn't an everyday task with predictable repetition in a controlled environment. Quote:
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09-17-2014, 04:22 PM | #43 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
Yeah, have to admit the components I write are pretty low-Complexity. GURPS tends to avoid discussing negative Complexity, it seems.
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09-17-2014, 04:37 PM | #44 | ||
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
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At any rate, I'm not sure that most coding is actually inventing. Remember that GURPS treats different pieces of technology as the same thing. If you are making a Complexity 1 Word Processor, or Video Game, or Anti-Virus or whatever, well these things already exist at TL8, so you really aren't inventing anything, but rather manufacturing something. |
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09-17-2014, 04:45 PM | #45 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
Figuring out how to do stuff, when you have a problem that seems to have no solution, and then find a way to do it, is inventing. There's some of that in programming, but it's usually a fairly small proportion of the time spent.
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09-17-2014, 05:03 PM | #46 | |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
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A TL8 Complexity 1 Word Processor is a generic piece of gear. Even if you are making a "new" one, it's still the same generic piece of gear in GURPS, and therefore you don't need to invent one, you just manufacture one. |
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09-17-2014, 05:34 PM | #47 | ||
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
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Meanwhile, 'manufacturing a new one' doesn't really make any sense for software. The cost of manufacturing a copy of a program you have is effectively zero. The process for creating a new word processor is basically similar to the process of creating the first word processor, but completely unlike the process of making the N-millionth copy of the first word processor.
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09-17-2014, 05:36 PM | #48 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
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My own experience of inventing software started when there was a need to solve a problem of testing other software, and there wasn't any software available to do the job. Finding a way to do it, which seemed quite impractical at first, took a few weeks. Proving the concept also took a few weeks and actually implementing it about nine months. There are US and European patents on it. |
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09-17-2014, 05:45 PM | #49 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
In a world of okay classic key locks, invention is for creating the first combination lock.
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09-18-2014, 02:41 AM | #50 | ||||
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Realistic Invention Rule
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Also, since Complexity×-2 is the TDM for writing new software, a negative Complexity would result in rolling Programming at a bonus. Apparently Complexity 0 is a program taking up something like 1MB of disk space, when compiled. The relation between compiled size, source size, and the actual amount of difficulty that goes into writing the code for a given program are of course highly tricky, but surely a plug-in that takes up a half-dozen classes, each no more than 20kb worth of source code (they're stored non-compiled for architectural reasons), surely is less than Complexity 0. Quote:
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