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Old 07-20-2014, 10:59 AM   #11
Celti
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

Absolute Direction is far more useful than a GPS, or even Accessory (Inertial Tracker or GPS). With Absolute Direction you can retrace any path you've walked in the past month, even at a dead run, half-blinded, while exchanging gunfire with people as you retreat.

As Fred mentioned, a GPS or the Accessory requires Concentrate maneuvers and a loss of attention as you look to the device to try and figure out where you are, where you need to be, and what path you have to take. That loss of attention can be lethal, and it certainly takes more time than the totally instinctive awareness that Absolute Direction gives you.

3D Spatial Sense, meanwhile, is a must for any spacer I play. The bonuses to Free Fall and Piloting, plus all the benefits of Absolute Direction, now in thee dimensions, just can't be beat. With a small helping of Cosmic I even use it for Infinite Worlds games for those adventurers who always know where they are in the multiverse, even when the conveyor goes off-course.
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Old 07-20-2014, 11:03 AM   #12
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

Quote:
Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery View Post
Regarding their working in other realities...
I didn't mean to imply that they didn't work in other realities, just that (as you stated) traveling between dimensions confuses them; they aren't 4D or 5D Spatial Sense. ;) I'll edit the post as I see how what I said reads that way. "Across" isn't the same as "in" to me, at least in this context. I guess it is a bit redundant as I mentioned "the limbo between realities" earlier.

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Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery View Post
The costs don't seem out of line to me. I could see maybe reducing AD to 4, but that amounts to just a quibbling difference.
Well, I did make this thread in the hopes of thoroughly exploring the Advantage, so "quibbling" may be appropriate. I've also had many characters run short by just a few points, so reducing Absolute Direction to (for example) 4 points is more significant than it appears. In fact, that ties into some of the other support for its pricing; yes if you have all the relevant skills, its a great deal. The issue is incorporating that in a character.

Body Sense is primarily of use with teleportation; not everyone who needs to keep track of where they are going/have been is Dai Blackthorn. ;) Similarly, not everyone needs all three of Navigation (Air), Navigation (Land), and Navigation (Sea). Which perhaps brings me to something that (for better or worse) has become something of a mantra for me; wouldn't it be better if it were more generic and universal?

By that, if the individual components were broken up; they might still be there as Enhancements (or related Advantages you can freely pair up), but especially in games where characters are built on 150 CP or less, its nice not having to pay for features I don't want. Just knowing which way is "north" is a good start. Having the Skill Bonuses not always apply would help; is it too much of a stretch for someone to have Absolute Direction but for whatever reason, its useless while out at sea or flying through the air?

One more thing:

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Originally Posted by Ji ji View Post
The bonus of +3 to every specialization of a skill is good, too: it would be 12 cp on its own.

How did you come by that figure? Honest question; I don't know but would like to. :)
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Old 07-20-2014, 11:08 AM   #13
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

How come it doesn't give +2 to Flight?
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Old 07-20-2014, 11:14 AM   #14
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

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How come it doesn't give +2 to Flight?
Because Flight skill is for endurance only, it has nothing to do with navigation or complex aerial movement; for those you want Navigation (Air) and Aerobatics, which it does give bonuses to.
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Old 07-20-2014, 11:21 AM   #15
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

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Originally Posted by Celti View Post
Absolute Direction is far more useful than a GPS, or even Accessory (Inertial Tracker or GPS). With Absolute Direction you can retrace any path you've walked in the past month, even at a dead run, half-blinded, while exchanging gunfire with people as you retreat.

As Fred mentioned, a GPS or the Accessory requires Concentrate maneuvers and a loss of attention as you look to the device to try and figure out where you are, where you need to be, and what path you have to take. That loss of attention can be lethal, and it certainly takes more time than the totally instinctive awareness that Absolute Direction gives you.
I feel inclined to point out that Absolute Timing, which in GURPS 3e was a 5 point Advantage, is now just 2 CP. It lacks any bonuses to skill, but that ties into what my previous comment; while the skill bonuses listed "make sense", it isn't too hard to justify them not applying, or applying only in a set of circumstances so narrow that they fall below system resolution in terms of value. Conversely, Absolute Timing grants no bonuses, even though there are many skills where accurately keeping track of time, especially "in one's head", would provide a logical bonus.
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Old 07-20-2014, 11:30 AM   #16
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

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Originally Posted by Otaku View Post
I feel inclined to point out that Absolute Timing, which in GURPS 3e was a 5 point Advantage, is now just 2 CP. It lacks any bonuses to skill, but that ties into what my previous comment; while the skill bonuses listed "make sense", it isn't too hard to justify them not applying, or applying only in a set of circumstances so narrow that they fall below system resolution in terms of value. Conversely, Absolute Timing grants no bonuses, even though there are many skills where accurately keeping track of time, especially "in one's head", would provide a logical bonus.
Absolute Timing granting no skill bonuses is why it's only two points. It's more than the perk Accessory (Clock) because the perk would require a Concentrate maneuver to “check the clock”, as opposed to Absolute Timing's instinctive awareness.

In essence, Absolute Timing is Accessory (Clock; Reflexive, +40%) [2] — and Absolute Direction is Accessory (Inertial Tracker; Reflexive, +40%) [2] plus a whole bunch of skill bonuses rolled in that make it easily worth the whole five points.

If you want to inflate Absolute Timing to [5] and give it its own skill bonuses, I could see that, but I have a hard time thinking of any universally applicable bonuses. Conversely, you could reduce Absolute Direction to two points, and remove the skill bonuses from it, but those bonuses are fairly broadly applicable, and I don't see much reason to do that.
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Old 07-20-2014, 12:31 PM   #17
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

I have a situation with my campaign that I didn't think about at first.

The characters are in a Dyson Sphere (a bunch of large habitats connected via teleportals in this case). The three portals from each habitat got to a specific other habitat that otherwise has no spatial connection to the first habitat.

One of the characters has 3d spatial sense. The other characters just feel like they are going to a habitat about 100 feet away.

How should the one with 3d spatial sense feel?
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Old 07-20-2014, 01:07 PM   #18
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

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Originally Posted by Anders View Post
How come it doesn't give +2 to Flight?
The same reason Absolute Direction doesn't give a bonus to Hiking or Swimming.
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Old 07-20-2014, 02:12 PM   #19
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

Seems like it would. Half the time you spend hiking from A to B is from going in circles, or at least sub-optimal meanders.
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Old 07-20-2014, 02:17 PM   #20
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: 3D Spatial Sense/Absolute Direction

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Originally Posted by Not View Post
Seems like it would. Half the time you spend hiking from A to B is from going in circles, or at least sub-optimal meanders.
That's a failed Navigation.
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