| From: | "S. Keith Graham" <vapspcx@***.GATECH.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: (Lots of things) |
| Date: | Sun, 19 Jun 1994 14:09:49 -0400 |
Skillchips in any kind of "opposition" situation could be your
undoing. In particuliar, someone in a game I was GMing wanted
all of his Decking skills "on chip". I don't know about you guys,
but I'd never considering running against the maker of those chips
*EVER*, as I'm sure there are "known exploitable bugs" in the chips.
Re: Loaded programs decrease processing power (increase system load):
Some people (today) are suggesting that future computers will be based
on a "functional model", not a "von Neumann" model. This means that
intead of having a big CPU traversing memory, you have tens of thousands
of little CPUs, and "pipe" data between them. A "program" is a
configuration
of these little CPUs and "pipes". So having a program loaded reduces the
available resources for other programs to run.
Re: VCRs consuming lots of essence:
There are 3 good reasons for VCRs consuming lots of essence that I see.
#1. Game balance. Drone at 4 actions/round under "decker" control would
mostly eliminate the need of sam's. Ick.
#2. As our non-subscribing friend pointed out, you may have a half dozen
new senses, including some things that you don't normally get to listen to.
(Like blood pressure, etc.) Adding 5 new sense, in addition to mapping
things to the ones we've already got, is a definate essence drain. (Not
to mention being able to use "sight" from 3 different drones at once, one
of which might be an entire building.) (Good article, by the way. Don't
sweat the flames.)
#3: A good rigger can do many actions, distributed across multiple
drones/rigs at the same time. This includes extensive interfacing
with autopilots, multiple coordinated attacks from drones (which
count as a single action according to SRII.. Haven't read RBB..)
This kind of multi-tasking is equivilant to a high level encepholon,
tailored for Rigging operations, with enough int increase to buy
the reaction bonus. NOT cheap on NuYen or essence.
Keith Graham
vapspcx@***.gatech.edu
