From:	Fade <runefo@***.UIO.NO>
Subject:	Re: Tactical Computer
Date:	Wed, 2 Jul 1997 23:03:51 +0000

Brett Borger wrote:
> > If someone gets +11 boosting to their TC, they have a very nice GM.
> > Also, somewhere along the lines dimnishing returns should kick in.
>
> I think that giving up 3.5 Essence entitles you to a decent bonus.
> To get that +11, you would have to use ALL your essence up, and most
> of that cyberware would be next to useless EXCEPT to enhance the TC.

Well, you can throw in a cyberskull for free (reducing essence cost
for a TC by 25%). Also, keep in mind that if the sensory enhancements
are of such a nature as to be next to useless to YOU in combat, it
stands to reason it would also be next to useless to the TC.

> Now the debate about whether they all apply or only the "active" ones
> is valid (in such a case Natural would make a difference). I always
> used all of them, but that was because I considered it the only way
> to make this grossly expensive equipment worth it.

'the only way to make this grossly expensive equipment worth it'...
Even with, say, a rating 6 system, you then get ~+5 reaction,
(assuming 2d6 initiative) increased tactical skill, ~3 extra dice for
all combat tests.. The reaction alone, using a reaction booster,
would cost 300000, while the skill and combat dice bonuses is
impossible to get any other way.. calling this worthless without all
possible and improbable modifiers is, frankly, stupid.
(I'm glad you wrote 'considered' - past tense.).

> > instance. Also, would you count vision magnification as an
> > enhancement? The computer doesn't need that, since it sees the
>
> Not as an enhancement, but to reduce the target number of use, since
> you use Shotgun Ranges.

The tactical computer has no need for electronic vision
magnification. Unlike the human brain it does not need areas
magnified to focus on them, since it receives the same detail anyway.
The human brain has a loss of detail, the computer brain does not.
(Magnification, effectively, strips away everything around the area
looked at, and exapnds that image. For the TC, that would mean
loosing the area around what it watches, but receiving the same
detail of that. No gain. To add to that, the TC's advantage is
mainly in combat awareness, which is something you loose using
magnification; you loose the full picture.). The reason it uses
shotgun ranges is, if I may guess, that it uses more processing power
the closer to the user it is, since that is the more immediate
threats. There is also the degradation of input, but it is very
obvious it is not based on vision alone (Or would you suddenly use
only vision mods?) and so magnification to vision alone would have,
IMO, no effect on the TC's target numbers.

--
Fade

"It's better to burn out, than to fade away!"