Okay. I guess my moratorium is pretty much over by now. Indeed, seeing the results that people are mostly agreeing on, I'm glad I *wasn't* muckign with it. Actually, after reading the comments and reasoning posted, even *I* have to agree that "some reshaping of contours and such" is a better answer than "no changes in shape."
For the record, I would point this out as a perfect example of why it is a Good Thing to have the Communist in charge, and the Fascist working *for* you, rather than the other way around. Assuming no one else want to take up the job of bringing the newbies in line (Anyone? Anyone at all? I don't mind. Really, I don't.) I will strive in the future to be a kinder, gentler fascist-on-a-leash. I do have two bits to add, though.
First, biomod weapons. Personally, I figure if there aren't any deliberately weaponform gadgets, then there shouldn't be any deliberately weaponform biomods (and "no weapons" was part of the biomod plan initially) but I figure that if we *are* going to prevent them, it should be explicitly in the rules. Also, *having* (limited) biomod weapons isn't going to break the universe like having direct purpose-built ship-to-ship (or ship-to-surface) handwaved weapons would, so I'm not all that *attached* to the idea that we shouldn't have them. What do people think would make the better stories?
Second, Shape And Eventual Effects. I guess I figure the handwavium as being Tremendously Complex, and having a lot of analytical processing power, and some degree of ability to pick up random thoughts/sounds/whatever, but not actually "thinking", per se. It'll take the shape of the thing you give it (obviously, actual devices will have more shape to work with than mock-ups) and any random bits of imagery it picks up from nearby, and perhaps some stuff it's picked up along the way, and some bits of its own nature, and pour the lot into an incomprehensibly complex and mutable internal function, and come out the end with an Idea, which it will then try to implement. Having an actual device *here* will help as well, as it frequently will mean that the handwavium doesn't have to do as much, and is less likely to lapse into randomness or whatever it does. In the end, some internal regulator declares victory, sends the "anchor in, guys" pulse, and you have a working Thing. One of the notable factors which is common to every strain seen so far is that any thought of Thing-As-Specific-Weapon tends to plug into the function as "whatever you do, don't do *this*". On the other side, there is a tendency for the internal function to respond very strongly to thoughtforms of the type "Necessity of life", and the internal datastructures often have a lot of halfbuilt functions that can make it easy to do the simple straightforward stuff - speed drives, life support, hull sealing, and so forth. Finally some of the strains (some, mind you) will plagiarize off of themselves under certain circumstances. If you manage to make a plagiarizable thing once, then the next time you give it a similar roadmap to work off of (similar structure, same breed of handwavium, same creator, similar thoughtforms) you get somethign that's pretty much the same. This is what makes it possible to build the second coilgun. Notice that it does mean that the fact that "coilgun" fell under his "plagiarizables" was purest luck - so we don't see the boskonians all armed with the same three things. Notice that the same guy has to build it every time (and go to a bit of effort to duplicate the thing as precisely as possible). So... if you want a one-off improvised weapon? Perfect justification. If you want an improvised weapon that can be deployed on a handful of ships? Also a perfect justification. It also gives nonreaver characters with a duplicatable weapon effect an excellent reason to not let too many people know. The reavers would *want* people like that, and would go to some fairly severe lengths to get them, if they realized (or even just thought) who one was.
Reactions?
For the record, I would point this out as a perfect example of why it is a Good Thing to have the Communist in charge, and the Fascist working *for* you, rather than the other way around. Assuming no one else want to take up the job of bringing the newbies in line (Anyone? Anyone at all? I don't mind. Really, I don't.) I will strive in the future to be a kinder, gentler fascist-on-a-leash. I do have two bits to add, though.
First, biomod weapons. Personally, I figure if there aren't any deliberately weaponform gadgets, then there shouldn't be any deliberately weaponform biomods (and "no weapons" was part of the biomod plan initially) but I figure that if we *are* going to prevent them, it should be explicitly in the rules. Also, *having* (limited) biomod weapons isn't going to break the universe like having direct purpose-built ship-to-ship (or ship-to-surface) handwaved weapons would, so I'm not all that *attached* to the idea that we shouldn't have them. What do people think would make the better stories?
Second, Shape And Eventual Effects. I guess I figure the handwavium as being Tremendously Complex, and having a lot of analytical processing power, and some degree of ability to pick up random thoughts/sounds/whatever, but not actually "thinking", per se. It'll take the shape of the thing you give it (obviously, actual devices will have more shape to work with than mock-ups) and any random bits of imagery it picks up from nearby, and perhaps some stuff it's picked up along the way, and some bits of its own nature, and pour the lot into an incomprehensibly complex and mutable internal function, and come out the end with an Idea, which it will then try to implement. Having an actual device *here* will help as well, as it frequently will mean that the handwavium doesn't have to do as much, and is less likely to lapse into randomness or whatever it does. In the end, some internal regulator declares victory, sends the "anchor in, guys" pulse, and you have a working Thing. One of the notable factors which is common to every strain seen so far is that any thought of Thing-As-Specific-Weapon tends to plug into the function as "whatever you do, don't do *this*". On the other side, there is a tendency for the internal function to respond very strongly to thoughtforms of the type "Necessity of life", and the internal datastructures often have a lot of halfbuilt functions that can make it easy to do the simple straightforward stuff - speed drives, life support, hull sealing, and so forth. Finally some of the strains (some, mind you) will plagiarize off of themselves under certain circumstances. If you manage to make a plagiarizable thing once, then the next time you give it a similar roadmap to work off of (similar structure, same breed of handwavium, same creator, similar thoughtforms) you get somethign that's pretty much the same. This is what makes it possible to build the second coilgun. Notice that it does mean that the fact that "coilgun" fell under his "plagiarizables" was purest luck - so we don't see the boskonians all armed with the same three things. Notice that the same guy has to build it every time (and go to a bit of effort to duplicate the thing as precisely as possible). So... if you want a one-off improvised weapon? Perfect justification. If you want an improvised weapon that can be deployed on a handful of ships? Also a perfect justification. It also gives nonreaver characters with a duplicatable weapon effect an excellent reason to not let too many people know. The reavers would *want* people like that, and would go to some fairly severe lengths to get them, if they realized (or even just thought) who one was.
Reactions?