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cynanbloodbane
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Joined: 05 Dec 2014
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Location: Cleveland, Go Tribe!
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 Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:05 am Post subject: |
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While those only apply to used droids, I think I may need to borrow that for my game.
How do you handle new droids either fresh off the assembly line or scratch built, or has it never come up?
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KageRyu
Commodore
Joined: 06 Jul 2005
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Location: Lost in the cracks
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 1:57 pm Post subject: |
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| cynanbloodbane wrote: | While those only apply to used droids, I think I may need to borrow that for my game.
How do you handle new droids either fresh off the assembly line or scratch built, or has it never come up? |
Essentially the same, except a change in wording. The concept of Hardware and software Limiters and inhibitors would prevent a droid chosen to be Stock from ever changing without action on the part of the owner (buying new hardware and skill chips, buying or programming new code). A Unique droid would have some glitch or extraneous programming code that got into it on the line (with factories scattered across planets and systems, it is not unreasonable for some production runs using substituted parts or programmed by alternate species to have differences I feel). Generally, in the case of a newly purchased droid that was going to have personality, I would have a period of it "Feeling out" it's environment and personality, testing it's limits with interaction, much like a child might - before settling on any specifics. I would also have the apparent personality develop more slowly - i.e. initially it might just seem like a normal droid...but then it starts anticipating or second guessing tasks it's given, etc...
I actually enjoyed running some of the various NPC Droids that popped up.
Of course, if a player or NPC ever did a thorough memory wipe of a droid that had a personality, it then became a Stock droid, reset to basic skills sets (whether or not it developed a new personality was to be seen).
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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So what of PC droids? If they get a memory wipe, shouldn't they then be "Reset" back to factory default?
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Savar
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Joined: 14 Feb 2015
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | So what of PC droids? If they get a memory wipe, shouldn't they then be "Reset" back to factory default? |
Yes, unless they had a backup memory storage.
They would lose all CP, and revert to all hardwired changes. So if the droid had a skill installed then they would keep that.
Another note:
Heuristic processors allow unskilled skill use (default to attribute) and allow skill advancement. If i remember right.
One way for droid NPCs to advance would be to grant them cp when they roll a 1 or 6 on the wild die. |
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cheshire
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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I looked over the Fantastic Technology book, and the way that I read it was that their personality would be back to factory defaults, but heuristic processors allow them to keep skills. It also suggests that there is some lingering memory of associations or familiarity with persons or droids they had worked with in the past. That is to say, if you wiped R2 and 3PO, then they would think that the other seems familiar in a positive way.
I could re-read that passage and get back to you, though.
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garhkal
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 12:58 am Post subject: |
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Where in Cyndabar's is the rules FOR those Heuristic processors?
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cheshire
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 6:38 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Where in Cyndabar's is the rules FOR those Heuristic processors? |
Ah, you're right. I'm getting some of my reading mixed up. In Cynabars it says, "The droid no longer remembers its former owners or its experiences and is essentially "new" (save for any modifications or hard wired skills acquired over time)."
Emphasis added. So, you keep purchased skillware. It looks like you'd loose CP increased skills.
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KageRyu
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
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Location: Lost in the cracks
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 1:24 pm Post subject: |
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| cheshire wrote: | | garhkal wrote: | | Where in Cyndabar's is the rules FOR those Heuristic processors? |
Ah, you're right. I'm getting some of my reading mixed up. In Cynabars it says, "The droid no longer remembers its former owners or its experiences and is essentially "new" (save for any modifications or hard wired skills acquired over time)."
Emphasis added. So, you keep purchased skillware. It looks like you'd loose CP increased skills. |
Yes, that is always how I had read it - which is essentially death for the character. This among a few other issues with droids were among many reasons I felt they were never handled quite well as playable characters. While they have some advantages normal PC types do not (being able to have a chance at being rebuilt even from destruction, being immune to many pesky environmental effects to a degree, being unaffected by poisons and toxins, mind control, the forces mental powers) they also have a host of inherent disadvantages (being able to be memory wiped or reprogrammed, being subjected to computer virus and dataspikes, being subjected to restraining bolts, being subjected to being dismantled, being harmed more severely by effects that might be harmless to other PCs, etc...).
I think the biggest downside of Droid's as playable characters i, based on RAW, lack of force points, and needing to expend funds and find a programmer even to increase skills with CP (though I generally would have been lenient with this if I had a player set on running one, to a degree).
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garhkal
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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Has any game system really done droids justice though?
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Savar
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 6:23 pm Post subject: |
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| cheshire wrote: | | garhkal wrote: | | Where in Cyndabar's is the rules FOR those Heuristic processors? |
Ah, you're right. I'm getting some of my reading mixed up. In Cynabars it says, "The droid no longer remembers its former owners or its experiences and is essentially "new" (save for any modifications or hard wired skills acquired over time)."
Emphasis added. So, you keep purchased skillware. It looks like you'd loose CP increased skills. |
That's why you have a memory backup. |
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cheshire
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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I wonder what would motivate a droid owner to back up his/her droid if the intent was to wipe it.
Alternatively, if a droid was paranoid enough to do the backup itself, I wonder how it would plan on remembering where the backup was or how to install it.
I'm sure there is some plot hook involving disseminating backup droid personalities. Or if a subversive droid was trying to copy his personality into other droids.
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Savar
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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| cheshire wrote: | I wonder what would motivate a droid owner to back up his/her droid if the intent was to wipe it.
Alternatively, if a droid was paranoid enough to do the backup itself, I wonder how it would plan on remembering where the backup was or how to install it.
I'm sure there is some plot hook involving disseminating backup droid personalities. Or if a subversive droid was trying to copy his personality into other droids. |
It happened in one of the X-Wing novels about wrath squadron.
I am trying to remember where I read about heuristic processor. |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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YEa. Whistler (corran's droid) had a back up unit hidden, so if it got wiped, it could 'restore from last save point' effectively..
BUT you would think that cause of those existing that those who DO the droid wiping, would know to look FOR those items, and either disable them from working, or flat out remove them.
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Savar
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| Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | YEa. Whistler (corran's droid) had a back up unit hidden, so if it got wiped, it could 'restore from last save point' effectively..
BUT you would think that cause of those existing that those who DO the droid wiping, would know to look FOR those items, and either disable them from working, or flat out remove them. |
Lol, read the section on droid wipes in the droid book, sounds like they are pretty lax.
Was thinking of Laura's droid that took over a bunch of mouse droids to sabotage a super star destroyer. |
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KageRyu
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Joined: 06 Jul 2005
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Location: Lost in the cracks
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| Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Has any game system really done droids justice though? |
Short Answer No with a "but", long answer yes with an "if".
As to the whole concept of backups, wiping, and restoring - just consider how far not only computers, programs, and public knowledge of software come since these books were written, but also how far robotics have advanced in the real world. I am sure many of these ideas only crossed the writers and play tester's minds in passing at best, if at all. As GM's we need to make that leap of faith of what to allow, how far we will allow it to be taken, and how it will work. In my games, some NPC's will be smart enough to look for backups and remove them - that is - if I allowed a backup to be easily made and stored let alone within the droid in question (special isolated and shielded memory with a hardware software mechanism to detect fault and restore corrupted memory...certainly possible as this is how databases essentially function).
I would say a lot of it has to do with the individual GM and group and how Techy they want to get.
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