MMI as alternate brain for IPC

[Farya]

Hi, guys. After watching Ghost in the shell I got a *crazy* idea. How about allowing player to choose which type of brain his/her IPC will have: posibrain or brain in MMI. Why? Pure RP reasons. People would be able to roleplay IPC as a human who lost his body and whos brain now reside in cold metal shell. That could lead to some really interesting characters.

Edited September 18, 2016 by Guest

[FlattestGuitar]

I don't see any reason not to add this beyond it being hard to implement cleanly.

[Farya]

 

I don't see any reason not to add this beyond it being hard to implement cleanly.

We can replace all of IPC external parts as "prothesis". Could we just do the same with the brain? An option in internal organs to choose MMI as brain.

 

[Shadeykins]

 

This was shot down a long time ago, because it allows IPC's to be transplanted into human bodies (thereby negating their death mechanic) and vice versa, allowing people to circumvent the karma system.

 

It would also allow players who can normally only rejoin as borgs, to join as borgs 'enmasse' and be transplanted into human bodies.

 

[Farya]

 

This was shot down a long time ago, because it allows IPC's to be transplanted into human bodies (thereby negating their death mechanic) and vice versa, allowing people to circumvent the karma system.

 

It would also allow players who can normally only rejoin as borgs, to join as borgs 'enmasse' and be transplanted into human bodies.

Maybe make their brains special in the way they cannot be put into human body and vice versa? Special case or something.

 

[FlattestGuitar]

 

It's already possible to transplant an MMI into an IPC body and I don't think denying gibbed IPCs cloning is related to species balance outside of downsides for the sake of downsides.

 

There isn't any karma system gaming here if you can't make more IPC bodies, which is impossible.

 

Getting yourself transplanted into a Drask body is not against the rules unless you make the Drask body yourself using a knife.

 

To be fair, the one downside to this I can see is that the choice would be obvious for someone more interested in powergaming.

 

[Sothangel]

I don't really see the point/need for this. I don't see IPCs getting gibbed at all very often, and don't like the idea of making them synthetic/organic rather than outright synthetic.

[pazneria12]

Got to say I dont really like it either, from the perspective that it could be powergamed, the perspective that it would basically mean that posibrains would need to start off on again to keep balanced, and also the perspective of my character who would HATE that a surgery that he is still working on is now pointless.

[Farya]

 

What is codewise that brain would act the same as ordinary MMI but unlike it cannot be disasembled? Its designed to keep the brain alive for endefinitely long time and is made with some BS tech, so you cannot decosntruct one and remove the brain without damaging the brain itself.

 

 

Because its just RP feature.

 

[Shadeykins]

 

Because its just RP feature.

 

And I fail to see how homogenizing races and extinguishing their differences makes for good RP.

 

The IPC's that look and act perfectly human are enough as is.

 

[Farya]

 

Because its just RP feature.

 

And I fail to see how homogenizing races and extinguishing their differences makes for good RP.

 

The IPC's that look and act perfectly human are enough as is.

You can RP IPC as cyborg rather then robot if you want. Sure, you can do so know, until you are gibbed and positronic brain is dropped from you.

 

[Shadeykins]

 

Because its just RP feature.

 

And I fail to see how homogenizing races and extinguishing their differences makes for good RP.

 

The IPC's that look and act perfectly human are enough as is.

You can RP IPC as cyborg rather then robot if you want. Sure, you can do so know, until you are gibbed and positronic brain is dropped from you.

 

You need to work on your reading comprehension.

 

IPC's who act like cyborgs and say they're cyborgs are not cyborgs, they are IPC's, much like Unathi who claim they're dragons are still Unathi.

 

I am saying that IPC's are already pretty damn close to humans in terms of appearance, they don't need to also start getting human organs (or vice versa).

 

We should seek to set the races apart and operate in interesting/fascinating ways, not make picking your race pointless because you could just be a human that's also an IPC that's also an Unathidragoncyborgninjamasterkawaiisenpaipokemon.

 

Maybe I'd be partial to this idea if anyone with a positronic brain's head exploded when they were EMP'd, due to a sudden build-up of intercranial pressure from their brain overheating.

 

[Rumiluntti]

 

Let's just say this, if it requires anything to be snowflaked in IPC code, it will not be feasible.

The IPC code is already a horrendous clusterfuck of snowflaked bullshit, snowflakes made form yellow snow

 

[Dinarzad]

 

IPC's who act like cyborgs and say they're cyborgs are not cyborgs, they are IPC's, much like Unathi who claim they're dragons are still Unathi.

 

I am saying that IPC's are already pretty damn close to humans in terms of appearance, they don't need to also start getting human organs (or vice versa).

 

We should seek to set the races apart and operate in interesting/fascinating ways, not make picking your race pointless because you could just be a human that's also an IPC that's also an Unathidragoncyborgninjamasterkawaiisenpaipokemon.

 

Maybe I'd be partial to this idea if anyone with a positronic brain's head exploded when they were EMP'd, due to a sudden build-up of intercranial pressure from their brain overheating.

 

Pretty much this.

Besides all of this, we have Cyborgs already in the game and they're nothing like IPCs, IPCs are different for a reason. If you want to RP someone's brain in an IPC Chassis, there's not really anything stopping you from making an android lookin' IPC an just rolling with it, hell if you wanna go the Eclipse Phase route, you can say their personality or memories were uploaded or mimiced in the positronic unit.

 

But mechanically speaking, IPCs have plenty to differentiate them as it is, other races need far more attention at this point, Plasmamen, Grey and Kidan most of all.

 

[Jakers457]

 

I've seen full body prosthetic used on other servers, who of which had IPCs as a whitelisted race. Rather than being an IPC, they were pretty just people with a mechanical body save for the television head. I don't know, personally I like it and have made some enjoyable characters with the feature but I don't think roleplay really takes precedence around here. So maybe if we find a way to 'balance' it or whatever.

 

Either way, it would be a feature I'd really want.

 

[Shadeykins]

 

I've seen full body prosthetic used on other servers, who of which had IPCs as a whitelisted race. Rather than being an IPC, they were pretty just people with a mechanical body save for the television head. I don't know, personally I like it and have made some enjoyable characters with the feature but I don't think roleplay really takes precedence around here. So maybe if we find a way to 'balance' it or whatever.

 

Either way, it would be a feature I'd really want.

 

Or people just don't enjoy the idea of an entire race literally becoming pointless because of copy-catting by other species?

 

We may as well make humans space-proof, able to regenerate limbs, and breathe N2O and plasma while we're at it.

 

We should strive to make aliens more alien, not make them mundane by allowing humans all the same advantages/disadvantages.

 

[Jakers457]

 

There's a variety of mechanics that IPCs have that wouldn't get passed onto a person with a full body prosthetic though.

 

I doubt their buff to deal brute damage would pass or their ability to weld without a mask. Seeing as prosthetic eyes are still pretty sensitive to unprotected welding. Not to mention IPCs would live without a head seeing as their posibrain is placed within their body. I mean, there wouldn't be many advantages that a FBP would have, only the ability to not breathe or catch diseases but aside from that, there's very little benefit.

 

I mean if we were to say both having a mechanical bodies make them essentially the same, and would make IPCs redundant. That could be the same for Vulpkanins and Tajarans, they're essentially the same by the logic that they are both covered in fur and have the ability to claw their targets. But even then, Tajarans, like IPCs, have a few more advantages from a mechanics point of view. And yet, we implemented them anyway because people like them.

 

I don't know, I'm not sure how FBPs would phaze out IPCs. IPC are pretty much superior in every way.

 

[HugoLuman]

 

I for one think it'd be neat to incorporate human brains in robot bodies who are still humanoid crew. Though the power-gaming MMIs thing is a big deal.

 

Though, I would like to address the use of the term "snowflaking." Things are bad "snowflake" code when they are implemented in a direct, hard-wired way rather than working organically with the rest of the code. Things like there being a flag for skin tone in species code (for lighter-darker gradation, as opposed to being able to paint a body every color of the rainbow), but it being written to only do anything for Humans (until recent Vox/Drask stuff reworked this). Or like certain outdated IPC-specific surgeries (taking out the battery and putting it back in) before CAN_REVIVE_THROUGH_HEALING was a thing, which are still in the code.

 

However, there is some conflation when people talk about species features, where the need to avoid such sloppy code implementation gets confused with unique mechanics being bad, period. Chances are that there's a way to implement a given feature in a way that meets the standards of the code base, with varying degrees of difficulty. We should refer to the coding side of things when talking about "snowflakiness," rather than something merely being unique.

 

[Psyentific]

fam if you want to play a GITS style cyborg you can just roll human and select everything as a cyborg part.