Eclipse Phase

[Tadanori Oyama]

That thread is absurd. Is there such a thing as a non-rules lawyer? Shit, I would not want to play with that kind of techno-babble, whiny nonsense going on at the table.

My solution? "Sure, here's your nano-hive firing pistol. One clip will cost you 100,000 credits, but you can get the gun for only 50,000 more! Also, any scans on the weapons through customs will register as WMD's and a contract will be put out on your ego in every major system. Each bullet is also entirely vulnerable to EMP and becomes useless upon contact. If the bullets are struck by kinetic force equivalent to hitting a target in the barrel or the clip, they still eat everything nearby. Have fun."

Ridiculous...I need a nap after reading that.

I was hoping to get this reaction but I thought I'd have to wait longer.

[IDaMan008]

I don't know if this is player logic or what but this is thread on the Eclipse Phase forums got way off topic: http://www.eclipsephase.com/guardian-nanoswarms

It's amazing really.

I have a gaming friend who is never allowed to read this thread if he wants to play in an EP game of mine. It'll give him ideas that'd be almost as bad as the Mokole with Huge Size X2 that he begged us for years to let him play.

[clockworkjoe]

reposting my reply because whatevs



I think this discussion is missing the weaknesses of nanoswarms: programming and mobility.

I think most people assume that nanoswarms are magical floaty dust clouds but this isn't true. As per the rules, all nanoswarms need to have a mobility system to move, which cannot be ionic. This greatly limits them because each mobility system only works in certain conditions and environments. Thrust vector and hovercraft need some kind of atmosphere. Walkers can't catch flying enemies obviously. I would also say that nanoswarms could be easily knocked away by liquids or high winds, depending on the situation. Since nanoswarms are smaller, they should be slower than the standard speeds listed for mobility systems. So that's one way nanoswarms can be countered.

The more important thing is that nanoswarms have to be programmed to act. I would say that a disassembler swarm is extremely hard to program in combat. There's no mention of a sophisticated AI or sensor package necessary to navigate a battlefield or understand what an 'enemy' is. You have to be extremely specific to direct a disassembler swarm in a fight. You could mitigate that by programming ahead of time - i.e. a guard dog program that only eats objects trying to enter a specific area without specific authorization or an assassination program where you have a lot of intel on the target - but attacking someone in a fight requires constant action on the part of the programmer.

I would say using a disassembler swarm in a fight is substantially complex and would require an actual Programming (Nanoswarm) Success Test each round of the fight with accompanying penalties depending on the chaos of the fight. Furthermore, a swarm can attack one target per round - if the guardian swarm starts eating it, then it will ignore the guardians unless told to disassemble that. Of course, targeting another nanoswarm would be hellishly difficult to program for a disassembler swarm. Guardian swarms are prebuilt with good programs that only look for nanoswarms - so it's much easier for them to act.

Another note - the book says that energy AND kinetic armor protect against disassembly so I would rule the target gets to apply both values - so if a guy with 16/16 armor gets attacked, the swarm would have to do 32 damage before it started damaging the target.

I think the gun with a gun full of nanoswarm bullets would be highly effective in the EP world once or twice before adversaries caught on and loaded up on EMP grenades. All 30 swarms would be hit by the same grenades, so the target could just pop 2 or 3 grenades on himself and drop all of them.

I would assume all trained armies in Eclipse Phase have similar strategies to deal with offensive nanoswarms. They're extremely dangerous if you aren't equipped to handle them, but otherwise they are no more dangerous than any other serious threat in Eclipse Phase.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Good point Ross, one I hadn't gotten to yet myself.

I would assume all trained armies in Eclipse Phase have similar strategies to deal with offensive nanoswarms. They're extremely dangerous if you aren't equipped to handle them, but otherwise they are no more dangerous than any other serious threat in Eclipse Phase.

They actually make a point, in the setting books, of pointing out individual law enforcement agencies who do not know how to deal with swarms, the one I remember being the Elysium defense force. So, yeah, assumed most cops know how to take care of a swarm.

EDIT: Damn it, I just caught up on the thread. For my own mental health I'm just going to forget about that whole thread and putting that guy on my ignore list.

[clockworkjoe]

A TITAN Haunted Universe part 2

by Bartleby

The other implication of the Fall is that civilization itself has weakened, that humanity has been lessened. It is easy to make that argument. Billions of lives were lost, along with vast amounts of knowledge, cultural treasures, and more. Who can put a price on the value of every animal and plant species made extinct? However, as a civilization today, humanity is not weaker. It is stronger because of two reasons: Pandora Gates and the Factors.

Let us imagine two universes: our universe and one in which the TITANS never rose up, never caused a Fall.  In our universe we know that we are not unique, that other intelligent life exists. Drake's Equation has been proven. We also know that even advanced species go extinct, often quickly and violently. We know that we must tread carefully or go extinct ourselves.  We have even made peaceful contact with the Factors and have begun to learn how to deal with xeno species. We also push ourselves to develop new and better technology to survive the next existential threat. Whatever happens to us in the next thousand years, we are more prepared to survive it than before. We have a diversity of survival solutions, so that no single calamity will take all of us. We are a heterogeneous family of related subspecies, with knowledge and science advancing rapidly thanks to our gains from the Factors and Pandora Gates.

In the other universe, there is no first contact, no proof of Drake's equation. We spread out throughout the solar system and with no divisive tragedy to splinter us, we remain homogenous and slow to advance. We eventually deploy slower than light ark ships to colonize the galaxy. Even if we do not disintegrate ourselves, we will fall victim to the first advanced species we encounter - accidentally or intentionally. We remain weak

The lives lost due to the Fall are tragic beyond mere words but a population's number is not the same as civilization. If our fallen numbers were a real problem, we would restore more infugees in cold storage. We do not because we do not need them at this time. As the infrastructure grows, so will our population. But a population is not a defense against existential threats. A billion die as easily as one.

[IDaMan008]

In case you guys haven't heard yet, Posthuman is releasing the Rimward PDF on Wednesday!

I'm so excited.

[Cthuluzord]

Really? Oh snap.

We just finished the second-to-last session of Know Evil. I can't let myself read it until after Monday or I'll immediately start integrating ideas.

I'm starting to realize how much of my imagination's processing power is going to be freed up not having to think about the EP universe all the time. It's a little crazy.

[Tadanori Oyama]

So what are your future plans with the RPPR crew, Caleb? Are you going to disappear in a few weeks when school restarts? I'm quite interested to see if there's more EP in the future; you seem to have a knack for it.

[Cthuluzord]

@ Tad

I don't know. I don't think I'll be GMing anything anytime soon. When school starts, I'm going to have to start stealing writing time just to finish No Security. I'll still be able to play, but that's about it until I get all the Kickstarter stuff out the door.

Ross said he's planning on doing Iron Heroes next, but he said there will be an EP campaign somewhere on the horizon. I'm excited to play the game for once.

But who knows? Maybe Rimward will spark something in me. I do really want to go back to EP someday, if only to see characters from the campaign pop back in as "canon" PC's. And I've been kicking around the idea of a Zombie campaign, but otherwise, we'll just have to wait and see.

Of course, by the time all of Know Evil gets posted, I will have had two years to think things through. I doubt they'll be much "dead air" of me GMing when everything is said and done.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Exceptional news. I just wanted to make sure you weren't likely to vanish entirely into a sea of poorly written term papers.

[unitomega]

So.

Rimward. Space Pope. Thoughts?

Also, Nine Lives is run by Transhuman Voodoo Priests.

[Tadanori Oyama]

I've waited a long time for this. Everything hit just in time for my own Eclipse Phase game to get going with a new batch of victims.

Personally I find the bits on Titan most interesting. The Ultimates details are pretty cool too, it's a group I've been interested in involving in storytelling more so more information helps flesh things out alot.

EDIT: Since I have the PDF and not an e-reader or anything it'll take me a long time to read through everything; I have to sit at the computer.

[Dom]

Eclipse phase Rimward PDF: http://www.sendspace.com/file/n51bsl

Gotta love Creative Commons License.

[Gorkamorka]

I have given it a lot of thought and have desided to buy not downlode.  I realy like the game and if i buy the book rather the downloding it I am more likely to see more new EP material in the future.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Agreed. I likewise purchased it. Artists don't work for rep yet; they want credits.