Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => Gear => Topic started by: DamienHollow on <05-02-13/0242:50>
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Okay, on the one hand you have a universal Shop/facility. The problem is you take a -2 dice pool as a facility, it doesn't save you anything on material costs, requires special material you may not be able to get, can't make anything in it's entirety over an availability 5, and costs 15,000 to 150,000 NY for one. The small version sounds worth it. The large just sounds pointless because I can't see spending that much money on a facility that doesn't give me everything I need to do the job and still leaves me with penalties. I also doubt that anyone would need two or more facilities. Your turn to prove me wrong or agree then inevitably get sidetracked... my posts seem to be good at that sort of thing.
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I've used desktop forges to fabricate PCBs and other parts to make my own top tier commlinks. Mind you, I merely borrowed the use of one, i did not actually buy one.
In the case of using them to make components to then assemble into valuable things like high end commlinks, I would say they'd be worth it, and pay for themselves in a short few months. But that's if you can cover the rest of your overhead for things like guards, fronts, bribes, and "Clean" feedstock. So that could add up to a much bigger headache then just getting some suppliers for the components themselves, maybe not, it depends on where you are and the scenario you have to work with.
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I think I should add here that the vehicle version makes a bit more sense, Same deal as the Facility scale forge but it's mobile and just over 1/3 the price.
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If you do weapon mods and vehicle mods, many of those call for a facility. As two facilities cost 200,000¥, buying the large forge saves me 50,000 ¥ and I can compensate for the penalty by getting AR plans for the mod in question. So yeah the large one is worth it. The small one is the size of a tool kit which means I can take it on runs with me. Whatever sort of tool kit I may need is now at hand. If I'm out in the field and a vehicle takes damage or I need to modify weapons I can very easily, all with something that is the size of a tool kit. So also totally worth it.
If you are limiting yourself to just using the forge part of this gear than you aren't getting full utility. Honestly, I rarely use that aspect as the clean feedstock costs more than the part I'm trying to manufacture. It is more useful to use that aspect to make the parts for in field repairs.
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You still need feedstock regardless of what you're using it for, how is the application any different? Beside, a RFID tag eraser still works on the tags in the feed stock, you just have to go over ever single square centimeter of the part.
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I suppose. We don't require the use of feedstock built parts in our game. If you buy the parts as you would normally, you can use the forge as a shop or facility to install those parts. It seems a little weird to me that this thing just produces parts without the ability or tools to install those parts or can't install parts not built by the forge. I look at it as either a shop or facility with the ability to machine some of the parts for a job from raw stock rather than something that needs to make those parts before it can be used.
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It's a 3D printer, not an Astromech Droid. It could fabricate a part for you to instal, but will otherwise build whole objects in its own order . It can make smaller parts, or it can make a whole object and install the parts as it builds them, but because it's building things up in layers you could just put a cellphone under it and expect it to know how to install a micro transceiver in it, let alone even know how to slide the battery cover off of it.
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My personal opinion? For 99% of runners, not really. It works as a flavor piece to round out someone who runs a machine shop or garage, for instance, but for most runners, how much time do you really have to be fabricating parts? No, more likely you just go to your shadow mechanic to get the new upgrade to the van. But YMMV
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Well that may be how a 3d printer works, the desktop forge, rules wise doesn't work that way. It acts as a shop or facility of the appropriate size so you can do mods to various things. There is no rules for ground up building of anything so it doesn't really do that (no building an ares predator from the ground up). It can build the parts for mods and gives you the tools to install that mod but lacks things like hydraulic lifts. Thus the -2 penalty for B/R tasks performed with a forge. The more difficult the parts are to acquire, the fewer of those parts the forge can build from the ground up. Its more of a portable shop than just a 3d printer.
Don't ask me how they cram all that capability into something the size of a toolkit though.
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NANOforge, odds are it's akin to a cornucopia machine and runs on nanites.
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It's a neat thing that everyone should have. Running them, I've allowed people to fabricate something they could find schematics for online, but I'd still make them roll to assemble the object. But yeah, quite versatile.
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Could you get a bunch of nanites to create clean feedstock to feed into the Desktop Forge? It'd be clean feedstock, even. Just go into a massive scrapyard or Redmond and start converting material.
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You'd need to somehow acquire the builder nanites to convert one stock material to another, which would mean you would also need a way to program the nanites, which is very difficult as they're usually built to do one thing, and as for as I'm aware of there aren't nanites available to the general public that'd let you convert a junked car into raw feedstock.
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Wildcard nanites have a use now?
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Wildcard nanites have a use now?
Only internal nanoware functions, unfortunately. However, hard nanites could probably be reprogrammed to do it. It wouldn't be easy, but you could do it.
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So if nanites make the feed stock, and the forge/hive made nanites, and they replicated out of control, would it still be a true grey goo scenario because a macro device was involved?
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Grey goo is an impossible scenario. There is a limit to how much a nanite knows, and what it knows how to dissasemble, it could know how to manipulate one particle, but not another. And as far as I know nanintes can't break atomic bonds and reassemble electrons to build different atomic structures, they just aren't that small, and if they say they are well I don't know what to say.
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True grey goo no, but do you really want to try and out build nanites who's only job is to take apart that steel gun you're buildings as you build it? And I'd like to address the idea of an A.I. to do the thinking for them.
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They don't have computing intelligence's, they should function on entirely mechanical principals. Though, I believe SR has microcomputing for them, so that really throws out just about every parameter we have today concerning nano machines. And nano is a misnomer, they're actually Micro-Machines, GITS has this little caveat right. They can be observed under a microscope.
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From what I can see, a desktop forge is just a 3D printer, so the feedstock is actually a powder. Shouldn't you be able to just fit a tag eraser into the feed chute of the feedstock hopper, and just have it run while the printer is running, thus erase all the tags from the feedstock as it pours into the printing area?
Or, hell, just make your own feedstock, depending on what you're building, it's just powdered metal. I'm seeing that kind of crap for like... A firearm. Just a plain vanilla firearm doesn't need electronics in it, so you could possibly crank a tag eraser up to 11, and fry everything, or just use a powdered metal/alloy that you have made/gotten as a clean feedstock.
I keep thinking of the recent PopSci (I think it was PopSci...) article talking about a 3D printer using titanium powder, and a group trying to print a full prosthetic hand using it, but they also talked about using them to print turbines for jet engines.
Which leads me to think... With a big enough one, couldn't you build some pretty hefty weapons, or drones?
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It isn't just a 3d printer. It includes tools to do the work needed as well. You take a -2 penalty to using it though, as it doesn't include things like hoists or lifts for heavy work. You can also already get clean feedstock without the RFID tags. It just costs more and is harder to get (pg 131 Arsenal).
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I know you could get clean feedstock, but it seemed silly expensive and a pain if you could just make your own... And I'm not getting why it has a lack of tools problem, especially for the toolbox sized one. What are you building with it that you can't just pick up and bolt on, if its a part like that? The truck sized one, but... Couldn't you supplement it with tools, like a chain hoist?
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Sure. The penalty is for when the forge is all you have to work with. One of the advantages of the forge is that you can lug the thing with you on runs for in field repairs or mods that require a shop. Pretty useful.
I agree that the clean feedstock is really expensive. Your idea of running a Tag Eraser over the regular stuff would work I would think. Just adds some extra time to the job, though if they've stuck Security tags in there it won't erase them. Maybe an EMP grenade? Either way, I imagine the clean stock is priced that way for 'balance'. We just use it as an excuse to hunt the stuff down on runs and steal it or make it part of a payment.
I think since the corps in the SR world cracked down so hard on desktop manufacturing that maybe the materials needed for the feedstock just isn't as commonly available as it is in the real world.
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the tags are stealth i believe. Also, I could just see a feedstock maker being added to the game... for an additional sum of Nuyen.