Cybernetic Enhancements

[worj]

All, I've a player who wants a couple of cybernetic enhancements, namely a datalink and a communicator. This raised a couple of questions...

1) How's one communicate with one's embedded datalink (pg 220)? Subvocal commands with a backup keypad on one's arm? I've just never thought much about this one...

2) I'm not sure what sense to make of the ranges given for subcutaneous communicators on pg 221... They refer to Distant, Very Distant, Regional, and Continental ranges but offer no suggestions as to what those ranges are.

Personal communicators (pg 215) come in various ranges - Personal, Short (10km), Medium (30km), and long (500km). Vehicle communicators (pg 251) seem to have their own range of ranges (close and short both = 5km, long = 500km). Starship communicators (pg 264), too, have their own ranges... Is there any reconciliation within the rules for the various communicator ranges? I've been unable to find one. I can make a guess as to what the subcutaneous communicator's continental range is but otherwise it's all a bit fuzzy.

Tx!

 

[Elliot]

Classic Traveller was never hot on cybernetics and left its 'full' realisation to a Mike Jackson (of Third Imperium magazine fame) article in the Traveller's Digest. T20 seems to have taken that article as the basis for its cybernetics. It seems it is not really developed and needs a Traveller's Aide to amplify it.

As to the data processor - I imagine its a PDA connected to your eyball, so that you see the data as a superimposed 'screen' on your field of vision. You control it via a 'mouse' directed by your facial/eye muscles. That's my guess anyway !?!?!?!

As to ranges Megatraveller gives the following distances:
Distant 5km
V Distant 50km
Regional 500km
Continental 5000km
(What that is in miles I have no idea!)

 

[Shadowdancer]

There's a big difference between a cybernetic datalink and a data processor.

A datalink just allows a person to "jack in" to a computer and access the information via thought.
The link usually connects directly to the user's brain. To control the computer, access data, run programs, etc., the user just has to "think" the command, i.e. tell the computer what to do via the brain's synaptic impulses.

Sometimes the user also has a cybernetic eye which allows them to see a screen and a list of commands in their field of vision -- like Arnie in the Terminator movies.

Some people envision the cybernetic interface to require some hand and/or body movements by the user to tell the computer what to do, a la Keanu in Johnny Mnemonic and Tom Cruise in Minority Report. Vocal commands also could be used.

But in any case, all of the data processing is handled by a computer outside the user's body.

A cybernetic data processor would turn the user into a computer. His brain would become the CPU and memory; there might be other added memory storage capacity inside the body, either organic or inorganic. The user would probably stil have a datalink, to allow downloading to/uploading from external sources. Commanding this internal computer could be handled many different ways: vocal, thought, even a keyboard on the forearm, as suggested. Thought is, of course, the fastest and most efficient.

As for a subdermal communicator, I would be leery of allowing a range beyond short. Beyond that, the size of the communicator and the power source for it would probably make it unable to be hidden beneath the skin, unless you use part of the abdominal cavity.

 

[PVernon]

I would also check FF&S 1 for TNE a check for information.

 

[Forged]

"As to ranges Megatraveller gives the following distances:
Distant 5km
V Distant 50km
Regional 500km
Continental 5000km
(What that is in miles I have no idea!) "

If you have to convert, remember that a kilometer (km) is 0.6 miles. That would give the following:

Distant 3mi
V Distant 30mi
Regional 300mi
Continental 3000mi

I'm trying to get my players to think in metric terms though, it's easier than convert everything....

 

[spank]

I think That TNE will firmly establish an anti-cyber taboo in the remains of the imperium