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Default Assumption: Do robots survive in a vacuum?

Yep, that nails it. A human-shaped robot can use all easily-available human equipment. Occam's razor leans toward spending the money (as well as ithe robot's mass, unless everybody's fine with Ingrid having the weight and aspect of a compact car) on the robot's learning/manipulating abilities and not on giving it modules mimicking existant equipment such as vacc suits, personal armor, long-range radios, etc.

This is one of the arguments for going through the costs of designing and building a humaniform robot: so it can use human equipment and spaces. Otherwise, it would be cheaper and more efficient to build to other plans. Like current robots: in vehicle assembly plants, they are non-mobile, and have the needed tools for their task, whether spot welder or nut driver, built in. Or the aforementioned nuclear clean-up robots, using (generally) treads rather than legs, and nowhere near human appearance.
 
This is one of the arguments for going through the costs of designing and building a humaniform robot: so it can use human equipment and spaces. Otherwise, it would be cheaper and more efficient to build to other plans. Like current robots: in vehicle assembly plants, they are non-mobile, and have the needed tools for their task, whether spot welder or nut driver, built in. Or the aforementioned nuclear clean-up robots, using (generally) treads rather than legs, and nowhere near human appearance.

I have been working on her character sheet using T20 rules, turns out she has to be TL17, I've been figuring out the rules for putting together a model 2 robot brain, she is a Navy character, maybe I'll forego the built in armor. She has three brains but only inhabits one at a time. I don't see any reason to sit her physical body in a cockpit c, chair she can upload to the ship's computer and pilot it from there., the computer has a positronic brain built into it, each one costs about Cr350,000, they are not cheap.
 
Cue in 2300AD reference: Ingrid is an Eber!

I'm working on her starship, it is a Tech level 17 starship with an antimatter power plant with 4 tons of fuel - good for running the starship for 40 years, she still needs to skim hydrogen from gas giants for jump fuel, but the power plant will run for 40 years without refueling and it produces 16 EP of output, 12 of which is consumed by the positronic brain. The power plant produces enough power to run the ship and the brain with 1 EP to spare. I must be reading the rules wrong because this us ridiculous. For that I get an Intelligence of 12, where 18 is near the top range for humans.

Ingrid will have to puppet a robot from the ship's computer. Fortunately the scout ship only requires a crew if one and she is it. She has 40 years to live until her antimatter runs out. An independent power supply for a human sized robot with a positronic brain is out of the question. Ingrid is definitely not a Mary Sue under these circumstances, she has limitations that biological can over match.
 
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You can power the jumpdrive with antimatter at that TL, you don't need hydrogen.
It is a rather unique starship, either a prototype or an artifact. I'm going with prototype, as the power requirements for her positronic brain are ridiculous, she has a remote control android body, it needs to stay within communication range of the starship otherwise it reverts to "dumbot mode". I would trade the no jump fuel requirement with self-repair capability, basically the ship's computer builds the scout/courier around itself using nanites. The ship "heals" so long as the computer is not destroyed or its antimatter containment system is not breached, otherwise it is a flying bomb!

Maybe the power requirements are vehicle scale EP and not starship scale EP, though I have not seen rules for conversion since I used vehicle rules for construction. Vehicles use vl rather than displacement tons and there are 1400 vl per displacement ton I believe a similar ration might convert vehicle EP to ship EP, that would be more reasonable.
 
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It is a rather unique starship, either a prototype or an artifact. I'm going with prototype, as the power requirements for her positronic brain are ridiculous, she has a remote control android body, it needs to stay within communication range of the starship otherwise it reverts to "dumbot mode". I would trade the no jump fuel requirement with self-repair capability, basically the ship's computer builds the scout/courier around itself using nanites. The ship "heals" so long as the computer is not destroyed or its antimatter containment system is not breached, otherwise it is a flying bomb!

Maybe the power requirements are vehicle scale EP and not starship scale EP, though I have not seen rules for conversion since I used vehicle rules for construction. Vehicles use vl rather than displacement tons and there are 1400 vl per displacement ton I believe a similar ration might convert vehicle EP to ship EP, that would be more reasonable.

Merchants & Merchandise had the E-Chip (one of my college game days ship had that installed) It is on the Apocrypha 2 CD from FFE (I do have the original supplement still :))

"The so-called "eternity circuit module" was first announced by Delta Research of Sha'anoe Delta in 1105. Labratory tests under rigidly conirolled conditions proved the module could retain the molecular structure of an object indefinitely and restore the object to its configuration at the time the module was attached, should any damage occur to it, utilizing free molecules in the immediate environment. Subsequent developments included expanding the E-Circuit's "awareness" to include objects of up to 800 tons which appears to be the upper limit."
 
Merchants & Merchandise had the E-Chip (one of my college game days ship had that installed) It is on the Apocrypha 2 CD from FFE (I do have the original supplement still :))

"The so-called "eternity circuit module" was first announced by Delta Research of Sha'anoe Delta in 1105. Labratory tests under rigidly conirolled conditions proved the module could retain the molecular structure of an object indefinitely and restore the object to its configuration at the time the module was attached, should any damage occur to it, utilizing free molecules in the immediate environment. Subsequent developments included expanding the E-Circuit's "awareness" to include objects of up to 800 tons which appears to be the upper limit."

I'm going to assume vehicle EP and Starship EPs are not the same thing and that Ingrid can live a separate existence from her starship.

The Starship's computer is a Model/2, the same as her robot brain, since it is the same technological 17 level as she is, I'll assume it is positronic and can host her program if she uploads to it, it can in fact host 10 AI programs simultaneously while retaining its functions as a ship's computer.
 
Personal Data and History: Current Date June 29, 1134.
Name: Ingrid Caradeen; UPP Str D (+1), Dex C (+1), Con E (+2), Int E (+2), Edu A (+0), Wis C (+1), Cha E (+2), Soc H (+3).
Class Navy; Level 3; Race Human Android (Robot);
Noble Title Knight; Military Rank E2: Space Hand; Recorded Birth Date August 1, 1111; Actual Date of Manufacture August 1, 1126; Apparent Gender Female; Apparent Age 21 years: Actual Age 8 years; Height 1.6 meters; Weight 56 kg; Home World Gaia A867634-B;
Stamina 15/Lifeblood 14; Stamina Dice 3d6+6; Lift Overhead 67.5 kg, Lift Off Ground 135 kg, Push or Drag 337.5 kg; Light Load 22.5 kg, Medium Load 44 kg;
Armor Class 11 (Dex +1); Saving Throws Fortitude +3, Reflex +2, Will +4; Initiative +1; Speed 9 meters (6 squares):
Attack Rolls Melee +2, Ranged +2;
Weapons: Laser Rifle, Attack Bonus +2, Damage 3d10, critical ×2, Range 60 meters, Type Laser, ROF 1;
Skills: Bribery +4, Forgery +4, Gambling +4, Gunnery +3, Liaison +4, Pilot +4, Recruiting +2, T/Astrogation +2, Driving +4, Forward Observer +3, Gather Information +3, Leader +3, Navigation +1, P/Administration +2, Survival +2;
Equipment Carried: Laser Rifle. Other Equipment: TL17 Scout Courier.
Feats & Special Abilities: Armor Proficiency(Light, Vac Suit, Battle Dress), Vessel (Starships), Weapon Proficiency (Marksman, Laser, Shio's Weapons), Weapon Focus (Laser); Special Ability Does not need to breathe (can survive in atmospheres 0 to A without Special equipment.)
 
Here is Ingrid's starship.
SCOUT/COURIER
DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
Installed componentsTonnageCostEPNotes
100-ton Hull (Wedge)100MCr12.000
Bridge-20MCr0.500
Computer-0.2MCr8.000Model/2
Flight Avionics-0.8(MCr1.800)Model/2
Sensors-0.6(MCr1.200)Model/2
Communications-0.4(MCr1.000)Model/2
Jump Drive 2-3MCr12.000-2
Jump Fuel-20
Maneuver Drive 2-5MCr3.500-2
TL17 Antimatter Power Plant-2MCr2.0001640 years of operation.
Antimatter Power Plant Fuel-4
Fuel ScoopsMCr0.100
1 Hard PointMCr0.100
Double TurretMCr0.750
Air/Raft-5MCr0.273
Staterooms (4)-16MCr2.000
Cargo-23
Totals0MCr41.223
 
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It is a rather unique starship, either a prototype or an artifact. I'm going with prototype, as the power requirements for her positronic brain are ridiculous, she has a remote control android body, it needs to stay within communication range of the starship otherwise it reverts to "dumbot mode". I would trade the no jump fuel requirement with self-repair capability, basically the ship's computer builds the scout/courier around itself using nanites. The ship "heals" so long as the computer is not destroyed or its antimatter containment system is not breached, otherwise it is a flying bomb!

. . .

Reminds me, in a sort of reverse similitude, of McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang series. They were "shell people"--people who, from birth, needed life support, etc, to survive, and were put into a "shell" that was then installed into, say, a courier ship or whatever, as brain and pilot of her ship-body. A successful one, after paying off the ship, could have a body built in which to make excursions--but since their enshelled brain/organic body was still aboard, they could only go so far and still maintain control.

The ship team was a partnership: shipboard was the "brain"; the partner was the "brawn," the mobile member, available for maintenance and other tasks the brain was unable to manage.

And hmmm, it seems there was another similar fictional situation that I thunked, but it escaped me. By Frank Herbert maybe? Or someone else entirely??
 
Reminds me, in a sort of reverse similitude, of McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang series. They were "shell people"--people who, from birth, needed life support, etc, to survive, and were put into a "shell" that was then installed into, say, a courier ship or whatever, as brain and pilot of her ship-body. A successful one, after paying off the ship, could have a body built in which to make excursions--but since their enshelled brain/organic body was still aboard, they could only go so far and still maintain control.

The ship team was a partnership: shipboard was the "brain"; the partner was the "brawn," the mobile member, available for maintenance and other tasks the brain was unable to manage.

And hmmm, it seems there was another similar fictional situation that I thunked, but it escaped me. By Frank Herbert maybe? Or someone else entirely??

I did a write up of Ingrid Caradeen with both character and ship statistics, she is a ship AI with an Android remote linked in with a meson communicator she has a 40 year supply of antimatter on board and she is in a subsector of the Andromeda galaxy after being sent by a one-way intergalactic jump gate. Interestingly she could fly back to the Milky Way galaxy theoretically with her maneuver drive alone, she can accelerate at 2-G for 40 years, those 40 years are for ship board time, time dilation effects mean that for the rest of the Universe, she would arrive back 2.5 million years later, so she decided to wait for the return jumpgate to be build before she attempts such a journey.
 
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