As I understand rules:
OK, here's an attempt to design a medical computer capable of running Expert Medic/2. Could someone please check my rules interpretation and figures?
Tech level is 12. A Computer/3 would mass 0.5 kg and cost Cr 1000. Thus a TL12 Computer/1 would mass 32 g and cost Cr62.5. (Computer/1 can be built at TL 8, four level below TL12, halving mass and cost four times).
A computer/1(expert medic/2) would cost (at TL 8) Cr 125 (100 + 25%). Its weight would be 5 Kg
1. As you're building it at TL 12 (4 TLs higher), both cost and weight would be divided by 16 (2
TL difference-1), so Price would be Cr 7.8125 (let's say Cr 8) and weight 0.3125 Kg (so 312.5 gr, not 32 as you said).
Note 1: BTW see that there's no advantage at TL9, as the computer 1 costs Cr 250 and weights 5 kg at this TL, while building a TL 8 computer at TL 9 would cost Cr 50 and weight 2.5 kg (errata???)
Making the computer dedicated to running the Expert Medic/2 program increases cost by 25% = Cr78.125. A computer/1 (Expert Medic/2) can run Expert Medic/2 and this does not use up rating when working out how many programs the computer can run simultaneous, so the computer can also run Intelligent Interface (Necessary to get any benefit from expert systems
Expert programs/2 costs Cr10,000. Intelligent Interface costs Cr100. A computer terminal costs Cr200. So a dedicated medical computer with one terminal in sickbay and one terminal in the low berth vault would cost Cr10,580. It enables people with no medical skill or a skill of Medic-0 to perform medical tasks as if they had Medic-1 and gives a +1 DM to medical tasks to people with Medic-1 and better. Only works for Intelligence and Education tasks (no surgery).
If you want the program to be able for anyone with no medic to use it as Medic 0 or to give a +1 DM to anyone with medic skill 1+, you only need Expert Medic/1 software, so it would cost Cr 1000, plus the Cr 100 for the Intelligent Interfact software, so Cr 1100.
As I understand it, a computer/1(expert/2) can run any software with rating 1 (in your case the intelligence interface) and has an extra rating to run the expert software it's buit to run, while to run this same program at level 2 you'd need a computer/1(expert/3)
To run an Expert Medic/2 software, you'd need to build your computer as Computer/1 (expert medic/3), whose cost would be Cr 150 (100 + 50%) at
TL8, so Cr 9.375 (let's say Cr 10) at TL 12, and the software would cost Cr 10100 (as in your numbers), but will allow untrained (ot level 0) users to use Medic skill at 1 or give +1 DM to anlyone with Medic skill 2+.
Side notes:
See that in the case of an Expert Medic/1 on someone with Medic 1 (assuming he gains the +1 DM), what I said before of not being the same as giving you a +1 to your skill fully applies, as this medic 1 with a +1 DM is yet not a Doctor (e.g. cannot legally make prescriptions), as a Medic 2 would be (according to CB page 51 sidebar). In the case of an Expert Medic/2 software, depending on the laws, the computer itself (being the equivalent to a Doctor) might make the prescription.
The rules for expert computer systems on p. 92 of the Core Book says "A character using an expert system may make a skill check as if he had the skill at the program's rating -1. [...] If the character already has the skill at a higher level then an expert program grants a +1 DM instead."
Does that mean that if I have a skill of Medic-2 and a computer with a Medic-2 expert program, I don't get any benefit (because my skill is not higher than the program's) but if the program has a skill of Medic-1 or I have a skill of Medic-3, I get a DM of +1?
See that this also would happen to anyone with the skill level at (Expert Program -1). In the case of Exper Medic/2, as rules stand, anyone with Medic 1 or 2, being the same as the program will give you or better, would gain no benefit. So, I'd change what I said above to :
...if the character already has the skill at the level the program will give him/her or higher...
