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I meantioned that I'd like to see a T24 Grid for CE come out of a makermod, which some liked, but our guru Ks.Jim (summoning not intended) said it would be impractical, and I agree.
This scheme, which I am about to detail, is not going to win the war, will take a long time to bump the tech axiom to 24 (the primary aim, the secondary aim is just to make communications excellent in the face of the invasion), and keep a lot of SKs very busy trying to keep the T24 gear from disconnecting them or transforming. (However a large number of suitable talismans would help. There are some portions of CE at T24, would be nice to go there and get a local SK to buy into the Create Hardpoint power, and join the group or churn out a large number of Talismans. In my book, its not going to affects CE's tech axiom is an alien talisman is used.)
I've deliberately kept the advancement 'just inside T24' to lessen the disbelief factor from the ord population. VR, radio links, satellites, existing land lines and all the rest are in limited availability now, the T24 is just to make it widely available and much more efficient.
Note that the internet would have fallen, with a lot of important nodes (especially in the USA) being destroyed by low tech realties (I'm thinking mostly LL & Aysle). This effort would have to provide reliable transcontinental communications, which I think is doable via the satellites and existing ocean bottom cables. Anyone know where they go? (Just recently the newspaper showed a new line connecting Australia (West) via Indonesia to Taiwan, China, & Japan (from memory), this would have been destroyed by Orrosh/never completed.)
For those with working internets (like Australia), the grid would just provide a phenonimal increase in thruput.
I want 2 things out of the makermods (which makes it easier, a large number of things with a small number of patterns is ideal): routing/connectivity nodes, and VR headset interfaces.
The main grid node will be a small box concerned mostly with connectivity to existing internet nodes and other grid nodes. It should have a plethora of connection options, from line of sight uwave radio to taping existing land lines & satellites. It has very little local information, merely a routing table for the various types of information. Also important is they have legs, eyes, a sense of direction, etc - they can crawl about, realign themselves, hide, etc.
This is a helmet with VR eye gogles, & ear pieces. Control is via tracking eyeball movements, and other facial movements. These act similarly to mobile phones to connect to the nearest grid node. They are only usable by SK's until the tech axiom rises, ords are stuck with T23 terminals at storage nodes. T24 users can also jack into a storage node or grid node directly.
The old internet nodes now become storage nodes. Each one is now an end node for the grid.
Talismans have a very limited range if I remember correctly, and are not going to be able to maintain something that, by necessity if we assume it to be of very much use, worldwide. I'm not sure if I would allow it even if we had a bunch of P-Rateds jacked in constantly, but that is the only semi-"practical" (for Torg) way I can think of to do this.
I'm not = sure if I would allow it even if we had a bunch of P-Rateds jacked in = constantly, but that is the only semi-"practical" (for Torg) way I can = think of to do this.
22-MAY-1996 14:38:39.06 Daiajo Tibdixious
That's why I'm using T23 connection methods, infra-red, microwave, whatever else there is. Only the nodes themselves require reality maintenance, well within talisman range.
I sort of let it slip based on the fact that no one is actually at the nodes trying to "use" them. It would only be hit by passive disconnection/transformation (like once per scene), and I deliberately made them low end T24 so that people would not automatically disbelieve them. If I had to rule, I would say they check against average difficulty once per month (not sure what skill tho). Even a failed check would not disable them completely, the would not be able to reconfigure, move, etc, but should still maintain a basic, non-routed, broadcast (like usenet) connectivity.
Thu, 9 May 1996 11:21:42 Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) >> is they have legs, eyes, a sense of direction, etc - they can crawl about, >> realign themselves, hide, etc. >Aaah! Why would you want that? From my experience with the Internet >here at work it's hard enough keeping a node reliable when it's firmly >rooted in one spot.
I think them being stuck in place is the main problem. Seriously, a device which can realign itself maintains much better connectivity than one which is fixed to the ground. These units have to be high up and are subject to severe storms.
Also this is for deployment, just drop 1 on each hill, it climbs up, and climbs any building or tower near the top. If some dumbo takes one down, they can escape and climb up again.
Its a reliability option that is possible at T23 but impractical due to the complexity of the system itself.
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