Re: [spoon-discuss] The other side of the production coin

[Glotmorf <nomicmorf@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Orc In A Spacesuit <orcinaspacesuit@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> >From: "Glotmorf" <glotmorf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >A Product has associated with it a construction
> cost in game resources 
> >equal to some combination of points, BNS and/or
> resource units.  An entity 
> >with a Technology and the game resources to
> construct that Technology's 
> >Product can construct the Product, losing the
> corresponding resources in 
> >the process.
> 
> Define 'resource units'.  And don't allow just
> anything; otherwise, I could 
> get rid of an unwanted, undroppable object.  Oh, and
> define 'game 
> resources'.

Well, "resource unit" is a throwback to the confusion
between Wonko's and the Baron's proposals having to do
with raw materials; that really should have read "raw
materials".  I'm usually more awake than that.

"Game resources" in the context of that sentence meant
that combination of points, BNS and/or raw materials
(got it right that time) needed to produce one object
of that Technology's Product, assuming one had the
Technology.  I guess I can throw a "hereinafter" into
the rule earlier on.

> >Technologies can be voluntarily transferred from
> entity to entity through 
> >replication: the receiving entity obtains an object
> identical to the 
> >Technology in the giving entity's possession; the
> giving entity retains 
> >possession of its Technology.
> 
> Add in a time to learn (and maybe even restricting
> other actions, such as 
> airspeeder use, by the entity or (a) member(s) of a
> society), and the 
> possibility of resources spent 'in the lab'.

Retool, perhaps, but not necessarily learn.  From my
thinking, if one entity legitimately transfers a
Technology to another entity, it's not going to be a
half-assed job; it'll be sufficient plans,
instructions, what-have-you that one of the
Technology's Products can be constructed from formula.

> >An entity can obtain (a.k.a. "steal") a Technology
> from another entity by 
> >paying five times the Technology's Product's
> construction cost in game 
> >resources, or ten times the price at which the
> Product is initially made 
> >available for purchase. [[ Theft, reverse
> engineering, industrial 
> >espionage, parallel research efforts, etc. ]] The
> entity that the 
> >Technology was obtained from retains possession of
> its Technology.
> 
> Add requirements similar to teaching, which defaults
> to:
> multiply teaching requirements by 5 for cost to
> steal.
> and
> add the possibility of 'thwarting', to prevent
> technology from being stolen. 
>   Make it contested; if someone tries to thwart, the
> would-be thief can 
> spend a fraction of the steal cost again, which lets
> them steal again, 
> unless thwarted again.  Oh, and make thwarting cost
> stuff by default.
> 
> I'm seeing all sorts of stuff coming out of this --
> rent-a-cop's helping 
> with anti-thwarting, spy gear helping with
> stealing... maybe even getting 
> Wonko's cops in on the deal.  All that comes later,
> of course; just get the 
> basics for now.
> 
> Make the cost to learn, cost to thwart, and cost to
> contest a thwart have 
> default values, but be settable.

Ah, so e wants a roleplaying game...:)  I agree, all
those things are possibilities, but my primary concern
with this was making proprietary technologies less
proprietary...as in, just in case Wonko's upgrades
prop actually passed, some mechanism to keep em from
having a guaranteed monopoly.

If we're gonna go this route, it should be even more
involved than what you're suggesting.  Rather than
proposing the existence of a new Technology and *bam*
it appears, a Technology should require research, with
either some secret, Admin-rolled success point that
has to be aimed for or a chance of developing the
Technology that increases with time and resources
spent.

Then stealing a Technology would need to be broken
into the subcategories of theft (which might only
require points or BNS), reverse-engineering (which
might take time and resources and rolls similar to
initial research, not to mention buying or stealing a
sample), and possibly even VAR (value-added reseller)
work, which means taking the product and adding
something to it to produce a new Technology, the
construction cost of which includes a Product of the
original Technology.

But that's just off the top of my head...:)

-- Glotmorf


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