Re: KV history/psychology - St. Jon has been reading minds again.....

On Thu, 9 Mar 2000, Jeff Miller wrote:

> Laserlight wrote:
> 
> > >We concluded that this was (similar to Jon) a defence mechanism for
the
> > >species - both for the individual and (on a larger scale) for the
clan and
> > >race. Individuals were expendable to protect key clan/race assets.
> >
> > 1 a)  Do they each berserk individually, or
> >	b) does the first to berserk give off pheromones which help
> > trip the response in other nearby individuals?
> > 2 a)  If the latter, does the pheromone guarantee the response
> > (no die roll needed), or
> >	b) does it just raise the probability (die roll modifier) ?
> >
> 
> Another possibility is that their bodies don't use pheromones.  Maybe
their
> response is triggered by visual cues that go straight to the response
center.

yet another possibillity is that pheromones are involved, but they are
inhibitory, rather than stimulatory: KV produce signals which tell the
others to calm down. when they enter frenzy, they stop producing the
pheromone. this gives just the same dynamics as the
stimulatory-pheromones
setup, with a few twists. sealed suits would lead to *more* frenzy
(berzerker PA!), due to the isolation of the individual from the flock's
pheromones. tightly-packed KV would be less likely to frenzy (increased
pheromone concentration), spread-out ones more (vice versa). if KV are
moving fast, they are not letting the pheromone build up around them,
and
so they frenzy.

there is actually an evolutionary justification for this - it stops the
KV
frenzying when they are densely packed, as this will generally be when
they are in family groups, where frenzy is counterproductive. plus,
individual KV are more likely to frenzy - one KV vs a Kra'Rex (big, fast
predator) can only survive by frenzy, whereas a group is most effective
when acting sensibly fighting collectively. plus, a running KV is either
escaping or charging, so this is when the frenzy should kick in.

personally, i think subliminal audio cues (KV make fast little squeaking
noises in the background of speech when they're excited, and these have
a
frenzy-stimulating effect) is the way to go - it works across sealed
suits
and doesn't need a full-body video link.

tom