[VV] Organics and other flavoring - RE: [VV] Vectorverse -- Ok so far?

If it's a campaign flavor thing, and logistics plays role, then organics
might be more effective, but require a much higher level of logistical
support (specialized serum or media to keep the organic circuits alive,
special environmental controls such as cooling or heating etc) or that
the organic version is lower quality but can be self-sustaining (i.e.
horses vs cars).

As John pointed out, it doesn't really matter if you're PSB'ing since
what really matters is the final effect - it doesn't matter if a Class 1
beam is made from titanium/ceramic composite and powered by a fusion
reactor or a Bio-metallic sheath guided by a neural network and powered
by bio-capacitors, as you would roll the same dice in the end.

But if you're looking for flavor, then different tech foundations are a
good way to provide variety.

In many computerized straegic games, resource management plays a key
role, but more than just resources in general, the best games have at
least 2 and usually 3 resources that need to be managed (usually some
form of money, a material resource and an "energy" or "magic" resource).
 Simply forming your tech tree to be balanced or favoring one of the
three resources provides a different feel to each group.  Perhaps one
tech tree is metallic based, one organic based, and one energy based. 
In game terms, it would not make a major difference, but in terms of
motivations for a particular group it could lead to interesting
conflicts or agreements.

For instance, if the energy based group uses mostly brute energy for
their applications, they will be more interested in gas giants to
harvest hydrogen or systems where they can place giant solar collectors.
 Metallic based technology may be more interested in asteroids and
metal-heavy planets.  Organic based groups would be interested in
planets with lots of organics or scooping up comets for vital raw
materials.  In some cases, multiple groups could share a system because
their needs are different, and they do not conflict for resources.  In
cases of wars, it suddenly becomes possible for one group to totally
devestate the opponent's resources with complete disregard since the
attacker is not dependent on the same resources (does a scorched earth
policy deter someone who doesn't care about the earth?)

--Binhan

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of
Beth.Fulton@csiro.au
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 4:03 PM
To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: RE: [VV] Vectorverse -- Ok so far?

G'day,

Noam asked:
>Q What about organic or exotic tech by PSB only?...

Laserlight responded:
> I'd rather not PSB them as organic systems unless 
> someone comes up with a really, really convincing explanation as to 
> why some humans would have it and the rest wouldn't.

John  pointed out:
> Unless you are postulating a situation where the gulf between
> powers is as vast as the gulf between the US and the rest
> of the world, and that makes for a lot of really boring games.

I could conceivably see a case where the top tech guys have access to
tech based around organics (at least in part) while the lowest tech guys
couldn't do it because its too expensive and to hard to do without all
the right prep media. For instance, the top guys may have even gone
organic for cost benefit reasons, while the low tier guys do what they
can so long as it gets the job done. With real human history as a
precedent I really can't see everyone being on the same page over such a
large area, the FTL techs being the clue to this.   

And while I do see John's point about the potential for one sided
campaigns in the story line there's enough room in space that you're
going to see a lot more "even" than "uneven" wars (east vs west
dirtballia rather than superpowermania vs east dirtballia as
superpowermania doesn't care about east dirtballia as its off at an FTL
dead end anyway). Moreover even in the one sided campaigns you can still
have challenging battles to game out to make the most of the situation
you can. 

But maybe that's just my warped view of things ;)

Cheers

Beth