SE IV future

tesco samoa · #1 October 15th, 2002, 06:59 PM

I would rather see hard code changes to allow for more soft code changes...

As what Q was stating in his first post.

Captain Kwok · #2 October 15th, 2002, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Puke:
...why the heck would having a MC prevent crews from being converted? Kirk smashed the MC they put incharge of HIS ship, why couldn't a converted SE4 crew smash their MC?

Umm...ever heard of the Hal 9000 series?

geoschmo · #3 October 15th, 2002, 07:15 PM

Good point Kwok. Realistically if a race is capable of installing a MC on it's ships, would they have the crew as a backup for the MC? What they would do would be have a crew as primary control and install a MC as a backup. If that is the case then the MC would need to have internal security which can be used to incapacitate boarders, or the primary crew if it determines they have been "compromised".

dogscoff · #4 October 15th, 2002, 07:39 PM

I imagine the master computers to be like early Versions of the Minds in the Culture novels - utterly superior to us fleshlings and completely independent.

I do think any MC enabled ship would have "backup" controls to drive the ship if the computer should be out of action.

geoschmo · #5 October 15th, 2002, 07:48 PM

Hehe, so there we have two completely reasonable, and utterly irreconcilable differences of opinion about it. So what's poor programer to do then. Flip a coin?

Actually more than two, if you count Puke's comment. Anybody got a three sided coin, or do we have a "flip off" tournament.

Geoschmo

[ October 15, 2002, 18:51: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

LazarusLong42 · #6 October 15th, 2002, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Actually more than two, if you count Puke's comment. Anybody got a three sided coin, or do we have a "flip off" tournament.

Roll a d6, then take mod 3.

That said... does anyone actually build ships with both crew quarters *and* MC's? For me, the two are effectively mutually exclusive; the expense of crew quarters makes them silly to add to an already expensive MC. This makes the AS problem easy. It can convert crewed ships, but not convert MC ship; on an MC ship, there aren't any crew to smash the MC.

oleg · #7 October 16th, 2002, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by LazarusLong42:

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
Actually more than two, if you count Puke's comment. Anybody got a three sided coin, or do we have a "flip off" tournament.

Roll a d6, then take mod 3.

That said... does anyone actually build ships with both crew quarters *and* MC's? For me, the two are effectively mutually exclusive; the expense of crew quarters makes them silly to add to an already expensive MC. This makes the AS problem easy. It can convert crewed ships, but not convert MC ship; on an MC ship, there aren't any crew to smash the MC.

Quite a few TDM races do just that to frustrate too smug humans. (there is no way to make AI build pure MC ship, only crew+MC)