Avatar Controllers and Avatars

[Terry Mixon]

I was building a ship that used a robotic brain as the crew and avatars as the limbs and ran into a wall trying to figure out how things worked. There is one kind of avatar receiver in the Robot Handbook and yet one Avatar in the book has 6 bandwidth for skills and the rest had 2 bandwidth. That got me wondering how bandwidth was figured at all, as the avatar controllers only specify how many avatars they can manage, and not how much bandwidth they can ship to them in skills.

So, like any rational person, I bugged @Geir about it to try and get some clarity. He was gracious and answered my questions and that revealed that there were aspects of this that aren't covered clearly in the Robot Handbook, so I'm writing this post to both share what I've learned and what I've created. If I'm mistaken, I'll let Geir slap me upside the head.

First off, avatar controllers and receivers are (get this) robots. At least they are built as robots. Only the brain and bandwidth matter for them, and bandwidth of the robot is for the skills being directed by the avatar controller.

Robots inside of robots? Mind blown.

So, lacking information in the book about how much bandwidth an avatar controller could handle, I set out to get as close to the published prices to get those numbers. Here is what I found.

Avatar Controllers target price:

Basic: KCr50
Improved: KCr200
Enhanced: KCr500
Advanced: MCr1
Superior: MCr5

I wasn't able to hit that exactly, but I came close. Unsure if there was a discount, I didn't use one.

Basic: KCr10 (I had to bump the receiver to tech level 12 so doing so here dropped the price)
Improved: KCr260
Enhanced: KCr550
Advanced: MCr1
Superior: MCr6

The tech level for each was:

Basic: 12 (I bumped this up from 11 as the receiver couldn't be price matched to the book at the lower tech level)
Improved: 13
Enhanced: 14
Advanced: 16
Superior: 18

The number of avatars they can control is:

Basic: 1
Improved: 2
Enhanced: 4
Advanced: 8
Superior: 64

As the book set a floor for the receivers at 2 bandwidth, I set out to make them deliver at least 2 bandwidth to each avatar. What I managed was:

Basic: 2
Improved: 6
Enhanced: 11
Advanced: 15
Superior: 80

Some didn't quite make it, but such is life.

Here are the avatar controllers:

Basic:



Improved:



Enhanced:



Advanced:



Superior:



Watch out for those last two. They'll sass you back.

Now, the avatar receivers. The book only lists one, but as there are two bandwidth rates, I hypothesize there are really five grades just like the controller. I made them at the same bandwidth levels so an avatar controller could focus all their attention and skills in one place if needed. The tech levels match their corresponding controllers.

The cost for each:

Basic: KCr10
Improved: KCr30
Enhanced: KCr500
Advanced: MCr1
Superior: MCr1

The bandwidth they support:

Basic: 2
Improved: 6
Enhanced: 11
Advanced: 15
Superior: 30

Here they are:

Basic:

The only way I could hit the book price of KCr10 was to bump the tech level to 12. Otherwise it was KCr50. As I had to do that, I would say that the basic avatar controller should also be tech level 12. Chicken, meet egg. YMMV. It didn't change the cost or capabilities of the basic avatar controller to bump it.



Improved:



Enhanced:



Advanced:



Superior:



No one says you've got to buy more than the cheapest receivers, but that does throttle the bandwidth, which might be just fine. More capable custom receivers and controllers could be made to exceed these specifications, too.

Now you know as much as I do, assuming I haven't screwed something up.

 

[Geir]

I was building a ship that used a robotic brain as the crew and avatars as the limbs and ran into a wall trying to figure out how things worked. There is one kind of avatar receiver in the Robot Handbook and yet one Avatar in the book has 6 bandwidth for skills and the rest had 2 bandwidth. That got me wondering how bandwidth was figured at all, as the avatar controllers only specify how many avatars they can manage, and not how much bandwidth they can ship to them in skills.

So, like any rational person, I bugged @Geir about it to try and get some clarity. He was gracious and answered my questions and that revealed that there were aspects of this that aren't covered clearly in the Robot Handbook, so I'm writing this post to both share what I've learned and what I've created. If I'm mistaken, I'll let Geir slap me upside the head.

First off, avatar controllers and receivers are (get this) robots. At least they are built as robots. Only the brain and bandwidth matter for them, and bandwidth of the robot is for the skills being directed by the avatar controller.

Robots inside of robots? Mind blown.

If you ever saw Andromeda (or the first few seasons before they got too cheap to do anything that wasn't stupid) then that's the concept I was going for: A ship's brain controlling a robot body. But there are endless variations once you have the two halves communicating. The avatars themselves could be little more than remote hands, or, as shown in some of the examples, capable of considerable independent action.

Think also the Ancillary books by Ann Leckie, where the controller is long gone and only the android remains. (Although technically, the android was a mindwiped person, but same idea).

 

[Terry Mixon]

If you ever saw Andromeda (or the first few seasons before they got too cheap to do anything that wasn't stupid) then that's the concept I was going for: A ship's brain controlling a robot body. But there are endless variations once you have the two halves communicating. The avatars themselves could be little more than remote hands, or, as shown in some of the examples, capable of considerable independent action.

Think also the Ancillary books by Ann Leckie, where the controller is long gone and only the android remains. (Although technically, the android was a mindwiped person, but same idea).

Yep. I was building a more capable avatar when this started. Thanks for the guidance.

 

[rinku]

I must admit to being a bit confused as to what advantages avatars provide over drones in this setup, for the extra expense.

Unless you want independent robots that the ship can take over now and then? But just to be the ship's walking around face on the ship, a robot body with a drone interface would seem to be enough.

The avatar would be what you want if the ship wants to download a copy of itself into a mobile unit and go out of communications range, I think.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I must admit to being a bit confused as to what advantages avatars provide over drones in this setup, for the extra expense.

Unless you want independent robots that the ship can take over now and then? But just to be the ship's walking around face on the ship, a robot body with a drone interface would seem to be enough.

The avatar would be what you want if the ship wants to download a copy of itself into a mobile unit and go out of communications range, I think.

You’re not wrong, I think. The avatars have a lot more autonomy than drones. Not saying everyone needs them. Just cool tech.