Robot Skills and How the Robot Handbook Cheats on Designs

Technetium 98 said:
... I bolded the relevant bit. Surely you realise you're being pedantic, right?


This is for the finalisation section - the summary of the robot, which is where the argument started. That's just to make it clear for the reader what the robot is meant to do - that's why it says or list (all).


And what about the third case, the one that's actually relevant here, where the robot purchases Gun Combat 0 with +2 DEX? A person could make all Gun Combat checks - Slug, Energy, whatever - at DM+2. So too could a robot.

Said robot could list Gun Combat (Slug) 2 if they only had slug weapons, so the designer could reasonably expect the player to only ever worry about its skill with Slug weapons, or it could list Gun Combat (all) 2. Either is permitted, either is correct.
Click to expand...
So, Gun Combat (all)/2 with a +1 Stat Bonus costs 4 Bandwidth to run?

and Science (all)/2 with a +1 Stat Bonus costs 8 Bandwidth to run?
 
I modified the spreadsheet to correctly calculate the bandwidth and cost of (all).

For bandwidth (column G), the new formula is:

=IF(A73="N/A","",IF(AND(A73="Science ()",B73="all"),(D73+XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Bandwidth],,,))*8,IF(B73="all",(D73+XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Bandwidth],,,))*4,IF(A73="N/A","",D73+XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Bandwidth],,,)))))

For Adjusted Skills (column O) the new formula is:

=IF(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Skill],,,)="","",CONCAT(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Skill],,,),IF(RIGHT(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Skill],,,),1)="(",IF(AND(B73="all",D73=0),"",B73),""),IF(RIGHT(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Skill],,,),1)="(",")","")," ",IF(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Characteristic],,,)="N/A","",D73+IF(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Characteristic],,,)="INT",$I$66,IF($B$19>0,$M$19,$B$13))),", "))

For cost, the new formula is:

=IF(AND(A73="Science ()",B73="all",D73>0),(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Cr],,,)*10^(D73))*8,IF(AND(B73="all",D73>0),(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Cr],,,)*10^(D73))*4,IF(A73="N/A",0,XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Cr],,,)*10^(D73))))
 
Last edited:
So, next question. Does buying a skill/0 package 8 times for science use 8 skill 0 slots or 1? For bandwidth 1+ it is covered, but there is a cap on skill 0 slots and it isn't very large. I think I'm inclined to say only 1 slot 0.
 
Terry Mixon said:
I modified the spreadsheet to correctly calculate the bandwidth and cost of (all).

For bandwidth, the new formula is:

=IF(A73="N/A","",IF(AND(A73="Science ()",B73="all"),(D73+XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Bandwidth],,,))*8,IF(B73="all",(D73+XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Bandwidth],,,))*4,IF(A73="N/A","",D73+XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Bandwidth],,,)))))

For cost, the new formula is:

=IF(AND(A73="Science ()",B73="all"),(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Cr],,,)*10^(D73))*8,IF(B73="all",(XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Cr],,,)*10^(D73))*4,IF(A73="N/A",0,XLOOKUP(A73,StandardBrain[Name],StandardBrain[Cr],,,)*10^(D73))))
Click to expand...
What cells are these so I can fix them? Or can you post a fixed a spreadsheet?
 
Terry Mixon said:
So, next question. Does buying a skill/0 package 8 times for science use 8 skill 0 slots or 1? For bandwidth 1+ it is covered, but there is a cap on skill 0 slots and it isn't very large. I think I'm inclined to say only 1 slot 0.
Click to expand...
From the discussion above, you can only buy it once as a skill 0 package, since the sub skills do not apply until you reach skill 1. Purchasing multiples just adds no benefit and would be ignored by the brain.
 
I would say that
Terry Mixon said:
Okay, then ignore the question. The updated formulas above should be the only tweaks needed to make this work all the time, though I will now modify them to ignore all when the skill is 0.
Click to expand...
you have to pay for all of the 0-level skills if you want Science (all)/0 and that you can use your free 0-level skills to do it. I have one reason for having this viewpoint. Computers are programmed. They do not have to "learn the basics". If you program them with everything known about computer code, they may have Electronics (computers)/3, but they still won't have Electronics (sensors)/0 because they were not programmed with that.

Basically, regardless of if the brain is biological or electronic, if you learn the skill organically, if works the same as it does for sophonts. If you have the skill programmed into you, then you only get the exact thing that was programmed into you.
 
MasterGwydion said:
I would say that

you have to pay for all of the 0-level skills if you want Science (all)/0 and that you can use your free 0-level skills to do it. I have one reason for having this viewpoint. Computers are programmed. They do not have to "learn the basics". If you program them with everything known about computer code, they may have Electronics (computers)/3, but they still won't have Electronics (sensors)/0 because they were not programmed with that.

Basically, regardless of if the brain is biological or electronic, if you learn the skill organically, if works the same as it does for sophonts. If you have the skill programmed into you, then you only get the exact thing that was programmed into you.
Click to expand...
I believe you are correct.
 
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