To make it more reasonable, freezing for twenty to forty seconds is more like it... but to make it notable, have the "freeze" also include the android's (simulated) respiration. A twenty- to forty-second fugue state without breathing is believable (happens to me on occasion) but not far enough out of baseline as to immediately scream "ROBOT!"
Singularity - musings
- Thread starter Sigtrygg
- Start date
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
Color me skeptical. Resets are mentioned nowhere in the Robot Handbook, so this is a made-up issue. Fine, but it wouldn't take so long as the chart says it happens often enough. If they hung up like that, they would be useless for so many tasks.
Once again, Mongoose has broken something because they needed to have a plot element. If they want to do that, say the Imperial made robots are running custom software designed by their conscious intelligence master. That is a much smarter way to go.
Jet_Black
Banded Mongoose
Remember that, in the end, Naalir wants to get caught by the PC's, so he has to give them something to arouse their suspicions. Also, reasons for the resets are afaik never given, so your custom software (consider your idea stolen btw!) is as plausible as my energy spike...
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
I don’t know that he wants to get caught. He wants them to find out, but I’d imagine he’d prefer it to be on his schedule if he can achieve that.
Fluffy Bunny Feet
Emperor Mongoose
First I don't have the Robots book. So what is in it is a mystery to me in detail.
Second most complex electronics (now) have resets of one type or another, breakers, fuses, literal resets, one may assume their continued existence. Notice I specified actual damage requiring it to reconfigure using spare circuits and recovering data that was damaged. So we aren't talking just a simple reboot for example but something fairly major. Something that would explain the in game effect plausibly to most players.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
With robots having important roles to play in critical infrastructure, or at least I presume they do, and having this model brain in existence for 8 centuries, the bugs will have been worked out. There would need to be another reason for the halt. Also, like the breakers, the method for handling an exception would be well known. As it isn’t mentioned at all in the Robot Handbook, this must be something caused by Naliir. They just need to explain it and make it shorter so the secret isn’t ruined.
Fluffy Bunny Feet
Emperor Mongoose
Some things may never be worked out as new solutions are too difficult or expensive to implement compared to the "old standby" in this case some form of breaker/reset. More complex things are always easier to break. An 8 century old design may have been long stagnant and unchanging with most of the flaws of the early models still present because it "just works" most of the time and is cheap to replace when it fails, it reached the "good enough" stage and stayed there as better models aren't as economic.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
Well, we have different views on the matter. Your welcome to your view but I think differently.
There are probably literally millions of different designs of robots in the OTU. Why is it such a big deal that this particular model or even just the set of robots on this ship, perhaps sourced together or maintained by the same engineer, have this specific reaction? It doesn't say "this is a universal rule and all robots will need to reset occasionally."
My left desktop monitor goes dark and needs turned off and on if the PC goes into standby. The right hand one, which is the same make and model bought the same day and connected via a hydra splitter, does not. I don't presume that it happens for every monitor in the universe.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
If the rules intended robots to have these kinds of issues, they would account for them. They don’t. That mean adding them in is not RAW. Mongoose shouldn’t add in things that break the rules as written simply because they need a table in an adventure, but sadly they do it all the time.
So you believe, from the current roles, that robots cannot ever suffer glitches, just because the rules don't say "robots, like all machines, can sometimes break"? Really?
That is not wholly... neurotypical.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
I believe that the brains, which have been in use for eight centuries, would be extremely mature and have no two minute long hang ups going on.
Do I think they’ll never have problems? Of course they will. Just not those kind of problems.
What do you base that belief on?
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
I think I’ve clearly stated that. If you disagree, fine, but find anything in the Robot Handbook or other rules to back your point of view and we can talk.
Well, Singularity says it can. You assert that it cannot, thus why I am wondering if this is just IYTU or if you have sources that say "this bug cannot occur"?
You're the one saying the plot item is a great sin against the rules. You can't just demand that other people prove you wrong: you have to cite your source!
"Do I think they’ll never have problems? Of course they will. Just not those kind of problems." is uttery arbitrary IYTU material. Unless you have a source. What is uniquely different about "those kind of problems"?
Last edited:
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
Actually, introducing plot items in adventures that don’t abide by the rules is arbetrary. If robotic brains had these issues, they would be covered as such by the rules. If you can quote a rule that mentions this happening, fine. An entry in a table in an adventure doesn’t make the cut as far as I’m convened.
You could just as easily start claiming high guard weapons randomly start displaying long failures. That’s a choice, not a rule.
Sure, if I do that's IMTU. But Mongoose can and that's Traveller. They've told you a detail about the world of Traveller: delight in that. It is richer for the inclusion of entropy!
But I repeat: please share your source(s) if this objection isn't just IYTU. Show the rule that says that robots can't break down (I don't believe that you are really saying that they must list every sort of fault that can occur up front
in what would be the world's worst and biggest rulebook)
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
I have shared. There is no rule. I can't quote a blank area. An addition in a table that does something not in the rules doesn't mean there is a rule, just flavor.
You do you, but this isn't RAW. I'm not going to argue the point. I'm sure someone else will be along before long to do so, but I'm not going to play this particular game. You do you.
Ace. We agree. There's no rule against it. No insane rulebook exists with every possible fault, every possible detail, every possible normal thing that happens every day like a thing breaking. Thank the Lord.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
And no rule for it, so not RAW. Later.
