 July 23, 2012 - 12:35am | I have been thinking: what if spaceships run on AIs? That is, ships with a Robotic Level 5 or 6. That could change the scope of the space-themed adventures, if the ships think like a person. One would assume intelligent ships would be used as automated craft - like bulk haulers or recon drones - but with normal ships, they can be highly effective in combat or in emergencies, as they could better coordinate ship's systems, and allow crew the execute commands quickly. One major consideration is to what degree would the system have over the ship, and how characters would deal with them. Also, if AI-controlled spaceships are possible, would their be social/political/religious opposition to them? On the gaming level, could they be playable? Another question is how many AIs a ship may need. For example, a warship might have one to control the ship (Nav-con), another one to control the weapons (Tactical), and a third to serve the crew outside of combat, or to coordinate damage-control in battle (Crew-coordinator). This presents a lot of possibility. So what do you guys think? |
 July 23, 2012 - 2:00am | the cannon anser- was it in Warriors of White Light or in Assualt on Starship Omicron that has the robotically or cybernetically controlled ship? I dont think that you need multiple AI if you have a level 5 or 6 AI or Robot Brain Comparing it to what the book says a level 5-6 computer or robot could do I think that what I would enforce is level 6 for warship and level 5 for mild little civilian ships, a exploration ship with labs and need for good computer support might have level 6 I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 23, 2012 - 7:11am | We have the beginning of this kind of programming today. Auto-pilots on planes and cars that park themselves as two examples (anyone know how auto-pilots on water craft work?). Translating this back to the 1980s tech we can figure out what level of computer we would need have star ship auto-pilots and what they could do such as auto-pilots which only fly the ship in hyperspace or those that dock or those that fly themselves. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 July 23, 2012 - 7:35am | In KH0 WWL there was a cyborg that went nuts and took off with the Prenglar Doll for something like 20 years... |
July 23, 2012 - 1:14pm | In KH0 WWL there was a cyborg that went nuts and took off with the Prenglar Doll for something like 20 years...
Yeah that is what I was thinking of, though technically an organic brain wiped of its memories and plugged into a machine. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 23, 2012 - 2:51pm | Kinda reminds me of a story I once read where these pirates would raid shipping lanes and capture all the crew and passengers. The government put alot of resources (spent the coinage) on patrol ships to fight the pirate scum who would self destruct rather then be caught. When they finally caught one they found the pirate ships had no crews only robots and human brains disembodied (cyberbrains) and used to fly the ships. Turns out the megacorps building the patrol ships alos built the pirate ships and increased profits on both sides. So what if a few thousand beings lost their lives and/or bodies. Profits were made and shareholders were happy. Oh the cyberbrains went crazy after a while and had to be replaced. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
July 23, 2012 - 2:59pm | ^ That is a cool story line. Sounds like Streel. |
 July 25, 2012 - 2:04am | With all of the different robots that can be created in the game, you could have them just replace crew positions instead of the ship having it's own A.I. It would be more '80ish I would think. At least you could have pc bot's or have npc's bots on the pc's ship or something like that. I like the idea of something like Andromeda. The ship has A.I. and there are robots/androids working the ship also. |
