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[Publius Valerius]

Publius - a little of topic but you seem to mention the Mashtori in your things briefly - to clarify somewhat here is something I wrote for them a while back now, its out of date but the content is pretty much solid from a Fan-Fiction point of view.

http://backstage.eve-inspiracy.com/index.php?topic=1074.msg12294#msg12294

The only editing I need to do is change the ARMA. References (now retired corp) to TR-VA (Trinity's Vanguard https://gate.eveonline.com/Corporation/Trinity's%20Vanguard) Which is my current corp and has a bit of info in its description

Nice work Mathra -- or Math´ra -- if you like you can add more infos to the NPC page, I have just like I mention in the talk page just found some mission infos.

Amarr Counter-boarding Company

Found this too, but not full of info either.

Oh yes... thx.. I have also miss some others.... like Mariens etc..... Amarr Trade Goods.

P.S I change the links, they should work now.

[lallara zhuul]

The interesting issue that rose was how much you can enhance a person until it turns into a hindrance.

Increased strength, the limit is the strength of your bones and the rest of your support mechanisms like tendons and ligaments.

Even with regular muscles the bones are the problem, if you use your body in a way that is not careful you will break bones. Doctors took a good look about the broken hips of elderly ladies, the fractures were not impact fractures, but they came from the actual muscles breaking the hip even before the old lady hit the ground.
You could go around this by reinforcing the skeleton, but the problem comes getting something more durable than bone (some bones in the body deal with 500kgs worth of torsion several times on daily basis) into the mix. Also a major problem is direction of the force in the part that you are reinforcing, most human bones have to withstand several directions of forces at the same time.
Nanites reinforcing the bone itself by king it more durable would probably be the key here.

Increased speed, exactly the same problems.

Increased reflexes, this is a tricky one.

Most of the human muscles that deal with reflexes are actually slowly acting 'slow' muscles that never tire. Difference between a fast conditioned response and a reflex are the set of muscles that you use. I think the faster conditioned responses part would be the one that would be enhanced. You would have the same problems as with increased strength here, but additionally you would have to face a lot higher momentary forces directed to the skeletal system. Also tissue damage from the sheer speed to the blood vessels and the nervous system itself would become an issue at some point.

One major thing would be that the subject would need increased awareness in the tactical sense and in the kinaesthetic system, proprioception especially which would mean a complete overhaul of the nervous system and a lengthy timeframe to actually familiarize with it.
If these would be replaced with automated systems, then the subject would be more of a robot than a cybered individual.

I think that the upper limit in efficiency of a cybered individual will not be the technology, but the actual training to be able to use the technology.

I think that the cyber knights can use more extreme modifications because they have the training and the tenacity to actually learn how to use it.

We would be looking at a time frame of dozens of years of training to be able to be a superhuman cyber knight instead of a few years training to become a specialist.

Of course this viewpoint is based on the concept that a cybered individual will have biofeedback coming from the enhancements and would need to learn to use that in a way that would be better than of an unenhanced individual. To get the enhanced biofeedback used on a level that is comparable to regular biofeedback is a feat in itself, but to get more precise biofeedback and to learn to use it more precisely than the regular version is closer to art.

You do not master something like that in a day, or a lifetime.

This worldview would pretty much negate changing bodies or getting augmented at the drop of a hat.

[hellgremlin]

This seems like an excellent occasion to mention a heavily augmented character from my ancient, moldy fiction: Inquisitor Doradus.

Since Istvaan was an unassuming businessman, he needed someone to break heads for him. At the time, Endless Corporation under Istvaan's charge was collaborating with Sabaoth Inc., a Sarumite corporation in the Amarr empire. Endless provided the Amarr with high-technology, and the Amarr would provide us with a work force. The Inquisitor program was an extension of Amarr human endurance experiments taken over by the Caldari to see how they could be weaponized. Anyway, enough back story:

Shameless story snippet follows:

“How long has he been in that icebox?” Farrad queried, running a finger across the pale blue skin of the spider-like man. He found it jarring and unpleasant to the touch, like the underbelly of an eel. He could not explain why, but his discomfort and anxiety was growing in magnitudes.

“Three, four years now… it has been a time, now that you mention it.”

“Four years and you expect him to wake up?”, Farrad cooed curiously. He had gleaned a wealth of knowledge on the myriad subjects pertaining to cryogenics in his colourful years at the Caduceus. “You realize his cell walls are most likely torn to shit? Probably irrecoverable, you’re going to have to clone him. Ice crystals form in the -“

His sentence incomplete largely in part to the bizarrely elongated arm which silently shot up to his neck and seized his windpipe like some manner of nightmarish many-jointed vise, the terrified Farrad found himself suddenly lifted a few inches from the ground. His eyes bulging and watering, he looked down at the atrophied-looking arm, and watched in horror as just beneath that clammy skin, there coiled and writhed what looked to be serpentine fiber bundles. His frantic gurgling and struggling alerted the Caldari, who quickly jogged back to the table and leaned down close to the Inquisitor’s ear.

“Doradus, stand down. This is Istvaan.”

Fighting himself free of the slackening grip, Farrad tumbled backwards falling back into the mound of stasis gel. His heart pounded and he felt the blood rushing behind his reddened eyes. “What the fuck! What the fuck! What is he!”

“Resilient, for one. Note how he didn’t need a warm-up cycle? It’ll take him a few hours to come to his senses yet, but basic motor control is up and running already. Luckily for you, basic comprehension as well.”

Gathering himself but still clearly shaken, Farrad rubbed his throat tenderly, the garish impression of the Inquisitor’s fingers clearly visible upon it. “I’ve never seen anything like that. I have also never been this afraid! I fucking think it’s high time you dropped the ‘mysterious enlightened manipulator’ act and told me what’s what, sugarplum!”

Shogaatsu nodded slightly. Having nearly gotten his companion killed, the least he could do was explain. “As mentioned above, the good Inquisitor was part of an internal corporate police force. He was also a personal guard, and I dare say somewhat of a friend. In the days of Endless Corporation’s runaway expansion, our ranks filled with pilots whose undesirable tendencies - some criminal, some behavioural - had to be kept in check.”

Farrad stood motionless, transfixed by the sudden heaving of the outstretched giant’s chest as he expelled a few cups of blue gel through his mouth and nose, and took his first rasping breath in four years.

“Doradus is what you would no doubt refer to as a total swap-job. Few of his internal organs are his own, his bones are ceramic-infiltrated composite lattice, and most of his musculature consists of artificial fiber; boosted senses by means of some really advanced cranials, and a few other bells and whistles… for example, the anxiety you now undoubtedly feel is a direct result of modified apocrine glands which secrete large amounts of engineered fear pheromones - don’t worry, you grow accustomed to those rather quickly.”

“So he’s a bloody turbocharged scarecrow?” Farrad howled, a hint of incredulousness peeking through his wary expression.

“Scarecrow, enforcer, fixer, you name it. Who said nothing good comes of slavery.”

Farrad cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t follow?”

Istvaan placed a hand on the Inquisitor’s chest, and smiled approvingly as he felt the wraith-like man draw breath. “The technology used in modifying Heraeus - that’s his first name, by the way - is borne of Amarr human endurance experiments. The roots of his being lie in their attempts to make a slave work-force better able to endure harsh environments; we merely weaponized it, first in the commando units of the Endless Corporation navy, and then in a perfected form - the Inquisitors.”

So yeah, like lallara said, when thinking about body modifications to specific bodily systems, you have to take into account how those systems will interact with their meatframe. Synthetic muscles would have to be paired with synthetic bones, lest one tear itself off the other.

[Mithfindel]

Very, very distantly related (from the most-recent dev blog):

Uncle Sansha says "hi":

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=72880

[Graelyn]

Hey Isty, when are you going to re-acquire the rights to Endless?

[Makkal]

I imagine Makkal's cybornetics are similar in aesthetic to those in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

[Bong-cha Jones]

This thread has played out oddly.  I've seen Ghost in the Shell, Shadowrun, Blade Runner and noir name-dropped, but everyone is kinda circling around the connecting thread.  So, I guess I'll say that word:

Cyberpunk.

And while I'm at it, I'll add a couple more:

Street Samurai.

Razor Girl.

And, hell, Urban Jungle.

Seems to me that the Khanid Kingdom is occupying the other side of the Sansha's Nation coin in a few ways.  There's a lot of high-tech people seeking the bleeding-edge of advancement, and a lot of very cheap life out there too.  And a huge, nebulous, somewhat 'dark' (see what I did there?) underbelly to the whole thing, where power and money and people change hands.

Cyberknights are the people who have devoted themselves to physical enhancement, via cybernetic implantation, in the pursuit of martial capability.  They're the corporate assassin wired to the gills who can dodge bullets, the punk down the street with knives under his fingernails and the armed forces elite who can literally claim that his assault rifle is an extension of his body.  They might organize into orders, or military divisions, or house guards.  Or they might be lone wolves with the money and connections to keep themselves one upgrade ahead of the competition.  Or just the lowlife down the street who ripped a cool implant out of his rival's head and is hoping the antibiotics don't give out.

[Luya Oknor]

I've always thought that EVE fit in with the Cyberpunk/transhumanism genres of Science-Fiction.

For sword-wielding? It may be of good use for assassinations, and maybe dueling for sport. I am not so sure about on the open-battlefield. This isn't Warhammer 40,000. They're fighting corporations and other humans. Ballistic weapons are the mainstray but I would imagine that perhaps somewhere out in New Eden there is a tribal people on some backwater jungle world wielding blades and bows.

[Galm Fae]

When Valkyrie drops I am considering making a Khanid character. I already have a few ideas personality-wise how I want to make him, but I was hoping I could pick some of your minds about how a Cyber Knight would fare as a fighter pilot as opposed to a capsuleer or immortal mercenary.

[Louella Dougans]

would make a lot of sense really. Cyberimplants to control blood flow during high-G manouvering and so on.

integrated eye-camera for look-at+target system, instead of a more cumbersome helmet-camera, etc.

[Galm Fae]

(Lord, I can't believe I typed "Cyber Night". Hands, why must you fail me when I type?)

Those are some solid ideas. Maybe they'd even have cybernetic appendages that could increase reaction time at the flight controls.

[Silas Vitalia]

This thread has played out oddly.  I've seen Ghost in the Shell, Shadowrun, Blade Runner and noir name-dropped, but everyone is kinda circling around the connecting thread.  So, I guess I'll say that word:

Cyberpunk.

And while I'm at it, I'll add a couple more:

Street Samurai.

Razor Girl.

And, hell, Urban Jungle.

Seems to me that the Khanid Kingdom is occupying the other side of the Sansha's Nation coin in a few ways.  There's a lot of high-tech people seeking the bleeding-edge of advancement, and a lot of very cheap life out there too.  And a huge, nebulous, somewhat 'dark' (see what I did there?) underbelly to the whole thing, where power and money and people change hands.

Cyberknights are the people who have devoted themselves to physical enhancement, via cybernetic implantation, in the pursuit of martial capability.  They're the corporate assassin wired to the gills who can dodge bullets, the punk down the street with knives under his fingernails and the armed forces elite who can literally claim that his assault rifle is an extension of his body.  They might organize into orders, or military divisions, or house guards.  Or they might be lone wolves with the money and connections to keep themselves one upgrade ahead of the competition.  Or just the lowlife down the street who ripped a cool implant out of his rival's head and is hoping the antibiotics don't give out.

I like everything you've written.


The nice thing about EVE is that the PF is big enough for all of these ideas.  All of the regions have many planets, and many populated cities with millions of people, and many stories to tell.

I think it is an imaginary world where maybe on some city you do have a Motoko Kusanagi running around and then on the great pyramid of Khanid II's royal palace you've got some very scary 'old school' cyberknights with proper house armor on who have been guarding so-and-so for 400 years and will just as soon chop you in half as look at you.