Friday, September 04, 2020

Proposal: Fast Travel

Timed out / quorumed 5 votes to 0. Created a Rig location with some oddities: it has a Topology because (unlike the other aspects) there’s no ruletext exception for that in this proposal; my reading is that it also triggers “A Distinct Discovery, generated as per the process set out in the rule Making New Distinct Discoveries” even if that discovery is not present there - that Discovery is Steatos (which has the Rig as “the Location with which it is associated”, but it is not present there in any sense, I assure you those are just empty ventilation ducts). Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 06 Sep 2020 18:56:26 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Sub-orbital Insertion:

The ISV Jenny Haniver is powered and kept connected to the Interstellar Comms Array by a Geosynchronous Rig held in position in high Ganymedian orbit above the Cortex Desert. The Rig has been offline for maintenance since the arrival of the Haniver on New Ganymede but has just come back online.

There is a Location called the Geosynchronous Rig with a blank Index and a reciprocal space elevator Link to the Cortex Desert. No other Location may Link to the Geosynchronous Rig or be Linked to from there. No Discoveries are present in any density on the Geosynchronous Rig. No actions that require the expenditure of Stamina (except those defined in this rule) may be undertaken while on the Geosynchronous Rig.

A Pathfinder who is located in the Geosynchronous Rig may spend 2 Stamina and a Pod to set their Location to any Location that contains a base. A Pathfinder who is located in a Location that contains a Base may spend 2 Stamina and a Pod to set their Location to the Geosynchronous Rig.

In the rule Stamina, after the sentence that starts “If no Pathfinder has done so in the last 72 hours”, add:

Whenever a Pathfinder Sunrises they must also add 2 to the number of Pods held in the Gear of the Base on the Geosynchronous Rig.

Add the following to the list of Equipment in the rule Equipment:

* Pod. Infrastructure, Single Use, Blunt Object. Encumbrance 4.

Add a new location with an Index of -, the name of Geosynchronous Rig, no Topology, Discoveries or Hazards, and a link to Cortex Desert. Establish the reciprocal link from Cortex Desert. Do not establish any other Links regardless of the instructions in other rules relating to the creation of Links.

Add a new Base, owned by the Computer, located in the Geosynchronous Rig. Put 6 Pods in its Gear.

posted by Josh at 04 Sep 2020 08:57:00 UTC Comments (5)

Comments

derrick: he/him

04-09-2020 13:04:11 UTC

for Why didn’t we make this earlier?! As a note, you can use it with a pod to strand yourself in an entirely different part of the planet.

Kevan: he/him

04-09-2020 13:29:03 UTC

This may require some closer reading: “no Topology, Discoveries” is invalid because all Locations have to have one of each. The “space elevator Link to the Cortex Desert” would also seem to be one-way - downwards - as written.

The ruleset’s existing clause that “When a Location is created, it is Linked to the Location of the Pathfinder who created it, and vice versa.” will give a free link to wherever either Josh or the enacting admin is standing, and I’m not sure what happens if the Computer enacts it.

imperial

Josh: Observer he/they

04-09-2020 13:46:22 UTC

Oh those are some weird interactions, hm.

The first set (‘no topology’ etc) is dealt with by Prioritisation (‘If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies’) - because dynastic ruletext states that this one location doesn’t have a valid index, topology, discoveries or hazards, the general rule is overidden.

The reciprocal link thing is more of a head-scratcher; I assumed that we’d made all links reciprocal by default but we seem to have fudged around it rather than being explicit. By my reading, it’s linked to the location of the enacting admin, but the whole thing seems messy. I’m going to raise a fix CfJ to avoid the issue.

Raven1207: he/they

04-09-2020 18:14:56 UTC

imperial

Madrid:

05-09-2020 07:58:33 UTC

for