Growth Cycles, Levels and lost gear...

[Slight001]

So as one levels up levels come slower and slower... which is fine. The problem occurs when Growth cycles and lost HA's and other such upgradable systems are taken into account.

Are their rules for growth cycles beyond leveling alone?

I ask because I know GM's who intentionally seek to destroy a players gear and as much of a pain in the ass it is to replace tech equipment. Replacing an HA that has been being leveled up alongside you all this time is much worse.

[Shark_Force]

there are 2 routes you can take. the first has a chance of working, the second is pretty much putting a bandaid on a sucking chest wound and pretending like it will work. you can probably guess which one i recommend.

so, the first route is talking to your GM about the situation, and working it out as people who are getting together on a regular basis presumably with the intent of having fun (and ideally are friends with each other). you both possess the ability to reason, and should be able to come to a compromise. it's possible he feels the loss of equipment is just a natural result of your choices. it is also possible that he is in fact making a deliberate effort to target your gear, in which case you should probably have a discussion about the fact that in this case, gear is essentially your class features, and the expectation of the setting is that it isn't too hard to hold on to it. but really, he may not even be aware of what he's doing (it's hard to say based on the limited information you've given).

the second route is to never play anything that requires gear that is difficult to replace. biotics, skinjobs, saints, technojackers (which are sort of gear dependent, except that you are going to be constantly replacing your toys by design anyways), and scarecrows all match that description from the main book, and there are other options in various locations; advanced biotics (available on these forums if you do a search) and metamorphs (available from a rifter article), for example. depending on how broad his definition of "gear" reaches, you may also be able to pull off a successful packmaster (the armour is nice, but largely not that necessary), and even outrider (you'll probably lose your host armour, but living armour is also pretty good actually and is much cheaper to replace).

[The Galactus Kid]

At any time an engineer, librarian, genetecist or even sometime a Warlord can grant Bio-E as a reward for service, completing a particular mission etc. This is outside of the normal level progression growth cycle. Now, if you're playing with a GM that is deliberately trying to hamper the characters by destroying gear, they are probably not going to be amenable to those aforemntioned methods, even when used as a story driver.

[Slight001]

so, the first route is talking to your GM about the situation, and working it out as people who are getting together on a regular basis presumably with the intent of having fun (and ideally are friends with each other). you both possess the ability to reason, and should be able to come to a compromise. it's possible he feels the loss of equipment is just a natural result of your choices. it is also possible that he is in fact making a deliberate effort to target your gear, in which case you should probably have a discussion about the fact that in this case, gear is essentially your class features, and the expectation of the setting is that it isn't too hard to hold on to it.

Yeah... that's good in theory... I have a former GM in my group. I've had to break him of many bad habits including trying to brow beat the others into staying together as one group and not fight amongst themselves.

but really, he may not even be aware of what he's doing (it's hard to say based on the limited information you've given).

That was intentional there are just too many variables to account for. For example there are those who decided to 'challange' the PC's by permanently destroying their gear. Then there are those who don't want the PC's to advance beyond a certain power level... and so on.

the second route is to never play anything that requires gear that is difficult to replace.

I personally don't have any interest in those various classes... also Packmasters would likely have their dogs treated like equipment same with Outriders and their mounts.

living armour is also pretty good actually and is much cheaper to replace).

Agreed except, IIRC, it also has growth cycles and invested Bio-E.

At any time an engineer, librarian, genetecist or even sometime a Warlord can grant Bio-E as a reward for service, completing a particular mission etc. This is outside of the normal level progression growth cycle. Now, if you're playing with a GM that is deliberately trying to hamper the characters by destroying gear, they are probably not going to be amenable to those aforemntioned methods, even when used as a story driver.

That is a viable option for gaining additional Bio-E. Another option is the rewarding of specific Bio-Enhancements or equipment.


By your lack of references to growth cycles outside of leveling I'm guessing there are no rules and I'm not missing anything? That's disappointing.

[The Galactus Kid]

By your lack of references to growth cycles outside of leveling I'm guessing there are no rules and I'm not missing anything? That's disappointing.

Other than as it is mentioned in Ralph the Red Bellamy's description and the description of the Genetecist O.C.C. in Rifter 50.

Other than that, there are no canon descriptions yet. This is something that will be addressed in future Splicers titles, but rest assured, there are ways to do it.

[Slight001]

By your lack of references to growth cycles outside of leveling I'm guessing there are no rules and I'm not missing anything? That's disappointing.

Other than as it is mentioned in Ralph the Red Bellamy's description and the description of the Genetecist O.C.C. in Rifter 50.

Other than that, there are no canon descriptions yet. This is something that will be addressed in future Splicers titles, but rest assured, there are ways to do it.

Not seeing the reference you are talking about in regards to Ralph "The Red" Bellamy... I checked both the character and his HA Rush...

Perhaps we are talking about different things? By growth cycles I am talking about the time it takes for an upgrade to mature so that it can be upgraded to it's next stage. For Example: Bio-Energy Expulsion Vents purchased at level 1 can't be upgraded to Bio-Energy Expulsion Blades till level 2. Another Example would be Glow Cells that must mature before being upgraded to Super Light Cells.

[The Galactus Kid]

By your lack of references to growth cycles outside of leveling I'm guessing there are no rules and I'm not missing anything? That's disappointing.

Other than as it is mentioned in Ralph the Red Bellamy's description and the description of the Genetecist O.C.C. in Rifter 50.

Other than that, there are no canon descriptions yet. This is something that will be addressed in future Splicers titles, but rest assured, there are ways to do it.

Not seeing the reference you are talking about in regards to Ralph "The Red" Bellamy... I checked both the character and his HA Rush...

Perhaps we are talking about different things? By growth cycles I am talking about the time it takes for an upgrade to mature so that it can be upgraded to it's next stage. For Example: Bio-Energy Expulsion Vents purchased at level 1 can't be upgraded to Bio-Energy Expulsion Blades till level 2. Another Example would be Glow Cells that must mature before being upgraded to Super Light Cells.

OH!!! I gotcha. No, when an enhancement is added or modified, in a genepool, the Bio-E expended is the "fuel" that causes it to grow and be modified. Most things can't just grow things on their own that way. This is what make Gardeners so effective. Their plants grow using stored bio-energy, whereas other Splicers gear, equipment and creatures must enter a Generpool and be rebuilt/recoded with new DNA. There are no rules yet for how long this should take, but as I mentioned above, this will be discussed in future suppliments.

[Slight001]

By your lack of references to growth cycles outside of leveling I'm guessing there are no rules and I'm not missing anything? That's disappointing.

Other than as it is mentioned in Ralph the Red Bellamy's description and the description of the Genetecist O.C.C. in Rifter 50.

Other than that, there are no canon descriptions yet. This is something that will be addressed in future Splicers titles, but rest assured, there are ways to do it.

Not seeing the reference you are talking about in regards to Ralph "The Red" Bellamy... I checked both the character and his HA Rush...

Perhaps we are talking about different things? By growth cycles I am talking about the time it takes for an upgrade to mature so that it can be upgraded to it's next stage. For Example: Bio-Energy Expulsion Vents purchased at level 1 can't be upgraded to Bio-Energy Expulsion Blades till level 2. Another Example would be Glow Cells that must mature before being upgraded to Super Light Cells.

OH!!! I gotcha. No, when an enhancement is added or modified, in a genepool, the Bio-E expended is the "fuel" that causes it to grow and be modified. Most things can't just grow things on their own that way. This is what make Gardeners so effective. Their plants grow using stored bio-energy, whereas other Splicers gear, equipment and creatures must enter a Generpool and be rebuilt/recoded with new DNA. There are no rules yet for how long this should take, but as I mentioned above, this will be discussed in future suppliments.

Cool. We really need a rule for how many days it takes for an items growth cycle to end and an upgrade can be implemented... I'm still irritated that I can't have Super Light cells at level 1...

[Shark_Force]

living armour is also pretty good actually and is much cheaper to replace).

Agreed except, IIRC, it also has growth cycles and invested Bio-E.

it can have invested bio-e, but doesn't have to. and you don't need to be specially attuned to it or anything.

yes, it takes time to make. but you can just use one that's already finished. living armour (not host armour, just the regular living armour suits) are not genetically linked to anyone at all. the only people who can't use them are technojackers. heck, if you kill an enemy, and didn't destroy their armour, you can even take it off of them (living armour has crazy fast regeneration, and is even able to replace destroyed parts).

[The Galactus Kid]

Cool. We really need a rule for how many days it takes for an items growth cycle to end and an upgrade can be implemented... I'm still irritated that I can't have Super Light cells at level 1...

So are you wanting to circumvent the rule that you get upgrades per level by being at level 1 and getting your initial enhancement, waiting until the enhancement is added and grown, enhance it again, waiting for the "growth cycle" to end and then enhancing again (to a super light cell, as in your comment) all at level one?

[flatline]

I'd handle it by starting the new suit at level 1 and have it advance normally. By the time the pilot advances from, say, level 5 to level 6, the suit would have advanced from level 1 to level 4 or 5. Once the suit is the same level as the pilot, stop tracking experience for the suit. Obviously, growth spurts would occur when the suit levels, not the pilot (until they're in sync again).

--flatline

[Slight001]

Cool. We really need a rule for how many days it takes for an items growth cycle to end and an upgrade can be implemented... I'm still irritated that I can't have Super Light cells at level 1...

So are you wanting to circumvent the rule that you get upgrades per level by being at level 1 and getting your initial enhancement, waiting until the enhancement is added and grown, enhance it again, waiting for the "growth cycle" to end and then enhancing again (to a super light cell, as in your comment) all at level one?

Pretty much.

It's not the low levels that concerns me so much as the higher ones where character can be going for months or even years before leveling. As for Super Light Cell's well I'm just annoyed that something as practical and viable as them isn't a base system...

[Slight001]

I'd handle it by starting the new suit at level 1 and have it advance normally. By the time the pilot advances from, say, level 5 to level 6, the suit would have advanced from level 1 to level 4 or 5. Once the suit is the same level as the pilot, stop tracking experience for the suit. Obviously, growth spurts would occur when the suit levels, not the pilot (until they're in sync again).

--flatline

Not a bad idea... I'd consider it for a house rule if I ever run a splicers game.

[flatline]

Out of curiosity, how often does a suit get destroyed but the pilot survives?

--flatline

[The Galactus Kid]

Out of curiosity, how often does a suit get destroyed but the pilot survives?

--flatline

It happened to our Packmaster in our game. He lost his arm and was rescued by his pack.