Bio Engineer Archive

Now I only recently picked up Knight of the Old republic, a great game set in the Golden ages of the Old republic and on the whole its nice how the game feels so much like StarWars however it's removed from the era we all know from the films and many of the books. One of the things which caught my eye was the fact there's alot of devices which are worn to enhance certain internal working (stats) for your character plus more shockingly there was clear signs of electronic implants which work as special traits for your character. Admittedly it's a minor part of the whole wide range of character tweaking options but on the whole what surprized me is that in general for the SW universe you don't find implants of this nature being mentioned all that much, if at all.

People before now have suggested that implants of this nature would be the next step for bio-engineers and droid engineers, components would be needed from us to allow the droid engineers (or even the artisans) to produce such implants. Until now I've always said that it's simply not in line with what you see in the books and films, the fact is that implants/cybernetics of any nature simply don't appear to considered at all in the SW universe except in a few unique cases.

But what we see with KoTOR is that cybernetic technology is very old, it's not a new thing by standards in the SW universe. This leads me to two conclusions, either the technology has become so commonplace that it is taken for granted in the era we're seeing now or the technology was lost or outlawed somehow. Indeed in the Warren we're seeing experiments in cybertechnology to create superior soliders for the Empire. That was obviously leaning into creating cybernetic bodies with all of the control you get from a droid and all the of perks from an organic mind. So my earlier thoughts that this was emerging technology are clearly flawed since the Warren simply shows a line of research involving cybernetics rather than research into cybernetics as a whole.

However this does raise a question, do we really want cybernetic implants to be part of the game? Is it moving too far from what 'feels' like StarWars and starts feeling more like StarTrek? Clearly there is great potential for such an idea but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

I'd like tohear peoples thought on this issue please.

I love Star Trek. I have all 7 season of TNG on DVD.....but yes, electronic implants are too startreky.

sorr it did not post. The use of implants is Evadent even in the original movies. You got Vader, Luke, and even Lado's Security Gaurd Lobo. And if you read the books following upafter the movies you will find there is quite a plethera of implant usage.

I never felt that SW felt very modern in terms of implants and such, the movie's and box i read never paid much attention to those details, maybe luke and han had memory chips in there heads but it was never something to focus on, though i think the culture of SW wasn't about that kind of stuff, i always felt like.. they only did that kinda stuff if they HAD to. I mean if they could make luke a fake arm what about someone who got there eye popped out or was blind?? Did they have fake eyes to? I think if they did you would never know, its like the medical technology is so acceptable and known that its not even noticed. It just blends into the picture.

Lobot is definitely a good example of where this kind of thing appears in the movies. And of course Vader and later Luke... Vader's suit/body part replacement is basically what happens when the cybernetic replaces the whole of the body, and of course Luke's hand replacement ties in with medical use.

As far as the game is concerned, this could tie several classes together to make some interesting additions. A droid engineer to make parts (likely using subcomponents from artisans), a bio-engineer to complete an implant module, and a doctor to install it. Now, what would these do... and what would the penalty be for usage?

Obviously, one would assume this is an expensive technology. Rare resources and the fact it could take three classes to do the work for one part would help keep it fairly uncommon. And I'm sure there would have to be a penalty for use when the implant is active. Like if you get an implant that enhances reflexes or something and gives you +5 ranged defense, it should also give you -5 melee defense or something. Bad example, but there should always be a trade-off. Maybe a downer like spice, the implant gives you the +5 ranged but after 10 minutes your action drops by 200 points for 5 minutes.

I think the idea is Star-warsy, at least as much as the BE profession itself is. Were there people engineering crazed gnorts in the movies? Right now, we only clone and engineer things for animals, and tissue for clothing basically (with the very occasional food suppliment). This would tie us in to the whole "human" (and twi'lek, bothan, etc.) aspect of DNA manipulation and such. After all, we have cloning facilities in SWG, I assume a bio-engineer presses the button to wake you up when you clone. It'd be nice to have some more things to do. I love the new cloning system for creatures, don't get me wrong, but it seems that it's all I do.

Well Luke and Vader really only had prosthetics of a kind. Vader wasn't a cyborg by choice it was the only way to keep alive after his fight with Obi Wan where he allegedly fell into a pool of lava or something. Needless to say though the mentions of cybernetic enhancements doesn't appear to exist very much in the books or films.

I like this idea, however, I am not sure how we can fit into the buff market in an original way, other than providing something that last significantly longer. Perhaps some unique stat-enhancements/skill mod/special protection with some minor but not insignificant penalty attached...