Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: MBE Ultimate Skill: Cloning DNA Samples. Opinions?
I started doing some brainstorming in a thread about factory production of clones and thought that the ability to clone samples in the lab would be a great bonus for reaching MBE. It would require some limitations to keep it from becoming too powerful though.
The Issue(s)- Factory produced items require identical resources. Identical templates cannot currently be created because samples results are random. As a result, clones cannot be factory produced.
The Proposal - Give MBE's the ability to clone DNA Samples. This could be done by either:
- Sampling the sample (i.e. add a "Clone Sample" option to the DNA sample's radial menu). This method would essentially be like cultivating samples in a petri dish. Eventually the source material will exhaust itself. To avoid the repetitive nature of this process maybe a tool could be used to automate the process.
- Creating a template of the sample, plugging the template into a factory, droppingcreature food (i.e. meat) into the input hopper and cranking out a crate of identical DNA. This method is essentially resequencing the DNA of the creature food to match that of the sample.
The Limits - Samples must eventually exhaust themselves so that the BE must go out into the field for more DNA:
- Using the "petri dish" methodyou should only be able toclone a sample a maximum number of times. Identical samples should be stackable. Stacks of samples could then be used in factories after a template is created. To keep this method from being abused you should not be able to sample acloned sample.
- Using the "resequencing" methodyou should only be able to create a template with a small number of uses (maybe 10-20) rather the 1000 that is normally available on the template slider. Again, to avoid abues, a factory produced sample should not be able to be used to create a new sample template.
Once you've conquered the issue of obtaining identical DNA you should be able to use samples from your stacks or crates to create a DNA Template schematic. After that creating a crate of schematics and then a crate of deeds should be fairly easy.
Giving MBE's the ability to factory pet deeds would be the the capstone of the profession, similar to MCH's gaining the ability to transfer pets. Consider it to be the ultimate achievement.
Anyone else have thoughts, insights or additions?
Haggis
Doesn't anyone think there should be more bang for the buck when you reach MBE? C'mon, there must be at least a few of you out there!
Haggis
The problem here is that you'd find someone getting a single good sample and then mass producing it to the point where they need never get dna for a very long time, this then leads eventually to what all servers are experiencing and that is a resource glut where there's just too much sitting around. While I have to say that gathering dna is a bit tedious it's only because we cannot stock pile it effectively. I can in some ways agree with allowing for dna sampling to occour in the lab however if you have an organic culture you should have to extract dna from it as you do with a clone rather than it actually producing dna itself. That way if you could produce an organic mass of rancor flesh (using a dna sample initially)or whatever then sampling it for dna then I can see it being fair. Since it's a not a pet you could actually get more samples from it however it would eventually die.
Also for the sake of balancing a 'bio-mass' would give you only 50% of the stats from a wild animal, thus if you have an enraged rancor bio-mass then you'd get CL37 dna from it rather than CL75. This would mean if you want to make the biggest and meanest clones you still need to sample in the wild however your able to culture bio-mass for making the lower CL rated animals which are easy to make anyway. Also under the new system it'd give you alot of control over making clones since you could find it easier to hit those lower CL ratings more precisely without being a master.
Interesting idea. There would have to be some limit, I would think that a DNA sample would only be clonable once or twice. Still, a very interesting idea.
It seems to me that dna sampling the same creature twice should give you the same DNA. So if I got samples from the same picket (individual) picket 4 times then I should get the same DNA sample 4 times and that they should stack. This gives a significant advantage to the MBE (They get to repetitevely sample the same creature more than other levels) and allows for a limited stacking system which is fairly difficult to abuse. (I think this limits you to about stacks of 5?)
I think this helps address the issues Tal-N rightfully brought up about us being able to duplicate existing samples in a lab. It also allows us to possibly make runs of creatures in the factory. (Runs of 3/4 that is when lucky) It keeps us out in the field sampling which is one of the cooler (more unique) aspects of our abilities. Espcecially once the cool new clones that Talthazar was describing come out.
Nice take. Addresses stacking without the abuse. If the average number of samples is 5, then that would allow for factory runs of 4 pets since it would take one set of samples to make the schematic for the template. I could live with crates of 4 deeds.
It doesn't sound like this would be limited to MBE's but they would have the greatest advantage with their hich success rate.
It would still be nice to have a bonus skill for MBE's. Guess we'll have to noodle the idea around some more.
Haggis
The point ultimately is that resources don't have to be identical to stack, indeed there are many examples of identical items NOT stacking so it's fair to say that the database isn't limited to only allowing the stacking of identical items.
One thing I was dabbling with as an idea is that rather than having a DNA sample. You have a Genetic sample. These would effectively be like a factory crate in the sense that it contains multiple dna strands which can you extracted one by one and put into the clone. Basically the genetic sample would have charges and could be used multiple times. Therefore you could extend the quality of the samples to actually have more charges. Something along the lines of a Very High quality sample giving around 7 charges and a below average only giving around a single charge. This would not only solve some of the problems with storage but also allow for a reduced amount of database space as each item appears only once but has multiple uses before it can be removed. It's really not that dissimilar from the idea of the cultures except that you don't actually generate dna but take the genetic sample directly from the animal.
That's definately reasonable considering you really only need a single cell to determine a creature's DNA and a sample would logically contain quite a few cells. Field work is not done under a microscope. It's done with a great big horse needle.
Haggis
Tal-N,
Interesting points. The stockpiling issue is what I was driving at when I defined limits, i.e. you should only be able to clone a wild DNA Sample a limited number of times. You should not be able to clone a cloned DNA sample at all. Having a stack of 20 or so of a given sample is not too outrageous, especially when you can't use any of them to create new ones. Having a stack of 1000 and being able to use any of the items in that stack to create thousands more is unbalanced.
I'm not sure I see the advantage of having a 'bio-mass' in the lab other than not having to go out into the field. If each sample is a fresh sample it sounds like they will not be identical, therefore they would not be stackable or useable in a factory which is really the advantage I was going for.
One twist that would be interesting, although I don't see it happening under the new changes, is to beable to compile a library of DNA from all of the creatures we have sampled. It would add a collector aspect to sampling and still require some field work. Once added to the library, you could use the sample in the lab for replication or whatever.
Cheers,
Haggis