Warjack Senses

[quindraco]

How well defined are these in the fluff? Just how good is standard issue warjack vision and hearing? I remember reading about warcasters using their warjacks as vision proxies, but I don't remember any fine details.

[jandrese]

Doesn't the Liber Mechanika cover this?

[quindraco]

Doesn't the Liber Mechanika cover this?

I don't have a copy of that, what does it say?

[Calaban]

It says "buyyyy meeeeee!!"

If you are that curious about that sorta stuff, then being tight fisted with your $$$ can only result in frustration

[John of Arc]

Or, you know, someone could just give him a vague answer to satisfy his curiosity so that he doesn't have to drop $20 on a book when he won't use 99.9% of the content in it.

[Carnage]

Assuming he could even find it. It's been out of print for a while

[Episkopos]

Yeah, $90 for a bit of trivia is excessive.
Iron Kingdoms books are stupid expensive collector's items.

[MadJack]

Yeah, $90 for a bit of trivia is excessive.
Iron Kingdoms books are stupid expensive collector's items.
They're great reads if you can find them at a decent price, though. The Liber Mechanika is (I think) the only one that I don't own.

[Coinlord]

I think it's based on the Cortex, and there are three grades of cortex. Totally guessing at this point, but i think the better cortex wouldn't necessarily see better, but would process and recognize targets and situations better, or perceive better.

[Alex C]

Do we know they have senses beyond sight and hearing?

Touch: Unlikely. Would need complicated and delicate receptors.
Taste: Extremely unlikely. No need for it.
Smell: Possible I suppose, no evidence of it to my knowledge.

[kolonelk]

Do we know they have senses beyond sight and hearing?

Touch: Unlikely. Would need complicated and delicate receptors.
Taste: Extremely unlikely. No need for it.
Smell: Possible I suppose, no evidence of it to my knowledge.

Also, their fashion sense is appalling. I hear Deathjack has pretty good Spidey sense though.

[Lanz]

Oh hey! I have a liber-mechanika hanging around some place. I think it's buried in the corner of my room somewhere. I'll see if I can find it.

Edit:

Today's interesting moment: Upon finding my Liber Mechanika and flipping open the cover, my playlist shuffled to the Main Theme music from Harmony of Despair (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcYzMkLEmiY). Now it feels like I'm delving through some archaic tome of ancient lore in some monastery somewhere.

The section on Warjacks is 20 pages on it's own. Just the cortex is half a dozen pages. Didn't immediately see anything about senses from flipping through the pages, but I'd imagine if it says anything at all, it will be in the intro or the cortex section.

[CyrDraconis]

Do we know they have senses beyond sight and hearing?

Touch: Unlikely. Would need complicated and delicate receptors.
Taste: Extremely unlikely. No need for it.
Smell: Possible I suppose, no evidence of it to my knowledge.
Touch would be a big one, IMO - at least in the sense of 'how hard did I hit my target/did I just run into something/need to hold this still'. Touch in a different sense perhaps, certainly not to the point of texture and temperature; but pressure and feedback would be important.

[Quizboy]

Yeah, I'd assume they would need some kind of awareness of how hard they're gripping - even if their weapons are designed not to break easily, surely it'd be an absolute necessity for labourjacks, whose owners would probably want them to know the difference between 'firm grip on the crate' and 'crush Master's valuable possessions between my mighty iron fists'. And if labourjacks can sense that, presumably your much more expensive and mission-critical warjacks would have it as a basic feature.

[The Antipope]

Yeah, I'd assume they would need some kind of awareness of how hard they're gripping - even if their weapons are designed not to break easily, surely it'd be an absolute necessity for labourjacks, whose owners would probably want them to know the difference between 'firm grip on the crate' and 'crush Master's valuable possessions between my mighty iron fists'. And if labourjacks can sense that, presumably your much more expensive and mission-critical warjacks would have it as a basic feature.

The Freebooter is described as being able to handle cargo in a deft and gentle manner, as well as being able to rip a man in to two pieces. So yeah, spot on.

[wargrim]

The Freebooter is described as being able to handle cargo in a deft and gentle manner, as well as being able to rip a man in to two pieces. So yeah, spot on.

He may kill people, but he still does it in a deft and gentle manner :D

[allistorpreist]

Liber Mechanika does not talk about warjack senses. When I get home I can chack the Warcaster description and see what it says.

Sight and sound seem to be covered by how jack marshals interact with jacks (verbal commands and gestures) there is nothing to indicate that these senses are any better or worse than human.

Touch seems important, but probably not in the same way as a humans. They need to be able to handle things without destroying them, but they don't paint and you probably can't tickle them. Maybe tactile awareness is a better way of describing their sense of touch. Would you let a freebooter move a crate of glassware? Sure. Would you let the Behemoth pet your kitten? Probably not.

I would imagine using the correct relays, magic and alchemy could improve any of these senses, maybe even adding taste and smell if they are important to the warjack (Cryx, I am looking at you). Hopefully the new rPG will get into that a bit more.

[quindraco]

I would imagine using the correct relays, magic and alchemy could improve any of these senses, maybe even adding taste and smell if they are important to the warjack (Cryx, I am looking at you). Hopefully the new rPG will get into that a bit more.

Mechanically, the easiest sense to simulate is certain parts of the sense of touch, which is actually quite a few senses under one label. Other parts are incredibly difficult, like getting 'texture' correct. Taste and smell both require a chemical processing plant, and I seriously doubt the IK has automatic ones yet. Alchemy is a very obscure and arcane art there.

I would assume warjacks possess proprioception, pressure detection, vision, and hearing. I would assume they cannot detect smell, taste, texture, pain, or temperature in most cases. We know, of course, they possess telepathy for their warcaster.

[PPS_Dougseacat]

Warjack sight and hearing are both quite good, but varying a bit by nation and chassis type. Newer = better, and higher grade cortexes help in interpreting sensory input. Other senses do not exist, although there is some pressure/weight feedback with the hands to enable the handling of items without breaking them all the time. Even a labor 'jack with a low end cortex can pick up boxes without crushing them, etc. 'Jacks have only limited awareness of damage to their chassis, except when systems start to fail. Ability to interpret and work around this would also vary by cortex and function. The more sophisticated warjacks might also have some rudimentary awareness of fuel/water levels, or at least an awareness of when these begin to get critically low. Some 'jacks have customized sense systems, such as Triumph's link to an optical mechanism on its cannon scope.

[Green]

When talking about the realistic mechanical requirements for certain abilities, using modern robotics as a vague analog, remember that the setting allows magic and voluntary suspension of disbelief to fill in the gaps between our level of technology and that in the Iron Kingdoms.

If the cortex is a simple magical brain that grants a measure of self-awareness, perhaps it also simulates a sense of body-image that creates that proprioception* as a baseline for a sense of touch without requiring physical sensors, and augments that information with easily trackable pressure feedback from their muscle analogs.


*Had to look that up. Thanks for the vocab of the day, Quin.

(edit: Ninja'd by the Seacat! Drat!)

[CyrDraconis]

When talking about the realistic mechanical requirements for certain abilities, using modern robotics as a vague analog, remember that the setting allows magic and voluntary suspension of disbelief to fill in the gaps between our level of technology and that in the Iron Kingdoms.

If the cortex is a simple magical brain that grants a measure of self-awareness, perhaps it also simulates a sense of body-image that creates that proprioception* as a baseline for a sense of touch without requiring physical sensors, and augments that information with easily trackable pressure feedback from their muscle analogs.


*Had to look that up. Thanks for the vocab of the day, Quin.

(edit: Ninja'd by the Seacat! Drat!)
There are worse people to be ninja'd by. :P

[EpicAstinos]

They're great reads if you can find them at a decent price, though. The Liber Mechanika is (I think) the only one that I don't own.
I loved the Monsternomicons, World Guide and Player's Guide. They were very, very rich.