Fwurg

[Mercury]

I had an awesome idea for my race which involves using a special point. So in the end whether or not this is a go depends on you lot, but I think it could be pretty cool.

"AI race special proposal"

One of your races are artificial intelligences rather than a biological race. The AI race does not (and in fact cannot) have a physical body but instead consists of complex software ran by multiple computers which may be in distributed locations. The world housing the AI race is presumed to have the required infrastructure.

The AI race gets the Virtual racial characteristic for free.

Some notes:

Because of the complexity of the software, they cannot inhabit robotic bodies including droids. This means the race is not a race of intelligent robots, but rather of intelligent software. Such bodies would not be able to provide adequate information processing power to make intelligent AI's. AI races can operate machinery remotely as non-AI races can, or give orders to droids, but not control them directly as a biological lifeform would control an arm for example. Likewise, an AI can be transferred into the computer system of a large enough ship, and it can control basic ship functions, but it has no higher ability to do so than an ordinary pilot or operator.

Being artificial, AI races do not have a homeworld and thus cannot benefit from the Homeworld special. Moving the population to a different planet or system costs double the regular amount and requires separate projects or technology.

An AI race does not benefit from population growth each decaturn and may not take the High Fecundity or High Fertility racial characteristics. AI races are incapable of producing more of themselves and copying their software does not produce new AI's.

Anything not indicated, such as racial production bonuses, etc. are identical to normal races. The AI gain no additional special powers.

[RemcoSwenker]

I think your special proposal is cool.

However I have no idea on the balance of this and how StarWars it is.

[Mercury]

I was just reminded there is a "virtual" racial characteristic. That seems relevant *nodnod*

EDIT: I edited the proposal accordingly

[Fedor]

From a balance point of view, are there any positives to this? I only see negatives listed and it costs a special point.

[Mercury]

Since the edit, it gives the Virtual racial characteristic for free

[Dragonmaster352]

I like the idea of introducing AI.

In fact I like it a lot.

But personally I think Artificial Intelligence is more a technology than a special.

It was said in a different topic that specials pertain more to the system than it's inhabitants. If someone takes over a system with three stars and murders the entire population, the system will still have three stars.

[Mercury]

I have to agree with you there. I was aiming at it being something unique, like an artificial moon. Though theoretically constructing such a massive object is a technology, for our purposes it works better as a unique special thing that cannot be easily repeated, I think. What are your thoughts on this?

[Elmer]

Im sorry to say, but I don't like the idea. I was already a bit reluctant about the 'virtual' characteristic. The reason for this is that I think that AI is not Star Warsy at all. All droids are idiots, expect for R2 D2, other forms of AI's do not exists, and it is somehow impossible to copy software more complex than a little data. (As there is only one R2 D2, and the go through hell to retrieve it when he's lost.)

I think an AI race is not race worthy. You can then better create a few people who rule their world, and say that everything is run by droids. The effect is the same, but it safes a lot of trouble, fits better within the setting, and we don't need another special. (That is another point, I like to keep the amount of specials limited, to prevent new players from drowning into way to many options, and picking stuff they later regret.)

[Gerben]

While I feel this special is pretty nifty, i'm afriad I would have to side with Elmer on this one. It doesn't really fit the universe( and a similar effect can be achieved within the current rules) and the amount of special we currently have can already be overwhelming as new player.

[Brend]

First off, the fact that there is much chatter about this special indicates that you have hit something.

After giving the matter considerable thought, I find myself in an odd position. Because of the length of my reply, I have split up this post into four parts, each with their own tl;dr summary at the end.

Setting impact

As already pointed out, most droids are very stupid (or at least ridiculously impractical) except for the two protagonist droids. But those two are made exceedingly smart for reasons of narrative interest, and not as a reflection of the level of technology in the setting. On the other hand, the expanded universe does have some examples of smarter droids, and especially when going about the higher-level droids there has been talk of manumission (at least, among the droids :P).

I would be interested to see how this pans out, were it in another setting. I do not feel that this special, or the Virtual racial for that matter, really fit within the star wars settings. One of the things that bothers me is the fact that I can't really envision a race of non-biologicals evolving within the setting. This argument is easily countered by stating that they did not evolve: they are an artificial intelligence after all.

So to conclude the setting part of my opinion: I really like the idea, and would love to explore the implications of having a fully AI race in the game. However, I see no good way to actually put them in the setting without breaking one of the basic premises: 'independent computing platforms are stupid'. To explain: you can have a computer system with advanced programming, but it can never be independent of biological life; droids exemplify this premise by being stupid and requiring biological oversight, and this is also the reason targeting computers are not used in the setting: biologicals are better at the job (which could be explained by their connection to the force).

Furthermore, this special forces the question: "Are non-biologicals in contact with the force?" To which my answer would be: "No!". But this special does not make any mention of this, so the question would have to be answered before I would accept any artificial-only form of life as a PC race (mvdenk neatly circumvented this issue by creating a second biological race...)

tl;dr: although I'm very interested in the implications, I am afraid that too much of the setting would be affected by having a fully developed AI race.

Balance Analysis

First off, I see no reason we should limit the number of specials. Having options is what it's all about -- and we can help now players by categorizing the options, should we have too large a number of them.

I have looked at this special from multiple angles (and I am aware that I was one of the people that suggested getting a free Virtual along with three other racials), and I find that I do not really like what I see. Giving up population growth in exchange for a fourth racial characteristic does trigger my 'this sounds very good' sense. On the other hand, giving up population growth would mean that any investment in would never grow beyond that starting level.

In this, however lies the problem: it is perfectly possible to improve almost every other aspect of your system through terraformation. So a fully product-optimized economy could plop down at least 10.0 with four racial characteristics. If I compare this with Augmented Species, I am not sure whether giving up population growth is enough of a price to pay. Augmented species limits the population with 4 characteristics to 10% (unless multiple specials are spent on it), and not growing does not prevent one from having a large population.

So, with this special you give up a long-term benefit (population growth) in exchange for a massive early game boost. And the mid-term is not hindered, as you can terraform your system to improve above the starting level.

The fact that it costs double to relocate is not really a balancing factor, since you don't have to relocate due to population growth (you're not growing), and other reasons for forced relocation will spell trouble for any faction, and the doubled costs will probably be the least of your problems.

tl;dr: I am sure it was not the intention, but this special seems to be an enormous stack of economic bonuses. I think it is much better than augmented species on the economic scale.

Doubts about the fluff

And now, finally, the really awkward part of my opinion: I'm not completely sold on the mechanistic effects of the fluff (though this is a bit of a weird point for any special, racial or technology we think up).

I can understand why such AIs would not be able to 'assume control' of hardware platforms sch as droids and ships due to things like lag. However, if such an AI would actually exist I see no reason for such a race to not start research into this area immediately: in our setting biological brains have proven to be capable of processing a large array of inputs after sufficient exercise (think of teprogrenaian implants!), so why shouldn't they be able to do it? (Of course, one could cite 'the Force' for any such question.)

From a balance point of view it is really very good (even though I think the special is rather strong still) that these AIs can not reproduce. However, from a fluff point of view, I don't understand why they can't. If they can not be copied, what stops them from 'growing' their children? Biologicals can not be copied either: but they can reproduce through sexual or asexual means, and this can and is assisted by technologies. What prevents these AIs from reproducing?

tl;dr: The limitations seem arbitrary to me, but they are direly needed as (lacking) balance against the economic benefits.

Proposal

Instead of going for a full AI, you could look into things like energy-based or gas-based lifeforms? These would be biological, but they share a great deal of features with AIs: they require unique (for our current setting) accommodations, and their ships and planets would be very alien to all other current races.

They would however, be biological in nature. Of course, this only works if you want this special for the fluff (which I think you do) and not for the stacked up economic bonus. If you want to go for the economic bonus, I would suggest taking a jackpot, instead of this special; or you could grab a few Augmented Species (each time giving you a +10% with 4 characteristics).

tl;dr: There could be options within the biological realm that give you the same level of alien-ness, while keeping with the premises of the setting.

((On an unrelated note: I would not oppose the removal of the Virtual racial.))

[Brend]

As a (short) addendum to my previous post, I would like to point out that the it has already been established that the (at least half) of the Limëan population was purely virtual, while still being capable of 'assuming control' on a specifically prepared body. This contradicts the specials fluff. And even though this is about AI, and the Limëans were originally based on biological life -- the fact remains that their purely virtual existence did allow them to assume control.

[Mercury]

Its clear to me there is a lot of resistance to AI. It seems to me the main reason is that it isn't present in the Star Wars universe. So I did some background research on Star Wars and droids and AI's. I found some facts that may surprise you.

First, let me get into some highly intelligent droids:

- The Super tactical droid (such as General Kalani and Aut-O), managing large armies of droids and engaging in high level strategic thinking, including prediction and countering of enemy actions and plans (Clone Wars)
- HK-47, who isn't just a capable and learning combatant, but who has his own personality and is a fully fleshed out character with personal development and depth (Knights of the Old Republic, Knights of the Old Republic 2)
- four IG-88 droids even started a complete robot uprising, operated as bounty hunters and some assisting Boba Fett on various occasions, with one of them uploading themselves into the Death Star II as part of an elaborate plan for them to take control all droids (Clone Wars and others)

Now, my impression was that rather than not being intelligent, droids lacked the ability to make smooth actuation, having trouble moving around as C3PO seems to have. Boy was I ever wrong:

- IG-100 MagnaGuard (Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith), were specifically designed to fight and kill the Jedi and kept up the battle with a Jedi Master quite skillfully
- BX-series droid commando forces (Clone Wars) move around like expert acrobats
- ASP-19 battle droids were used to train with lightsabers and if set to too difficult a setting could kill padawans (Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy)

I think the 'stupid clumbsy droid' is merely a stereotype set about by the mass produced B1 battle droid, who are absolutely moronic, which is probably why they are so dirt cheap. But many droids are intelligent, have personalities and form fully fletched characters in the Star Wars setting. 3PO series droids speak over a million languages and handles the complex rules of diplomacy very well. Medical droids make better surgeons than most human doctors so those are neither stupid, nor clumbsy.

On to the fluff doubts:

Humans can operate a car. Very well even. But that only requires a very limited number of control points: steering, speed, transmission. Many other functions are possible, but never at the same time. Even airplanes are limited to four basic variables, pitch, yaw, speed and angle. By contrast, a humanoid body has some 1380 degrees of freedom. Imagine having to drive a car where you simultaneously need to control 1380 buttons. It would be impossible for a human mind if it did not have specialised sections of brain, devoted to just that. The presumption seems to be that because AI are computers, they can thus do 1380 things in perfect coordination, but there is no rational reason to presume this. Sure they can run gajillions of calculations per second, but we operate gajillions of kalium pumps per second and that doesn't mean we can run a car with 1380 degrees of freedom smoothly either!

Just like humans have no brain parts specifically designed for driving cars, AI's have no software specifically designed for controlling droids. Thus they cannot handle the 1380 degrees of freedom. They maybe could handle four or five, placing their mental capacity on par with regular humans. Even if humans can learn how to drive a car, human consciousness will never inhabit the car. Likewise, AI will never inhabit a droid.

Also, software "looking" at the world through a camera is not "seeing" visual images inside its head. It is seeing a string of zeroes and ones from which it tries to make sense. No matter how smart the AI, there is no visual cortex in the primary software. So it cannot 'see'. It might learn through software how to interpret the data, but that would always be an Englishman in a box transcribing Chinese characters rather than someone inhabiting a droid body and perceiving what is going on. That severely limits the ability of the AI to process the information, greatly increasing the computational complexity beyond the actual problem.

The limitation for this cannot be overcome by technology - the problem is not just that there is lag. Its also that the AI is fundamentally incapable of comprehending the physical world in the same way that humans are designed to do, because their world is completely different from our own and thus they aren't built for that (unless they are droids in which case they are limited to their own droid body which was what they were built for). We humans are made of the real world, and happen to process information to help us perform in the real world. AI are literally made of information and the whole real world thing just happens to be there to allow the information processing.

The point I'm trying to make here is that AI are not a set of software subroutines that can couple with other software to become better. They are a self-contained entity that runs on software, lives in a world of software and has no connection to the real world beyond datastreams. You cannot make AI's smarter by providing them with more software, just as humans won't get smarter no matter how many brains (irrespective of how smart those brains are) you tape onto them. Thus, though you can write new software, AI won't gain new abilities from this, and learning by one AI does not automagically transfer to other AI's.

This is also the reason AI cannot reproduce: making an AI is not simply copying the software, just as making a human is not a matter of duct-taping organs, muscles and bones together. And booting up the new software doesn't work, just as electrocuting the macabre artwork won't make it a human.

Someone created AI at some point. Therefore it is clearly possible to make an AI. How it was done, the AI sure don't know - how could they? They have no way to observe their own creation, just as humans don't. The point is, the AI haven't mastered it, and whomever created them is either long gone, or not available.

On to the balance objections:

I made this a special because I don't think AI technology should be generally available in large quantities. I agree that AI everywhere would go against the concept of Star Wars - that's why I did not want to simply declare a race virtual and artificial, but use a special instead. That's sort of the point of a special after all, to be special, rather than being generally available.

I totally see the balance problem about the free Virtual characteristic. Let's remove that and keep the other limitations. I don't care about the powers associated with the special, the whole point is to make it an AI race, because what I'm looking for is the interesting interaction that results from it. That provides me with a roleplay challenge that a regular race, even an energy or gas based one, simply won't have. The reason for making an AI was that challenge and if necessary I'm willing to take a production penalty for it.

Because of the interesting challenge and roleplay opportunities, I hope I can change your minds on this topic, for example by the references above to intelligent and capable droids in the cannon star wars setting and answering questions as to fluff.

tl;dr: I disagree with the resistance to AI and I urge you all to reconsider!

Now, onto another matter entirely:

If you're looking at the specials to see what options are available for your new system... you're doing it wrong!

Making new specials, climates, racial characteristics, technologies, special projects, etc. has always been available as an option for new players. The game system is there to provide a framework upon which players can implement their wildest imaginations, rather than a limited set of building blocks that you have to construct your system with.

Sometimes things are not possible for reasons of game balance. If you want a trillion people population on a planet, thats not reasonable from a balance point of view. And sometimes things don't fit with what you want. If you want enormous trees, you'll have to use a climate feature rather than a special. If you want a weather control system on a planet, use a technology instead of a special. If you want to have your race speak with an irish accent, don't make a racial characteristic, but simply roleplay it, laddy.

However, if you can think of it, and its balanced, the point is that you can make it. The fwurg rules are a framework, not a prison.

tl;dr: The correct way to build a fwurg system is not to look at the available options to create an imaginary world. It is to imagine, and then look for ways to create it.

[Chriz]

I agree that this idea is worth a special, this is what specials are for. It is not something that could be made with just some racial characteristics. If you remove the free fourth racial characteristic from the special it is no longer an economic stack but just a unique race.

I understand your reasoning and am happy with your explanation on these things. I think that in many cases we can treat them as if they were a normal population. For example the size of a ship that is required to travel with one of your AI's does not have to be any smaller or bigger than that of a standard race such as humans. It is just using the space differently, instead of bringing food, you bring power.

As I see it now your race will not grow but may only lose population due to the possibility of destroyed ships and installations during war. I don't think this should have any real impact but could be something to consider.

Still the fact that software is data and data can be copied normally makes it a bit iffy to me. Since you say you can transfer it, it is already a step closer to copying.


EDIT: typo fix

[Elmer]

oops, long text again

Not yet completely convinced about AI

tl;dr: I only see three truly intelligent droids, the rest is still pretty stupid.

Looking at the presented intelligent droids, this is something I also noticed, however, I also noticed the rarity of such droids. It is as it is impossible to create general software for droids, and every droid need to gets its code written again. This means that simple droids can be produced in mass for cheap, as their program is simple and thus cheap, while better droids needs more time and effort to create, as their software needs time to be written again. It sounds a bit iffy, but its the only logical explanation I could come up with which is coherent with the observed setting.

Also, nearly all presented intelligent droids are still stupid, they cannot make (intelligent) decisions on heir own. The MagnaGuard is still seemly incapable of anything beyond hitting jedi, C3PO knows protocols, but everything outside that makes him only and stupid burden with to much noise. Even the Super tactical droids fail to see beyond their 'droid ego', and cannot do much more than walk and talk. Giving some tactical advice. They are actually not smarter than the protocol droids, but work at another level and do have an ego.

The only droids I see simulating truly intelligent behaviour are R2 D2, HK-47, and IG-88. Three Droids in the whole galaxy...

Othter way of approach

tl;dr: Maybe simulate a faction of a handful intelligent droids, with loads of stupid droids.

Maybe an idea to approach this from the other way around:
If I take it correctly, you want to roleplay with droids/AI and see how the rest of the Union react. Then we can determine how a 'droid faction' should work.

You have a lot of standard stupid droids doing their thing (mining, harvesting, collecting sea shells.)
They are overseen by slightly more intelligent droids, who have an basic idea of what has to be done and how.
On top are a handful of intelligent droids/AI who rule the faction.

The droids then need a reason to join the Union, maybe something with the need of more materials to grow will do. They probably have a 'lets grow bigger' directive. Or the 'lets secure our near space' directive has kicked in, and they went for a look.


Then how should we model this? I would say with either an extremely small population as the ruling droids, or as a big population with augmented species to simulate the leaders. The population is able to grow as the droids create new droids to do simple stuff, and from time to time there is a new AI programmed.

As zones don't need population to work, the assumption is that a lot of production is done by droids at other factions. So a small population to simulate the AI works more coherent with the current system than vice versa.

The racial characteristics then are probably something like cyborg, virtual :(, and something else you like. As virtual is no longer necessary, they can be walking droids now anyway, you can stick to cyborg and two other characteristics. Your intelligent population can then be 0.5 and still grow after a little tweaking of the grow benefits.

[Mercury]

tl;dr: I only see three truly intelligent droids, the rest is still pretty stupid.

Actually super tactical droids run their own armies, including logistics, give orders and command armies. They aren't protocol droids who give advise, they are large and in charge, they decide what happens and do so autonomously. They even handle politics and operate planets on behalf of Count Dooku.

Here's some more smart droids:

• 4-LOMBounty hunter droid in The Empire Strikes Back. 4-LOM was an ambitious protocol droid who overwrote his own programming to embark on a life of crime.
• 8t88 was a Model 88 Tiss'shar administrative droid who went rogue and became an information broker, seeking revenge on the people who disfigured him.
• Vuffi Raa in an alledgedly extragalactic droid. Was reprogrammed to be absolutely non-violent, but overcame his programming to defend the lives of his friends.
• Blue Max and Bollux were part of Han Solo's crew for a while after earning their freedom by saving lives, before going his own way.

I'm sure I can find more if I look.

If you're trying to argue that not all droids are brilliant, I agree. Neither are all humans. I'm not proposing a race of super-human intelligence (actually, I plan on playing them sort of stupid in regards to the real world). In fact, I'm asking for normal population in most regards ^_^

tl;dr: Maybe simulate a faction of a handful intelligent droids, with loads of stupid droids.

I am deliberately NOT looking for cyborgs (we have 2 of those already) and NOT looking for droids. I'm looking to create an AI race. If I put them in bodies, they become mechanical humans, which loses all the aspects that make them interesting as I mentioned before being information world creatures, rather than real world creatures.

[Elmer]

Al right, you've made your point, intelligent droids do exist. However (sorry for being so annoying), they are all isolated cases, hitting that they are either bugged (in a strangly intelligent way) or seperated special cases (which they almost all appear to be.) Maybe we can use this in out advantage. How about your race exist of one super computer nation AI unit thingy device. And it works by sending of parts. So when the race has a senator, the senator is literally a descended part of the main AI.

You keep your AI, it is better in line with the AI's from Star Wars, and I think the roleplay can be quite interesting.


This however leads to the following practical questions which I wonder how it would work:
Why would your AI race join the Union, how would your AI do that, how are they running an economy if they are software, and why? 'Look I am software incapable of comprehending the outside world, lets go plant some trees and harvest some crystals.' Maybe if that is clear, I have a better idea how an AI would work within Star Wars :).

[Brend]

I'm still not fully convince on the actual fit of the proposal with regards to fluff. But what the hell, let's give it a try. After all, we've had other non-biological lifeforms (such as the Limëans).

I would propose the following though:

What you're basically doing is limitting yourself with some restrictions that seem rather meaningless if you don't get anything from it. Why not take them as a 'normal' race and declare that they're AI's? From a balance point of it's not broken if your Virtual population grows. Besides, the Virtual characterstic already encompasses the 'fully virtual' aspect of beings. I don't see why you should receive more penalties because you want something that's already been approved once.

I am not opposed to putting this special case in a special; but I really would like the special to give you at least some benefit

tl;dr: The correct way to build a fwurg system is not to look at the available options to create an imaginary world. It is to imagine, and then look for ways to create it.

I fully agree, but I'm afraid that that's not how most arriving players will see it. We might want to work on making this basic principle more visible (not through large notices everywhere; this is better placed subtly in the guides).

Think, for example, about the Extended Heliosheath. Nobody came up with it till I did -- and then other players wanted to pick it as well, instead of coming up with their own stuff. Of course, this is a counter-example as well, because I created something new :P

[Brend]

Still the fact that software is data and data can be copied normally makes it a bit iffy to me. Since you say you can transfer it, it is already a step closer to copying.

This is one of those fluff things I would like to see explained. Especially because I would like to have something to refer new/other players to if the issue of 'I copy my AIs for infinite population' comes up. (Though I am convinced the Mercury won't do this.)

[Mercury]

How about your race exist of one super computer nation AI unit thingy device. And it works by sending of parts. So when the race has a senator, the senator is literally a descended part of the main AI.

I can work with this!

Still the fact that software is data and data can be copied normally makes it a bit iffy to me. Since you say you can transfer it, it is already a step closer to copying.

This is one of those fluff things I would like to see explained. Especially because I would like to have something to refer new/other players to if the issue of 'I copy my AIs for infinite population' comes up. (Though I am convinced the Mercury won't do this.)

Software is data and data can be copied. However, an AI is an active process which is running gajillions of calculations as you try to copy it, and it is also enormously huge, meaning you can never copy every single piece of the software and state at the same time. This automatically creates an invalid construct, where code is mismatched and an invalid software construct is created that just doesn't work.

This is similar to trying to copy a human by first building a foot, then building an arm, then building a torso and slowly putting it together. By the time you're done with the head, the body will have already bled out. You could in theory create a perfect copy by freezing an AI entirely and copying the entire hard and software molecule by molecule and bit by bit, but even here errors are likely resulting in illegal AI's and to avoid those errors for the astronomical amount of bits and pieces you need to assemble would cost vast quantities of money, far beyond what can reasonably be usable. If each new AI costs 100 , then it quickly becomes prohibitive.

I am not opposed to putting this special case in a special; but I really would like the special to give you at least some benefit

I think this should be a special, for the reasons of these being special conditions. I can think of several restrictions that AI races should have to prevent them from becoming conceptually broken, such as these:

• Being artificial places a whole slew of special limitations:
• Being artificial, AI races do not have a homeworld and thus cannot benefit from the Homeworld special. Moving the population to a different planet or system costs double the regular amount and requires separate projects or technology.
• An AI race does not benefit from population growth each decaturn. AI races are incapable of producing more of themselves and copying their software does not produce new AI's.
• An AI race MUST take the Virtual racial characteristic.
• An AI race CANNOT take the following racial characteristics: Aquatic, Cyborg, Force Sensitive, High Fecundity, High Fertility, Huge, Natural Flight, Telepathic.
• You cannot make a Jedi using an AI race as AI are not connected to the Force.

I'm having some trouble coming up with a fitting benefit, so I'm open to suggestions. I considered some idea's such as a small bonus on ICT technology production (which conflicts with the max +10 / pop for race concept), free information (but racial characteristics already cover these) or free holonet relay station maintenance (but technology makes that less useful and its basically a small money per turn thing which isn't very interesting).

I'll think on it some more.

[Stuiter]

Mercury you know that without connection to the force and not reproducing you are currently not Alive according to the new definition of life act and cannot join the Union.

[Brend]

Software is data and data can be copied. However, an AI is an active process which is running gajillions of calculations as you try to copy it, and it is also enormously huge, meaning you can never copy every single piece of the software and state at the same time. This automatically creates an invalid construct, where code is mismatched and an invalid software construct is created that just doesn't work.

This is similar to trying to copy a human by first building a foot, then building an arm, then building a torso and slowly putting it together. By the time you're done with the head, the body will have already bled out. You could in theory create a perfect copy by freezing an AI entirely and copying the entire hard and software molecule by molecule and bit by bit, but even here errors are likely resulting in illegal AI's and to avoid those errors for the astronomical amount of bits and pieces you need to assemble would cost vast quantities of money, far beyond what can reasonably be usable. If each new AI costs 100 , then it quickly becomes prohibitive.

I do not want to be this contrary, but I have a nagging feeling that this explanation fails to explain why you can't copy the AI. Just to be clear, this is not me trying to hinder the creation of a cool , this is me trying to be sure I understand how this works, and what the implications are. If any of the steps of reasoning in this post is unclear, this is due to a lack of communication ability on my part, and you should ask for clarifications before building on my work.

The reasoning: "Ok. I dig: the AI is only data, and a running process can not be copied. So, how does one of these get onto a ship? It sure as hell can't be transferred there, because any transfer of data is copy followed by delete. If the running process could somehow be reconstructed over there, the data transfer channel itself could be used as a source for new AI processes (clones)."

I understand that this might be viewed as 'this guy is just trying to apply current-day software concepts to my outlandishly alien idea'; and this is a perfectly valid reasoning. After all, we accept hyperdrives as an advance of physics beyond our current understanding. There is no reason that such leaps of understanding have not been made in the field of software principles and computation. So, in the end, no further action is necessary based upon what I say here, but I feel obligated to point this out because of other players that could go "But wait, if I take this AI special, I can easily reason my favourite overpowered benefit X into existence".

I strongly propose looking into Elmer's idea: there is only a single AI. Whether you fluff this as a union of gazillions of processes, or one massive process is irrelevant, as from a functionality point of view, these things are the same.

This does not imply that it has godlike smarts, or that it actually understands what is going on. It is just so extremely massive that it can in no way be cloned. There is no growth because there is only a single 'spark' -- however, this AI consists of gazillions of processes, all working in parallel. It does not have population growth, because it does not improve with more processes.

This neatly fits in the niche you are looking for: a purely software entity, that although it can model the world, has no real experience with the physical world. It also does away with the problems that can be seen in having 'population'. Even if you were able to clone some sub-process of the AI, the AI is still the same AI, and the extra process does not impact it.

In fact, I have no opposition to the singular AI model. I think that would actually be a great addition to the game, as it allows us to explore the intricacies of a purely softwaric entity, without the attached implications about computational power, cloning and droid smartness.

((In all honesty, I am still not fully convinced by all the mentions of 'smart droids' -- though I agree that some of them seem exceedingly smart, I have the nagging feeling that they will fail at other tasks. And some of these droids really seem like their writer just wanted to create a smart robot because he felt like it, without regard for the implications within the setting; sci-fi writers tend to do this.))

Edit: Replaced 'monolothic AI' with 'singular AI'. 'Monolothic AI' is actually a term in research, and I did not intend to use that meaning.

[Mercury]

I know, which is why it'll be extra interesting ^_^

I listed a description of my race (no name yet) with a description of the new special proposal here: http://www.fwurg.net/dokuwiki/user:mercury

[Brend]

I approve of the +10 per developed zone benefit. It's not that strong, as a fully developed system will only get the equivalent of 2 free holonet relays.

On an unrelated note, I added * to your Racial Characteristics, so they actually work.

[Elmer]

I had just an great idea for a possibility for the special: (I haven't red mercury's story yet, but I think my special might work pretty well.) The exact fluff of the special might still be tweaked a little. :)

Special: Single minded

The species of this special are a single mind/controlled by a single mind. This makes their vision all directed into the same way. This greatly benefits the production of the species. However, as the one mind can but handle so much, the production bonus cannot grow beyond the capabilities of the one mind.

Effect: This species has a production bonus as if they were with 10 , however, any population increase will not benefit the bonus production. So a of 1 has a population production bonus of 10, but a of 20 still has a population production bonus of 10.

The current downside of this special is that it is not in line with the other specials: It is not a permanent system feature.

[Brend]

1) I don't understand your special. The effect says they have a production bonus as if they were with 10.0 -> that would be +100. However, your explanation gives them 10 everywhere?

2) Besides, your special basically gives 80 . That is rather good, as I can now put those bio-masses towards improving other parts of the system. This special basically removes the consideration of 'more population, or better worlds'. Giving someone free +8.0(:pop) seems a bit overpowered when compared with the other production bonuses from specials (jackpot gives +200, you give +100*number of zones on world).