SETTINGS
Biotech • Business • Cybertech • Economy • Entertainment • Food • Fuel • Law • Networks • Synthetics
Transportation
Setting
> Connecting to New Geneva publicNET [ # # # . . . ] :: . . .
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Biotech
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Modern biotechnology could not exist without nanotechnology, which aids in stem-cell regeneration, genetic augmentations, cloning, or even the creation of fully engineered artificial human beings, called Replicants. In many cases? You're probably better off with cyber augmentation by a ripperdoc as a cheaper option upfront. Though with all the possibilities biotech has to offer in this age, if you have the credits to spend, then it may be the way to go, especially if you're looking to turn some heads.
In many cases, the rich and the wealthy may get a bit of both cyber and biosculpting work done. As amazing as dermal-replacement products such as FeelSof may be to imitate the softest touch of an infants' skin, nothing beats true dermal-sculpting. The art of body sculpting or Splicing includes skin tints and patterns, hair and eye color changes, Elvin-sculpted ears, fangs, breast enlargement and reduction, and overall general bodywork. You can have bone and muscle removed to become shorter, or have grafts added to grow taller. Your excess fat can be suctioned away, and collagen implants can smooth wrinkles, add weight, and change contours.
Splicing is overall incredibly expensive, time-consuming, and usually a hobby among only the very rich and very bored. Prices are based on individual enhancements and, in most cases, a once in a lifetime affordable expense.
Mega-Corporations are the infrastructure provider on this side of the asteroid belt between Earth and Venus, who benefits by taking a percentage of the business revenue off the top of the facilities provided. Therefore, Megacorps seldom operate businesses directly, and instead outsource or lease buildings and facilities, from nightclubs to hotels, clinics, and security services in a colony.
Entrepreneurs and job applicants can connect to the publicNET to find a wide variety of business opportunities: Direct employment opportunities and lease deals with managing Corpo-owned facilities autonomously. Similarly, these jobs and business opportunities can often found in any city or colony, published in holo panels by the doors of different establishments.
Since not all the business going on within cities are strictly legal, those looking for the more underground and less regulated business world might do good in listening to street rumors and irregular shadowNET advertisements.
Business
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Cybertech
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In the 25th Century, the distinction between Humans and Cyborgs have blurred. The average denizen lives with a standard-issue neural interface. This interface cradles the brain in a webbing of nano-optronic wiring, enabling communication with machines near the speed of light.
Cocoon Corp's InterLink System is the most popular OS in 2490 to run as a visual data-management system for all things cyberware and bioware via chipset or wireless connection. Anything from heart-rate monitoring for organics, power-levels for synthetics, trajectory distance and ammo count for smart-linked weaponry, or even personal skill development indexing, InterLink manages it all for you. Due to cybersecurity concerns in the shadowNET community, it is not uncommon for a black-hat to flash and distribute "jail-broken" versions of InterLink to keep users anonymized from Corporate tracking.
Cyberware in itself is as common to come by as sustenance. Fashionable dermal plating, comm-slotted implants, or Daydream interfaces can be self-installed and easy to purchase from any automated street vendor. Cyber-limbs and eyes can be just as easy fitting, too, but may require a trip to a Ripper Doc clinic. Cyber-lungs, dermal-fitting, spinal replacement, cyber brain, or even full-body cyberization? You'll probably be better off at a well-established Corpo-backed facility unless you want faulty breathing or end up flatlined from an incompatible cyber brain installation.
Like any form of electronics, maintenance for cyberware augmenting comes with a hefty price, both figuratively and literally. Are you looking to slot out every module your interface can handle? Well, be prepared for the possibility of Cyberpsychosis to develop. Think schizophrenia, but more digital. Visual HUD glitches, mood swings, hallucinations, depression, and an overall dissociative state from humanity are all of the significant side effects of some individuals who can't handle all the augmenting being stuff into their body. The best course of action to prevent Cyberpsychosis? Keep any unnecessary augmenting to manageable levels to avoid addiction and mental illness developing. Otherwise, you'll be best off with a cyber-neurologist in DayDream sessions to treat it.
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> Session interrupted. Disconnected... < < :: . . .
During RP, a safe assumption is to think that the value of 10 SolCred is worth 1 USD. Players are expected to do transactions involving credits in a way that is realistic with regards to their character.
> Re-Connecting to New Geneva publicNET [ # # # . . . ] :: . . .
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Entertainment
The Proxy-Reality Process is undoubtingly one of the most remarkable inventions in entertainment to come out of 2488. Created and developed by cyber-neurologist Hikari Fujihara, a graduate student from the University of New-Edo in 2487, Fujihara used an extrapolated neural response equation and a subNET cyber-interface as a starting point. Fujihara managed to record her thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations into a standard data-chip. When she plugged the chip back into the modified cyber modem she was using as a recorder, Fujihara was able to feel what she had recorded in precise detail.
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This first success was a significant incentive for Matsumoto Zaibatsu to invest in the program further. With increased funding, combined with a contract to produce more playback-interfaces and chips, Fujihara and Matsumoto formed MindGlow Instruments. Soon after the formation Of MindGlow, Heaven Inc, who had been independently creating its consciousness simulator, declared a joint venture with Omnia Media Group and MindGlow to analyze the market value of "Daydream" as a new media format. Within six months of their investment, the first publicly accessible Daydream chipset (DD) released into Q4 2489.
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As the new decade of 2490 rolls out, DD has taken entertainment to the next level. Have you ever wanted to be that custom MMO VR-game character you love playing? Or maybe even your favorite holo-telenovela celebrity you enjoy watching? How about that one high-profile Joygirl you're still too shaken up over to input? Any of that can now be a full-sensory experience edited for the most optimal emotional output with DD chips via neural-cyberware or headset re-lived in POV recording or subNET simulation, anytime and anywhere.
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DayDream can also take form in darker sensory simulations and recordings dubbed "Nightmares" on the street. Available only on the black-market and shadowNET, NMs focuses on high-adrenaline recordings of killings, heavy-drug experiences, or even death. The higher the emotional state stored on a chip, the higher the cost in credits. Aside from severe mental side-effects to come from these particular types of DDs, the medium in its entirety can be addicting, even to the point where it becomes a replacement for reality itself.
Food
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In the second half of the 21st century, after massive hunger catastrophes in the more drought-stricken parts of the world, humankind started developing synthetic foods based on soy and algae. Throughout the following century, it became apparent that the growing need for food couldn’t only be soy-based. The ongoing destruction and loss of fertile land soon made alternatives to the traditional protein sources a significant goal for the food industry researchers.
Massive efforts were taken and led to the current state where most available food based on proteins produced by genetically engineered algae and yeast. At the present day, humankind can meet all demand for food with large farms floating in the skies. These farms are run by corporations that control the whole distribution of food.
Smaller corporations have shared the market for processing raw proteins, enriching them with vital supplements, artificial flavors, and dyestuffs to transform them for human palates.
Fuel
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Colonies run on a blend of fusion and solar power. Most of the hydrogen fuel for a city's main fusion reactor infused using hydrolysis, which splits water into its components: hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen outputs to refresh the atmosphere, while the hydrogen is injected directly into the reactor.
A colony's biodome is covered with solar panels to protect its residents from the unfiltered and highly damaging solar radiation and provide additional power.
The planet itself is covered by heavy cloud cover following the increase in Earth's temperature from global warming. Sky cities ionize the cloud cover and atmosphere with large field generators and are hovering, perfectly stabilized, on large electromagnetic pillows. MeteoCorp is the current leader in these technologies alongside weathering systems, which they monopolize on and provide for most sky cities and colonies in the Sol System.
Law
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The law in any city or colony is straightforward: It's the Corpo way or the highway.
On the surface, a pretense of order is handled by security companies managing on behalf of corporate properties. Security officers are left to their own devices, and could equally help you or ruthlessly abuse their authority. From time to time, some freshly hired solo still feels they can do things right, and get into trouble, but not for very long.
Nevertheless, the resident's daily life is left almost unmolested, as long as business flourishes, employees are productive, and street mob keeps quiet.
Carrying small weapons is as common as wearing shoes, but if a security force doesn't like your shoes' size, you might get in trouble.
Network
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Corpo subNETs are usually an impenetrable fortress of data. Even at the lowest levels, they remain completely isolated and inaccessible from any other network.
The PublicNET and HoloNET, however, exists and is connected to all cities and floating platforms as Corpo-monitored and controlled playground for Holo-vid and Daydream entertainment and advertising.
Still, as heavily guarded as these NET platforms are, it is still a common fact that underground organizations and free cypherpunk individuals will use their systems and relays, and can be, under some circumstances, able to hack into corporate networks through the shadowNET. The latter being a valuable source of income for hackers and netrunners of all kinds willing to take the risk.
Like DDs, the overuse of the NET can also lead to dissociative states from reality, boredom, and dullness in the inability to forgo without it.
Synthetics
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Synths are entirely inorganic machines, built from carbon fiber, ceramic polymers, and steel, that take on whatever physical form their function demands to carry out with pre-programmed tasks. Androids are a type of Synth made in a shape that resembles or mimics human nature. At the same time, they remain entirely inorganic on the inside; they may suit a synthetic, human-like, FeelSof dermal layer. Synth's built-in AIs give them the ability to learn, adapt, and in more sophisticated models, even become self-aware though they seldom have emotional responses.
Transportation
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In the 25th century, transportation technology has made dramatic breakthroughs, but the differences between a powerful corporate or military vessel and a civilian cargo transport ship can be drastic.
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Accordingly, the fastest travel between Earth and Luna can take sixty minutes, and Mars could take as little as three hours. However, a slow cargo ship might take days to cover the same distance.
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Travel between floating cities or Earth's orbiting space stations could vary between a few minutes for the fastest ships, or roughly a few hours for the slowest cargo freighters using older technologies and passenger air buses using pre-established routes. Despite the capable technology, speed limits regulated within Earth's atmosphere to handle the dense traffic between floating cities safely.
