The discussion about Void jump times got me looking deeper into the nature of robots. What follows is some musing on this subject.<div><br /></div><div>Occasionally someone talks about giving new special programs to robots. One of the modules, I believe, gives all maintenance robots a maintenance program, presumably drawn from the list of computer programs. But I don't trust module-writers to always fully understand the rules. Let's look at this more closely.</div><div><br /></div><div>A maintenance robot has a standard body and can be level 1 through 4. The Standard Robot Cost Table lists a level 1 maintenance robot as 2,200 credits. Let's custom-build one and see what we get. Standard body, 2,000 credits. Level 1, 200 credits. Total: 2,200 credits. NO SPECIAL PROGRAMS. The standard cost table price is matched without adding anything else.</div><div><br /></div><div>A combat robot has a standard body, an attack/defense program, and can be level 2 through 4. The table says a level 2 combat robot is 3,500 cr. Custom build: standard body, 2,000 cr.; level 2, 500 cr.; attack/defense program, 1,000 cr. Total: 3,500 cr. It matches the table WITH the program.</div><div><br /></div><div>So we can trust the table and the description of each robot type. And NONE of these robots can do skilled labor, except for fighting. And see! Every robot that can fight does so at a fixed chance: 30% + 10 × (robot's level). There are no program levels for robot special programs. You can't teach a robot to fight better by installing a better program.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now the suggestion comes up, why not create robot programs that let robots perform skilled jobs? It seems a reasonable thing to do but... if robots can do this, you have to make these programs available to buy just like any other.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I don't think robots were envisioned this way by the game designers. I think they intentionally kept robots at an unskilled level. The various combat programs let them break their "Asimov circuits," but no consideration whatsoever was given to robots as anything other than unskilled workers. They can look up information through a computer link program (or by being at a computer terminal if they're anthropomorphic), and they could even apply some of that information themselves, but they can't be said to possess the skill that information embodies.</div><div><br /></div><div>For instance, a robot field-nurse could easily hand a medic his tools as he needs them, and could carry things and so on. A normal service robot. But a robot with a computer link to a computer with an information storage program containing a medical database could look up various medical information as needed. Such a robot might even be able to perform simple first aid, though probably not the actual First Aid medical subskill, which only trained medics can perform. This robot might provide diagnoses, but not medically licensed ones.</div><div><br /></div><div>A robot could NOT replace a ship's astrogator, because astrogation requires a skill, and robots do not have these. If you provide for robots gaining skill programs, then you have to allow for robots getting astrogation skill programs. Unless we go back to that "space travel is special and only the ineffable qualities that separate sentient beings from robots lets you navigate" schlock.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I'm kind of annoyed that nowhere in the rules is there any indication of why anyone would want a cybernetic robot. I wonder if they're meant to be androids: they have "organic" parts, but these aren't parts harvested from formerly living beings. They're meant to interact with people in a more comfortable and intimate way than other robots, but are still clearly robots nonetheless, and can't pass for living beings. This is the only way I can make sense of cybots and their availability for sale in a non-creepy way.</div>
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