How does armor work in Solar Echoes? (part 2)

Though some races can easily share armor with others, other alien races have more extreme physical differences than the bipedal races. Even the Humans and Reln sometimes have their own specialized armors, though they can share with each other, considering their physical similarities. The plant-like Erwani--with their 4 vine-like arms, multiple roots (their “legs”) and leafy body—use armor that is essentially plating connected by cords, which drapes over the Erwani's thin shape. The insectoid Chiraktis wears armor that is tailored for its shape, and Chiraktis Battle Armor is famous for its thermal resistance. Krissethi armor is entirely transparent, which allows the Krissethi to fully utilize the camouflage capabilities afforded by the chromatophores in their skin. Archaeloids often go without armor, as their naturally hard shells serve as excellent protection for most of their bodies. The amoeba-like Omul, however, can choose to fit into the armor of just about any race, and can even walk around in humanoid battle suits, though the constraints upon their mobility sometimes cause Omuls to prefer going au naturel.

How does armor work in Solar Echoes? (part 1)

In a large number of RPG's, armor prevents your character from being hit altogether. The higher your armor quality, the harder it is to injure you. However, in Solar Echoes, we view armor differently. Armor is protection that reduces damage if you are hit, but being hit is a function of whether you dodged the attack or not. For instance, regardless of a character's armor, an attack against the character must be better (more accurate) than the character's dodge roll. If the attack is successful, the damage is then first absorbed by the armor before penetrating to the character. However, armor also has hardness, which depletes as it absorbs damage. A standard suit of combat armor has 20 hardness, so if an attack doing 4 ballistic damage hits a character with combat armor (which protects against 2 damage), 2 damage will get through to the character, while 2 is absorbed by the armor, reducing the armor to 18 hardness from 20. Once the hardness of a suit of armor has been depleted to 0, the armor no longer absorbs damage and all damage goes straight through to the character.

Are You Being Watched? (part 5)

In Solar Echoes, you play as an agent of the Union Guard, a special-ops force that works for the Inter-Stellar Union (ISU.) The ISU was established to unify the races and end the border wars that had plagued civilized space. When running a game of Solar Echoes, it is up to the MC to decide just how benign this government is, but as the players take on various missions, they may begin to discover that the ISU is withholding important information from the public, controlling the internet, and might even be stoking racial and class tensions. As the races expand across the galaxy, the further they are away from the core systems, the harder they are to monitor, so it is no surprise that the ISU has extended its reach with various forms of surveillance. Law and order should be maintained, but when freedoms begin to erode in the name of government protection and oversight, one must question how far is too far? In the Solar Echoes universe, cyber-security has become so advanced that single hackers can no longer hope to accomplish much on their own. Groups of hackers, or even hackers with un-skilled supporters on their team, can potentially bring down a system. However, the internet architecture of the future has been carefully compartmentalized to prevent massive hacks from shutting down multiple, major systems. Though such a separation of systems makes perfect sense, we have to wonder if our present day internet is irrevocably constructed with far too much integration and reach. Have we made it too easy for someone to influence, spy on, and dominate us?

Are You Being Watched? (part 4)

Do you think your emails are private? Maybe your phone calls, or your texts? The NSA has archives of all this data, and they can access any of it. Of course, this is archived data and is unlikely to be perused unless the NSA decides you are a person of interest. Just how can you earn such an honor? It really depends on your internet habits and the combinations of words that you use in your digital communications. Our government is spying on us with PRISM, and a source for the Washington Post said, “They can quite literally watch your ideas form as you type.” I guess I should wave my hand to the government right now and say hello? With all the online research we've done to make Solar Echoes a realistic representation of our near future, it is likely that prying eyes have taken an interest. I've always believed science-fiction is an effective warning about the path we're headed down, and Solar Echoes touches on some modern day issues such as government spying.

Have you ever been slightly disconcerted to know that your computer or game console camera is on? What about the camera on your cell phone? Hackers are able to activate cameras remotely and watch whatever they are aimed at. Are you sharing your phone's photos online? Unless you have your GPS turned off (and have adjusted a few settings), all your photos are stamped with a geo-tag, which shows exactly where the phone was when the picture was taken, making it much easier to locate people in the picture. These days, it is almost considered weird or anti-social to want to maintain any amount of privacy with the current internet culture. Facebook, Twitter, and other internet sites are designed around the idea that everyone wants to share, and a new trend among PS4 video gamers is the livestreamed living-room reality show, where people broadcast themselves live to whoever would watch and comment. As a result of this new culture, cyber-crime is flourishing and growing exponentially. We are not only making ourselves vulnerable to criminal attack, but to monitoring by people with their own agendas. Spying has never been easier.

Are You Being Watched? (part 3)

The head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, has admitted to using drones to spy on American citizens. It's disturbing to note that our government is purchasing unusually large quantities of war-time machinery and that most of this is not for the military—it's being allotted to federal agencies! Why are these agencies arming themselves? The Department of Homeland Security has been buying billions of rounds of ammo, as well as thousands of MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles for “homeland operations.” Additionally, a fleet of Predator B drones has been purchased for deployment throughout the United States. Why is our government building its own private military force? Consider that a military directive was issued in 2010 called the “Defense Support of Civil Authorities.” This directive indicates that civilians may be engaged by the military during times of unrest, and gives the military authority to “quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances.”

Are You Being Watched? (part 2)

In the movie, “Live Free and Die Hard,” a young hacker joins Bruce Willis to stop a cyber-terrorist who has created a “Fire Sale.” A fire sale is a cyber-attack that performs a three-stage systematic attack on a nation's computer infrastructure. Hackers call it a Fire Sale because "Everything must go." The hacker mastermind in the movie is able to first shut down our transportation systems, then disables our financial systems (banks, Wall Street, etc.), and finally our public utilities such as gas, electric, and communications. Our society becomes increasingly fragile, the more we rely on computers to run everything. Though many of these important computer systems are isolated from networks, all it takes is a single person to infiltrate the system and create havoc. We managed to access Iran's nuclear centrifuges with a single USB drive (look up “Stuxnet Virus”), so it is clear that even isolated computer systems are not safe.

Are You Being Watched? (part 1)

The recent video game release, Watch Dogs, addresses a disturbing trend in our society—government surveillance. Despite Edward Snowden's traitorous acts, we have learned from his NSA security breach that our own government is watching us very closely, stockpiling data on our internet habits as well as our cell phone calls and texts. George Orwell's “1984” no longer seems like science-fiction, now that we see the very beginnings of a “Big Brother” in our own backyard. In Watch Dogs, you play as a hacker who uses his smartphone to tap into Chicago's ctOS security system, hacking into video cameras, unlocking secure locations, and even manipulating traffic lights, road barriers, and bridges. Of course, it seems ridiculous that all this would be tied into a single network, but consider what groups of hackers might be able to achieve? A well-coordinated hack might potentially be able to bring a city to its knees. This week, we'll discuss the implications of this threat in both our society and the fictional futuristic society in Solar Echoes.