People seem to be placing a
bit too much importance on books: They're mostly useful for being able to get to the basics of a complex subject without having to do only somewhat-related series of inventions and the like to build up to it. Your characters are all very skilled in many areas. Books are there for when there's an advanced field that you can't really break into by doing. Things like, to use a player as an example, neuroscience are good examples like this. For things like robotics and other more "typical" fields and anything other than the complete basics in those advanced fields, you're much better off learning by doing.
In fact, to be even more transparent, so far the only "advanced" fields like this explored by people so far have been neuroscience and genetics. Your characters are assumed to have basic knowledge of programming already.
TL;DR: Books are only used for learning the basics of a field, and are only potentially useful when learning the basics of an advanced field that'd be hard to break into from nothing.
OceanSoul: forgot to add
Basics of Genetic Mutations to your knowledge thingy. And you had an "Informative Genetics Book" instead of "Informative Mutation Book". Fixed that this update.
RAM: I've assumed that by "Science!! kitchen" you meant basic supplies for cooking and experimentation with that cooking.
May 4th, 2017RobosonYou head to the library to find books on a variety of subjects and leave with
101 Fun Animals!,
Programming: Is it really that different from cooking?, and an actually useful book -
A Comprehensive History of Robotics. Despite its name, it appears to be very useful at a glance.
At least
101 Fun Animals! sounds interesting, you guess.
With that out of the way and the books dropped off, you head to the scrapyard looking for tools. You don't know what kind of tools, though - you just have a picture of a very generic
Tool in your head. You're sure you'll find something.
But you don't. You don't find anything, really - just
1u Scrap Metal. You consider trying again tomorrow or just
cutting out adding the middleman and buying them straight from a store.
Home: Garage; New Bounds
Cash: $100
Outfit: Regular Clothing
Knowledge
Inventory
Materials
- 3u Scrap Metal
- 7u Scrap Electronics
- 7u Electronics
- 3u Mechanical Bits
Clothing
- Regular Clothing
Miscellaneous Items
- Small Book: 101 Fun Animals! [Return to library: May 9th]
- Small Book: Programming: Is it really that different from cooking? [Return to library: May 9th]
- Textbook: A Comprehensive History of Robotics [Return to library: May 9th]
You find a job at a construction site. After
amazing the foreman with your skills and strength, you're given the very prestigious position of the lowest possible spot. You don't get much money, but it's work and you didn't have to submit an application!
During the interviewing process and in your other routine activities today, you also spend time focusing more on the people around you, their expressions, and reactions to anything happening around them. Eventually, by the end of the day, you gain a much more comprehensive understanding of the human psychology.
Their reactions just...
make sense. Everything someone does seems almost planned. Knowing the right variables in a controlled environment could maybe even be used to accurately predict responses! It's fascinating, really. People are just inherently similar in their reactions. At the end of the day, the same stimuli will invoke a similar reaction in many people. Their expressions also provide hints into their personalities, but you just couldn't connect the two observations of reactions and expressions. You deem this new knowledge the
Human Reaction Theory for the time being, but you can change that name at any moment.
Tomorrow, you'll get
$5 from your construction job.
Home: Garage; New Bounds
Cash: $100
Outfit: Regular Clothing
Knowledge
- Basics of the Human Mind: Basic factual knowledge on the functioning and anatomy of the human brain.
- Human Reaction Theory: Understanding of the inherent similarities and few differences and how to semi-accurately predict human reaction to stimuli given numerous variables.
Inventory
Clothing
- Regular Clothing
Miscellaneous Items
- Large Notebook & Pencils
- Neuroscience Graduate Textbook [Return to library: May 9th]
- Simple Psychology Book [Return to library: May 9th]
- Textbook: The Human Mind 101 [Return to library: May 9th]
You spend the entire day making a game.
Unfortunately, even with your existing programming knowledge, trying to do all of this in a day proves difficult. You end up making something resembling a game, but it's not very fun. Luckily you manage to somehow get
some people to buy it. By which you mean a few people;
$8 is earned from sales, and you doubt anyone's going to buy it after this point. Future development isn't useful as the project isn't necessarily worth improving or working on.
Knowledge of
Basic Game Development is, however, learned by going through that production process even if it was a very short development period.
You consider reading the book you have on programming before going to sleep, but you think you learned everything you could from it already, and you don't have nearly enough time even if you wanted to read it.
Home: Garage; New Bounds
Cash: $72
Outfit: Lab Coat + T-Shirt, Sweatpants, Rimmed Glasses
Knowledge
- Basic Programming Knowledge: Knowing how to perform basic programming feats and applications.
- Basic Game Development: Knowledge and experience of the basic game development process.
Inventory
Equipment & Tools
- Low-Quality Netbook
Clothing
- Lab Coat + T-Shirt
- Sweatpants
- Rimmed glasses
Miscellaneous Items
- Book: A Guide to Programming
- Library Card
Time to head to the bad side of to--
Oh, right, you live there. That makes things easier!
You find a run-down car and successfully lockpick the door. You then open the car door, open the window from the inside, then close it.
Then you jump and slide into the car through the window! It's super cool
and super painful! But cool!
With that down, you try hotwiring the car. Again, you're successful. You drive it into the garage after making some space for it and turn it off. It's at
this point that you realize you have to leave the car unlocked and have to hotwire it every time you want to use it. Not great, but at least you have a
1993 Cheap Car! It's ugly, loud, and polluting, but it's yours. Not technically yours, but it may as well be.
Home: Garage; New Bounds
Cash: $85
Outfit: Trench Coat, Black Bandana
Knowledge
Inventory
Vehicles
- 1993 Cheap Car
Equipment
- Lock-picking Set
IMaterials
- 5u Scrap Metal
- 2u Engine Parts
Clothing
- Trench Coat
- Black Bandana
Outside of work today, you study your Genetics textbook in a much more detailed fashion than last time, where you focused mostly on the mutation book. Eventually, you start to gain an understanding of
Basic Genetics. A decent amount of it is also covered by the other book, but there are plenty of new things learned in this reading! After this, however, you doubt you can learn much more. These books were written for a much smaller mind than yourself.
While at your work, you're very disappointed to see that most of your coworkers are primarily teenagers currently failing in highschool. Even your manager is stupid! Though you
just carefully avoid serious retribution from him upon accidentally saying it aloud. Maybe fast-food places aren't great places to look for academic talent?
You receive
$5 from your part-time job at a fast-food place.
Home: Garage; New Bounds
Cash: $105
Outfit: Grey Lab Coat, Black Boots
Knowledge
- Basic Genetics: General knowledge surrounding genetics and their operation.
- Basics of Genetic Mutation: Basic overall knowledge primarily surrounding the mutation of genetic code in organisms.
Inventory
Clothing
- Grey Lab Coat
- Black Boots
- Black Gloves
Miscellaneous Items
- Library Card
- Informative Mutation Book [Return to library: May 16th]
- Genetics Graduate Textbook [Return to library: May 16th]
You quickly devise an extensive shopping list at the beginning of the day. Equipment for your
kitchen lab,
pasta reagents, and a used minifridge. All very obviously for the advancement of vital scientific endeavors. After you finish your shift, you head to a commercial area in the city housing a large variety of stores.
The
Basic Kitchen Supplies cost
$40, and the
5u Culinary Ingredients $10. The
Used Minifridge empties out the rest of the money, costing
$55.
After snapping out of this shopping spree, you realize that all the money you have left is $2. Hopefully you weren't planning on buying anything else tomorrow.
On the way back home, you see some tall person in a comical lab coat walk by you. You throw some pasta you somehow had in your pockets at them. Laughing at your successful test, you run away leaving them in the dust.
You earn
$6 from your job at a pasta kitchen.
Home: Garage; New Bounds
Cash: $2
Outfit: Lab Coat + Oversized Indecipherable Glasses
Knowledge
- Very Basic Pasta Elasticity: Knowing how to make pasta noodles slightly more stretchy. Guard this secret well.
Inventory
Equipment & Tools
- Basic Kitchen Supplies (measuring containers, mixing utensils, bowls of varying sizes, and other kitchen utensils and supplies)
- Used Minifridge
Materials
- 5u Culinary Ingredients
Clothing
- Lab Coat
- Oversized Indecipherable Glasses
You pay
$6 for another
3u Purified Water. With this done, you head back to the scrap yard for some scrap metal. You don't spend much time at the scrapyard, but still get
3u Scrap Metal in a very fitting coincidence considering your planned uses for the scrap. As you leave, you see another guy looking for metal in the same area you were just at. Hah!
You spend most of the day performing the electrolysis using
3u Purified Water and
3u Scrap Metal - conveniently the same amount of those things that you received today - to purify
3u Formless Iron.
You look for a contact online and outside, but ultimately are forced to sell the stuff online at a lower price than you would have wanted.
6u Formless Iron is sold for
$36. You still haven't given up on finding a contact, though, and perhaps looking again tomorrow could yield a contact for selling the stuff at a reliable rate?
Home: Garage; New Bounds
Cash: $54
Outfit: Regular Clothing
Knowledge
- Efficient Basic Electrolysis: Knowledge on how to perform basic electrolysis with simple metals and materials at a 1:1 rate. Can perform electrolysis on 3u worth of materials total per day by hand. You need 1u of purified water to purify 1u of materials. Takes a long amount of time.
Inventory
Items
- 3x Small Beakers
- 1x Small Battery & Electrodes
Materials
- 1u Scrap Metal
- 2u Purified Water
Clothing
- Regular Clothing
Author
Topic: Individual Scientists! May 8th 2017 [7/7] (Read 6116 times)