How would a Multiversal Traveler go about gettting these things?

[MasterG]

If a multiversal Traveler wants to build a Multiversal Scientific Institute, what universes would you suggest to get the following assets?

1) Easy to get Nanotechnology
2) Easy to get Magical Powers aka not spells but the ability to do magic in and of itself.
3) Easy to get Cloning Tech
4) Easy to get Mind Control Tech, Artifacts or Spells
5) Easy to get method to transfer both the soul and the conscience into a new body
6)Scientific Geniuses in their fields
7) A Device or Artifact capable of containing a magical liquid without corrupting it or changing it in any way. If you need more info, basically a device or artifact capable of containing the Water from the "Pool of Eternal Life" in the "Rickipedia; The Mummy" universe so that it can be studied later
8) Tech or Artifacts that amplify Psychic power
9) Easy to get tech that allows for the quickconstruction of buildings and space stations
10) Tech or Magic that allows for themanipulation of someone's soul
11) Stealth Tech
12)Tech capable of storing massive amounts of data

 

[magic9mushroom]

Define "easy to get". I mean, in the Mass Effect 'verse it's very easy to obtain mind-control devices since essentially all Reaper artifacts have indoctrination fields. But you're going to have difficulties reverse-engineering that tech and making it work for you, particularly since it'll try to indoctrinate you while you're trying.

That said...

1) Iji probably takes the cake here.
2) Any fantasy universe wherein anyone can learn magic; in D&D, for example, anyone can theoretically learn to be a wizard or cleric.
3) There's quite a few. Trek, Alpha Centauri, Red Alert, Schlock...
4) Possibly Ghost in the Shell as far as tech goes, or maybe Sword Art Online. D&D has Charm Person as a first-level spell, although Dominate Person is fifth-level; World of Darkness and Harry Potter both have easy mind-control magic, but getting magic access is difficult in those 'verses. It does tend to be a bit rare, because mass mind control is such a broken power that stories don't tend to last very long with it in play.
5) Hmm, I can't actually think of one off-hand besides Avatar, and it's extremely expensive in-universe.
6) Any 'verse with science in it, really. Monster Girl Quest's Promestein is one of the more egregious mega-geniuses around (she canonically invented all of modern science from first principles IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF RATS!)
7) No idea.
8) X-Com had a fair bit. Both original and remake.
9) Well, it's not precisely easy to get, but Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander have Von Neumann machines.
10) Different 'verses have completely different ideas of what souls are and what can even in theory be done with them; crossing over here doesn't work very well. As such, I don't think I can really give you any answer that would necessarily work in a crossover.
11) Stealth against what? That's really the question, and again since all 'verses have different detection methods I'm not sure I can give a meaningful general answer for this one.
12) RL. Very few fictional universes outstrip RL in this regard.

 

[MasterG]

13) Easy to get Tech, Artifacts, Abilites and/Or Spells that create/act as a mind shield, shielding a person from mind control and telepathy.
14) Easy to get Tech, Artifacts, Materials and/or Spells that block out psychic abilites from a psychic race.
If you need to know what kind of race I need this for its to create something capable of blocking the abilities of a Brain Bug from "Starship Troopers" so that It can be studied and used in order to improve another beings own psychic abilites

 

[MasterG]

Define "easy to get". I mean, in the Mass Effect 'verse it's very easy to obtain mind-control devices since essentially all Reaper artifacts have indoctrination fields. But you're going to have difficulties reverse-engineering that tech and making it work for you, particularly since it'll try to indoctrinate you while you're trying.

That said...

1) Iji probably takes the cake here.
2) Any fantasy universe wherein anyone can learn magic; in D&D, for example, anyone can theoretically learn to be a wizard or cleric.
3) There's quite a few. Trek, Alpha Centauri, Red Alert, Schlock...
4) Possibly Ghost in the Shell as far as tech goes, or maybe Sword Art Online. D&D has Charm Person as a first-level spell, although Dominate Person is fifth-level; World of Darkness and Harry Potter both have easy mind-control magic, but getting magic access is difficult in those 'verses. It does tend to be a bit rare, because mass mind control is such a broken power that stories don't tend to last very long with it in play.
5) Hmm, I can't actually think of one off-hand besides Avatar, and it's extremely expensive in-universe.
6) Any 'verse with science in it, really. Monster Girl Quest's Promestein is one of the more egregious mega-geniuses around (she canonically invented all of modern science from first principles IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF RATS!)
7) No idea.
8) X-Com had a fair bit. Both original and remake.
9) Well, it's not precisely easy to get, but Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander have Von Neumann machines.
10) Different 'verses have completely different ideas of what souls are and what can even in theory be done with them; crossing over here doesn't work very well. As such, I don't think I can really give you any answer that would necessarily work in a crossover.
11) Stealth against what? That's really the question, and again since all 'verses have different detection methods I'm not sure I can give a meaningful general answer for this one.
12) RL. Very few fictional universes outstrip RL in this regard.

Click to shrink...

Thank you for the help, you've been very helpful.
Got anything on points 13 and 14?

 

[magic9mushroom]

Taalo Shield from Star Control II is one of the more well-known.

 

[MasterG]

Taalo Shield from Star Control II is one of the more well-known.

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How would you go about getting it? Take into account that I dont know anything about Star Control II, hell I didnt even know of its existence.
Also how much do you know about the XCom remake? I might need your help if you have a great knowledge. This knowledge doesnt need to be about everything, just about Valenn.

 

[magic9mushroom]

How would you go about getting it? Take into account that I dont know anything about Star Control II, hell I didnt even know of its existence.
Also how much do you know about the XCom remake? I might need your help if you have a great knowledge. This knowledge doesnt need to be about everything, just about Valenn.

Click to shrink...

It's on a planet in the Vulpeculae star cluster. Though, now that I think of it, the Star Control universe is one of the more dangerous for a dimension-hopper, as knowing too much about how to travel between planes in said universe has... unpleasant results.

---- REPORT FROM SURFACE ----
XENO-HISTORIAN KILGORE HERE, SIR. WE HAVE CONFIRMED THAT THESE RUINS ARE THE REMNANTS OF THE
ANDROSYNTH CULTURE. FROM THE MASS DESTRUCTION WE HAVE WITNESSED, WE CAN ONLY ASSUME THAT THERE
WAS SOME KIND OF HUGE LAND WAR HERE WITHIN THE PAST FIVE YEARS; HOWEVER, THERE IS NO, REPEAT,
NO SIGNS OF ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT OR INVASION FROM SPACE... JUST A WHOLE MESS OF BUILDINGS SHOT
TO PIECES. PROBABLY THE WEIRDEST THING WE HAVE SEEN, OR NOT SEEN, ARE CORPSES... THERE AREN'T
ANY! IT'S AS THOUGH SOMETHING APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE, BLASTED EVERYTHING WITH NUCLEAR BAZOOKAS,
THEN GRABBED ALL THE ANDROSYNTH AND DISAPPEARED.

AN ADDITIONAL REPORT SIR, THIS TIME FROM SCIENCE OFFICER BUKOWSKI -- WE HAVE LOCATED AN
ANDROSYNTH SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH STATION AND I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO MAKE SOME SENSE OUT OF WHAT
IS LEFT OF THEIR CENTRAL COMPUTER. AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, ABOUT SEVEN YEARS AGO, THE ANDROSYNTH
BEGAN EXPERIMENTING WITH SOMETHING THEY CALLED DIMENSIONAL FATIGUE PHENOMENA. I CAN'T FIGURE
OUT WHAT THIS DIMENSIONAL FATIGUE (OR DF AS THEY CALL IT) IS, BUT MAYBE IF WE EXPLORED ANOTHER
CITY, I WOULD BE ABLE TO FIND MORE INFORMATION ON THIS SUBJECT.
---- END OF REPORT ----

---- REPORT FROM SURFACE ----
BUKOWSKI AGAIN, SIR. WE HAVE FOUND ANOTHER RESEARCH INSTITUTE. WELL, THE RUINS OF ONE, ANYWAY.
THE COMPUTER HERE'S IN BETTER SHAPE, ALLOWING ME TO LEARN A BIT MORE ABOUT THE ANDROSYNTH'S
INVESTIGATION INTO DF, DIMENSIONAL FATIGUE.
IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THEIR STUDIES ACTUALLY BEGAN OVER TEN YEARS AGO, AFTER ONE OF THEIR
BLAZER VESSELS DISCOVERED SOME PRECURSOR ARTIFACTS IN ALPHA LALANDE. AS FAR AS THEIR
SCIENTISTS HERE COULD TELL, THE DEVICES GENERATED DF WAVES WHICH WOULD ALLOW THE USER TO SEE
INTO OTHER... WELL, OTHER DIMENSIONS -- REALMS OF EXISTENCE WHICH SHARE POSITION WITH OUR OWN
UNIVERSE, BUT HAVE A DIFFERENT... GEE, WHAT SHOULD I CALL IT... REALITY PHASE. ANYWAY, THE
ANDROSYNTH HAD HOPED THAT THE DIMENSIONAL FATIGUE TECHNOLOGY CONTAINED IN THE DEVICES WOULD
PERMIT THEM TO CREATE NEW, FASTER FORMS OF HYPERDRIVE AND HYPERWAVE. INSTEAD, WHEN THEY BEGAN
THEIR EXPERIMENTS, THEY MADE CONTACT WITH SOME KIND OF LIFEFORM ON `THE OTHER SIDE', A CREATURE
FROM AN ALIEN DIMENSION.

AGAIN, THE RECORD IS FRAGMENTARY HERE. I SEE REQUESTS TO THE CENTRAL COMPUTER FOR INFORMATION
-- DATA ON `REALITY ABERRATIONS', THE `MOSQUITO MANGE' AND, WELL... GHOSTS, POLTERGEISTS, AND
OTHER MALEVOLENT, SUPERNATURAL CREATURES. THE REQUESTS GROW MORE URGENT, ALMOST FRANTIC, AND
THEN... THE RECORD ENDS.
---- END OF REPORT ----

---- REPORT FROM SURFACE ----
CAPTAIN, THIS IS ENSIGN HAWTHORNE STANDING IN FOR BUKOWSKI. SIR, BUKOWSKI HAS FOUND SOMETHING,
BUT... WELL... IN THE PROCESS HE HAS GONE KIND OF NUTS.
WHEN WE FIRST GOT TO THIS DEMOLISHED CITY, BUKOWSKI WENT WILD BECAUSE THE SCIENCE CENTER WAS
PRETTY MUCH INTACT. HE LOCKED HIMSELF IN THEIR COMPUTER CONTROL CABIN AND SPENT ABOUT TEN
HOURS ALONE IN THERE. WE COULD HEAR HIM MUMBLING TO HIMSELF, THEN HIS SPEECH GOT LOUDER UNTIL
HE WAS ALMOST SHOUTING, AND SIR, HE WAS SCARED, DAMN SCARED.
WE FINALLY DECIDED THAT WE'D BETTER CHECK UP ON HIM, BUT BUKOWSKI, WOULDN'T LET US INTO THE
ROOM. HE SAID THAT NO ONE COULD EVER KNOW WHAT HE HAD LEARNED -- THAT JUST KNOWING WAS ENOUGH
TO ALERT `THEM'. HE KEPT TALKING ABOUT `THEM' -- CRAZY STUFF, SIR, ABOUT HOW `THEY' COULD SEE
HIM NOW, AND `THEY' WERE MOVING TOWARD HIM. THEN BUKOWSKI STARTED THRASHING AROUND THE ROOM,
SCREAMING THAT HE HAD TO DESTROY EVERYTHING BEFORE `THEY' SAW US TOO. HE DID A LOT OF DAMAGE
TO THE ANDROSYNTH'S COMPUTER BEFORE WE STOPPED HIM, AND I GUESS HE MUST HAVE HURT HIMSELF IN
THE PROCESS. HE'S CUT UP PRETTY BADLY. YOU KNOW, IT'S STRANGE, HE MUST HAVE HURT HIMSELF
WORSE THAN I THOUGHT. NOW, WHEN I LOOK AT HIM, IT SEEMS LIKE HE HAS EVEN MORE CUTS THAN JUST
A FEW MINUTES AGO, AND BOY, IS HE SCREAMING!

BASED ON THE DAMAGE BUKOWSKI WREAKED ON THE CENTRAL COMPUTER, I DON'T BELIEVE THAT WE WILL
FIND ANYTHING MORE DOWN HERE. I THINK WE HAVE LEARNED ALL THAT WE CAN FROM EXPLORING THESE
RUINS, AND FRANKLY SIR, WITH ALL OF BUKOWSKI'S RANTING, I'M GETTING A BIT NERVOUS MYSELF.
CALL US BACK TO THE SHIP SOON... PLEASE.
---- END OF REPORT ----

Click to shrink...

So, on second thought, you might want to look somewhere else. Necron Pylons from 40K are impressive, but they're also not very mobile and are fairly specific to how psychic phenomena work in 40K. Not sure what else fits.

I haven't actually played the remake of X-Com.

 

[MasterG]

It's on a planet in the Vulpeculae star cluster. Though, now that I think of it, the Star Control universe is one of the more dangerous for a dimension-hopper, as knowing too much about how to travel between planes in said universe has... unpleasant results.


So, on second thought, you might want to look somewhere else. Necron Pylons from 40K are impressive, but they're also not very mobile and are fairly specific to how psychic phenomena work in 40K. Not sure what else fits.

I haven't actually played the remake of X-Com.

Click to shrink...

But do you know of any materials that would stop psychic powers? Basically im trying to contain an innate psychic ability, while still making it so that scientists can study it.
Do you know anything that fits this description?

 

[MasterG]

Define "easy to get". I mean, in the Mass Effect 'verse it's very easy to obtain mind-control devices since essentially all Reaper artifacts have indoctrination fields. But you're going to have difficulties reverse-engineering that tech and making it work for you, particularly since it'll try to indoctrinate you while you're trying.

That said...

1) Iji probably takes the cake here.
2) Any fantasy universe wherein anyone can learn magic; in D&D, for example, anyone can theoretically learn to be a wizard or cleric.
3) There's quite a few. Trek, Alpha Centauri, Red Alert, Schlock...
4) Possibly Ghost in the Shell as far as tech goes, or maybe Sword Art Online. D&D has Charm Person as a first-level spell, although Dominate Person is fifth-level; World of Darkness and Harry Potter both have easy mind-control magic, but getting magic access is difficult in those 'verses. It does tend to be a bit rare, because mass mind control is such a broken power that stories don't tend to last very long with it in play.
5) Hmm, I can't actually think of one off-hand besides Avatar, and it's extremely expensive in-universe.
6) Any 'verse with science in it, really. Monster Girl Quest's Promestein is one of the more egregious mega-geniuses around (she canonically invented all of modern science from first principles IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF RATS!)
7) No idea.
8) X-Com had a fair bit. Both original and remake.
9) Well, it's not precisely easy to get, but Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander have Von Neumann machines.
10) Different 'verses have completely different ideas of what souls are and what can even in theory be done with them; crossing over here doesn't work very well. As such, I don't think I can really give you any answer that would necessarily work in a crossover.
11) Stealth against what? That's really the question, and again since all 'verses have different detection methods I'm not sure I can give a meaningful general answer for this one.
12) RL. Very few fictional universes outstrip RL in this regard.

Click to shrink...

Also any easier methods of getting 3), by easier I mean easier ones to research(for me to research), like movies or tv series/games without a giant universe (Im refering to the amount of spinoffs/seasons/sequels)?
Also any examples lf things like 12) in RL?
And when I say easy to get I mean like for example "Pop into the Big Hero 6 verse and steal one of the garbage cans full of microbots" stuff like that or easy ways to get things, not for example "Its easy just jump into the Culture/Orion's Arm Universe and trade other tech or ask for citizenship"

 

[magic9mushroom]

Also any easier methods of getting 3), by easier I mean easier ones to research(for me to research), like movies or tv series/games without a giant universe (Im refering to the amount of spinoffs/seasons/sequels)?

Click to shrink...

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is only kinda vaguely defined, so you'd be making up a fair bit but there's not a lot to read. Schlock is easy to read, since it's a webcomic... it's just LONG. As in, it's been going daily for sixteen years.

Also any examples lf things like 12) in RL?

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Modern hard drives are in the terabytes. The full text of Wikipedia is in the hundreds of gigabytes, IIRC. The sum of human knowledge on something smaller than a hardcover book is pretty fucking amazing when you think about it.

And when I say easy to get I mean like for example "Pop into the Big Hero 6 verse and steal one of the garbage cans full of microbots" stuff like that or easy ways to get things, not for example "Its easy just jump into the Culture/Orion's Arm Universe and trade other tech or ask for citizenship"

Click to shrink...

That's why I said Iji for the nanotech. Most of the others I don't know of any universes where they're that easy to get.

 

[MasterG]

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is only kinda vaguely defined, so you'd be making up a fair bit but there's not a lot to read. Schlock is easy to read, since it's a webcomic... it's just LONG. As in, it's been going daily for sixteen years.

Modern hard drives are in the terabytes. The full text of Wikipedia is in the hundreds of gigabytes, IIRC. The sum of human knowledge on something smaller than a hardcover book is pretty fucking amazing when you think about it.

That's why I said Iji for the nanotech. Most of the others I don't know of any universes where they're that easy to get.

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I dont know anything about Iji except for a read through the wiki, but supposedly the MC gets nanites from a team of scientists. How would you even steal them from Iji?

 

[magic9mushroom]

I dont know anything about Iji except for a read through the wiki, but supposedly the MC gets nanites from a team of scientists. How would you even steal them from Iji?

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At the end of the story Earth is in ruins and there's a whole pile of Tasen and Komato corpses and wreckage just lying around. As well as all the records and details the Tasen brought with them. And Iji nanotech is known to be easy to reverse-engineer; a group of four people got it working properly in under half a year while in hiding, and commented on how comprehensible it was. And their notes are just sitting around as well, because they're all dead (except Dan, maybe).

 

[MasterG]

At the end of the story Earth is in ruins and there's a whole pile of Tasen and Komato corpses and wreckage just lying around. As well as all the records and details the Tasen brought with them. And Iji nanotech is known to be easy to reverse-engineer; a group of four people got it working properly in under half a year while in hiding, and commented on how comprehensible it was. And their notes are just sitting around as well, because they're all dead (except Dan, maybe).

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Could you tell me what the Null Driver is? I'm seeing mentions of how it gives Iji spatial powers but cant really find what it is

 

[magic9mushroom]

In-game, it's a secret weapon (extremely secret; it's a hidden area within the secret sector that requires unlocking everything) that causes weird data-corruption-like effects (backgrounds get replaced with other backgrounds, including cutscene images; objects, including enemies get randomly morphed into other objects).

I asked Daniel Remar himself about it a few years back, so here's an explanation of what it canonically is from the horse's mouth.

The weapon, like the Massacre, was part of the plans for a sequel to
Iji (which is unlikely to be made). Both of them do exist in the Iji
universe, but the Null Driver prototype you find is glitchy. It tries
to open wormholes and fails, resulting in disturbing light distortions
or random shifting around of objects. The actual weapon would be
completely different when Komato Imperial Research eventually finished
it.

Click to shrink...

The Null Driver is a project within Komato Imperial
Research, their monopolizing weapons developer. It opens a pair of
linked wormholes for a split second, which punches a string of gravity
between them at the speed of light (which is the same as the speed of
gravity). In order to avoid getting too sci-fi-y and wordy, and
because I don't know the first thing about advanced physics, that's
all the explanation the player would get. The result is a sniper
weapon that bypasses planetary shields, which cannot stop the force of
gravity. It reaches the length of most solar systems depending on how
precisely it can position the endpoint wormhole, and calculate the
travel time to compensate for the movements of the planet the target
is on. On the downside it requires vast resources to build and fire,
and can only be used by the custom Nanogun it is built into. The cost
was so great that High Command stopped the project as soon as the
first working copy was made to prove the theories behind it. Another
copy would take a few years to make.

Due to its ability to kill anyone at incredible range, such as
generals and political figures, it would be a major part of the story
in Iji 2. The working copy is acquired by Assassin Ansaksie, who likes
to place trackers on everyone and everything, which she can view on
her visor and target with the Null Driver. Much of her time is spent
acquiring resources for firing it, and making sure that no-one knows
that she has the weapon in the first place. Each firing can be
detected by Imperial Research, to boot, and some paranoid leaders who
know about the weapon order their crew to fly their ships randomly
around in order not to get hit in their sleep.

The Null Driver is a step towards the Star Strike, the ability to open
two bigger linked wormholes for a longer time, with the startpoint not
fixed to a gun barrel. Useless for transportation since nothing
survives going through the holes, and lacking the burst of devastating
gravity, they instead intend to use it in a simpler way; open one
wormhole at the core of a planet and the other at the core of its sun.
Bypassing planetary shields, and able to be carried by single ships
rather than the unwieldy Alpha Strike, it would temporarily warp the
solar forge into a planet and fry it from the inside. This is the
weapon both Iji and Ansaksie want to stop from being completed,
especially given the recent internal war between factions of Komato
and their eagerness to get their hands on a Star Strike-capable ship.
But I don't know if that would be the main plot point of the story, if
it ever gets written...

Click to shrink...

Unlike nanotech in general, it would therefore be extremely difficult to get your hands on the Null Driver (the glitched prototype or the working copy).

 

[MasterG]

In-game, it's a secret weapon (extremely secret; it's a hidden area within the secret sector that requires unlocking everything) that causes weird data-corruption-like effects (backgrounds get replaced with other backgrounds, including cutscene images; objects, including enemies get randomly morphed into other objects).

I asked Daniel Remar himself about it a few years back, so here's an explanation of what it canonically is from the horse's mouth.



Unlike nanotech in general, it would therefore be extremely difficult to get your hands on the Null Driver (the glitched prototype or the working copy).

Click to shrink...

Do the Tasen and Komato have any traits spefic to their race that would be useful to study?

 

[magic9mushroom]

Do the Tasen and Komato have any traits spefic to their race that would be useful to study?

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Not particularly, but every single Tasen and Komato has a Nanofield, and part of the Nanofield persists after death and can be looted from corpses.

Hence, since there are several million Tasen and a smaller number of Komato corpses scattered over the planet and very few/none of them left to protest, I would class their nanotech as "easy to get".

 

[Heaven Canceler]

2) Any fantasy universe wherein anyone can learn magic; in D&D, for example, anyone can theoretically learn to be a wizard or cleric.

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The problem with these sorts of magics is that they are based around the local physics. D&D magic for example works basically by pushing the right levers and making the universe bend to fulfil your desire. If you are in a universe that doesn't have these levers, you would be screwed. Clerics would have it easier and worse at the same time. It would always be the question of whether you can keep your gods favor and whether they can reach the particular reality you have visited.