Reverse Engineering

[Allyson Locke]

Came up today in the Q&A and I remember it coming up a lot before. Should we plop it in the rules or another documentation for people to know about it and no have to question? OR do we keep it vague until someone questions it?

 

[Cira]

I think that with enough ic thread development even Incom's stealth x ships can be reversed engineered despite her saying they can't on her sub.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I would agree. I would think its length would need to be comparable to the Dev threads of the item in question however. I would also say that it would depend on the complexity of the item in question, and in regards to restricted materials, they would still need to be gathered separately.

The thread of reverse engineering the item, capturing/stealing the item, or salvaging the item should be close, if not equal to the threads creating the original... Otherwise whats the point of deving it, wait for somebody else to put in a lot of work and swoop in and profit off of it.

 

[Cira]

^ good point. I like that. Comparable dev threads based on the complexity and the RE one to begin with

 

[Ellie Mors]

I believe that, yes, development threads should be comparable, if not greater than, the original.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

I am going to agree with everything said here. Reverse engineering should be a capable thing, but should be of equal proportion to the work put into the original sub.

 

[Cira]

woot

[member="Tefka"] thoughts?

 

[Laira Darkhold]

My argument against greater than is that it removes the purpose of reverse engineering it... Just do it yourself at that point. We are talking about stuff that for the most part has to be stolen, then a dev thread done. Comparable, not more than. You already have to get your hands on it, which I would say requires a link to show how you got the original item... Even if it is as simple as I bought it from the Market... then that's somebody else's fault for having it to easy to get to.

 

[Ellie Mors]

My argument against greater than is that it removes the purpose of reverse engineering it... Just do it yourself at that point. We are talking about stuff that for the most part has to be stolen, then a dev thread done. Comparable, not more than. You already have to get your hands on it, which I would say requires a link to show how you got the original item... Even if it is as simple as I bought it from the Market... then that's somebody else's fault for having it to easy to get to.

This depends on the situation.

Developing something to counter an enemy's cloaking device by reverse engineering theirs requires more work than simply taking the technology apart and figuring out how it works.

Copying their technology through reverse engineering might require just that.