Editing RULES (section)

=Communication Lag=
Communication in the 'Verse (after the '''Long Quiet'') has been reduced to three main types.
*'''Radio Wave''' -- (or simply '''Wave''')Traditional Light Speed communication. This is effective for basic audio-visual communication for short range distances.
**It is an easy check for ship's Alertness+pc's Tech Eng (Comm)for distances of 1 light second (300,000km)to get clear conversation. +1 step (average, hard, etc..) for double of that distance (2,4,8, etc.)<br>So to converse via radio at a distance of 8 light seconds (2.5M KM)would be a formidable (dc15) check. 
* '''Narrowband''' -- High intensity radio transmissions. These are lines intended to duplicate some of the functionality of the cortex. They transmit large amount of data along redundant systems so that any data loss is recovered at the next node. The narrow band allows for site to site transfer of large files and communications. Ships are directed to stay out of the Narrowband streams, as they are vulnerable to disruption by pulse engines. The Narrowband has limits and operates on a request system (a sort of interlibrary loan) specific data can be requested and transmitted along the Narrowband. A cost of 1Cr is imposed for most requests (up to about a terabyte). The return time on requests depends on (a) the location where the data can be found (distance), and (b) the size of the queue (number of files being requested from any sites). Some companies can get priority use on the Narrowband to ensure the swift communication of time sensitive materials. Narrowband is limited to planets or ships possessing large radio wave transmitters and receivers. 
*'''Pony Express''' -- Throughout the Verse ships have been assigned a datavault drive of approximately 1 petabyte (1024 terabytes). These rugged databooks carry bits of the old cortex piecemeal from one cortex node to another. The data on a datavault is heavily encrypted and largely in fragments preventing them of being much use to any computer other than a coretx node level computer (which decrypts and assembles the various fragments). That said a Heroic Complex (95) check might be sufficient to pull out specifically desired information with a datareader. Planets or moons with Cortex Nodes should have a Cortex that is generally up-to-date at lag of 2hours per AU distance from the Core times the difficulty of finding the information (unless specifically requests via Narrowband).
**Easy to find information (eg. Verse News, Cortex Shows, Cortex Mail) would likely be available in Red Sun roughly 68(au) x 2 hours x 3 (easy)= 408 hours (17 days) after uploading. 
**Hard to find information (eg. Cargo Manifests, Private Fuel Logs, Local Legal Documents) would likely be available in Red Sun in 68(au) x 2 hours x 11 (hard) = 1496 hours (2 months)
**''Plot points can be spent to reduce the difficulty by a step per point.''
Planets and moons without a Cortex Node (or equivalent) require double that time or more to get updated information. 
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[[Verse Technology#Cortex V.1|Old System]]<br>
[[mutineers]]