I'm going to have to call bull on that assessment. The pedagogue accelerator is, in fact, significantly less reliable than the cube. It's only bonuses present when a considerable amount of time is spent building up attributes and stats. In comparison, the nightmare cube guarantees at least 1 willpower per year, with a willpower training synergy that is even stronger than the pedagogue bonus by at least one more degree of success (considering training willpower is in the hardest training category, this is extremely useful), to top off the fact that it's side effects are psychological rather than purely physical chemical/hardware changes to the brain.
First of all, I'm having trouble understanding your calculations on the Cube's willpower gain. Maybe because I'm not as used as you are in actively participating in one of AN's quests. So Phylactery's baseline is 10+ willpower. Every year of usage of Cube is +1, with added chance of succeeding in Willpower training along with it.
It is my understanding that 1 turn = 1 year. And that successfully training a stat increases it by 1.
The absolute maximum for the cube to mimic the phylactery's baseline is 5 years.
So where did you get that statement? If anything 5 years should be the minimum. You are also assuming we would always have the personal actions available to train Willpower. As far as I know, we haven't trained any stat at all so far.
Also, of course the experimental psychic torture cube is better in training willpower then the pedagogue accelerator! It's the only thing it does! The pedagogue accelerator in a general device that helps increases learning of
all types. I.e, it would always be relevant. As for your assumed calculations, you are trying to add in hard numbers and probabilities where AN has given none, so excuse me for doubting its validity.
Furthermore, the fact that the cube's effects are
Purely psychological is what makes me want to avoid it. High tech science and meds can reverse, heal, or at the very least minimise and
track the chemical effects and to a lesser degree the physical effects, but how can you heal something as abstract as the human psyche? There's a reason why PTSD is still considered a silent killer in even developed countries. You can only meditate the side-effects, but not the mental trauma itself.
The implant is a purely physical phenomena, which alters the way the brain stores and retrieves information by offloading to/requiring data to pass through the implant. You want to pretty up the implant's potential drawbacks? Total and potentially irreversible anterograde and/or retrograde amnesia if the implant is damaged, fails, or doesn't function as intended in a critical way. Perhaps it could cause Alzheimer-like symptoms if the brain can't parse the altered storage medium correctly. Even for less severe drawback reactions, there's plenty of assorted functional memory disorders that the implant could cause, and cause for years as the brain adjusts to it, or even if it was removed.
Call me crazy, but I'll take 'temporary coma' over that any time, especially considering it's a small issue for someone else to turn the cube off if we don't wake up for a day. I wouldn't even be surprised if failsafes existed that turned it off automatically if it doesn't get some kind of input after a long enough session.
And going back to Steampunkglory for a second, in the same way major side-effects of cube use may take time to present, the implant has an assimilation period where the brain redirects neurons to new functions that, for tasks as small as limb movement, takes up to half a year. It would take at least a year, probably two, before the implant was fully integrated and could start showing signs of hardware failure.
Here my objection come back to the difference in nature of our to experimental devices. One has a purely physical impact on our body, so any problems are at the very least, easily noticeable and repaired to some degree. While I fully accept that both devices have drawbacks, let me point out that the nightmare cube is the only option that is specifically stated to have side-effects, and that prototype does not mean never tested. Catastrophic failure on the part of the implant can be easily discounted, I very much doubt that Anna would offer such a dangerous device to Ella. Perhaps some level of rejection, but the scenario you drew up is quite the exaggeration. I am not stating that the Cube could cause catatonic shutdown, but even 'minor' mental disorders can be a huge pain.
I never stated that the Nightmare Cube would cause Ella to be locked in a psychic torture induced coma. You stated yourself though, that the neutron assimilation period would take about a year (again not sure where you got that from, and even if that is true in present times, this age might have ways to accelerate it). That means that within a year/turn, we would have some idea on what the long-term side effects would be. The cube on the other hand, needs to be used at least 5 years to be possibly be worth the opportunity cost of getting the phylactery. Each year has a chance to aggravate any disorders and/or debuffs we get from using it, unless we space the years out. Then you might as well change the minimum time to 10 years then.
Also, consider the years where we do use it. I am positive it would make certain rolls harder, and that might include increased weakness to Psychic attacks. Using what logic? Well, is it easier to be patient when you are having a good day or a bad day? In the same vein a mind that is exhausted from resisting psychic attacks every night would be easier to breach. So why would we get an Item that has certainly has harmful side effects that can be potentially large and takes a long time to mature (making us weaker while using it) to address an immediate problem? Even the Phylactery is a better choice then the nightmare cube!
I still expect it to come with a weakness to psy. Fun times!
Baseless speculation. I see no correlation.
EDIT: Bah, should have refreshed the page. Didn't see your latest answer
@Powerofmind, and I just remembered that a check is (stat)x2, so I understand your reasoning now.
