Editing Tinker (section)

===Non-Tinker Usage ===
Due to the process outlined above a Tinker device is nigh-impossible for normal humans to recreate, reverse-engineer, or even maintain.<ref name="19.6 c1" /> Tinkers not only work with highly advanced technology, production and maintenance is also extremely precise, requiring the aid of the Tinker’s power to get right.<ref name=":4">There's more to it, but Gearboy might not understand all the factors going into the crafting or maintenance process. He leans on his power for some things.<br><br>Creates a situation where, even with Gearboy creating detailed guides and painstaking video tutorials that walk through how he repaired a simple hull breach in his robot suit, you could get metallurgists and robot designers working together as a committee and missing some critical detail like how ambient humidity during the weld impacts the cross-exterior conduction and complex stresses for the future, or even power-granted awareness of planetary gravity/rotation/tidal influences on nano-crystal matrices.<br><br>TL;DR: It's bullshit. - [https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/3001128 Sufficient Velocity comment] by Wildbow.</ref> Even extremely minor factors that the Tinker isn’t consciously aware of can have great effect on the end result:<ref name=":4" /> Examples include ambient temperature, radio waves and earth's superposition in the galaxy.<ref name="R1">'''Wildbow:''' Think about it this way - you sit down to build something, you have a partial idea in mind, your power supplies the rest of the instructions and components.  You get into the zone, you tinker away, and a lot of your actions become automatic.<br><br>The shard, meanwhile, is working in concert.  They supply the ideas and the mental pictures, what's necessary and what's up to your imagination.  Then, as you get underway, they assess variables like ambient temperature, radio waves, earth's superposition in the galaxy, the materials you're working with, fine tuning to an extreme.<br><br>People using a camera can't track all of the individual details, so they copy what they can, but the pieces don't fit together, the metal has superfine stresses and vulnerabilities they aren't aware of, the elements don't jibe, and it just doesn't work.<br><br>'''KateWalls:''' Ohhhh. Thats something I didn't realize, that the shards are giving them an unconscious extra-sensory Thinker power to analyze the materials and environment beyond human norms. For example, if kid win picks up a piece of glass he's never seen before, even though his eyes only work with visible light, his shard can tell what sort of UV or IR transmission and refraction indexes it has, and gives him a nudge. Is that about right?<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Varies from tinker to tinker, but that's about right. - [https://redd.it/3olmsx reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref>

Tinkers are often able to modify devices of other Tinkers, although even here the end-result will be of lesser quality.<ref name="19.6 c1">A tinker named Gearboy is commissioned to produce a mechanical battlesuit for the army, ok.  That’s doable.  But if the suit breaks down, or if it gets normal wear and tear, there’s really only one person who understands it well enough to fix it (beyond surface damage).  The tinker who made it.  Kid Win mentions, when modifying the earbud with Armsmaster’s lie detector, that anything he does will naturally be less elegant and the work will suffer for it.  The same applies for anything in regular use with non-tinkers.  The soldiers won’t know how to fix up the suit.  So it gets damaged: hole in the chest.  Repair team checks there’s no damage to internal components, patch up the hole with a metal plate welded in place like they might with a vehicle, only to find that the suit’s overheating and it’s walking funny.  They call up the tinker, but he’s elbow deep in another job.  They resign themselves to having the suit deployed for no more than an hour at a time. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/scourge-19-6/#comment-12175 comment by Wildbow] on [[Scourge 19.6]].</ref>

On the other hand, others – even ordinary humans – are able to use Tinker devices. Tinkers even equip teammates with items (although this is unusual),<ref>“It’s not customary for tinkers to design things for teammates.  If they do, it’s on a relatively small scale, simple.  Kid Win making Gallant’s armor, for example.  Any device requires a great deal of upkeep.  Time is spent tuning, calibrating, repairing and identifying problems.  Each device created is something the tinker then has to take time to maintain, and mass production means the tinker becomes tech support more than an innovator.  Dragon and I don’t sleep, or sleep very little, but even for us, it isn’t effective.  Far better to invest our time into the artificial intelligences and the ships.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/04 Excerpt] from [[Drone 23.5]]</ref> while some Tinkers, such as those from [[Toybox]], sell their goods on the black market.<ref>“Toybox is a black market organization,” Miss Militia said.  “Tinkers who operate solo find life rather difficult, due to a lack of resources and the fact that gangs and government organizations are very, <em>very</em> persistent when it comes to recruiting them.  Faced with the prospect of spending their lives on the run, trying to avoid being forcibly recruited into one organization or another, most turn to the Protectorate or the Wards.  For those few who don’t, Toybox is… <em>was</em> a refuge of sorts.  Tinkers would join, share technology, stay in the enclave as long as they needed to build up a reputation and whatever tools they needed, they would share thirty-three percent of any proceeds with the rest of the group, helping to keep others afloat.  Toybox sustained itself with barter, by moving frequently, operating between the scope of heroes and villains, and by selling less-than-legal goods to criminal groups.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/05/07 Excerpt] from [[Cell 22.2]]</ref> Such effort must always be balanced by the fact that a single misstep can render the entire device non-functional if not dangerous,<ref name="R73">If you have a tinker who makes armor/powersuits that have white hot metal as a key feature, yes, he could theoretically equip his teammates, but so much of it is intuitive that it's hard for that tinker to really specify some of the particulars.<br><br>There are a lot of little things that go wrong in the field, or things you need to adapt to. Did a cape slime the entire battlefield? Maybe that affects coolant venting, which affects the cremation fist's charge-up rate. That affects the hyperthermal reactor which means the entire suit starts feeling sluggish. Really easy to fix if it's the tinker, but nobody else will have a clue of the big picture. Did something get broken? If it's not the tinker using it, then it's going to be broken until the tinker gets their hands on it again or you might even have to abandon it. If the tinker's in the pilot's seat, then it might be a simple adjustment here or cinching something shut there.<br><br>Generally when gear is given out, it's heavily restricted in capability ("Okay, well, it's the suit I usually use, but I had to adjust the dampeners so it's slower, weaker, and you don't have access to the meat hammer or related tech"), it's a oneshot thing ("Press this, then this, aim using this"), or both. - [https://redd.it/877kq0 Wildbow] on reddit.</ref> understandably frustrating.<ref name=R83>''LexiconWrought'' Imagine spending several thousand dollars and a lot of time building your dream computer, top of the line components with all sorts of gimmicks, overclocking, VR, the works. Imagine entering, say, a high stakes esports competition, lots riding on a victory, lots to lose with a defeat.<br>Now imagine handing it over to your grandparent.<br>It's hard enough to watch them try to use their smartphones, but that's probably nothing compared to what a tinker experiences seeing someone else try to use their gear.<br><br>''Wildbow:'' Perfect analogy. I like how it captures the frustration. - [https://redd.it/9z3bcj Analogy] on reddit.</ref>

Regardless a Tinker is a huge asset to any team and are thus highly sought after,<ref>“But he’s risking his life,” Chariot’s mother spoke.  Chariot frowned.<br><br>“He is.  There are responsibilities.  But honestly?  There’s zero way he’s going to be able to go out and try out any of the stuff he’s made without running into trouble.  People are going to pick fights, just because he has powers.  If he tries to hang out in a workshop he establishes on his own, they’re going to find him, strong-arm him into putting something together for them.  Not just villains, either.  Heroes too.  Being a tinker doesn’t just make you a target.  It makes you a resource.  It’s why pretty much every tinker out there is a member of a larger, more powerful team.”<br><br>“Then Trevor could just not use his powers?” she spoke.<br><br>“Sure,” Kid Win folded his arms, leaning back against the back of the couch.  “What do you think, Chariot?  You think you could keep from using that power of yours?  Be normal?”<br><br>Chariot frowned, looked down at his scratched-up hands, “No.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/04/14 Excerpt] from [[Sentinel 9.4]]</ref> if not outright abducted.<ref>See: [[Bonesaw]]</ref><ref>Tinker abduction story - [https://redd.it/qux4bb Wildbow posted on reddit]</ref> This is why tinkers are known to form [[Toybox|communes]] for protection or join powerful teams.

As Tinkers often place trackers on their gear, it’s generally unwise to steal it.<ref name="10.4">“Taking a tinker’s stuff to keep is a bad idea, what with GPS signals and tracking and all that, but at the very least, we can use this to get out.”  She swept her arm over the room, where stuff lay on every surface.<br><br>Dragon’s voice echoed through the chamber, “I can hear you, Tattletale.  Do ''not'' use a tinker’s devices.  Power supplies can overload, weapons and equipment can misfire.  Only the tinker who made it can verify the devices as safe and operate them properly.”<br><br>“Right, sure,” Tattletale called out with a note of sarcasm in her voice.  “Because it’s not like there’s any high profile mercenaries out there who’ve made a career off of using a tinker’s stuff.”<br><br>Dragon didn’t reply.  Had Tattletale found a sore spot?  I knew the [[Dragonslayers]] were mercenaries who had taken the parts of one of Dragon’s armored suits to outfit themselves as high tech mercenaries. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/05/05 Excerpt] from [[Parasite 10.4]]</ref>