Editing Engine Heart (section)

====Kilowatts, Gigawatts, Capacitors, and Upgrades====

This is a form of experience points for programmers that want their players to improve themselves.

Throughout the gameworld there are portable capacitors. A capacitor can store undefined amounts of energy, which can be measured in Kilowatts. One kilowatt provides one recharge when a robot fails its power roll; It still takes an hour, and the kilowatt is gone for good, but it can keep the game going.

A hundred kilowatts is a gigawatt, and this is where things get interesting. Gigawatts can be spent at upgrade stations as points to improve the player robot. A gigawatt is equivalent to one creation point; while it is lost forever if spent, the upgrades are permanent. Upgrade stations must either be located or the appropriate upgrade feature taken by a robot.

There are five kinds of upgrade features: the Programmer, which costs fifteen points and can upgrade Intelligence Stats; the Technician, which costs fifteen points and can upgrade Chassis Stats; the Engineer, which costs fifteen points and can upgrade Crux Stats; the Mechanist, which costs twenty points and can add and remove features; and the Self Modify, which itself costs however many other upgrade features a robot has times ten and cannot be purchased without at least one other upgrade feature. In addition to the cost for each feature, a robot can only have an amount of upgrade features equal to (DigiCon+MechaniCon)/2 rounded down.

While features and defects can be added and removed for direct cost, Stats must be improved by level. A level three digicon cannot be upgraded to a level five digicon, it must first be upgraded to a level four digicon and then to a level five. Stat upgrades also cost their full point vaule in gigawatts; to upgrade a level three digicon to a level four digicon requires ten gigawatts, not ten minus six, but ten. All secondary factors are automatically increased if their base stat is increased.