How much do you think the anti-aging/immortality treatment costs in TiTs?

[Mad Dog]

Just thought this would be an interesting topic but how much do y'all think the treatment is? I remember Azra saying something about it costing billions. But I also remember the barkeeper on NT saying his owner made "some good money" or something of the sort and being able to afford the treatment? Also do you think the treatment and its cost varies between species?

 

[null_blank]

This is one of those things where it's better served as a vague almost abstract thing than something actually defined.

 

[Evil]

The actual cost is irrelevant, you can charge anything you want and still make a fortune.

You could make it a once in a lifetime treatment, sure, make a good bit of money there.

Or, you could tweak the treatment to be slightly less effective so that it requires regular doses to keep working. Why take one payment, when you could take a payment once a year for the rest of your life and theirs.

 

[DrunkZombie]

There probably are different levels. The more it extends your life, the more it cost. So the bar owner buys the lowest level that adds like 20 years and the billionaire pays for a couple hundred.

 

[ScarletteKnight]

I mean, if a bounty hunter like Shade or a bartender can afford it, I doubt it's billions. It's probably a very popular cosmetic mod, selling for a lot more than it costs to make but also cheap enough that most people can buy it without too much problem. And again, it's something you'll be taking more than once, so that's another factor.

 

[Evil]

Depends.

I mean, Shade is a bounty hunter who has a shady connection to a major pirate organisation through Amara Faell. Maybe the Black Void grabbed a shipment once, or maybe Amara used the group's wealth to pay for a treatment for Shade as a gift. Or maybe Shade just saved for a while for a treatment.

And then you have the owner of the robot bartender on New Texas, who presumably is making a fortune. New Texas is a "tourist" planet, in the sense that the main area you visit is a touristy area. New Texas is also a planet that appeals to a certain type of visitor - one who quite wealthy. Its noted at one stage that Steele got the invite to visit New Texas quite earlier than a lot of others. Makes sense, New Texas would be the kind of world that would want new inhabitants to be quite wealthy. If I remember correctly, Big T says as much. So the guy who owns the bar on New Texas is either a successful business own or a tourist who has invested after coming to the planet. Probably both.

If the general population could afford this treatment, you're making something that isn't in short supply, isn't difficult to make and is easy to distribute. Which makes no sense. It makes far more sense for the anti-aging treatment to be a regular dosage than to be a one off. Its a luxury in a dystopic, hedonistic setting. And that's something that you can make a lot of money off of.

If its in short supply, you're making demand for it. If you're making a demand for it, you're calling the price.
If its difficult to make, it takes time and resources to produce, leading back to it being in short supply and again, allowing you call any price you want.
If its difficult to distribute, well, to use a real world example, there's a reason why botox should only be handled by a professional.

Any one of those allows for a ridiculous price jack. And it allows for it to be something only affordable to the rich (or super rich depending on how much of a dick you are). Why make one treatment when you can make it last a lifetime.

 

[Savin]

TBF Shade's both well-to-do (she owns property on a corporate planet, a luxury starship, and several personal robots -- she clearly makes good money) and is also only around 40; her antiagathic treatment was really just about making her look and feel like she's her daughter's age. FWIW I don't think Amara gifted it to her, but Shade might have gotten it done for Amara. Stuff like that's probably pretty common.

Actually extending your life for hundreds of years, though, is probably in the realm of mega-corporate C-levels and the like. IMO, anyway. I don't think it's relevant enough to the story or any characters to specify more beyond "shit's expensive, yo."

 

[Thebiologist]

I think there's a difference between de-aging cosmetic mods and real, life extension, anti-aging treatments. Anti-aging is most likely a high roller only deal. De-aging cosmetics are most likely cheaper and commonplace.

 

[Franks]

TBF Shade's both well-to-do (she owns property on a corporate planet, a luxury starship, and several personal robots -- she clearly makes good money) and is also only around 40; her antiagathic treatment was really just about making her look and feel like she's her daughter's age. FWIW I don't think Amara gifted it to her, but Shade might have gotten it done for Amara. Stuff like that's probably pretty common.

Actually extending your life for hundreds of years, though, is probably in the realm of mega-corporate C-levels and the like. IMO, anyway. I don't think it's relevant enough to the story or any characters to specify more beyond "shit's expensive, yo."

I always figured it was something like this; High-ranking/corrupt government officials would have it, plus top-ranking special forces, hackers and generals/admirals, people with hard to replace skills that they'd want to keep around and in their prime.

And to play devil's advocate, I figure the governments themselves wouldn't want to deal with the logistics of a population that never ages and is constantly producing children. Even if Rushes are constantly happening the only way it's sustainable is to turn the UGC into a giant zerg rush, boiling across every inhabitable planet they find. And what happens to the original inhabitants then? Do they get offered anti-aging products too, so they can join the zerg rush? Leave them by the wayside? The only way that makes sense is to make it something only the rich can afford. Not to mention all the problems a deeply corrupt government like the UGC would have with immortal dissidents.

 

[moobere]

It costs...1 billion credits

 

[PalletTown]

I always assumed it was something that became exponentially more expensive the older you get. Adding 30 years is in the realm of any middle manager, but adding 200 requires a significant fortune.

 

[SeriousBlueJewel]

I always assumed it was something that became exponentially more expensive the older you get. Adding 30 years is in the realm of any middle manager, but adding 200 requires a significant fortune.

The price will probably stabilize at some point because adding in another hundred years after a thousand shouldn't be to hard

 

[Luci]

I actually thought about this a fair bit due to the paywall on Paige's questline.

If it costs 500k (When you're just fronting the remainder of the payment) to clone a set of eyes, and the way it was handled with Victor, I'd like to imagine that a full-body de-aging is more like a personal reconstruction of your body. It's likely that the process of looking younger wouldn't increase your lifespan, but fully reconstructing and replacing critical elements of the body would be a way to reduce your age and increase your lifespan. Victor's case was likely a hard-set limit that he couldn't push further without hitting a steep increase in effort, due to his genes basically being potato mash (With extra herbs and spices). Which is why he mentions that you could live longer than him if you play your cards right. From a design standpoint, putting a number on it would be silly. From a lore standpoint, I don't think it's possible to put a number on it, as it's a treatment that's likely based off of how hard your genetic code is to work with, and has too much variance to reliably gauge an overall price.

...I think I thought about it too much, tbh.

 

[Evil]

The price will probably stabilize at some point because adding in another hundred years after a thousand shouldn't be to hard

Doubtful, if anything the price would probably increase over time, with each treatment getting more expensive. Because not only would you be trying to stop aging, but you'd also be trying to stop or reverse other signs of aging. Neural pathways could degrade, blood vessels break down, organs become less effective, the list goes on.

 

[Tristan Black]

Basically freezing/regrowing the telomeres in your genetic code might be doable, but would become more difficult if you'd built up a significant amount of Taint. Dunno the cost, but you could probably lock yourself in the late teens/early thirties stage of your life permanently if you were careful about however else you played with your DNA...

And I'd almost bet the nanotech Vic Steele had you plug into at the beginning of the game included some slight measure of life extension treatment to begin with.

 

[Kingly K Duel]

Well, the concept of immortality is...well, not so much all that its cracked up to be. Even if the product of whatever makes the user immortal works, it probably wont do anything to the effects of an extreme amount of Taint in TiTS. The father of the Player character Steele likely had this immortality thing going on, and suffice to say one too many bangings led him to be hospitalized. In short, the effects of the Taint would render immortality ineffective.

That is, unless the makers of the game up and decide that having immortality (Agelessness would make even more sense for the father of [player name] Steele) cancels or removes the worry of Taint.

 

[Tristan Black]

I like the Taint mechanic, and would encourage it to be a consistent part of the game.

I'd also think that hitting 100% Taint is what made Victor Steele's DNA turn into Jello late in his life.

 

[ScarletteKnight]

I'm still pretty damn certain it's not an immortality thing, just purely cosmetic. It would be the incredible leaps in medical technology that kept people alive so long, and I've gathered that Vic's 200 years is rather normal if you don't fuck yourself up like he did, at least for humans.

Is there an age limit on Steele Jr?

 

[Tristan Black]

How big is the tracking integer for days spent looking for the probes?