More TF info
As I mentioned before, typing this as best I can remember it and trying to double check what I'm writing as I do it. Please allow some lee-way as you check my information though, as this isn't as polished as the original data.
On the RL front, I'm pleased to mention that my cough has FINALLY eased (after... dear lord, three months) I can finally talk for extended periods without coughing to the point that I literally could not BREATHE. I'm still coughing occasionly but the deep feeling of 'stuff that should not be IN the lungs has cleared, as well as many other nice points.
Transformer Paint scheme color meanings
Decals, such as fire designs or the like, tend to be a luxary done either because the transformer is a bit a peacock (Tracks and Rodi for instance) or as a statement of their skill and confidence 'I'm so good at what I do that I have time to do all this fiddly paint work'. Using Hot Rod/Rodimus as an example, his 'vain-glory' is his flame decals. Simply look at how RARE anything beyond solid colors are, and how rare it is on non-combatants. Decals are RARE, even with the boisterous Aerialbots, only FireFlight and Skydive have them (Still working on WHY decals would be rare to the near point of nonexistance in-character...)
Instead of looking at transformers and their colors through a european/american viewpoint of what colors mean what, we decided to instaed step back and look at what characters had WHAT colors to try and see what the colors represented. Transformers see MUCH further across the spectrum than human eyes do, however the divisions of the color bands would still be largely the same, save additional bands for ultra violet and infrared and the like... actually seeing wider into the spectrum could explain the lack of decals, perhaps TFs prefer subtle decals, where only those who can see more of the spectrum can see the decals, like insects that see the ultraviolet spectrum are the ones that see the 'landing pad' on flowers where a human would see a plain white blossom.
Delving into this for why we tried to look at what characters were what colors instead of human concepts: common colors for humans (red, black and yellow) are overall rare for TFs. For pinks and greys being rare it makes sense, those are danger/pain and death colors for TFs, and likely is the equivilent of black-to-humans in that it is a 'dress to impress, dress to frighten' color type... of course this means Arcee has done what every goth supposidly wants to do, she's goth in pink.;)
Another point to note is to look at the proportions of the colors on the characters, often as not they tend to display the 'personality traits' represented by those colors in the proportions that their paint-schemes possess. It actually got a little startling as we went along and realised just how much of a majority fit into this (please note we tend to use the toys first for color schemes). Overall; Everyone's colors and the proportions of the colors matches their personality almost perfectly. Which indicates TFs paint themselves in silent statement of WHO they are and what their personalities are, and usually not what they WANT their personalities to be. It would also explain the constant paint-color changing when someone is reprogrammed;) Oddly it even seems to work (mostly) once you leave G1 (look at BW, it even, loosely, applies to their BM colors)
Purple seems to be somewhat simular to grey in that it is less a personality trait and more a statement. It is a 'power' color, a statement that the person who is this color *IS* power 'I am power, taste my wrath'. Galvatron, Astrotrain, Shockwave, etc.
Blue tends to show up on overall 'calm' characters (Scourge, who's very calm for one of the Unicronian-triad; Magnus, Beachcomber)
Green shows up most consistantly on those who love to explore or are built for long range recon/exploring (Hound, Cosmos, etc)
Yellow tends to show up most consistantly on bold people, those who strike out, say what they feel and think, do the impossible and prove their point (Sunstreaker, Bumblebee, Sunstorm, etc)
Orange tends to show up on proud characters.
Red tends to show up in those who tend to be brave, often to the point of fearlessness and foolishness.
Pink is another intimidation color, but this time the intimidation would seem to be 'I can cause you pain/I know what pain and suffering ARE'... at least if you look at the profile of those who are pink. Arcee as a sniper, Elita One's combat skills, Spinister.
White tends to show up on characters who are intense... what that intensity *IS* varies, but most every charcter who is all why is a very intense person.
Grey, as mentioned before, seems to be a dress to impress, intimidation color and is likely tied to death so 'death maker'/intimidation
Black seems to show up on more laid-back characters who are not nessisarily calm but more 'easily bemused by life'. Skywarp may not quite fit (Koi Lungfish's version in Lunatic Cabaret of him seems to!) but then again Skywarp is rarely given ANY personality beyond 'here be the background bad guy for this scene' much less a consistant one.
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Grey=calm intimidation/death
White= Intensity
pink=intimidation/injury-pain
Red= Brave
orange= proud
Yellow=Bold
Green=Explorer
Blue=Calm
Purple=Power/ 'aggressive' intimidation
Black(dark grey)=laid back/bemused at life
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Monitoring and Control Rigs
You can blame Beast Machines for this. The only thing I really liked about the series was how we got to see 'Cybertronian' tech. It was fun seeing how holograms were used, the immersive enviorment where maps shaped themselves around you, the way the writing moved and rotated, etc. We also really liked Megatron's rig that he used to monitor and control his Vehicons and the city defenses/scanners/etc...
The way the rig settled over his shoulders, the head mount with the 'face guard', the constantly moving connections over his helm and back the MASS of wires that lead up to the real controls, it was a FANTASTIC visual and wonderful concept that was just begging to be reused.
So we did.
We decided that these monitoring and control rigs had existed for a long time in Cybertronian history, probably predating the Third War, maybe even the Second... perhaps the Quintessons had created them originally to try and keep better control of their widespread slaves and the rebellions that occurred (it certainly fit with the wires and the whole tentical aspect). When the quintessons were defeated and chase off planet, it wasn't just the guardian robots that the Cybertronians discovered the use and creation and control of, right?
At first the monitor and control rigs were ignored, the rooms they hooked up to locked down and forgotten as the age of peace followed. Then as war broke out again, someone discovered the monitoring rigs and discovered how they worked and how to modify them for Cybertronian tech and use. Once someone found one, the others that already existed were found and began to be used.
Then someone along the line figured out how to duplicate the technology for the city-states that didn't have these ancient monitoring rigs.
The only thing that I got caught up on was WHO. Who found that first forgotten rig and began to use it? We sort of wanted it to be a third war discovery, if only becuase the second war was an era we wasn't writing much if anything for, the creepy factor of it had us wanting it to be the Cons that found and used the tech first... which limited it to high ranking cons with high intelligence and tech stats. The constructicons didn't fit, they had enough power being Devestator. G1 Megatron hooked up to the rig... meh, the visual didn't really fit him, and it REALLY didn't fit Starscream, too confining. That really narrowed it down to Soundwave or Shockwave. We finally went with Shockers becuase EVERYBODY tends to ignore the guy, even in the comics when he's a leader of one of the Decepticon factions he tends to be ignored, even Soundwave doesn't have luck that bad (well, actually Sounders is so popular that he doesn't need anymore help, much as we love him).
So, Shockwave discovered and modified the ancient technology, which also helps explain his position of power in the Decepticon ranks (firepower alone isn't enough). He discovered the tech that let the Decepticons feild all non-sentient defenses from a single person with total, multi-tasking, control.
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It also gave us an answer to a problem that we'd faced. Cybertron spends much of the series floating around the universe... if it had no propulsion systems at all it would basically just sit like a lump wherever it ended up, or get dragged into the nearest gravity well. So someone has to be controlling the manuvering thrusters (not the dedicated planet movers that Flame tries to activate) this provides some minor propulsion, and the ability to move the planet out of the way of oncoming threats, like gravity wells; or towards energy sources, like that nearby nebula. It can't be Primus, his staying in stasis-lock is the only thing that keeps Unicron from finding Cybertron. Keeper doesn't seem the kind of person to be able to DO all that careful work. Thus, somone has to be 'rigged' into the planetary controls and now we had a way for it to be done: a purpose built monitoring and control rig! The character who would be doing this piloting came out of the requirments that would be put down by the two factions. It has to be someone both sides would be willing to trust and leave alone (so a neutral or Rogue), it had to be a mech who could REALLY get flying through space and the corrections needed to avoid a gravity well light years away when all you've got are tiny, weak, manuvering thrusters (so it had to be a shuttleformer).
The two factions would ahve found a place in neutral territory to build the rig, a place tha both agree they won't fight over, design a rig that neither side can hack into, a location that both sides agree will always have enough energy to do it's job. The reason for this location and deal that both factions will honor?
Both factions are fighting for Cybertron, if they DON"T do this, then their home planet will eventually be destroyed, and it will have all been pointless. Odds are both factions will ABUSE this safe location at times, maybe when one side wants to be able to load and unload items without any risk of attack (at least until they leave teh safe zone) or maybe when a group of warriors need to get to a place where they can rest, recover and repair. So the safe zone is abused, but the saftey and protection and energy it's granted is never stopped, the agreement never broken.
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'formers and 'changers
The suffix 'former' is used to indicate what a sentient beings alt-mode is: Shuttleformer, jetformer, carformer, etc...
The suffix 'changer' is used to indicate how many modes a sentient being has, including their battle-mode: Duexchanger, triplechanger, Quadrichanger, Pentachanger, Quintchanger.
A sentient being with only one 'mode' is a solostate (we can't say 'soloform' beucase of how former is used, 'solochanger' makes no sense, the oppisite of change is entropy, to exist without change in a single 'state'. A state is also a mode of being, or 'MODAL EXISTENCE; Absolute/unchanging': hence 'solostate'... also I'm a fan of GW and Duo's mentor/pal/reason-for-his-name was Solo) Kitt and Karr from KR are solostates, humans are solostates.
A non-sentient being has differant terminology than sentients. A transforming drone uses 'mold as a suffic to indicate their alt mode: shuttlemold, jetmold, carmold, etc. A transforming drone uses 'shifter as a suffix to indicated how many modes it has: Dualshifter, trishifter, pevarshifter. A nonsentient with only one 'mode' is a singlemode.
A sentient who's CPU has been shut down, or a non-sentient who is advanced enough to pass for a sentient uses differant terminology than non/senteints. the suffix 'guise is used to indicate what the alt-mode is: Shuttleguise, jetguise, carguise, etc. The suffix 'alterer is used to indicate how many modes are possessed: bialterer, thricealterer. The term 'unoform' is used for those with only one 'mode'.
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Discs, Neural Dampners, Doctored Energon, Blocks and Low Grade
Basically we looked at transformers and 'medical science' and decided that the medics HAD to have a few differant ways of controlling their patients beyond 'flicking a wire' in the chest (which would only work if A: the armor was off and B: the medic had his/her hands in the mechs chest at the right moment). Simply shutting someone off into repair mode might not be a perfect solution, I would tend to think that most warriors would have override after ovveride nad by-pass after by-pass built in to let them wake up if they were shut down... not a good thing for a medic who might be elbow deep in said warriors systems when they wake up shooting.
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Discs:
A 'disc' is a 'small' self contained computer, able to transmit controlled viruses and coding designed to directly affect the target transformers CPUs. The two types of 'discs' gain their name from their shape, that of a disc 1 foot in diameter and 3 inches in depth, (dominator discs usually have four small 'feet'. Each foot is actually a high mobile peice of metal able to dig tiny hooks into a transformers armor and mold itself to the shape of the armor it is put on). The more power that is sent to a disc, the more it effects the transformer it is attached to.
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Control Discs: One of the primary tools of medics, and visibly identical to Dominator discs, only lacking the 'feet' unique to Dominator Discs. Control discs grant medics just that, control over the patient's awareness levels. By raising the power levels on a disc, the disc sends out more and more viruses and coding, lowering the targets awareness and agression levels. At full power a targets CPU is forced into repair mode, at half power a target's motor abilities will be sluggish and un-coordinated, the CPU actions slow and they will have difficulty focusing on a topic, as well has having a steady manta of 'safe' humming in their minds to try to keep them calm. All of this is to give a medic control of a potentially lethal person who might otherwise kill a medic by mistake. They are the most common and safest method a medic has of keeping big dangerous mechs down, out and passive for repair work.
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Dominator Discs: are used to dominate a transformers mind while not affecting their personality or stopping them from accessing their memory files as 'normal'. Often used when transporting a dangerous prisoner who, for one reason or another, can not be shut-down or otherwise moved safely, they have also been used as weapons of physcological warfare, forcing even the most loyal of beings to work for the opposing faction willingly. The only reason they are used as such so rarely is that the disc loosing power, being removed or disrupted will end the 'spell' instantly and without any prior warning.
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Neural Dampners:
A set of paralyzing viruses, 'malicious' codes and anesthetic buffers designed to knock a target into stasis lock or repair mode and keep them there until the code is removed by a medic, they run their course, or a transformers defense matrix manages to target the bad code and destroy them.
They can be introduced by a wire, where the medic can simply hook a wire up to the Transformers CPU, this method is the preferred by medics as the computer the target is wired up to can continue to upload the dampners to the targets CPU.
Another common method of introducing the dampners is to stuff them into a file or set of files sent to a target. When the target opens or access the file, the dampners released and will quickly target the CPU, shutting the mech down into repair mode or stasis lock.
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Doctored Energon:
Doctored energon is one of the more rare ways to control a mech, as it is hard to judge exactly what proportions of each of the three components are needed for each individual transformer, which can alter drastically based on their current health. 'Doctored' energon is three components which can either be fed into a transformer directly to begin effecting the fuel/lubricants, or it can be mied into a transformers ration (which is where it gains it's name). The components may be increased or decreased to alter the overall effect.
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The first component and the one that usually forms the majority of the batch is an agent/chemical to thin out the energon or create capsules around existing energon so the mech's body can not access/absorb/use it (there are actually several differant agents/chemicals that a medic can use for this component, each one having a slightly differant effect, 'kicking in' speed, and length of time that it lasts in the systems). It thus lowers the energy-levels they have; less energy means they can't move around or stay awake very well, depending on the amount of energy they have access to. It's just like a human, really, less energy means there's less you can do.
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The second component is an agent/chemical (there are actually several differant agents/chemicals that a medic can use for this component, each one having a slightly differant effect, 'kicking in' speed, and length of time that it lasts in the systems) that thickens the fluids in the mech's body, forcing the pumps to function at a slower rate, thus insuring that the energy in the body takes longer to get places. It also means that the lubricants for joints is thicker, making TFs move slower by default, a very handy effect when you might be dealing with a usually fast moving warrior who would as soon rip your face off as look at you.
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The third component is a series of nanites that traverse to the CPU, once there they can simply give off the 'safe' mantra such as a Disc does, or they can shut a TF down to a trance like state, repair mode or stasis lock. As with the other two components there are several differant types of nanites that might be used for this component, each having differant effects, lasting times and 'kick in' speeds.
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Most medics store the three components in seperate vials rather then premixing the doctored rations so that a medic can make a 'to order' batch each time, based on the needs of the 'target' intended. High ranking medics can also set up the ration dispensor to include the components into a targets ration 'on the sly' if s/he feels it's nessisary.
Doctored rations can also be stored in 'capsules' designed to either time release or release when a mech goes to do, or thinks of, a certain thing (such as a mech going/thinking to get his next ration, or to go head for his/her duty station). Since transformers have no sense of 'taste' (while they can 'taste' things in the air, that is more an advanced sense of 'smell') they will not be able to detect the microscopic 'pellets' mixed into their ration when they drink it down.
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Blocks:
Simplest of the medical 'controls' in practice and theroy, although it takes a skilled medic to install and remove them safely (without causing a cascade failure or destroying pieces of a mechs mind or the like. A block is, simply put, a lock on the datagates in a TFs CPU which stops (blocks) data from flowing from one segment of the mind to another, or blocks access to a segment of the mind. The most commonly used blocks are ones designed to prevent warriors from accessing their battle computer while they're being repaired. Blocks can be 'partial blocks' or full, and they can be created by code (the most common) or by simply putting a physical piece of non conductive material in the CPU in the right place. A Transformer with a block will have slightly slower than normal response times, as blocks tend to cuase lagging as the CPU has to move around the block to process data, thus slowing a TF out of 'real time'. The more blocks in a TFs head (or the more important a zone being blocked off), the slower their response time. for instance a warrior with his battle computer access denied will react up to half a minute slower than the rest of the world... when Prowl's battle computer went down it was because of how much it would slow his response time that he felt he was 'helpless', he knew that unless he found a way to create a temporary gate to allow battle computer access, his slowed responses would mean he couldn't even dodge or do 'basic CPU' combat... They can't loose all fighting skill if the BC goes down, instead teh BC probably allows for faster reaction times and when a TF uses it, they can think of actions and reactions better and they tend to store stratagies that have worked well in the past in the BC that they can initate and follow through on, comparable to a human's muscle memory/unconcious habit.
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Low Grade:
Is rather going to have to wait until I can write up the information we had on energon and 'rations' from memory... stupid STUPID wanker of a thief
On the RL front, I'm pleased to mention that my cough has FINALLY eased (after... dear lord, three months) I can finally talk for extended periods without coughing to the point that I literally could not BREATHE. I'm still coughing occasionly but the deep feeling of 'stuff that should not be IN the lungs has cleared, as well as many other nice points.
Transformer Paint scheme color meanings
Decals, such as fire designs or the like, tend to be a luxary done either because the transformer is a bit a peacock (Tracks and Rodi for instance) or as a statement of their skill and confidence 'I'm so good at what I do that I have time to do all this fiddly paint work'. Using Hot Rod/Rodimus as an example, his 'vain-glory' is his flame decals. Simply look at how RARE anything beyond solid colors are, and how rare it is on non-combatants. Decals are RARE, even with the boisterous Aerialbots, only FireFlight and Skydive have them (Still working on WHY decals would be rare to the near point of nonexistance in-character...)
Instead of looking at transformers and their colors through a european/american viewpoint of what colors mean what, we decided to instaed step back and look at what characters had WHAT colors to try and see what the colors represented. Transformers see MUCH further across the spectrum than human eyes do, however the divisions of the color bands would still be largely the same, save additional bands for ultra violet and infrared and the like... actually seeing wider into the spectrum could explain the lack of decals, perhaps TFs prefer subtle decals, where only those who can see more of the spectrum can see the decals, like insects that see the ultraviolet spectrum are the ones that see the 'landing pad' on flowers where a human would see a plain white blossom.
Delving into this for why we tried to look at what characters were what colors instead of human concepts: common colors for humans (red, black and yellow) are overall rare for TFs. For pinks and greys being rare it makes sense, those are danger/pain and death colors for TFs, and likely is the equivilent of black-to-humans in that it is a 'dress to impress, dress to frighten' color type... of course this means Arcee has done what every goth supposidly wants to do, she's goth in pink.;)
Another point to note is to look at the proportions of the colors on the characters, often as not they tend to display the 'personality traits' represented by those colors in the proportions that their paint-schemes possess. It actually got a little startling as we went along and realised just how much of a majority fit into this (please note we tend to use the toys first for color schemes). Overall; Everyone's colors and the proportions of the colors matches their personality almost perfectly. Which indicates TFs paint themselves in silent statement of WHO they are and what their personalities are, and usually not what they WANT their personalities to be. It would also explain the constant paint-color changing when someone is reprogrammed;) Oddly it even seems to work (mostly) once you leave G1 (look at BW, it even, loosely, applies to their BM colors)
Purple seems to be somewhat simular to grey in that it is less a personality trait and more a statement. It is a 'power' color, a statement that the person who is this color *IS* power 'I am power, taste my wrath'. Galvatron, Astrotrain, Shockwave, etc.
Blue tends to show up on overall 'calm' characters (Scourge, who's very calm for one of the Unicronian-triad; Magnus, Beachcomber)
Green shows up most consistantly on those who love to explore or are built for long range recon/exploring (Hound, Cosmos, etc)
Yellow tends to show up most consistantly on bold people, those who strike out, say what they feel and think, do the impossible and prove their point (Sunstreaker, Bumblebee, Sunstorm, etc)
Orange tends to show up on proud characters.
Red tends to show up in those who tend to be brave, often to the point of fearlessness and foolishness.
Pink is another intimidation color, but this time the intimidation would seem to be 'I can cause you pain/I know what pain and suffering ARE'... at least if you look at the profile of those who are pink. Arcee as a sniper, Elita One's combat skills, Spinister.
White tends to show up on characters who are intense... what that intensity *IS* varies, but most every charcter who is all why is a very intense person.
Grey, as mentioned before, seems to be a dress to impress, intimidation color and is likely tied to death so 'death maker'/intimidation
Black seems to show up on more laid-back characters who are not nessisarily calm but more 'easily bemused by life'. Skywarp may not quite fit (Koi Lungfish's version in Lunatic Cabaret of him seems to!) but then again Skywarp is rarely given ANY personality beyond 'here be the background bad guy for this scene' much less a consistant one.
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Grey=calm intimidation/death
White= Intensity
pink=intimidation/injury-pain
Red= Brave
orange= proud
Yellow=Bold
Green=Explorer
Blue=Calm
Purple=Power/ 'aggressive' intimidation
Black(dark grey)=laid back/bemused at life
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Monitoring and Control Rigs
You can blame Beast Machines for this. The only thing I really liked about the series was how we got to see 'Cybertronian' tech. It was fun seeing how holograms were used, the immersive enviorment where maps shaped themselves around you, the way the writing moved and rotated, etc. We also really liked Megatron's rig that he used to monitor and control his Vehicons and the city defenses/scanners/etc...
The way the rig settled over his shoulders, the head mount with the 'face guard', the constantly moving connections over his helm and back the MASS of wires that lead up to the real controls, it was a FANTASTIC visual and wonderful concept that was just begging to be reused.
So we did.
We decided that these monitoring and control rigs had existed for a long time in Cybertronian history, probably predating the Third War, maybe even the Second... perhaps the Quintessons had created them originally to try and keep better control of their widespread slaves and the rebellions that occurred (it certainly fit with the wires and the whole tentical aspect). When the quintessons were defeated and chase off planet, it wasn't just the guardian robots that the Cybertronians discovered the use and creation and control of, right?
At first the monitor and control rigs were ignored, the rooms they hooked up to locked down and forgotten as the age of peace followed. Then as war broke out again, someone discovered the monitoring rigs and discovered how they worked and how to modify them for Cybertronian tech and use. Once someone found one, the others that already existed were found and began to be used.
Then someone along the line figured out how to duplicate the technology for the city-states that didn't have these ancient monitoring rigs.
The only thing that I got caught up on was WHO. Who found that first forgotten rig and began to use it? We sort of wanted it to be a third war discovery, if only becuase the second war was an era we wasn't writing much if anything for, the creepy factor of it had us wanting it to be the Cons that found and used the tech first... which limited it to high ranking cons with high intelligence and tech stats. The constructicons didn't fit, they had enough power being Devestator. G1 Megatron hooked up to the rig... meh, the visual didn't really fit him, and it REALLY didn't fit Starscream, too confining. That really narrowed it down to Soundwave or Shockwave. We finally went with Shockers becuase EVERYBODY tends to ignore the guy, even in the comics when he's a leader of one of the Decepticon factions he tends to be ignored, even Soundwave doesn't have luck that bad (well, actually Sounders is so popular that he doesn't need anymore help, much as we love him).
So, Shockwave discovered and modified the ancient technology, which also helps explain his position of power in the Decepticon ranks (firepower alone isn't enough). He discovered the tech that let the Decepticons feild all non-sentient defenses from a single person with total, multi-tasking, control.
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It also gave us an answer to a problem that we'd faced. Cybertron spends much of the series floating around the universe... if it had no propulsion systems at all it would basically just sit like a lump wherever it ended up, or get dragged into the nearest gravity well. So someone has to be controlling the manuvering thrusters (not the dedicated planet movers that Flame tries to activate) this provides some minor propulsion, and the ability to move the planet out of the way of oncoming threats, like gravity wells; or towards energy sources, like that nearby nebula. It can't be Primus, his staying in stasis-lock is the only thing that keeps Unicron from finding Cybertron. Keeper doesn't seem the kind of person to be able to DO all that careful work. Thus, somone has to be 'rigged' into the planetary controls and now we had a way for it to be done: a purpose built monitoring and control rig! The character who would be doing this piloting came out of the requirments that would be put down by the two factions. It has to be someone both sides would be willing to trust and leave alone (so a neutral or Rogue), it had to be a mech who could REALLY get flying through space and the corrections needed to avoid a gravity well light years away when all you've got are tiny, weak, manuvering thrusters (so it had to be a shuttleformer).
The two factions would ahve found a place in neutral territory to build the rig, a place tha both agree they won't fight over, design a rig that neither side can hack into, a location that both sides agree will always have enough energy to do it's job. The reason for this location and deal that both factions will honor?
Both factions are fighting for Cybertron, if they DON"T do this, then their home planet will eventually be destroyed, and it will have all been pointless. Odds are both factions will ABUSE this safe location at times, maybe when one side wants to be able to load and unload items without any risk of attack (at least until they leave teh safe zone) or maybe when a group of warriors need to get to a place where they can rest, recover and repair. So the safe zone is abused, but the saftey and protection and energy it's granted is never stopped, the agreement never broken.
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'formers and 'changers
The suffix 'former' is used to indicate what a sentient beings alt-mode is: Shuttleformer, jetformer, carformer, etc...
The suffix 'changer' is used to indicate how many modes a sentient being has, including their battle-mode: Duexchanger, triplechanger, Quadrichanger, Pentachanger, Quintchanger.
A sentient being with only one 'mode' is a solostate (we can't say 'soloform' beucase of how former is used, 'solochanger' makes no sense, the oppisite of change is entropy, to exist without change in a single 'state'. A state is also a mode of being, or 'MODAL EXISTENCE; Absolute/unchanging': hence 'solostate'... also I'm a fan of GW and Duo's mentor/pal/reason-for-his-name was Solo) Kitt and Karr from KR are solostates, humans are solostates.
A non-sentient being has differant terminology than sentients. A transforming drone uses 'mold as a suffic to indicate their alt mode: shuttlemold, jetmold, carmold, etc. A transforming drone uses 'shifter as a suffix to indicated how many modes it has: Dualshifter, trishifter, pevarshifter. A nonsentient with only one 'mode' is a singlemode.
A sentient who's CPU has been shut down, or a non-sentient who is advanced enough to pass for a sentient uses differant terminology than non/senteints. the suffix 'guise is used to indicate what the alt-mode is: Shuttleguise, jetguise, carguise, etc. The suffix 'alterer is used to indicate how many modes are possessed: bialterer, thricealterer. The term 'unoform' is used for those with only one 'mode'.
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Discs, Neural Dampners, Doctored Energon, Blocks and Low Grade
Basically we looked at transformers and 'medical science' and decided that the medics HAD to have a few differant ways of controlling their patients beyond 'flicking a wire' in the chest (which would only work if A: the armor was off and B: the medic had his/her hands in the mechs chest at the right moment). Simply shutting someone off into repair mode might not be a perfect solution, I would tend to think that most warriors would have override after ovveride nad by-pass after by-pass built in to let them wake up if they were shut down... not a good thing for a medic who might be elbow deep in said warriors systems when they wake up shooting.
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Discs:
A 'disc' is a 'small' self contained computer, able to transmit controlled viruses and coding designed to directly affect the target transformers CPUs. The two types of 'discs' gain their name from their shape, that of a disc 1 foot in diameter and 3 inches in depth, (dominator discs usually have four small 'feet'. Each foot is actually a high mobile peice of metal able to dig tiny hooks into a transformers armor and mold itself to the shape of the armor it is put on). The more power that is sent to a disc, the more it effects the transformer it is attached to.
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Control Discs: One of the primary tools of medics, and visibly identical to Dominator discs, only lacking the 'feet' unique to Dominator Discs. Control discs grant medics just that, control over the patient's awareness levels. By raising the power levels on a disc, the disc sends out more and more viruses and coding, lowering the targets awareness and agression levels. At full power a targets CPU is forced into repair mode, at half power a target's motor abilities will be sluggish and un-coordinated, the CPU actions slow and they will have difficulty focusing on a topic, as well has having a steady manta of 'safe' humming in their minds to try to keep them calm. All of this is to give a medic control of a potentially lethal person who might otherwise kill a medic by mistake. They are the most common and safest method a medic has of keeping big dangerous mechs down, out and passive for repair work.
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Dominator Discs: are used to dominate a transformers mind while not affecting their personality or stopping them from accessing their memory files as 'normal'. Often used when transporting a dangerous prisoner who, for one reason or another, can not be shut-down or otherwise moved safely, they have also been used as weapons of physcological warfare, forcing even the most loyal of beings to work for the opposing faction willingly. The only reason they are used as such so rarely is that the disc loosing power, being removed or disrupted will end the 'spell' instantly and without any prior warning.
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Neural Dampners:
A set of paralyzing viruses, 'malicious' codes and anesthetic buffers designed to knock a target into stasis lock or repair mode and keep them there until the code is removed by a medic, they run their course, or a transformers defense matrix manages to target the bad code and destroy them.
They can be introduced by a wire, where the medic can simply hook a wire up to the Transformers CPU, this method is the preferred by medics as the computer the target is wired up to can continue to upload the dampners to the targets CPU.
Another common method of introducing the dampners is to stuff them into a file or set of files sent to a target. When the target opens or access the file, the dampners released and will quickly target the CPU, shutting the mech down into repair mode or stasis lock.
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Doctored Energon:
Doctored energon is one of the more rare ways to control a mech, as it is hard to judge exactly what proportions of each of the three components are needed for each individual transformer, which can alter drastically based on their current health. 'Doctored' energon is three components which can either be fed into a transformer directly to begin effecting the fuel/lubricants, or it can be mied into a transformers ration (which is where it gains it's name). The components may be increased or decreased to alter the overall effect.
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The first component and the one that usually forms the majority of the batch is an agent/chemical to thin out the energon or create capsules around existing energon so the mech's body can not access/absorb/use it (there are actually several differant agents/chemicals that a medic can use for this component, each one having a slightly differant effect, 'kicking in' speed, and length of time that it lasts in the systems). It thus lowers the energy-levels they have; less energy means they can't move around or stay awake very well, depending on the amount of energy they have access to. It's just like a human, really, less energy means there's less you can do.
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The second component is an agent/chemical (there are actually several differant agents/chemicals that a medic can use for this component, each one having a slightly differant effect, 'kicking in' speed, and length of time that it lasts in the systems) that thickens the fluids in the mech's body, forcing the pumps to function at a slower rate, thus insuring that the energy in the body takes longer to get places. It also means that the lubricants for joints is thicker, making TFs move slower by default, a very handy effect when you might be dealing with a usually fast moving warrior who would as soon rip your face off as look at you.
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The third component is a series of nanites that traverse to the CPU, once there they can simply give off the 'safe' mantra such as a Disc does, or they can shut a TF down to a trance like state, repair mode or stasis lock. As with the other two components there are several differant types of nanites that might be used for this component, each having differant effects, lasting times and 'kick in' speeds.
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Most medics store the three components in seperate vials rather then premixing the doctored rations so that a medic can make a 'to order' batch each time, based on the needs of the 'target' intended. High ranking medics can also set up the ration dispensor to include the components into a targets ration 'on the sly' if s/he feels it's nessisary.
Doctored rations can also be stored in 'capsules' designed to either time release or release when a mech goes to do, or thinks of, a certain thing (such as a mech going/thinking to get his next ration, or to go head for his/her duty station). Since transformers have no sense of 'taste' (while they can 'taste' things in the air, that is more an advanced sense of 'smell') they will not be able to detect the microscopic 'pellets' mixed into their ration when they drink it down.
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Blocks:
Simplest of the medical 'controls' in practice and theroy, although it takes a skilled medic to install and remove them safely (without causing a cascade failure or destroying pieces of a mechs mind or the like. A block is, simply put, a lock on the datagates in a TFs CPU which stops (blocks) data from flowing from one segment of the mind to another, or blocks access to a segment of the mind. The most commonly used blocks are ones designed to prevent warriors from accessing their battle computer while they're being repaired. Blocks can be 'partial blocks' or full, and they can be created by code (the most common) or by simply putting a physical piece of non conductive material in the CPU in the right place. A Transformer with a block will have slightly slower than normal response times, as blocks tend to cuase lagging as the CPU has to move around the block to process data, thus slowing a TF out of 'real time'. The more blocks in a TFs head (or the more important a zone being blocked off), the slower their response time. for instance a warrior with his battle computer access denied will react up to half a minute slower than the rest of the world... when Prowl's battle computer went down it was because of how much it would slow his response time that he felt he was 'helpless', he knew that unless he found a way to create a temporary gate to allow battle computer access, his slowed responses would mean he couldn't even dodge or do 'basic CPU' combat... They can't loose all fighting skill if the BC goes down, instead teh BC probably allows for faster reaction times and when a TF uses it, they can think of actions and reactions better and they tend to store stratagies that have worked well in the past in the BC that they can initate and follow through on, comparable to a human's muscle memory/unconcious habit.
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Low Grade:
Is rather going to have to wait until I can write up the information we had on energon and 'rations' from memory... stupid STUPID wanker of a thief