Technological Innovator mechanic trick questions

[Sc8rpi8n_mjd]

The mechanic in my game wants to take the Technological Innovator trick from the Armory.

Technological Innovator:

Choose two mechanic tricks you meet the prerequisites for but don’t have. Once per day as a move action, you can gain one of these tricks for 10 minutes. Each time you gain a mechanic level, you can replace one of these mechanic tricks with another that you meet the prerequisites for but don’t have.

The tricks he wants to take are Scoutbot and Quick Patch, both from the CRB

Scoutbot:

You’re always crafting rudimentary bots in your spare time, and can use them to scout. It takes you 10 minutes and 1 Resolve Point to create a scoutbot. A scoutbot is a Small technological construct, its EAC and KAC are equal to 10 + your mechanic level, and it has 1 Hit Point per mechanic level you have (and no Stamina Points). It has a land speed of 30 feet, and you can control its movements with your custom rig as a move action. It has a camera that streams visual and auditory data back to your rig. The scoutbot uses your saving throw bonuses if necessary. It is untrained in all skills and has a +0 bonus in all of them, though you can use your own Perception skill when examining the feed from its stream. Once created, the scoutbot lasts for 1 minute per mechanic level you have before falling apart unless otherwise destroyed.

Quick Patch:

When you attempt to patch a system on a starship, you reduce the number of actions required to do so by one. This does not reduce the time needed to patch a glitching system, but you can patch two systems with one action.

For Scoutbot, I have one question.

- It takes 10 minutes to craft the bot, wich is the same time that the mechanic hast the trick to use it, according to Technological Innovator. Can the mechanic build the bot given that both durations are the same? Does the bot keep functioning even after the mechanic loses this temporary trick? I think yes to both as it doesn't seem unbalanced, but what would you do in your game?

For the Quick Patch trick I have three questions:

1st - adjudicating the temporary duration. According to the rulebook, starship combat rounds don’t have a fixed duration:

pg.317:

Like combat between characters, starship combat occurs over a number of rounds until one side flees, surrenders, or is otherwise defeated. Unlike rounds in combat between characters, a round of starship combat doesn’t correlate to a specific amount of time.

So, how much time should the temporary Quick Patch trick last in starship combat?

2nd- establishing how to activate the Technological Innovation in starship combat. Reading the sidebar “other actions in starship combat” (SCR pg.322), I assume the character will have to spend his turn in one of the combat rounds activating the trick (move action replaces the standard role actions), and on the next round he could start using the Quick Patch trick in the engineering phase. Does this sound right?

3rd - Finally, the starship the characters use in the game has a Slime-Patch system installed (from the Scavenger Slime in AA).

Slime-Patch system:

While most spacefarers know better than to try and harness scavenger slimes’ technology, given the obvious dangers involved, the oozes’ ability to quickly adapt and repair systems has made them surprisingly useful tools for those starship engineers daring enough to employ them. Slime-patch systems can be installed in any starship for 8 Build Points, with no expansion bay or PCU cost. When a ship with slime-patch systems acquires a critical damage condition, the slime-patch system automatically turns on, spraying the damaged systems with scavenger slime material almost like a fire-sprinkler system.
The slime, which is chemically treated to die within moments of its unexpected freedom, automatically begins repairing the system, reducing the number of engineering actions required to patch the critical damage condition by 1 (minimum 1).

Does the action reduction effect when patching the systems stack with the action reduction effect provided by the Quick Patch trick?

For example, let's imagine the starship has two systems with critical damage conditions. One is malfunctioning (2 actions to patch) and the other glitching (one action to patch). The mechanic starts with the malfunctioning system, that normally requires 2 engineer actions to patch. The slime-patch reduces this to 1 action, and the Quick Patch reduces it again to 0, allowing the mechanic to patch the two damaged systems with one action (per the trick text). Keep in mind that the slime doesn’t affect the glitching system, as it still requires one action.

Thank you.

[Wingblaze]

Scoutbot: By the rules as written, I wouldn't allow it. They have the trick for 10 minutes, but with that comes the ability to control the bot. Once the trick "goes away", the ability to control the bot does. That said, I don't think it's at all unbalanced (and a clever selection of tricks) and I'd let it go.

Quick patch: lasts 10 starship combat rounds. Lets not overcomplicate things.

Slime: sure. Why wouldn't it? Still minimum of 1. 8 BP is a lot of BP so that should have an effect.