> One thing I've always wondered about.... > > Once you get sufficiently advanced hover/anti-grav, doesn't it make > legged/wheeled/tracked drivetrains almost obsolete? Why walk when you > can fly just as easily?
Contragrav as described by GURPS Vehicles is TL12, and superior to TL11+ reactionless thrusters for pure lift. Even those thrusters should spell the end of ground vehicles. GURPS Traveller probably made a mistake to translate them wholesale to TL8, and CG flyers would replace ground vehicles almost entirely by TL9 if the GM and writers didn't put style over numbers (gotta have tracked ATVs in Traveller). Hover technology as in hovercraft is more limited regarding terrain and flight altitude, so it won't do the job, ever ... Think of the development of the screw propeller and what it did to paddle wheels, sails, oars and paddles in the 20th century. Paddle wheels are dead and the others are restricted to very specialized applications. Or consider how internal combustion engines replaced both animal traction and electric motors. Electric motors are making a comeback, but animal carts are dead, dead, dead. Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
