On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 12:34 PM, Nigel McCarty-Eigenmann < [email protected]> wrote:
> > > I can't see a justification for a mecha much bigger than a battle suit, > > say a ton or so. > > Until technology we don't yet have reveals itself you are almost certainly > empirically correct. > > Barring magic, i don't see any such tech possible. (Contra gravity and reactionless thrusters are *firmly* in the magic camp. Most of the materials are heading that way, though I'm likely to be surprised there. ) Mecha simply can't be armored enough to be useful on a high-tech battlefield: their volume to surface area ratio sucks too badly. ground vehicles (or even creepy crawly spider mecha) beat the pants off them. > > don't forget that at TL9 you get really good indirect fire weapons, that > > can do anything that a mecha can do. > > Only they will cost more - good missiles are horrible expensive, not > actually work as well as they are jammable, more detectable, and need to be > mounted on vehicles anyway... > > Missiles are modestly expensive. Guided artillery shells are dirt cheap. And gurps gives unrealistic jamming and detection rules, mostly for playability. it's quite possible to build guidance systems that aren't jammable, nor even detectable. Not just "we can't find them" undetectable, but actually theoretically undetectable. (It's not much fun to play in such a battlefield, but that's what it's going to be like.) > Missiles are like fighters - they can't take ground, only drive people off > it. They are not multirole, so they can't do everything a mech or a tank > or > a chopper can - only scan or attack _once_. > > > Except fall over, not move, get stuck in the sand. > > Like tanks? They drive them into unknown culverts today and need recovery. > Choppers and fighter get FOD problems. > You assume immature technology > > Only physics.... High center of gravity, high ground pressure is a bad combination. And you'll need cranes to do the recoveries, and not just a big winch. > And perfect is not fun to play with, is it? > > IMO, it's a better game if you struggle to win than if you stroll through. > > I don't find the future battlefield to be an interesting place to roll play in. It's full of instant death. -- David Scheidt [email protected] _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
