On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 2:55 AM, Onno Meyer <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Onno offered a TL8 designed/built sailing ship facing Nelson - ergo in a > > set > > TL5 world. So those world rules apply to the ship - which was the point > I > > was making. > > That wasn't the point I was trying to make. > > If both sides decide to ignore a technology option, there is a > level playing field, and vehicles which would be inefficient a > more reasonable universe can still win. That Nelson remark was > to say they're a substantial improvement over earlier TLs, too. > > Imagine people had looked at early turbojet engines and said > "no way those Rube Goldberg contraptions will ever work". We > might have seen TL7 wars fought with increasingly efficient > prop fighters, which are viable designs as long as both sides > have the same mental blinders. A supersonic jet might be able > to outrun them with ease, but there are no supersonic jets > because nobody bothers to build them. Props are an existing > tech, after all, and TL7/8 prop fighters beat those old WWII > clunkers with ease, so obviously there is still room for > progress. (There might be a nice vehicle concept or two > lurking somewhere, BTW ...) > there are hard limits on prop tech, though. They can only go so fast, fly so high. the first side that has a jet bomber gets to drop bombs from above the operating limit of the enemy's fighters, pretty much with impunity, until they build a jet fighter to go after them. It could be that the real world has similar blind spots where > it comes to plentiful free energy and easy space travel. By > definition, we can't know. We do known that tracks are viable > Yeah, and the unicorns in central park are real pests at this time of year. > for ground vehicles, so I want Mecha which can be justified > in an universe with tracked vehicles. The justification > doesn't have to be watertight or universally applicable, > just enough to convince a couple of generals and congressmen > to put some poor GIs into walking AFVs. > > US WWII tank destroyers sounded good on paper, too :-) > You'll notice they disappeared after the war, too. Lots of really clearly bad ideas have billions of bucks spent on them. -- David Scheidt [email protected] _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
