RCV

[mike wightman]

I may ask this over in Ship's Locker or the Imperial Research station as well but here goes.
The ongoing threads about light fighters and deploying grav vehicles set me to thinking ...

the next but one generation of US planes and tanks may well be remote control or tele-operated however you want to put it.

Should the Imperium (take your pick which one) employ remotely operated BattleSuits (Forever Peace SoldierBoys anyone?), combat vehicles and space fighters/SDBs?

Also, using the TL12 robotic brain (one for each sub-system) you can build very effective autonomous combat vehicles etc, so why don't more non-Imperial higher TL cultures field expendable manufactured warmachines?

 

[Granpafishy]

You mean other than the Zhodani, right?

 

[aramis]

Originally posted by Granpafishy:
You mean other than the Zhodani, right?

Other than Zhodani and Hivers, you mean...

The K'Kree use their ROV's and robots to do repair work, but fighting is, to them, a noble thing.

Now, the Imperium, between the Shhudasham accords, the actions of SSMOM (Soc. for the Svreignity of Man Over Machine), backlash of the anti-Zhodani PR campaigns (along with a strong anti-psionics predjudice) create a distrust of autonomous units with weaponry. (Based upon Bk 8, AS 5, SMC, and T4...)

 

[themink]

If you want to include small tele-operated machines, go for it.

I won't because, against a similair tech level opponent should be able to swamp any communication band with enough "hash" to ground your force.

That isn't to say that big machines (ie spaceships) can't have a large enough comm suite to be un-hashable (ie meson comms) however they are large enough that the crew requirements are fairly small compared to the flexibility they give you.

In my Trav settings, I topped Moore's law out quite early so that I can force humans to do stuff (rather than sitting in the bridge saying "how is the war going?" every now and again)

Paul

 

[mike wightman]

Other than Zhodani and Hivers, you mean...

I was thinking client states, pocket empires(especially in the T4 setting), mega-corp security, even maybe the Solomani.

against a similair tech level opponent should be able to swamp any communication band with enough "hash" to ground your force.

Begs the question of why there is so much money being spent on the things by the US if they are that easy to knock out?

 

[Pwyll]

Begs the question of why there is so much money being spent on the things by the US if they are that easy to knock out?

coz there's big money in it.

 

[graden1]

I've toyed around with this idea, but came across a design problem with robotic space weapons systems; Gunnery is a Wisdom-based skill! As far as I can tell, computers have:

a) no wisdom stat, which means they can't use Gunnery at all;

OR:

b) Wisdom score of zero, which imposes a -5 modifer to their gunnery skill.

Have I missed something here?

DGv2.0

 

[mike wightman]

Nope, you haven't missed something.

If you look at the targeting computer on pp282-283 you will see the Wis ability mod included.

My thoughts on the matter would be to have an autopilot comp(hardwired), a defensive "autopilot comp" (hardwired) with auto/evade and ecm, a tageting comp and a robot brain co-ordinating them all. At TL13 that would require a total of 34.94vl or 0.025dt. Add a half size bridge (computers don't need life support or acceleration couches), model 1 computer and avionics etc, maneuver 6, a powerplant to give agility 6 and 1 EP extra to power a pulse laser and two missile racks for a total of 6 deployable nuclear missiles or NBPLs, fuel for a few hours, add armour and see just how small you can make this thing (it's less than 10t so gets
+2 to hit and +2 to AC, and at TL15 you could have a fusion gun armed version

).

OK it is of no use whatsoever in HG, but in T20 it is difficult to shoot down and doesn't require the sacrifice of an expensive pilot (just how much does it cost the Imperium to train all of those fighter pilot officers?)
What's more you can fit a lot of them into an empty weapons bay, vehicle, smallcraft or cargo hold.

 

[themink]

against a similair tech level opponent should be able to swamp any communication band with enough "hash" to ground your force.

Begs the question of why there is so much money being spent on the things by the US if they are that easy to knock out? [/QB][/QUOTE]

When used against a force that is significantly behind the imperium in the tech race, everything is apples. However at the same Tech level, there are problems.

The relevant issue here is that I like using individuals in as many roles as possible (my Trav is manpower intensive) which seems similair to my understanding of canon. Once you have lots of teleop devices, you lose the risk that makes PCs hold onto their seats.

Paul

 

[aramis]

Originally posted by Pwyll:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Begs the question of why there is so much money being spent on the things by the US if they are that easy to knock out?

coz there's big money in it.

</font>[/QUOTE]Big money and a knowledge that

a) our TL is 1 or more above any current viable threat forces.

B) most of the ROV ops are not in "Hot Battle" zones anyway.

c) many of the ROV's are semi-disposable; not expensive enough to worry about recovery if they do get detected &/or deleted with predjudice.

Y'see, an ROV is GREAT for snooping... so long as you avoid detections. And since the radar sig is smilar to native bird sizes, and operations are often in the same very low AGL altitudes, they are easily confused for birds by electronics.

Add to that the role they currently fill: pre-attack and post attack target acquisition & evaluation.

nd, unlike many of the items for Traveller, they are not truly autonomous. Some are remotely piolted, others are GPS gided "Airframe Missiles" with preset flight paths, and optical data broadcast scrambled.