> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Troy Guffey > Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 7:14 AM > To: The GURPSnet mailing list > Subject: [gurps] Failing autopilots and RVO > > ------------------------------------------------- > From: "Knapp" <[email protected]> > > > In what way is a routine operation different from an emergency one? > > Plane companies have records of what goes wrong and how often. They > > can program for this just as well as anything else. On top > of that the > > computer can react faster and will never make a mistake with good > > programming. Also the computer might have data that a pilot > could lot > > get quickly enough in an emergency like air pressure over the wing, > > material stresses and other subtle factors of flight. Did > you look at > > just how much ground info that robot spy plane can gather? > I am sure > > it could be programmed to use that for a very nice ditching. This > > plane could take off, fly, land and taxi 10 years ago! > > > Even if an autopilot *has* been programmed to respond to all > previous emergencies, vehicles will still find new ways to go > wrong that require genuine *creativity* to handle. There is > no possible way to program *every* possible emergency. > > obGURPS: Does the Routine Vehicle Operation program include > things like "if both wings are blown off and the fuel is on > fire, and the megaton nuke missile armed but failed to release"? :-)
One way of looking at this is simply this... If the robotic's program value is listed as being a 17, it is programmed to handle just about everything that is possible - except the truly unexpected. When rolling to see if one's "skill is up to the task", one is really saying that the circumstances involved at that precise moment are either within parameters of the programmer's abilities, or the circumstances are outside of what the programmers provided. Thus, a skill 16 program will generally handle 98.1% of the problems that may arise. It just happens that the remaining 1.9% of the times, the program just can't handle anything that was envisioned by the programmers - and the "in case of event not being covered, try best likely course of action" just can't handle it. It appears that most of the programs in GURPS 4e tend to cluster around the skill value of 12 or so - which means that ths software tends to be able to handle roughly 74% of the situations. When you roll dice against the computer's skill - you're essentially asking "Are the problems involved inside, or outside the programs parameters". When you roll a 13+, the answer is "Yes, the problem lies outside the program's parameters". When you roll a 17 or 18, you're saying in effect "this is outside of the programmer's expertise or, the program itself contained a bug in it that did not execute the intent of the programmers, but followed the wrong track" Just one way of looking at it. ;) _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
