For tech level 11, I had planned to allow many superscience systems, or I might just as well call it "TL9 with improved materials science". But that doesn't make Mecha easier ...
TL11 super reactionless thrusters, with vectored thrust and a slice of fusion power, has a weight of 0.04 lbs. per lb. of thrust. Call it 2.5 G for an AFV, and the engine/power are 10% of Lwt. (plus 1 ton for the fusion reactor startup). A typical AFV would be either a "sloped brick with turret" or a "sloped brick without turret", no tracks or wheels required. Along with the saved area and hence mass, so much vectored thrust gives impressive agility, too. By default, there is no special effect on sensors, either. So again the Mecha will be no main battle vehicle. I had thought about a small infantry-support AFV for operations on asteroids and moons and within major habitats. Two arms, two legs, one body, say 2*10+2*15+50 cf. That gives an area of 240. Advanced laminate is 6 lbs. per cf, so I can get into the high hundreds, perhaps even a thousand if the Lwt. is in the 5-ton range. A 100mm heavy automatic, very low power gauss weapon would fire 5-lb. shells with enough room for lots of different payloads. Ewt 300 lbs., depending on barrel length. The other arm could hold a gatling xaser, with decent armor penetration using the autofire rules. The legs could hold motors for a modest speed (40 mph?) and thrusters for something like 1.5 to 2 G -- the price to be paid for having legs. Top flying speed would be 600 mph in an atmosphere. The main problem is that this feels like an oversized battlesuit, not a proper mecha. I'd like to get a crewstation, even cramped, rather than a battlesuit system, but that will be a tight fit. _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
