Zan asked: > I was thinking about one but it is not a PC vehicle. How about a > planetary defense satellite?
I've done that at TL9, a year ago. So perhaps TL10, with slightly more advanced technology? The line between planetary defense sats and insystem monitors will be fluid, of course, even a sat must be able to dodge long-range kinetic strikes. Would it be just against deep space targets, against point targets in the atmosphere as well (launch phase strategic missile defense), or against area targets on the surface (an orbital bombardment system)? Just one big gun (a railgun or an x-ray laser) or multiple weapon systems (xaser, missile batteries, etc.)? Manned, optionally manned, or unmanned? > So maybe a special research vehicle used by archaeologists to explore > lost ships or space stations found abandoned in space. It would probably > be a modified version of a standard ship. Lots of improved close-range > sensor systems. Lots of robot probes and manipulators with advanced > sensors. Maybe some beefed up thruster systems to take the spin off > abandoned ships. Beefed up research computers for analysis. Maybe some > kind of tamper-proof, write-once evidence recording systems. Lots of > science equipment for analyzing materials: composition, age, > construction. Secure and sterile cargo pods for storing artifacts. A cross between a salvage tug and a scout, then? A typical scout is landing-capable, and a tug has no science labs, so it isn't just another scout or just another tug. There are many assumptions about interstellar society in there, of course -- with enough significant finds to justify dedicated research craft, and fast enough FTL so you don't simply have to use whatever ships are at hand. Biotech has protection levels for genetics labs, but with some creative reading it could apply to forensics labs as well. The TL would be at least 10, perhaps 11 or 12. Or I make it part of my TL15 series, for high-end space opera. What do you think, are TL15 ships practical for games, or is that TL just "off the scale"? Johannes asked: > If you want to go for vehicle design virtuosity, you can make a bulldozer > or similiar for 899, and for 900 some very excentric rich person has > pimped it up to be a tank. Using as few custom designed parts as possible. Done that, ages ago, so revisiting it now makes sense. Applique armor from VXi, for example. The probem is that the tank hull will be larger than the dozer hull, which brings game mechanics problems. * Take a bulldozer with an enclosed cab and enough waste space to climb down at either side. * The tank is enclosed as well, but now it has two cramped seats, also in the rear, and a few guns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whippet_Mk_A Would it be post-apocalyptic, street-legal TL8, or futuristic? Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
