On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 11:48 AM, Onno Meyer <[email protected]> wrote: > DataPacRat wrote:
>> and I haven't figured out how best to model zero-gee gas >> gets (perhaps simply stealing some hand-thrusters from Ultra-Tech); > > VXii9, cold gas thruster. I own a copy of VXii, but have mis-shelved it, and haven't seen it in months. (And even though, in my jurisdiction, it would technically be legal for me to download a scanned-in copy, there don't seem to be any near the top of a Google search for such.) I do have my UT books, though; how do VXii's stats compare to UT's hand thrusters? >> TL9 Taur prosthetic > > TL9-11, actually. Keeping that straight now will save a lot of > worry later on :-) Fair enough. :) Though I did notice that, optionally, neural interfaces that don't provide bonuses can be considered TL9 tech instead of TL10 - so that only leaves the life-support being oddly TLed. And I'm reasonably sure that the approach I'm using is actually within the bounds of TL11, it was just never officially statted out as such. >> The bit that likely follows the rules most loosely is the piloting >> station - the pilot is a humanoid missing the legs, and is inserted >> into this prosthetic from the waist down. A cycle-seat or harness were >> plausible, but I went eenie-meenie and picked battlesuit controls. > > Questionable, since a battlesuit system assumes that existing > limbs control mechanical limbs. Here you have mechanical limbs > in place of missing real limbs. > > Also, a battlesuit system encloses the operator. Does that > sound right? > > I'd go with neural interface and a harness crew station. >> Equipment >> All: realistic flesh biomorphic skin (surface sensors, fur); >> self-sealing hull. Body: 10-gig mass storage system (hardened); >> visual sensor (360-degree vision); basic communicator (standard >> voice); PESA (scan 11, 1-mile range); basic radiation sensor; inertial >> compass; socket interface; gyrobalance; small robot brain (complexity >> 3, +0 DX; compact, hardened). Tail: arm motor (ST:10, striker, >> extra-flexible). Leg: four sharp claws (retractable). > > Realistic flesh and the description sound like something where > you plug the torso into new legs. Life support and the sealed > hull (and the battlesuit game mechanic) give the impression of > something which encloses the operator. Which is it? These two items are somewhat related - and I seem to have left out an important design detail. In addition to the 'taur prosthetic itself is another bit of system - a skinsuit from the waist up, which, when worn together with the 'taur prosthetic, acts as a full-fledged vacc-suit. The 'taur prosthetic is also usable, at least for running around, when the half-skinsuit isn't worn. So, for use 'indoors', it has realistic flesh; and for use out in the black, it's sealed and contains the life-support. >> Volume: 9.09 cf > > Pretty large in comparison to the torso. If it had the density > of water -- a first approximation of living beings -- it would > be something like 600 lbs. Hm... assuming a human-shaped pilot of 150 lbs, battlesuit systems would be close to 3 cf. 'Taurs are typically depicted as having the hind-torso somewhat larger than the fore-torso - at the extreme, the size of a horse compared to the size of a human. A hind-torso around twice as large as the fore-torso seems plausibly within range of the inspirational imagery ( http://www.datapacrat.com/sketches/FieldTest.html )... so that seems at least reasonably within range. One build I've been considering is to take the current hind-torso and legs, and add a turret on top containing a battlesuit torso system, plus arms and head-turret attached to that; and then do some fudging about making that turret detachable, and calling it the skinsuit. Doing it that way gives me these volumes: Volume: 5.51 cf [Body], 0.03 cf [Tail], 0.15 cf [Left Arm], 0.15 cf [Right Arm], 1.54 cf [Fore-torso turret], 0.375 cf [Head Turret], 0.551 cf [4xLeg]. ... of which 4 cf in the Body is the life-support system, which is already a bit fiddly due to TL. Someone jotted down some notes on the system, from the same source I'm taking it, at http://interzone.com/~cheung/Page.dir/pg.mars3.html , under 'Ecosystem'. The main components are 6 litres (.2 cf) of water-algae slurry, and a super-critical water oxidizer (SCWO), which takes the user's waste, cooks it at 480 Celsius and 3500 PSI, and turns it into harmless feedstock for the algae. So one of the main limits on the size of this life-support system is how small such an SCWO can be built at TL9... and whether such a device is larger or smaller than the 'molecular recycling technology' described for TL11 life-support. Calling it 3 cf, plus half a cf for miscellaneous bits, seems plausible - though so would calling it 1 cf. >From the second mail: >> Here's a simple thought on improvement: Instead of just having a >> single 20-lb, .2 cf battery, have two modular sockets, each of which >> can accept a module containing such a battery, allowing for more >> flexibility about swapping them in and out, having one charge from the >> super-blanket while the prosthetic is being used elsewhere and so on. > > Are there standard sizes for batteries in your setting? With > classic 3E, there is an efficiency breakpoint somewhere > between the D and E cells, and the VE formula only works for > E and bigger. I'm just going by VXi's mention that VE's power cells are superscience, and so I'm not using them; and am using the 'advanced battery' in GVB which says it's from pVXi24. I'm open to any other suggestions. >> This also potentially allows for replacing one of the batteries with a >> RTG or NPU. At TL9, an NPU fitting that slot would generate 1.67 kW, >> last one year, and cost $20k; an RTG would generate 1 kW, last 14 >> years, and cost $2k. The current build uses up to 1 kW for the legs, >> .1 kW for life-support, and .05 kW for the tail motor, so the NPU >> would cover all of that and then some. The RTG would cover almost >> everything, as long as the legs were only used at up to .85 kW - to >> run flat out would mean having to rely on a battery for life-support. >> And if I end up throwing in a small AESA, or other power-using >> equipment, there would be further power-based tradeoffs. > > How likely are you using the tail as a limb at top speed? If she has someone riding her as they flee the bad guys, wrapping the tail around her passenger may help keep them falling off. I'm also tempted to throw in the minineedler, or an equivalent, from UT2 in the tailtip, to plink at any chasers without otherwise getting in the way of everyday activities... >> And, of course, there would be a few in-play issues that aren't quite >> covered by Vehicles, such as the legal and social consequences of >> walking around with a "nuke in her butt". > > The normal isotope battery (RTG) uses natural decay. Nothing > one could switch on, turn off, or overload. As I understand > your setting, there would be no irrational fears, right? Well, there's plenty of irrational fears - but part of the reason that the New Atticans rebelled against the Earthly authorities a decade-ish ago was due to Earthly irrational fears creating regulations making making living in space essentially impossible. So she should probably leave the RTG at home if she travels down the gravity well, and would be somewhat iffy if she tried taking it to one of the remaining Earth-controlled habs. And just because her sillier neighbours can't pass laws against her carrying a RTG around with her doesn't mean that they won't bar her from their establishments - which could lead to several forms of back-and-forth, similar to some previous incidents involving some bars which required patrons to disarm themselves. For just one example, the setting includes ubiquitious sous-veillance, so once an anti-RTG group found out she'd installed one, they could try sending some drone-cams to keep her in sight and post near-continuous updates of its (and her) location for any interested parties - which would be rather annoying for her for several reasons. Thank you for your time, -- DataPacRat lu .iacu'i ma krinu lo du'u .ei mi krici la'e di'u li'u traji lo ka vajni fo lo preti _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
