>Powered Armor: size +0, stealth/cloaking -13, sensor scan +15.
>Recon Drone: size +0, stealth/cloaking -18, sensor scan +19 or so.
>Grav Tank: size +5, stealth/cloaking -18, sensor scan +29.

>Sounds as if the tank will see a drone or suit long before those (much
more fragile) platforms >detect the tank.

Sounds like a good reason you would not want to face a tank on a
featureless plane, but battle-suits would presumably be able to use cover
and terrain more effectively than a larger tank(assuming you are moving and
not just in a 'hull down' position).  Also I expect battle-suits could
quite easily make things like fox-holes and only expose their sensor
apparatus intermittently to scan for tanks. (assuming they do not have the
leisure to set up a full bunker with superior scanning apparatus or some
other sort of command post)

Drones should presumably be able to do something similar, perhaps to a
lesser degree(hiding behind hills instead of low walls for example), but
should also be much faster, more nimble and much much cheaper than a tank.
Add in the lack of crew, and drones are pretty expendible compared to a
tank, so if you lose a few to target a tank that you then take out, you are
probably happy with that.

Question: why would battle-suits in a squad or platoon not be networked
together so as to allow improved scanning, at least until some sort of
threat has been detected?


On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 8:07 AM, Onno Meyer <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hello Thomas,
>
> I found that we had brainstormed on GURPSnet about skill programs before,
> in January 2012. Then it was about my large robot cruiser.
>
> Thomas wrote:
> > > Say you have an AI trained to an impressive skill level and you want
> it to self-learn to become better. Like any other character in that
> situation, it would be learning without a teacher, without books, on the
> job. The GM should ask the players just what that job is …
> >
> > Not one AI, dozens, hundreds. Each time a device returned from the field
> it exchanges its new experiences with all the others. The knowledgebase of
> Version 1 is used to create that for Version II, so that your Battlesuit
> Mk. VII can look back on the experience of 200 years of infantery combat
> even on the day it leaves the factory.
>
> Agreed, with several caveats:
> You have to integrate the lessons from the different AIs into one. How?
> Having different AIs fight and learn against each other puts you at the
> mercy of the artificial scoring rules of the wargame.
> Will the special conditions of the most recent wars hide universal truths?
> If an AI had to learn from recent US Army experience, would it be any good
> against a 'peer competitor'?
> Once you reach a reasonably high skill, will real mission data improve the
> program, or just confirm what it already knew?
>
> Another problem is that what's good for the goose is good for the gander
> -- if I want sensor ops skill programs to see through stealth, but not
> tactics skill programms to out-think human player characters, what can I
> do? And if the program makes it possible to see a stealthy battlesuit with
> a helmet-mounted sensor of another battlesuit, what does that do to the
> stealth-vs-sensors race in grav tanks?
>
> The effect of sensor skill is capped since no detection is possible if
> total non-skill modifiers add up to -10 or worse (VE170). Regarding the
> hardware:
>
> Powered Armor: size +0, stealth/cloaking -13, sensor scan +15.
> Recon Drone: size +0, stealth/cloaking -18, sensor scan +19 or so.
> Grav Tank: size +5, stealth/cloaking -18, sensor scan +29.
>
> Sounds as if the tank will see a drone or suit long before those (much
> more fragile) platforms detect the tank.
>
> Regards,
> Onno
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