Johannes replied to me:
If drones have good long range communication abilities (including
protections against jamming and detection by looking for
communication) and/or are trusted to act independently including
attacking, then they likely will replace some of thoose suits. I
assumed that this is for some unspecified reason not the case, to keep
humans in danger for narrative reasons.
At TL11 with the old rules, IQ 10 requires a C7 microframe or genius
minicomputer. If they are hardened, 30 or 150 lbs. That means drones
will be either large or stupid. A stupid drone may be acceptable for a
single-minded kill drone or an expendable sensor (especially with the
skill boost from eidetic memory), but not for a general-purpose combat
unit. And if you want IQ 11 or 12, you need genius plus sentient AI at
ever escalating costs.
The old TL11 has no contragrav, but vectored reactionless thrust gets
the same look-and-feel.
- An enclosed grav cycle with integral armor or an open grav cycle
with body armor for the rider? Would the "air cav" trooper fight
mounted, dismounted, or both?
- How does that work in space ships/stations, urban areas, or
arcologies?
- If you go with the concept, why not two-seat models with a driver
and a gunner? The flying equivalent of a jeep with a TOW.
- Historically, motorcycle troops were a failure. Jeeps worked
better, but mostly behind the frontline.
Sofar I only got to "What i use the suits for, is to have a fast
moving heavy weapon. The most straight forward way to get that is to
attach a drive and a crew station to that heavy weapon. If i picture
that i would call it grav cycle".
I have not thought yet about enclosed or not. That would depend on a
cost analysis (including cost of transporting the vehicle and such).
Do you plan on surviving hits without suffering a mission kill?
I was thinking of fighting mounted.
I was thinking of regular military not commandos or swat teams, that
would be called to fight inside space stations or urban areas, that
are not supposed to be considered "terrain with many rock like
features, that can be easily reshaped by bombardment"
The job of regular infantry is to go into urban areas, including those
you want to take mostly intact. Otherwise you send in AFVs.
2 crew stations would be a possiblity. Depends on if your bottleneck
is soldiers or weapons, and if having twice as many units, that work
with penalities because of an overtaxed operator are a net advantage
or disadvantage.
A jeep essentially is a slightly larger motorcycle with a better
stability. I guess the advantages mainly come from the latter. With
grav vehicles you no longer have stability differences.
There could be a "three-man crew" with a human commander, robotic
driver, and robotic gunner. The driver and gunner would be somewhat
simple-minded, but with great hand-eye coordination and attention to
detail. The driver makes the IQ rolls to detect feints and to tell the
field hospital from the disguised command center.
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