Re: [GZG] [OFFICIAL] Question: was Re: [SG3]: What if?
From: "john tailby" <John_Tailby@x...>
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 17:09:08 +1300
Subject: Re: [GZG] [OFFICIAL] Question: was Re: [SG3]: What if?
I think the original question may have been framed to narrowly and
everyone
has focussed on the weapon system exclusively.
If defensive technologies keep pace with offensive weapons and sensors
then
ranges for equal technologies might keep the same.
However a higer tech force maywell be able to detect a lower tech force
at
much longer range and with LOS range weapons engage at much longer
ranges
than their opponents.
At high tech levels each trooper may be inside their own suit that masks
infrared signatures and projects visible light chameleon camoflage to
belnd
in with their environments.
Maybe the sensors to detect such targets actually detect the EM leakage
of
such suits or use mass spectrometers to detect the atmosphere gases
emitted
by the suits. Maybe no one bothers with infrared scanners at high tech
because everything is IR shielded.
It could also be true that such sensors would not work so well against
lower
tech troopers because they don't have any smart gear that emits energy
signatures to lock onto.
So it's a circular argument imagining technologies that could exist. I
think
you want to define the type of universe that makes for a good game and
use
whatever PSB you want to support that type of view
Two things that won't change much one is the nature of the ground people
fight on. Unless you are fighting on a giant lakebed most ground is very
wrinkled over distances of a few hundred metres. It's not hard to
imagine
troopers able to find LOS cover up to short ranges. That's not counting
environments like jungles or built up areas where LOS engagements might
be
very small.
The other thing that isn't likely to change is the human usng the gun.
In a
few hundred years people won't naturally have evolved much so will still
process information at the same speed as they do today. A computer can
do a
lot of the work sorting and classifying targets but it's still a human
that
makes the decision to fire and that take time. If you want to get into
areas
of bioenhancement, genetic modifcation and other parahuman
transformation
technologies then human reactions and procesing capabilities might well
become orders of magnitude faster. That's then a direct challange to the
definition of what it means to be human.
Genetically enhanced, vat grown clone soldiers with the downloaded minds
of
experienced combat veterans. These could be substantially tougher
faster,
stronger and far braver than normal humans with any kind of
weaponsystems.
There's a miriad of alternatives out there about how technoloiges might
grown and develop and who is to say that one is more likely than
another?
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