Re: [GZG] [OFFICIAL] Question: was Re: [SG3]: What if?

On Feb 8, 2008 1:15 PM, John Lerchey <lerchey@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

> And yet, on Future Weapons, they've been showing small tracked bots
(remote control - I actually have issue with "robot" being used for
remote control, but who cares?) about the size of a german shepard that
can be armed with an M249, grenade launcher, multi-shot ATM launcher,
etc.  Pretty neat, and it keeps the humans further from direct harm. 
So, I can see where remote control man-sized gun platforms could easily
start to, maybe not replace, but enhance infantry.  In fact, that might
be a neat thing for me to try out in DS3.  The basic rules are in place
for remote controlled vehicles. I just need to whip up some suitable
small tracked small arms platforms for playtesting.  I even have a force
that I don't have infantry selected for that I could try it out on. :)

You can handwave what ever you like--although I suspect that the
economic costs of training infantrymen/controllers AND buying remotes
for them AND the recovery and maint assets will be prohibitive for a
long, long time.

Which won't stop people from designing them, putting them on TV, or
inserting them into wargames.

It's really a question of what do you want to include?

Personal suggestion:  Anything that makes infantry combat essentially
unrecognizable ('X-ray vision' effects that make terrain and LOS
irrelevant, masses of combat drones, etc) is going to:

a) be impossible to simulate effectively due to the high complexity
and lack of data
b) change the game so much that it is no long a fun game about
infantry combat, but a miniature version of Robot Wars, which may be
fun, but is NOT the strength of Jon Tuffley's ground combat games.

John
-- 
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani

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