GEV/Grav

I like Brian's post a lot. He summed up Grav rather well. Great gear,
all environment, excellent tactical options, expensive, techy
(therefore problematic in low supply situations assuming there is
anything to break - grav generators may be solid state?). I'll just
make two more little points:

1) Not talking in DS2 terms, just maybe future reality terms. Is
tracked cheaper than GEV? GEV involved a big fan or two. Tracked
involves a complex transmission. I don't really know if one or the
other would be cheaper. They might be near analogous.

2) Your comment about GEVs mountains might apply... but you should
call them hills. Mountains are bad for tracked vehicles (they can't
climb those kind of slopes either...). And I still think with enough
rearward fan power (imagine a turbine jet for example), a GEV could
climb a big hill. Power is cheap, as we both admit.

3) Your comment about GEVs and light woods presumes the presence of no
bushcutter attachments for the GEV. By that I mean some hitherto
unseen method of mowing bush - maybe a high intensity laser scythe?
who knows.... I'm not a CBE - that allows them to move through. If we
posit cheap power and 180 years from now... that may be feasible.

But otherwise, I totally concur with your analysis. The only question
I have, and its dependent on your PSB, is whether the power-cost of
lift for a GEV offsets the friction cost to move - hence you can't
actually go faster than a tracked vehicle. If the lift-cost isn't more
than the friction gain by going GEV, then GEVs will be faster.

Early GEVs are probably quite slow, ponderous, and suffer badly from
terrain. Later ones may employ more advanced engineering to give them
far more capability, speed and robustness. It's that TL thing
again....

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008