Re: Medtech a la Los

>>
>>If technology exists to completely replicate a human, including
personality
>>and ability gained from experience AND the technology can be selective
>>about what is reproduced, why bother 
>>	a) making mechanical robot soldiers:  grow bazillions of sort-of
human
>>ones in big tanks a-la Matrix, and send them off to fight.  Perfect
copies
>>of a few successful designs, available en-masse.
>
>Well by robots (if we extend the term to mean cyborgs) because you can
make
>better physically performing soldiers, faster shoot more accurate,
>stronger, etc. This might make them more survivable. Instead of just
>sending hordes of humans to get kille dover and over again. It might be
>cheaper.
>

hmmm.  maybe.  they'd have to be a LOT more survivable to make it worth
while, though.	OR you can produce them really cheaply.  But in the end,
if
you're talking cyborgs, I guess you're really meaning a human mind
controlling it - and you end up with the same issues all over again...
Either it is a mass-produced "mind" that isn't valued much, or it is an
individual that is valued enough to spend lots of $$ on to soup up with
the
faster/shootier/tougher bits...   The latter is really like the
difference
between today's "high tech" forces and today's "low tech" forces.  The
low
tech armies make do with numbers and commitment, and the high tech have
zoomier kit and more $$ for training, etc 'cause they don't want to take
the casualties.  But if the cyborg "mind" is cheap/easy to mass produce,
we're back to what I started with...

...just a thought...

>>	b) sending "real" people to fight at all.  No problem with
fixing broken
>>people 'cause you can make soldiers that aren't part of the
controlling
>>faction of society, and then who cares if they die 'cause you can just
make
>>a dozen more.
>
>>I agree with Tom's sentiment about the potential for medical advances.
And
>>Los (and others) have all kinds of valid "criticisms".  Where does
that
>>leave us.  How about looking at this from a more "Gameplay" point of
view.
>
>Though they'd make great bad guys! Think about it, with the mad rush to
>colonize and decentralize, who's to say Planet X, owned by Corporation
Y
>under the leadership of madman Bill Gates the XIII doesn't sucum to the
>temptation.

Yuk!  But, of course, you're quite right.  Sure you've got tongue in
cheek
here to some degree, but why not?  Cloning tech that can produce a
fighter
fast, who has very limited socialization (all s/he can do is fight, and
conduct the basics of survival ie sleep, eat)... so you run into
problems
like hyper aging a-la dolly.  So what.	You use them up fast, and if
they
die off in a couple of years, who cares.  All they need to do is be able
to
learn a bunch of standard battle drills and operate their personal
equipment.  For intelligence you add in some "real" humans in CnC
positions, and then expend the clones like water.  If some get left
behind
or trapped or their mission is done and retreiving them is difficult -
who
cares.	Make sure you have a small FTL cutter (or something) for the
"command" caste, and then just abandon the rest.

This could be quite ghastly....   

In SG terms, you could say that most squads in such a force would be
"green" 'cause they're only capable of rudimentary battle drills, and
they
are limited to leadership 2 at best.  They might have some kind of
advantage when taking confidence checks OR perhaps slightly different
rules
about what the effect of failing a confidence check is (they're
socialized
to fight and die in battle, so they react differently to "real" humans).
Their platoons may be led by a "real" human commander, and perhaps a plt
sgt, but if they die, the platoon loses it's ability to conduct itself
as a
unit, and each squad is on it's own (no reactivations possible from any
other command level).  In certain circumstances, there MIGHT be a "real"
human sgt in charge of a squad, which could bring the squad up to
"regular"
quality, but if that sgt goes down, the squad automatically becomes a
green
2 or 3 unit, with no chance of maintaing the "regular" quality.

They get lots of troopers (maybe platoons of 5 or 6 squads) but not much
high-tech support.  Few apc's, little air support, little arty, etc.  No
EW
at the platoon level.  Maybe at company level, but only in special
circumstances.

...And they cause terror in Hand to Hand, like the Ghurkas, 'cause
everyone
knows what they are...

Hmmm.

Could be a lot of fun.

>
>Part of the differnce is in Evac capability, part in medical technology
and
>resources funding available and part of it is the fact that most third
>world snuffies are just not considered to be important enough tow
arrant
>such effort, that needs to be saved for important people (high level
>officers etc etc) It's amazing stuff.
>
>

Maybe in a campaign setting, you account for some of this by giving the
"real" human forces a greater ability to recover numbers between battles
(they have more effort spent on evac and med tech), but much lower
numbers
to start with...

In a one-off game, this wouldn't matter...  but makes for good
background
and scenario generation...

>>
>
>Good post Adrian.
>Los

Gracias :)

Adrian Johnson
ajohnson@idirect.com