Re: (FT,SG) News Break

On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 09:22:19 -0500, Doug Evans <devans@nebraska.edu>
wrote:

>Not sure about the other two, but isn't combat drugs more an issue
>appropriate to FMAS?

You may be right on the combat drugs, although _Living Steel_ had some
really
cool (and deadly) tactical combat drugs. One in particular, used on low
quality troops, let them totally ignore any wounds (other than it was
hard to
move around when your legs were shot off, etc.) but it eventually (and
relatively quickly) killed the user. Stuff like that. 

Or, you could see combat drugs that would totally negate the requirement
for
Confidence Tests. That would see effects at the SG2 level.

> The others seem a little iffy; easy to argue both
>sides, though cham-cammo would be something I'd only expect to be that
>effective against lower tech, otherwise something both have, and likely
>could be considered factored in.

Except that it doesn't appear to be factored in. The rules don't mention
anything, and the spotting rules suggest it's far too easy to see a unit
in
SG2 to assume things like chameleon suits are taken into account. 

Interestingly, various companies and nations are looking into this.
Someone
has produced a prototype of a suit with a laptop in front, and a
projector
behind. The view behind the person is transmitted to the laptop in
front,
making it look as though you are seeing through a ghost. It's very
clunky, not
practical at all, only works in certain lighting conditions, and only
works
from one direction, however the concept is there. In 200 years, with
tiny
projectors and receivers built into a suit, who knows? Perhaps the
chameleon
suit used by the Predator is possible. Or perhaps grav technology will
allow
the bending of light rays. None of these are seen in SG2. 

> Power shields have almost as often been
>something ineffective on planet, whether negated by atmo, grav, or
>whathaveyou.

True, though usually due to plot reasons. I like the personal shields of
Dune,
and the shield/lasgun interaction. *L*

The point is that there are a lot of staples in sci-fi combat that don't
appear in SG2. There are a lot of staples of modern combat that don't
appear
in SG2! SG2 reminds me a lot of Hammer's Slammers: 1980s sci-fi written
by
someone with a 1970s experience of combat.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"The only normal people are the ones you don't know 
well!" - Joe Ancis