First of all, I'd like to point out that Soleri has SEVERAL books on
the subject of arcologies; I have only SEEN "The City in the Image
of Man" and have no idea if it's representative, superior, or inferior
(!!) with respect to the rest of his biblio. And kudos to Rob Dean
for pointing out the single most important reason for arcologies, that
of inclement environments (and perhaps, sadly, the reason why the Earth
will someday be arcological--it'll be unlivable otherwise. But I digress)
Second, reading the comments on the Minigun, the Avenger and the M-134
(OK, so it WON'T kill a tank. Big deal. And you say it's made by General
Electric? Sheesh, why don't they use THAT in their ad campaigns showing
how many fields they're in? All together now: "GE...we bring good things
to DEATH!" *budda budda budda* |-> but I digress). I've realized that
the reason I was so impressed with the M-134 in "Predator" is that I
recognized the niche it served as a crew firebase weapon at TL8, the
logical next step after the M-60. Caseless DS rounds that weigh less and
take up less room will allow TL9-10 weapons to have higher ROF and longer
fire-times between reloads, to say nothing of the beginnings of smartgun
control ("Excuse me sir." "Whaddaya want, M-264?" "I just wanted to remind
you that since you very nearly got yourself killed and me captured when
you emptied me panic-firing in that last ambush, I'm limiting you to fifty
round bursts this time." "Oh shut up."). TL11 brings us, at last, to one
of my pet projects dating back to 1980, when I was expanding on the Book 4
rules for my college game: a Gauss firebase weapon, halfway between the
Gauss rifle (empties too quickly) and the VRF Gauss Gun (too big). The
Gauss Machinegun (GMG, for want of a better term) would be bigger and a
bit heavier than the rifle, have a lot more penetration power and a much
higher ROF, and would gobble needles and amperes from a battery pack/needle
feeder bin worn on the back or fanny. Work it out, gang; a laser pistol
power pack would be able to power such a gun for thousands of rounds, and
at only 3mm diameter, you could pack a LOT of needles in a fanny pack.
I have an NPC in my Pittsburgh game right now, a seven-foot-tall Urzaeng
Vargr with Down's Syndrome and a GMG. He basically feeds himself, keeps
himself clean, and shoots anything that tries to attack the party. He serves
admirably as a means of preventing the players from wasting time worrying
about self-defense and concentrating on meatier gaming fodder....|->
Anyway, enough of this rambling. Midnight-to-eight shifts on the particle
accelerator do this to me....
metlay