Stealth and Cybertech

William Henry Timmins writes:

>How about some device that simply ABSORBS light? Sure, someone could see

     Flat black paint??

>you occlude stars (MAYBE), but wouldn't that work against radar and
>other sources? (Although a net of detectors could still work)

     We do that NOW with STEALTH technology.  Take a close look at the two
different (but both effective) approaches used by the F-117A and YF-22 &
YF-23 Advanced Tactical Fighters.  As usual, Traveller falls behind reality
in ignoring Stealth, which reduces PASSIVE signature, not active.

Mike Metlay writes:

>Furthermore, Refs must be careful as to how much TL advancement they want
>to allow in the development of these systems, before game balance goes
>straight out the window.

     What's TL advancement got to do with game balance?  Just remember,
Rule #1: the bad guys have it too.

>In a recent game I ran, one character had an
>integral smartgun link wired to a cybernetic enhancement of his own brain;
>this allowed him (among other things) to sweep an auto-gauss-gun across
>a crowd of people on full auto, scanning ahead of the barrel's trajectory
>and momentarily interrupting the flow of hot lead as he passed over
>friendlies. Because the target acquisition, identification, calculation
>of trajectory and fire interrupts were carried out in terms of machine
>cycles (milliseconds at most), the overall effect was a two-second burst
>from the gun, after which twenty perps dropped dead in the arms of six
>VERY confused PCs.

     ...and in WWI, the same kind of selectivity with regard to a machine
gun burst and an intervening object (the prop) was implemented using an
interrupter gear.  TL 5 technology.  I rather like the idea presented
above; gives me some notions I hadn't thought of of what truly advanced
weapon technology might be able to do.

>whereupon he described "Smith" and "Wesson" from BUCK GODOT, ZAP GUN
>FOR HIRE (not what I'd call Traveller-grade hard SF).

     Hey! I liked Buck Godot!

>The advantages of these high-tech doodads are limited overall by the
>person carrying the gun, and should be handled accordingly. I have no

     Yep.  An idiot with the power of a god is still an idiot, to badly
paraphrase a certain Amber character.  I find a high Tactics skill is far
more important than any amount of technology; a clever player with a
body pistol is more dangerous than an idiot with an FGMP (to his
enemies, I mean).

>This is especially important when people try to mount all of this
>stuff on pistols. Common sense should rule all such things, and
>weenies who insist on the latest cybertoys should be politely directed
>to the Cyberpunk game going on in the next county.

     But Mike, the weenies don't want to be in the Cyberpunk game where
all their enemies are just as heavily armed... that would be dangerous.
See Rule #1 above.
     Seriously, I do *NOT* understand this prejudice against realistic
cybertechnology -- yes, *realistic*.  The cyber/computer technology
depicted in "cyberpunk" and other near-future science fiction is the most
likely and realistic technology I've seen yet in Traveller -- so you
dislike that and prefer jump drives/gravitics instead?  Or computers
obsolete by 1990's standards?  I are confused...
     Caveat: I don't necessarily believe that the *social* milieu depicted
by some cyberpunk stories is realistic -- then I look at places like
Los Angeles and the former Eastern Block and think again.


Brandon Cope writes:

>The limit wouldn't be on the bonuses of the gizmos on the gun, but how
much
>you could stick on. A pistol (large) might be able to handle a two pieces
of
>hardware (telescopic sight, smart-link, laser sight). A small pistol would
be
>limited to one. A rifle could mount all three. The telescopic sight and
>smart-link shouldn't be cumlative, though you *could* make a smart-link
with
>magnification (at least double cost and weight). I won't go into
>light-intensification or thermal sights (yet).

     Uh, there seems to be some confusion as to what a smart-link is.  A
smart-link is the wire and circuitry that allows the electronics in your
gun (ie, the sights and trigger) to interface either with your brain thru
a neural jack, or your battlesuit combat computer if you are playing it
that way.  Which is to say, if your weapon is high enough TL to have
electronics rather than merely mechanical sights and trigger, it can
have smart-link capability built in with no extra size or weight penalty.
Of course the telescopic sight/laser-sight and smart-link are cumulative;
the smart-link is useless without some kind of sight to provide targetting
data... I *would* go into LI/IR sights -- a natural for a smart-link.


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