I N T E R O F F I C E M E M O R A N D U M
Date Sent:1994-Jan-11 10:34am
From: Bruce Pihlamae
PIHLAMAE BRUCE
Dept: Information Services
Tel No: (06) 289-7056
TO: Remote Addressee ( _traveller@engrg.uwo.ca )
Subject: Technology & incremental improvements
TNE provides an reasonable list of technology levels and equipment
available; with size and cost, etc
However, once you have technology X it is assumed to be static in
characteristics until the next technology jump (to Y) occurs.
TNE doesn't show it but I believe there should be scope in the game
for incremental improvements. These improvements (or MARK numbers)
may infact improve a tech level X object (to MARK 22 say) that actually
outperforms a tech level X+1 object (at MARK 1). Of course the cost
of the incremental improvements would eventually become more than the
cost of the X+1 technology. You could take a tech level to MARK 99
but at some point it becomes more cost effective to take the tech
level rise ... always assuming you know how to upgrade to the next
tech level. It is usually cheaper to retool a factory to build the
next MARK level rather than retool for the next tech level. Imagine
running into a society thats been stuck at tech level 10 for 100's of
years but have refined their weapons to be as effective as tech level
12 or 13.
How effective the MARK increments are would need to be determined
and how many MARK levels are technically possible for an item for a
tech level would need to be set. You might want to allow for
10 MARK increments between tech levels so a tech X MARK 10 would
perform like a tech X+1 MARK 1; and allow for 1 to 25 MARKs as the
maximum range developable. A tech X MARK 21 item may be enormous
and expensive and look nothing like a tech X+1 MARK 1 item but it
could do the same function.
The MARK levels would allow for different vendors to push the
advantages of their new releases etc.
The only example of this that comes to mind is how the Russians
continued refining and using valves rather than switching to
transisitors (and silicon?) as quickly as the USA. I'm not big
on electronics so I'm not sure if this is a good example but it
was something that came up a while ago in a tech talk with friends.
I assume that FF&S don't have anything like MARK increments within
tech levels?
I haven't done any vehicle/item building but from looking at the
small arms and weapons there doesn't seem to be much scope for
variation. However, the recent computer discussion might want to
consider incremental computer improvements to account for size and
function variations. The example of the DiscMan CD player being as
function rich as the stereo version might be explained this way.
Comments?
Bruce... [email removed]