[gurps] [VEHICLE] of the week 680 ? Hybrid Starfighter

[Onno Meyer]

Eric replied to me:
 
> > What can you do to justify small starfighters?
> 
> > * Cut the flight and engagement ranges. When the range is
> 
> or follow GURPS Mecha, and use some combination of retarded sensors or 
> advanced ECM.

Even with retarded sensor technology, Vehicles gives a linear
relationship between sensor volume and sensor range while the
relationship between ship volume and sensor signature is 
logarithmic. (That rule is fishy, BTW, but it is the one 
Vehicles plays with.) 

So retarded sensors would hurt small fighters just as much. 
 
> > * Introduce restrictive rules of engagement to prevent
> >  'beyond visual range' kills. No military force would
> >  accept such rules unless it can afford it and tries to
> >  gain the 'moral high ground', but non-military forces
> >  (like cops or bounty hunters) might well be forced to
> 
> hmm, but what would stop robbers from doing this? knowing that if they
> did, 
> the cops could use long weapons for the rest of the combat?

Abuses of SWAT tactics aside, law-abiding folk have to be 
much more careful about target selection. No way around it. 

Say pirates attack mining craft and cops arrive. Even if 
the cops take long-range fire from that melee, they must 
be careful not to nail too many miners in their return 
engagement. 
 
> or, perhaps there is some treaty against larger ships beyond small
> carrier?
> 
> (or tonnage of weapons on a craft)
> 
> RL, wasn't there an international agreement restricting warboat size?
> 
> aha, "london treaty"

That treaty froze the relative size of major navies and 
defined size classes for the big ships, but those sizes 
were realistic when the treaty was written and not too
far from realistic when it ended. 

Onno