[gurps] [Vehicle] TL8 "Pigeon"

[Pauli Hakala]

DataPacRat wrote:
> On 10/09/2007, DataPacRat <datapacrat at gmail.com>
> 
>>> An entirely new class of smart bomb, the Pigeon, was developed. They were called
>>> Pigeons because they could be launched in flocks that could number a thousand bombs
>>> and had a tendency to wheel about in the air like a flock of pigeons. The flock would
>>> make its way to the target area using GPS technology and terrain following algorithms.
>>> The flock would seek out targets and, through a negotiation process, one and only one
>>> bomb would attack a target with the rest searching for the next target. The bombs could
>>> be programmed to seek out vehicles, buildings, and even specific humans as targets.
>>>
>>> Ahead of the tanks and helicopters were tens of thousands of smart bombs called
>>> Pigeons that picked their own targets. Although the amount of explosives carried by any
>>> single Pigeon was small, the group behavior destroyed any form of resistance. The
>>> results were even more spectacular when one of them would explode in a weapons
>>> storage area. If the Pigeons couldn't destroy a target, they sent back data for a cruise
>>> missile to be sent to the target.
>>>
>>> When one wave of Pigeons was consumed, another wave was launched. The [good
>>> guys] weren't interested in advancing or holding territory. The soldiers were too busy
>>> setting up the next wave of Pigeons. It took almost two hours for ten thousand men to
>>> set up thirty thousand Pigeons for launch.
>>>
>>> When night fell, the attack didn't slow down. Three separate waves of Pigeons with
>>> infrared cameras were released. Anything with a heat signature that differed from the
>>> background was targeted.
> 
> Well, I don't know what I was doing wrong with my first attempt, but
> after I started from scratch with a new GVB template, I have, in fact,
> been able to cobble together some stats that seem like a workable
> representation of the above.
> 
> With this draft, a flock of 30,000 still costs about $79 million, even
> with the 'cheap' option. Not an insignificant investment, and any
> suggestions on reducing the individual cost would probably be
> worthwhile.
> 

Well, GURPS Vehicles cost is usually equivalent to fairly limited
production quantity, or mass production with large profit
margins.. If something small and none too advanced was mass produced
in such large numbers, and with somewhat more lax quality controls,
I'd expect the price per unit to go down to about one fourth
(x0.25) the default price while the vehicles would count as
'Cheaply Made' with -1 HT and halved maintenance intervals (see
'vehicle quality' in GURPS Vehicles).. Generally speaking,
the smaller and less advanced a vehicle is, the easier and less
expensive it is to set up a mass production line for it. I guess
the minimum non-profit production cost would be something like
one tenth of price (x0.1) under perfectly ideal circumstances.

Also, I'd recommend using the electronics and computer rules from
the most excellent GURPS Transhuman Space - It should be possible
to extrapolate other TL hardware from the THS values.

I guess that the main problem with a design concept like this
would not be with the actual hardware, but with the software
- It would be much more easier to program a fixed-wing robot
or a helicopter than an ornithopter..


-Pauli
-- 
"Accompanied only by the full moon, howling of
the nightwolf, and the path under my bare feet,
the elvenpath.."
-Nightwish, Angels Fall First: Elvenpath