[gurps] Heinlein Battlesuits

[Onno Meyer]

Hal replied to me:

> I've never really been happy with all of the rules found in GURPS VEHICLES
> and/or ROBOTS when it comes to detailing the Battlesuits for STARSHIP
> TROOPERS.  Part of the issue stems from the fact that the rules for
> Battlesuits in GURPS implies that anyone wearing the suits is getting
> inside of a 7' high metalic suit.  If you were to use the formulas for
> volumes of cylanders or spheres in an effort to figure out just what the
> dimensions of the suit would be, it would very quickly become apparent
> that SJGames went a wee bit overboard in determining just how big those
> things have to be.

I don't see that as a real problem. Overestimated sizes mean larger frames,
which mean more area to armor and stealth, but when all is said and done 
the rate for improvement after TL8 is pulled from thin air. Who knows if TL10
structural materials are really one third the weight of TL7 materials?

In my view the real killer are square-cube, logarithms[*] and the sensor 
rules. It is just to easy to build a tank which can detect, engage, and kill 
battlesuits before the suits can return fire, unless there are handy urban 
areas or craggy hills to hide in, or starships to selectively blast tanks but
no smaller targets. 

Suits are fine as super-infantry. Once you try to use them as walking 
mini-tank, they go the way of most light tanks facing an equal weight 
of heavies.

* A scan-24 thermograph takes 15% of a size-0 vehicle. A scan-30 
  thermograph takes a mere 0.15% of a size-6 vehicle.

Onno