[gurps] Heinlein Battlesuits

[Travis Watkins]

I rather thought that they were somewhat larger, I vaguely remember
the main character sitting in the 'cockpit' of his suit while it is
packed in the entry vehicle.

Also, I don't know that too many vehicles smaller than a heavy tank
could carry several nuclear weapons that can hit a target over the
horizon.

Also, while there will always be specific environments where one
specific form factor can defeat another, I always had the impression
that the speed and maneuverability were one of the big deals of the
battlesuits.  I'll admit that I don't remember a specific description,
but as they seem to travel mostly in 'hops' of several kilometers, I'm
not even certain that it would need to be anthropomorphic in shape.

Also, if you can easily target objects over the horizon, why do you
need to worry about tanks anyway?  Just avoid them and hit the targets
you are interested in.
(any target important enough to have an echelon defense that will stop
mid-range nukes is important enough to blast from orbit anyway)

I thought the main targets were smaller things like refineries and
factories.  Then again the bits I remember seemed to be mostly form a
'raid' type attack where they remove the ability of a rebellious world
to put up any real sort of defense.

I doubt that many tanks will have much of an opportunity to target
raiders moving at 100+km/h during a surprise attack unless they are
very very lucky.

(And a tank that needs to handle re-entry at the beginning of each
engagement on unfamiliar worlds would probably have a lot of the same
design constraints as a mech anyway: weight constraints, an ability to
right itself if it does not land upright, a fuel/ammo reserve that
will allow it to function without resupply for an extended raid, an
ability to handle a wide variety of terrains including lakes and
rivers blocking it's path)

Versatility and speed could make a battlesuit much more valuable than
a tank if you don't have room to carry different types of vehicles for
different types of terrain/planet.  (would you want to be in a tank
when attacking an emplacement on an asteroid like the one in the movie
Armageddon?)

Just a few thoughts on why the battlesuit might be the 'best' choice,
even if there are situations where it is not the 'ideal' weapons
platform for a particular engagement.

   -Travis

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 9:59 AM, Onno Meyer <Onno.Meyer at gmx.de> wrote:
> 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
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The man that holds fast to his bitterness will eventually be consumed
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-Terwin