[gurps] Heinlein Battlesuits

[Onno Meyer]

> One thing I've always wondered about....
> 
> Once you get sufficiently advanced hover/anti-grav, doesn't it make
> legged/wheeled/tracked drivetrains almost obsolete?  Why walk when you
> can fly just as easily?

Contragrav as described by GURPS Vehicles is TL12, and superior 
to TL11+ reactionless thrusters for pure lift. Even those thrusters 
should spell the end of ground vehicles. GURPS Traveller probably
made a mistake to translate them wholesale to TL8, and CG flyers
would replace ground vehicles almost entirely by TL9 if the GM and
writers didn't put style over numbers (gotta have tracked ATVs in
Traveller). 

Hover technology as in hovercraft is more limited regarding terrain 
and flight altitude, so it won't do the job, ever ...

Think of the development of the screw propeller and what it did to 
paddle wheels, sails, oars and paddles in the 20th century. Paddle
wheels are dead and the others are restricted to very specialized
applications.

Or consider how internal combustion engines replaced both animal
traction and electric motors. Electric motors are making a comeback,
but animal carts are dead, dead, dead.

Onno