[Ogre] Re: Ogre-list Digest, Vol 4, Issue 10

[White Rat]

> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 00:31:25 -0700
> From: "Chris French" <csadn at ix.netcom.com>
> Subject: [Ogre] Re: OGREverse economics
> To: <ogre-list at sjgames.com>
> Message-ID: <000901c4a13f$5612c9e0$78abf204 at eryx>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

...

> Sad to say, this shows what the flavor-text author knows of nu-
> clear weapons.There's always gamma radiation (the kind most folk
> are referring to when talking about nuclear dead zones), and with
> every weapon from infantry sidearms on up using nukes, even if
> the doses are "small", it adds up. Try playing _Twilight:2000_ for
> an example of why there hasn't been a full-out nuclear war yet.

Or not. Twilight:2000 was written by optimists. Bear in mind that nuclear 
short and mid-range artillery has existed off-and-on since the fifties, it 
just hasn't ever been used on the battlefield.

> Simply: When the game was first created, the most powerful cars
> in existance had maybe 3d6 worth of firepower, 30 points of armor
> per side, and a driver with 3 DP. As of 2004, the typical CW duel-
> car has a battery strength of up to 12d6 (or equivalent), perhaps
> 70 to 80 points of armor per side -- and a driver with 3 DP. Most
> humans can be killed outright just by collateral damage.

Oh, for the days of simple autocannon, when you weren't likely to run into 
someone with a dropped-singularity-generator.

> The OGREverse has a similar problem -- the weaponry available is
> simply too powerful for the flesh attempting to wield it. A human
> on the battlefield who isn't vaporized by a nuke blast, or crushed
> by the shockwave, gets to be slowly microwaved (so to speak) by
> the radiation from the nuke blasts. By any standard, the inevitable
> outcome of _OGRE_ is _Rivets_.

Well, the suggested reason for infantry survival was powered armor of a 
mythical substance which was ridiculously nuke-resistant. If you can 
assume powered armor technology and assume that kind of materials science, 
you can assume the requisite life support and self-contained medical 
systems...

In the end run, it is science fantasy, not hard science fiction.

Re: ANFO vs. Jaegers: The assumption made is that the ANFO still has the 
same political/strategic effectiveness. We already have a society on the 
surface of this earth that doesn't let itself be swayed by terrorist 
bombings. I wouldn't want to live in it, but it exists, and it even has 
quite a few positive aspects that I respect highly.

Given the apparent structure/behavior of the NAC and PE in the Ogreverse, 
terrorism is (a) difficult and (b) has greatly reduced social/political 
effect.