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[Parisbre56]

It was 25+ tokens, RU are worth like 2-3 tokens apiece...

Holy shit... just how powerful a tesla coil did i stick on the thundertron?

Red Alert 2 level power?

Eiffel Tower mission anyone?

[Tavik Toth]

It was 25+ tokens, RU are worth like 2-3 tokens apiece...

Holy shit... just how powerful a tesla coil did i stick on the thundertron?

Red Alert 2 level power?

Eiffel Tower mission anyone?

Some should try designing as many of the units from Red Alert and Red Alert 2 while using ER tech.

[GreatWyrmGold]

A few problems with the design:

1. Shoot it in the head with a BFG and it becomes a mindless potato.
2. If it's knocked over, how is it going to get up?
3. Power. What's it powered by? Magfields can only get you so far before your batteries are drained.
4. It has too much firepower for its suggested usage (think russian tanks with like 20 guns). You'd need to cart along extra ammo, reducing speed and stuff we can move. Considering we spend most of our time either running or stealing, I'd remove some of the weapons and replace them with storage canisters, for carting samples on research missions and stolen goodies on assault missions.
5. Is the production cost worth it? Why not get a bunch of Sods to haul our crap instead or bring a pneumatic exo?
6. How easily replaceable are blown off legs?

Otherwise, nice. As long as the bastards don't act like anything remotely involving MLP.

1. ...No, it won't. The head has one of the auxiliary CPUs that helps with firing. The remaining weapons on the head would be made less accurate, but that's about it.
2. Same way a horse does.
3. Read the description again.
4. Damn near all of its weapons are energy weapons.
5. Because horses are more efficient at carrying stuff. And sods don't have medifoam, multi-targeting, or other such perks.
6. About as easy as they would be for robodies.

although i still say he shoulda made a tricerabot.

WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THIS EARLIER

Because it's silly. And not suited for a support unit--legs too short, body too bulky.
Maybe a tank-like Ar-Prime?

[Sean Mirrsen]

((A tricerabot would make a fairly awesome APC, I'll give you that. Though you really lose out on speed. Legs too short.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

It's like I have an echo...

[syvarris]

I will be judging when everyone's designs are done.

In the meantime, Anton, come and show me this idea you want to prototype.

Ah.  Okay then, would you mind if I join you and Anton?  I'm curious about his prototype, and maybe I'll learn something.

((Do either of you mind if we say this was sent before Anton's presentation?  I'd like to have Saint see it in person.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

I will be judging when everyone's designs are done.

In the meantime, Anton, come and show me this idea you want to prototype.

Ah.  Okay then, would you mind if I join you and Anton?  I'm curious about his prototype, and maybe I'll learn something.

((Do either of you mind if we say this was sent before Anton's presentation?  I'd like to have Saint see it in person.))

((I don't terribly mind, just don't expect me to rewrite the presentation. ))

[piecewise]

Sigh, and create the following thing.

Spoiler: SS/BEARD-9 Demonstration (click to show/hide)

I don't think Piecewise needs to read this.  It's stuff I'm setting up in VR for Pyro to read, so some of it might be stuff that wouldn't actually work well in VR, but most of it is really just RP fluff.

Create a semi-seperate area, and section it into ordered rooms. 
First room has floating designs of the SS/BEARD-9- exploded view and normal, wih the various specifications visible.  Make sure that there's similar displays for plasma projectors and shard launchers, although tweak how the info is displayed so that my weapon's advantages are displayed prominently, and he weaknesses are less obvious.  Place several copies of all three weapons on racks next to a few loyal sods.  Attach a shooting range with dummy battlesuits at various ranges.

Save it, then order the sods to disable several battlssuits with the weapons.  Take the wounded battlesuits and give them exploded views showing where damage is, and floating readouts showing what repairs would be necessary to get the suit working like new.  Set them up next to the range, then reset the other bits of the room.

Second room is a protected observation post over a pitched urban battlefield.  Have two equal UWM forces continually spawning at either side of the battlefield, equipped mostly with small arms and MKI suits.  Some battlesuits, and mix specialist troops armed with Shard launchers, plasma projectors, and BEARDs into the rank and file troops.  Inflate the number of BEARD troops a bit, to emphasize my design.  Run this room for a few minutes, to get a good battle going, then pause the sim.

From the main battle room, make three doors.

First door leads to a observation post with lots of cameras monitoring a large building garrisoned by a small UWM force equipped with small arms and BEARDs.  Outside the building is a much larger force that wants to capture the building with minimal collateral, and standard gear.

Run this sim a few times, and tweak it to make sure it's set up so that the defending side tends to win.  Make sure BEARDs are used to great effect, keeping in mind that their large radius allows one to affect other floors, and that it's effective against infantry in choke points.

Second door leads to an observation room tuned to a highly trained improved synthflesh sod equipped with a silenced pistol, a BEARD, several extra rockets, replacement launch rockets and adhesive, and good stealth tech.  Spawn him into a very large scale battlefield covering a whole city, and set him to just run disruption focusing on battlesuits and other hard targets.  Have him take out squads if he thinks he can take them all out, but only if it's low risk.

Run this sim a few times, just watching him.  If it generally flatters my weapon, keep it.  If the operative keeps getting killed, try replacing him with a normal human.  If that doesn't work, just scrap this section.  Also scrap it if the operative is effective, but because of the synthflesh- if he rambos through whole squads with his bare hands, then it's not what I want.  Save the video to my wristpad as entertainment though.

The last door coming from the main battle room leads to a museum style area, with various unusual tactics that the weapon could be used for being displayed.  For example, shooting a battlesuit with the BEARD, then leaving the device on it to frag any troops that use the battlesuit as cover or try to help the pilot.  Demonstrate good deployment locations that keep the actual device hidden, but still allow it to affect enemies that walk through some nearby high traffic area.

Show how, because of the weapon's activation mechanism, it's useless for the enemy to grab one from a downed soldier because they can't activate the device.  And how our force can activate the device while an enemy is still holding it, potentially taking out a whole squad.  Show how if a soldier goes down, his corpse effectively becomes a mine that other soldiers can activate to take out advancing enemy troops.  Show how this weapon can be used to take out a rampaging synthflesh soldier, just by sacrificing the guy holding it.  Ect.



Save alllll that as a VR scenario entitled "SS/BEARD-9 Demonstration".

Then record a video of myself going through the whole thing, demonstrating and examining everything I set up in detail.  Send an invitation to Simus to join the scenario with me, along with this text and the recording I just made.

I have set up a full VR demonstration of my SS/BEARD-9 prototype.  I would like to walk you through it so I can detail its capabilities, so I have sent you an invitation.

However, in case you are too busy at the moment, I have also sent you a recording of myself walking through the demonstration and examining all the important things.  I still recommend you join the demonstration yourself, simply so you can ask questions and test things that I have not thought of.

((Also: this quote, in case Pyro missed it.))

Spoiler: SS/BEARD-9 (click to show/hide)

Steve Saint's Battlesuit Elimination And Recovery Device
Total cost: 9 tokens
Part cost:
     6: Automated microwave manip (heats four meter radius by twenty degrees) (multi-use)
     2: Rocket propulsion, non-conductive adhesive, and projectile casing (single-use)
     1: Launcher tube (multi-use)

Functionality: Projectile is launched at 150 mph directly forwards.  Proven to be able to reliably survive impact and stick to surfaces.  Manipulator is activated via encrypted radio signal transmitted from default MKI suit or robobody.  Heat from manipulator proven rapidly fatal to human targets.

Notably, projectile can be used as a deployable bomb by simply setting it in place and activating when something walks over.  Alternatively, you can deploy the trap by firing it at a wall.

In theory, cost of the weapon is mintigated if the manip is recovered after firing.

Ineffective against entirely robotic targets; relies on damage to target's brain.  Low effective radius limits use against infantry unless placed at chokepoint.  Direct anti-vehicle capability is limited by its low projectile speeds- quick pilots can dodge or intercept the projectile.

Send the schematics to Simus, along with the following message.

I have completed your assigned project.  My device has proven to be four tokens cheaper than the piezoelectric shard generator, although combat simulations have shown it to be somewhat less effective as well.

Notably, it leaves the battlesuit mostly recoverable, and has the capacity to be used as a trap.  Frankly, the latter function is probably more useful than firing it- its primary reason for being conventionally launched is to fulfill your assignment's requirement.

Finally, if PW is willing, relax and pull up more data on quiet worlds.  Are there any that have been really extensively explored?  Any interesting stories from exploration expeditions into these worlds?

"I don't think Piecewise needs to read this"

And so he did not. You send your junk around. Hmm. Carlos Danger joke in there somewhere.

As per exploring quiet worlds; it happens but usually just the surface is explored, at least by official UWM forces. They get bogged down in documenting the surface while independent treasure hunters explore the depths and often get killed down there. You could probably search up some stories from those explorers but they may be of a dubious nature.

Around 3500 c. Try some Dicyanoacetylene or oxygen lance.

Right after I look up what those are.

Alright, here we go...

1. Attempt to construct a thermal lance which can be used as a projectile. In the front is hot, directed with some kind of small hole in the middle is a rube full of iron rods, and in the back is a canister of pressurized oxygen. The whole thing is encased in a protective sheath of plastic or something, as aerodynamic as it can be with a hole in the front for the burning iron to come out. Call it the Thermal Pike.

2. Attempt to make thermite with tungsten replacing the iron; if that fails, try niobium, osmium, rhenium, uranium, and zirconium; and if that fails try boron, carbon, lanthanum, and neodymium. I'm a bit fuzzy on the mechanics of oxidation, but Wikipedia says thermite can reach temperatures close to the boiling point of iron or whatever metal is oxidized in its place, and the aforementioned elements have boiling points near or well above 3,500 C.

Dicyanoacetylene's Wikipedia article is surprisingly uninspiring.
3. Fill some kind of light blue plastic sphere with dicyanoacetylene and include a lighting mechanism which can be remotely triggered. Call it the Cyan Bomb,  or the DEAD (short for Dicyanoacetylene Explosively Armed Device).

Fire a Thermal Pike at a battlesuit with an appropriate gauss thingy.
Detonate any successful quasi-thermite near a battlesuit. Did I mention that I'm a bit fuzzy on how people use thermite?
Throw a DEAD or two at a battlesuit.

Determine effectiveness and cost of such weapons.

Well, lets see. Thermal lance only really works if you hold it up and let it cut for a bit. It's basically just gonna bounce off if you just shoot it at the thing.

For thermite to work you have to set it on top of what you want to melt and then let it melt down through.

That Dead would probably be extremely effective against non-armored targets but since it's unfocused it probably won't get through the battlesuit's armor.

((I don't know whether this goes in here or the on-ship thread, but I'll put it here because it will likely evolve into tinker.))

Test the effectiveness of different weapon types against different types of armor and other defensive measures. Include the crossbow from far back with the different bolt tips.

Thats kinda a wide series of tests. Also, crossbows probably aren't gonna be effective unless they're quite large and firing nuclear tipped arrows.

At least against most armor.

((It is more of a sniper weapon that could sustain fire and the gauss array has been maximised by running just a hair less current through it than would melt the wiring, making the coils bigger and using larger rounds so it is much more powerful and the impact is smaller))

Hmm. Wait, larger rounds? Or is that a typo? If I remember right your original plan was for a higher powered gauss rifle with smaller rounds, which would get you the longer range you want. But larger rounds would negate the higher power and you'd just end up with a rifle that is about as powerful as the gauss but with larger bullets.

Analyse stinky fungus.

WRONG THREAD

I would say each model wouldn't be more expensive than their nuclear counterpart, for the same yield. Maybe 1 token more for the clean-bomb effect.

Resource-wise, these things could potentially be cheaper than nukes, I think. Compare the rarity of near and trans-uranic elements, especially the isotopes that are actually any good for use in nuclear weapons, to deuterium, or aluminium. About the only complicated part is the firing mechanisms. And higher yields won't really be that much more expensive since the yield goes up if you increase the mass of the aluminium liner.

I will be judging when everyone's designs are done.

In the meantime, Anton, come and show me this idea you want to prototype.

one token more for an equivalent yield bomb sounds fine. Though, we will need to use some resources to set up the manufacturing process and systems since it's a new system.

((IC wall of text warning))

I will be judging when everyone's designs are done.

In the meantime, Anton, come and show me this idea you want to prototype.

Anton, having finished his conversation with Miyamoto, returns to Simus.

  "Quite right. I have also discussed the ship loadouts with General Miyamoto, and he finds the idea of a "kill button" ship as having merit. If your cheaper missiles will be cheap enough, we should just squeak into our defense budget without having to modify anything else.

Now then, this idea of mine... well. As bad a sign as it may be to preface a presentation with this, but please - don't laugh. The design may seem silly at first glance, but do believe that I put some thought behind it."

With that, Anton loads the prototype design into the Tinker session between him and Simus.
 
  "So, this here is the Artee, as I call it. RT model non-humanoid combat support unit - a "Robotic Teammate", so to speak. On the overall, it's exactly what it looks like - an equinoid, meaning horse-like, armored robotic frame. I've thought up the general concept around the same time we were bumbling around a desolate planetoid, with rapidly dwindling means of transportation and healthcare. As with all deviations from the accepted standard - that being the humanoid frame - it has its positive and negative comparative traits."

Anton loads another snapshot, of the Artee partially disassembled to show its inner structure.

  "I'll start with the latter, just to get them out of the way. The most obvious issue here is the lack of what you normally call grasping appendages, or hands. The machine is capable of carrying things with a special three-prong hydraulic grasp located in its head - also capable of acting as literal "jaws of life", if you're familiar with the term - but it is uncapable of any kind of manual dexterity beyond pushing the occasional button. It is likewise unable to carry standard weaponry, instead relying on specially built or modified hardware.

  Another issue is with the quadruped design, which may prove a hindrance in certain situations, for instance when operating in environments specifically meant for bipedal use - like staircases. A hindrance, however, but not a barrier - the machine is agile enough to navigate acceptably in most situations. About the only thing that will stump it is rope ladders.

  A more important side effect, for combat environments, may be that it can't go prone like a humanoid can. While it can lie flat on the ground, the design of the chest section means that it'll still provide a sizeable target in that position - though that is offset by very little of its offensive ability being affected by doing so.

  There's also the problem of underside armor - with the various joints and a not entirely rigid body construction it is by necessity quite weak. If a minefield were to be encountered, an Artee would suffer greater - proportionally to area exposed - damage from an explosion from below than a humanoid would. Side armor is still adequate as long as the armor panels on the flank are closed.
 
  And, of course there's the issue of literally having to build all of the support infrastructure for these machines specifically - from production lines to repair kits, literally everything these units can use would need to be specially made for them."

Anton rubs his hands together and gestures over the design.

  "That's... more or less all for negatives. That I can see at a glance, at least. Some things are neutral to design, and would likely work in a humanoid frame as well. For instance, the Artee has two regular CPUs in addition to its organic brain, which act as fire control centers to aid multi-targeting. Or, if the brain is destroyed, the CPUs can be made to take over the body and provide what I call "zombie functions" - the frame can stand, execute simple motions, and of course can aim and fire all of its weapons, though it will probably need someone to designate targets for it. Provided the body itself is sufficiently intact, of course. The chest is armored to protect the brain, and the head, which holds one of the CPUs, is elongated and tapers to a point, aiding in projectile deflection. Not going to do much against lasers, but I'll take what I can get.

  Then there's the weaponry. The primary armament consists of two laser rifles, held by articulate arms that hide under the wing-like armor panels on the sides of the body. This makes the weapons less likely to be damaged when not in use, and makes the unit less intimidating to civilians - when we have our public image to think of, visual appeal in design does have a place. Additional weapons and gear include a kinetic-amp battering ram on a hydraulic mount in the top of the skull, for maximum impact force; a micro-laser like that of a standard Hand Laser mounted in the head as an auxiliary deterrent and stand-in for a cutting torch; a container of medifoam under the neck armor panels, with the nozzle ending in the tip of the unit's nose for precise application; another micro-laser, augmented with an electric spark gap, on the tip of the prehensile tail - this acts as a six-degrees-of-freedom functional electrolaser turret in atmosphere, as well as a last-resort melee weapon; and finally, two gyrojet grenade launchers under the armored panels on the thighs - four shots of any 40mm custom grenades you can think to outfit them with in each.
  I'm sure that, specifics disregarded, most of this weaponry and gear could reasonably be fitted to, or carried by a humanoid frame as well, though with more difficulty and less flexibility in some cases. All of this gear is powered by an internal generator and some capacitor banks, which take up most of the internal space in the torso of the unit, with just enough space left in the back for the second auxiliary CPU."

Anton pauses for a moment to take a breath, looking at Simus for signs of possible interest or obvious disdain. Not immediately noticing either, he continues.

"Now, for the positives.

  Firstly, another fairly obvious trait is the reduced forward profile. This thing could be galloping towards you, all guns firing, and would still give you the same size of target as a crouching human. Less, if you count that its legs are thinner.

  Second is tied with the first, and that is armoring and survivability. A regular humanoid is pretty hard to armor - a lot of vertical space to cover, and the arrangement of joints means that infantry armor has several vulnerable areas immediately visible to the enemy. Quite like a tank, an Artee is easy to equip with definitive "fore", "side", and "hind" armor, and - quite unlike a humanoid - the vulnerable areas is does have are almost always protected from any direction except "down". The generator assembly that drives the weapons and gives it power is located directly behind the same forward plate that protects the brain, as well as the brain itself. This ties into "zombie functions" as well - direct fire from the front can destroy the braincase, but leave the power systems intact, allowing the fire control CPU in the rear to take command of what's left of the body. Whereas with a humanoid frame set up in the same way, a shot to the "gut" would disable the machine as well as a shot to the brain. The only way to inflict that sort of damage on an Artee is to flank it - a task made difficult by its array of peripheral weaponry like the tail turret, and the "wing-shields" giving it extra flank armor.

  It is also a more stable firing platform while moving. A humanoid upper body moves quite a lot while running to maintain balance, and targeting can be problematic even with fire control and stabilizers - while a horse-like quadruped at full gallop still maintains its general orientation, especially around the withers area where Artee's primary weapon arms are mounted. Given its selection of weapons, that particular feature can be quite useful.
 
  And, of course, there are the other things stemming from the horse-like design - greater carrying capacity and push/pull power, greater running speed, and even extensibility - it's easier to add something new to this frame, much like a vehicle. I've been planning a few already, in fact. "R2", the focused support frame, would trade the powerful generator and laser rifles for actual hand-like manipulators on its arms, and an extended set of tools and medical supplies, giving it more flexibility at the expense of long-term firepower. The combat modification, "R3", apart from a heavier set of armor, would feature a full-scale heavy weapon mount on its back, accepting any large personal weapon. The quadruped design allows to treat the body more like a small vehicle, which, coupled with the human-comparable agility and versatility of the frame, makes for some interesting possibilities.

  Construction-wise, I have already done some calculations. The token cost for prototyping one is, quite predictably, through the roof. The array of weapons, the generator, the medifoam, the CPUs, it all adds up to a hefty sum. The cost to actually manufacture one, though, would barely be higher than that of a pair of simple robot-body Sod troops, and that's with all of its equipment already installed.

  But, of course, if the single Artee was to merely fight its weight in Sods, I suppose it would lose, multi-targeting and fire control or no - humanoids might carry heavier weapons. The thing is that when I thought this idea up, I didn't want a combat sidekick, although you certainly won't beat a properly trained RT in a skeet-shooting range. It's supposed to be an all-purpose, high endurance support unit, capable of providing the average team of squishy humans with some carrying capacity, ad-hoc means of transportation, medical and engineering support, as well as some decent fire support on the side. All standardized and wrapped in a nice-looking, fast-running package that can cross any walkable terrain, needs no care for itself bar the occasional combat injury, and can actually act on its own if the need arises.

And I kinda need your go-ahead to try and put one together before the invasion. Both to avoid the kind of fuss Auron made earlier, and because I won't be able to purchase the parts I need for another year or three."

Perform prewritten prototype presentation. Politely procure proper production permissions.

You vomit much green text at all involved.




TIME SKIP INCOMING

TIME SKIP INCOMING

ALL FORCES TO SHIP THREAD

[GreatWyrmGold]

Aw. I was going to try to make some sort of armor-piercing round containing something.

Frowny face. I guess I'll finish my Miya project later.

[Radio Controlled]

Aw. I was going to try to make some sort of armor-piercing round containing something.

Frowny face. I guess I'll finish my Miya project later.

Am I... missing something? Miya project? Sorry, can't brain anything right now.

[PyroDesu]

To summarize, you want to prototype a robotic, meter-tall, wetware-controlled, heavily armed battle pony.

While I wouldn't laugh, several others back where I'm from would laugh you out of their private lab complexes.

Still, I don't particularly like it as it stands, it's too... focused on aesthetics, especially the equestrian design in general, though I will admit that it's not the worst way to design a legged creature-esque stable firing platform. Not terribly much armor, either, and if a leg is shot out you'll need an exoskeleton at least, and probably more, to bring it back, or you have to bring a fresh leg to it. And I think you're trying to put far too much into one package.

I'll tell you what: Make it in under me, and you'll have a few fabricator cycles of your own. You can use some to build a prototype. Otherwise, you'll need to come back to me with a modified design. Not heavily, mind, the base idea is sound, and I especially like your use of secondary computers to help with multi-targeting and the 'zombie mode', but somewhat modified nonetheless. Perhaps the more specialized versions are better about the whole 'too much in one package' issue, but the other points still stand.

I hate to end it now, but I have the strangest feeling that Steve might start getting annoyed if we tie things up much longer before we start rebuilding HQ (some final plans are dependent on how many people are staying with me). Please submit you designs. Don't worry if you're not done, just submit what you have and an explanation of where you were going with it.

[syvarris]

((I'ma assume Saint was allowed to join the session.))

Saint silently listens to Anton's presentation, at first with a bemused expression.  About halfway through he seems to become much more interested in the prototype.

After Simus finishes her review, Saint speaks to Anton.

"It's certainly an interesting design.  Have you used the VR machines to test it's effectiveness on the battlefield?

Also, if you have any need for assistance with... refining the design, or writing the software for it, I would be happy to assist; I was in a robotics hobbyist group before being recruited by ARM, and this is exactly the sort of project we worked on, although projects this large were rare."

((Just gonna link the post with my design, cause big.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

I hate to end it now, but I have the strangest feeling that Steve might start getting annoyed if we tie things up much longer before we start rebuilding HQ (some final plans are dependent on how many people are staying with me). Please submit you designs. Don't worry if you're not done, just submit what you have and an explanation of where you were going with it.

Oh no! Already?
Time's up.
Shoulda listened to me.
You said "Just throw me at it!"
Wouldn't that work?
Shut up, guys, I'm trying to put something together.

Spoiler: Stuff Sent to Simus (click to show/hide)

Project 1: Automanip Stuff
Summary: One large shell containing an automanip that detonates on impact, causing a large sphere of matter around the shell (not including the shell!) to transform into hydrogen. One crude rifle-like weapon which, when triggered, causes a long-but-thin cylinder of matter to transform into hydrogen.
Explanation: Transforming parts of battlesuits and/or their operators into hydrogen renders them less dangerous and possibly nonfunctional. However, prohibitive costs caused me to reconsider.

Project 2: Thermal Pike
Summary: One modified gauss launcher, firing a tube filled with iron rods (with other metals added as garnish), with a canister of pressurized oxygen in the back. When fired, it releases a blast of extremely hot metallic dust.
Conclusions: While it certainly generates sufficient heat to melt through battlesuit armor, it does not contact the armor for long enough to do so. Some method to get it to stick would be possible, but the battlesuit user may be able to remove it before it would do significant damage. Said hypothesis was not tested.

Project 3: Thermite'
Summary: Thermite', or Thermite Prime, is basically tungsten oxide. It works like thermite, but burns a lot hotter.
Conclusions: While potentially lethal, burning Thermite' could need to be dropped on a battlesuit. Could work as an airburst weapon; time was insufficient to test this notion. Cost and difficulty of manufacturing not tested.

Project 4: Dicyanoacetylene Explosively Armed Device
Summary: One pale blue sphere made of plastic, filled with dicyanoacetylene and a detonator. Explodes when detonator detonates, spreading burning stuff.
Conclusions: While weak in its current form, shaped charges could potentially damage battlesits due to the high temperature of burning dicyanoacetylene.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Anton chuckles, giving Simus a somewhat incredulous look.

"Pfheh. Too much in one package. What, it would be more practical stripped down? I mean sure, let's see it." He proceeds to demonstrate his words, editing the prototype as he speaks. "Take away the lasers, the amp, the medifoam, the grenades - what's left? An empty shell on four legs, with a huge-ass generator and no way to use it." He brings his hands down on the standing unit's back, careful not to tip the unprogrammed body over. "The R2 variant loses that generator to have extra internal space, because otherwise it has nowhere to put the energy. It also can't use its fire control CPUs much, because it can't dual-wield weapons without special mounting rails. What I've just outlined here is the "deluxe" loadout for the RT - the maximum I designed it to be equipped with. You can always take things away from it, but if you agree that the basic design is sound, why remove the potential to have the extra things? It's not like any of them are useless. If there are things you would have me change that are specific to the stripped-down RT and not the equipment loadout, I'll do my best to comply to them.

And do forgive me for liking aesthetics in design. I will ensure that all my contributions following this one will be as blocky and unpleasing to the eye as possible. Should help endear us to the public, end sarcasm mode. I won't deny that I've designed it this way specifically because it's pleasing to the eye, but isn't it a valid point still?

Also, I can't speak with certainty until I have a fully functional model, but I think it can pretty effectively limp back home on its own with a shot leg. I mean, a human with one working leg can hobble, and you have three here, how is that even worse. Even if it loses both front legs, the movement range on the back ones should be enough to use the tail as a prop-up and... well, it won't do to say "pop a wheelie". "Leggie"? I mean it would be possible to carry the whole body on the two back legs, upright, using the tail as support - or using a teammate as support, if anybody is feeling like helping. Don't forget, it's not going to be a simple machine - with an organic brain it should be capable of adapting to pretty much anything, provided we train it properly."

Anton notices Saint.

"Thanks. No, I didn't test it, I mean, look -" he gives the VR Artee a gentle shove, causing the body to rock back and forth a little until it settles vertically again. "No programming at all. I only recently got back to VR and there's been lots of work here. I just didn't have the time for anything but the design. Programming help would be appreciated, by the way. Those zombie functions won't code themselves. Assuming I get the clearance to work on it, we could spend the off hours working the stuff out.

I'm Anton, by the way. Anton Chernozorov. I'm assuming you're Steve Saint? Nobody else would know of my little presentation. And... that name might have interesting consequences around here, I'm sure you've already been told. Nice to meet you."

[syvarris]

Saint smiles and nods as Anton speaks. "Yep, that's me.  I've been going by just 'Saint', for obvious reasons.  Nice to meet you too, Anton."  Saint then turns towards the RT prototype and pauses for several seconds before speaking again "I've never worked on movement AI for a horse before... closest I've come is a fairly extensive movement library for a cat.  Should be interesting.  I'll start working on it after Simus grades our assignment."