Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sean Mirrsen]

((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.

[smurfingtonthethird]

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.

[Unholy_Pariah]

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.
4. It has too much firepower for its suggested usage (think russian tanks with like 20 guns). You'd need to cart along 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?

1. Backup cpu makes it more like a headless cockroach, it will still meander around for a few days before kicking the bucket because it ran out of juice.
2. Horses can get up when knocked down, we arent building turtles here... yet.
3. Magical infinite production but limited rate space generators, just like gauss rifles.
4. Lasers that run off of generators dont use ammo, but yes there are way too many weapons on it.
5. Id say not worth the cost, but if you remove the superflupus weaponry it might be feasable. Also robots are cooler then sods, although i still say he shoulda made a tricerabot.

[smurfingtonthethird]

although i still say he shoulda made a tricerabot.

WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THIS EARLIER

[Parisbre56]

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.
4. It has too much firepower for its suggested usage (think russian tanks with like 20 guns). You'd need to cart along 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. Brain is in the back. Not the head. And better zombie then dead.
2. Wing things on the sides can lift it. And I'm pretty sure horses can get up on their own.
3. Generators. Almost infinite power. See gauss rifle.
4. Lasers + 3. Doesn't need ammo.
6. Assuming robobody-like compatibility, you just remove the damaged leg and replace it with a new one. Torso damage would be harder to repair.

5. That is very reasonable. Why not have a couple of soldier sods and a medic sod? Better to spread things around then have one juicy target.

[Sean Mirrsen]

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.
4. It has too much firepower for its suggested usage (think russian tanks with like 20 guns). You'd need to cart along 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?

((Most of these were already discussed.

1. Its head is as empty as a robobody's - the brain is in the chest. Shoot the head and it loses one of its support CPUs, it main visual sensors, and some auxiliary stuff like the medifoam dispenser's nozzle.
2. As a horse would, presumably - the legs aren't mounted on rigid axles, it uses a cybernetic body for a reason. Tuck one side's legs under, extend other side and twist torso to shift weight, lift up and go. Even the Big Dog can get up if knocked over.
3. Huge-ass (literally) generator in the rear torso powering the frame itself and all the energy weapons.
4. All energy weapons except for grenades, no ammo needed. Targeting assist CPUs mean it can engage as many targets as it has weapons simultaneously without much problem. Grenade compartment can be (and will be, on the R2) converted to storage compartment, and there is ample space for any kind of backpacks and other containers on the back.
5. It costs, in production and with equipment, about as much as 2.5 cyber-Sods. It has the carry weight capacity of two standard humanoids (using all of its legs for lift), and can easily outrun all of them. Given same tier of weaponry, it will also match them for firepower, and it's a far smaller target than two regular Sods. In a way, it's a pair of Sods condensed to essentials as one unit.

As for the "too many weapons" thing - it can't be given just "one" weapon. For sheer symmetry it must have at least the two laser rifles. The kinetic amp is both for use in melee and as an obstacle-breaching kinetic ram. The electrolaser is Anton's signature weapon, and it is not mounted in the head because it's overloaded with features as-is, so it goes into the tail - making it double as a melee-range electric whip. The grenade launchers are the only things I agree on being superfluous, but I wanted it to have some indirect-fire area-control capability, especially for use in case its power supply is damaged.))

[smurfingtonthethird]

Hmm. I dunno, between 2 armed cyber-sods or a mechhorse, you could just buy a battlesuit. It all depends on usage, really.

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Heh, there are many variants of "summon bigger fish", and the Battlesuit seems like one of the most cost-effective ones. But you can't take Battlesuits just anywhere.

Plus, don't forget, the RT is supposed to be a support unit. One little horse-reptile-thing is less of a target than two Sods, and is more likely to survive being shot at.))

[Unholy_Pariah]

Honestly the only weapon you actually need is a single backlaser, this thing is a support platform not an assault droid.

If your really worried about antons signature weapon being included just tie a tesla coil into the spinal mount.

[smurfingtonthethird]

Is there a bigger fish than fission instigator?

[Sean Mirrsen]

Honestly the only weapon you actually need is a single backlaser, this thing is a support platform not an assault droid.

If your really worried about antons signature weapon being included just tie a tesla coil into the spinal mount.

((The R2-"Artoo" is that. Just the headlaser and the tail-taser, the rest is handed arms and support paraphernalia. It can't power any weapons but those little lasers, so it's a true support unit with no extra fire support capacity. But it can hold other weapons. So it becomes a somewhat pricey replacement for a sod that can run faster and carry more, but is otherwise limited in the same basic ways.))

Is there a bigger fish than fission instigator?

((Avatar of War, technically. The Instigator gives you one shot. The Avatar can survive that shot, and pummel you into constituent atoms afterwards.))

[smurfingtonthethird]

Honestly, at 25 RU a piece, the cost just outweighs the pros in my opinion. Dropping the price would make them seem like a better combat option.

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Not 25. ~10-13. A Sod is 5 RU apiece, I believe.))

[Unholy_Pariah]

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?

[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?