Still at work but can add these couple things because phone conferences are boring:
As Radio said, I'm just speaking for myself, you asked for feedback. From where I'm sitting, it seems you are using the wrong tool for the job. It's like your a prisoner trying to escape, you have a spoon to tunnel through the wall, and instead of trying to find a rock hammer or a key you're aiming for a better spoon.
Pfheh. I'll have to remember that one.
(Actually, it was used in Girl Genius quite recently. Like, maybe four or five strips ago. The "better spoon" thing.)
But, er, mostly I'm confused. A rocket-powered suit with limited range that works everywhere is fine. An electricity-powered suit that works in a significant half of the encounterable environments, with unlimited range and various tradeoffs to achieve it, suddenly isn't. It's a better spoon, yes, but it's a perfectly good spoon, despite being used as a digging tool, and unlike the rock hammers and keys, it's already all here, no need to go looking. Er, to misuse your metaphor.
QEC: How many times do you think you'll lose those simple drones? If the mortality rate is that high for a target that small, what will happen to this new thing?
I didn't say "losing". Just using, in large numbers. We're not implanting QEC into every robosod we make, after all. So the cost isn't negligible.
Remember: if not for pw saying "preferably no" I'd have designed and ordered a small contingent of vehicles and air units already! Also, be careful: we were discussing needs for our npc army, and now you are speaking from a Sword-based perspective. Might wanna try not to mix those up. And yes, the fact that our missions vary so wildly is a reason, something an army has less problems with. Also the fact that, for us, we can't just all control QEC enabled robots from the safety off the sword for missions, because then the game doesn't really work (zero risk and such).
You're saying that as if the NPC armies can't have their own mercenaries, special ops, humanity values, or weird traditions that cause them to march up to the big black gates of the nearest UWM base they can spot and duke it out with the defenders. I try not to pigeonhole things into any specific role. I'd rather have a design that works for everyone,
and then some dedicated units for special circumstances.
Again, the needs of an army aren't the same as those of a merc group that faces such different missions. Can't really use that as an argument when you yourself say this is mostly for npc background stuff.
Mostly, yet not entirely. See above. And don't forget that the Sword's division is not the only merc group in the ARM forces, even right now.
Secondly, a rocket bike is only 3 tokens cheaper. And while it has double the range, tell me, when's the last time pw kept an eye on fuel, or that someone ran out? It almost always only happens when the plot demands it or making things exciting, and no amount of fuel protects from that.
That's mostly because people tend not to waste fuel, I'd say. PW abstracts away "minor usage", and only really limits things when things reach a certain scale - like getting to orbit, or flying a long distance in one go.
Though at this rate he'll abstract away even the ammo.
Let's toss ammunition concerns out the window and give everybody rapid-fire rocket launchers!
You tell me, you are designing here. if not, a single QEC drone that communicates with the others with regular radio is an option perhaps.
I haven't touched QEC in a while. Saint's the one talking through it nowadays.
It does! We had a small fleet of autonomous robot drones for aerial reconnaissance during Hep defense. That's why we knew their exact movements at all times.
Well then, you don't even need Anton to do anything. Just search the VR database for generator-driven VTOL turboprop dropships of ye olden times, and you're set.
To be honest, Sean, it's like you've got an invisible dragon in your basement. If someone asks to see it, you say it's invisible. If someone asks to hear it moving around, you say it's silent. If someone asks to throw chalk dust on it to see the outline, you say it's permeable to chalk dust. At some point there's nothing in the basement at all. If the design of something requires so many caveats, at some point you are designing nothing at all.
Wait, so which parts of the design are impossible, exactly? Ducted fan compact jetpacks work IRL, as demonstrated by the Martin Jetpack. Electric ducted fans are efficient enough for VTOL and high-speed flight, as demonstrated by
Project Zero. A personal electric VTOL has been in development by NASA for a few years, but, eh. You know how NASA is with side projects these days. This is current-day technology, which the ER-verse is supposedly centuries ahead of. Even just taking the existing technology I just mentioned, and combining it with the advanced power systems in the form of the compact generators, and the personal exosuit system used as a mounting instead of an external vehicle-like frame, this project is feasible.
What else do you want?Your invisible dragon implies that any of my claims are untrue, whereas all I'm seeing is that you're just not liking the answers I'm providing. In the end, even as one of the Council, you would have no power to overrule the creation of a prototype. I can be as naive and deluded about its usability as I want to be, but if it works, then it gets made and tested.