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Yes.

4 (66.7%)

No.

1 (16.7%)

Yes, but. . . (comment how, below)

1 (16.7%)

Total Members Voted: 6

Voting closed: August 31, 2016, 04:23:26 pm

[vkiNm]

It wouldn't be too hard to make Mechas pilot itself with Modern tech.

[~Neri]

The issue with Mechas is they're only really applicable with fighting megafauna. And there are better ways to fight megafauna. Such as missile spam. Normal sized people can sorta just.. Trip them or shoot lots of missiles at them. Or both.

[Insanegame27]

You know, I don't understand why Zach is trying so hard to possess a Wasp Warrior.

I mean, am I missing something here? why do you even Want a Wasp Warrior in the first place? It's so hilariously inferior to a much cheaper, much easier to make, maintain and much more combat effective Drones. Not to mention that any idiot who played any FPS ever could remote-control one.

I really fail to see what's the appeal here. I mean, as stated in their stats, their highest potential damage is equivalent to a modern .50 rifle round. At Melee range. It's armor is also abysmal, so surely you can't be trying to get it for it's combat effectiveness.

Stealth is clearly not it either as it buzzes like, well, a giant fucking bee.

Manual labor is probably not why you're trying to move into it's body either.

Food is also right off the table, who the hell wants to eat bees? Nasty.

I mean, I just don't get it. Sure, if it can hold a MAG Rifle then maybe.. MAYBE it could serve as high-mobility fire support? it'd still get out-performed by flight-capable drones, though.

So yeah.. I'm definitely missing something here.

First off, Rule of cool. Second off, I'm a Hymenoptera-Apocrita-maniac IRL, Thirdly, Zach wants a private army.

[~Neri]

But rule of cool isn't really what we've been running off of.

Why not get a robot that looks sorta like a wasp? Better in all classes.

Re Robot.

[LordPorkins]

As usual, Frazz is beating everyone in everything.

[Insanegame27]

Can't mind control a robot

[Hawk132]

A private army of drones would be more effective. And probably cheaper in the long run.

The issue with Mechas is they're only really applicable with fighting megafauna. And there are better ways to fight megafauna. Such as missile spam. Normal sized people can sorta just.. Trip them or shoot lots of missiles at them. Or both.

The mechas don't have to be big enough to be impractical. Mini-mechas are a thing.

[~Neri]

You can most definitely mind control a robot if you have a brain in it!

Just have the computer bits handle all the mobility and automation bits and have the brain just provide direct instructions.

[Insanegame27]

But that seems a little expensive. Zach's paid 5* for the initial bribe and I expect he's going to be lowering that bribe in the future. Considering that drones cost 25* each (Achilles/Rome) and those are fairly standard, a custom drone could cost over 30* each. Lets do maths. If Zach's bribe-per-warrior stays the same, he can get 100/5=20 of them for the 100* which he has. A custom drone, assuming foxhound half-price and 30* original price, would give Zach 100/15=6 with little left over. Normally I'm a fan of quality over quantity, but quantity has a quality of it's own (and PirateJoe should know that, h PJ, still salty over Kyoky Military Academy's loss to Sydney School of Mechanised Warfare? JK, I know your not salty, you're -seasoned- *bad pun*)

[~Neri]

Foxhound halfprice is for ammo specifically.

The thing is. If you spent 30* worth of wasps. (6 wasps with how much you spent on a bribe), they would not outpreform a single drone of similar cost assuming you could get them capable of self maintanance. The drone would be more durable, to the point that the wasps wouldn't be able to significantly damage it. The drone woudl be able to inflict more damage. And unlike the drone, if the wasp gets heavily damaged, it's dead, 5* down the drain, where the drone is built to be easily maintained and even a totalled drone is Useful in the form of spare parts. The same cannot be said of a dead wasp. One must inflict significantly more damage to a drone to mission kill it or total it then one must inflict upon a wasp.

Quantity over quality only works when the quantity is ranked at "Good Enough" level compared to the Quality which in this scenario is ranked at Masterwork. The wasps would be ranked at Shoddy and built out of the metaphysical equivalent of wood and the drones are ranked at Exceptional and built out of the metaphysical equivalent of titanium. The sheer quality difference and material durability alone is drastic.

Zach payed 5* for a wasp because who the hell is going to say no to the equivalent of 1250 dollars? It isn't the base price (Which once they streamline, it would be Maybe 0.5*?), but even then, a drone for equivalent cost is simply that much better. Every dead wasp is money down the drain that cannot be repaired. Every damaged drone is something that can be repaired.

To be blunt. You'd be way better off with drones that just have a secondary psionic controlscheme rather than a swarm of high maintainance wasps that will do minimal damage against modern tech that you have to feed and water and maintain manually because they have no instincts on their own due to the nature of their hivemind and have no way to prevent from going rogue the moment they enter into a Synapse Creature's range.

[Insanegame27]

Consider this. Would you expect two thin cardboard boxes hot-glued together, curved into a vague semicircle, held there by string and a cardboard tube handle, painted in red and yellow, to make an effective shield against an actual honest-to-god hunting knife? On the previously-mentioned school LARP day, somebody came as a ranger from Ranger's Apprentice. After withstanding plastic lightsaber strikes and slashes from a plastic Zorro sword without even a scratch (which is to be expected honestly), I ended up facing the 'Ranger' in a duel. Because fighting with ACTUAL weapons was prohibited, we tested the effect of the knife on the shield by slashing and stabbing it. When stabbed at full force, the knife only just went through both layers of cardboard, and actually scraped off the shield boss (which was a devondale butter lid painted white). All that a slash did was scratch the paint and the first layer of cardboard.
This was a MODERN and SHARP hunting knife put up against a CARDBOARD SCUTUM. Since the LARP, I patched the front up with masking tape and painted over (and it actually looks like it has taken war damage and been patched up). Last weekend, I propped the shield up against a hay bale and shot it with my longbow. The arrow did get through quite a considerable way, but still not enough to hit the hay bale. My second arrow actually penetrated the first layer of cardboard, but skimmed off the second layer and got stuck inside the hollow section of the shield (the arrow actually made it fall off the hay bale this time).
What I'm trying to say, is that sometimes something that is shoddy may be 'good enough' against something that is exceptional. Would you expect two cardboard boxed glued together to be able to withstand a sharp steel knife? Would you expect it to be able to stop an arrow fired from a MODERN longbow? What's more, I can even post pics of it once the school puts them on FB

EDIT: When I was making the shield, the art teacher asked what I was making and I answered 'Scutum'. He stopped what he was doing, blinked and took a step backwards. Then I said 'It's latin for shield' and he answered, 'That's good, because I thought you said scrotum'
Then I said, "That's right, I'm making a cardboard scrotum" sarcastically and now I have a bad feeling that this is going to be OOCQ'd

[~Neri]

Paper and cardboard are Known to be good armoring materials. Subpar compared to modern materials due to weight but most certainly excelent for makeshift armor. A Phonebook due to its density is more then capable of stopping low caliber handgun rounds. It is a common practice to line the innards of a car with phonebooks to make it bullet proof. So yes. I absolutely would expect objects with known material traits to act in such a way befitting to the materials made from them. Anyone who regularly uses cardboard would know that shit is damn durable. Only real weakness is weight and water.

There is a massive difference between using materials for armoring and exploiting their traits and using something that's most definitely shit and expecting it to be not shit.

[Insanegame27]

I... didn't know that cardboard  was a good armoring material... huh. Next up is a suit of lorica segmentata. Yay.


Anyway, still one reason that you can't refute is my Hymenoptera-Apocrita-Mania.

[~Neri]

I can say that a drone that looks like a giant wasp would work much better then a wasp that is a giant wasp yes.

Also I'd actually recommend phonebooks with interlocking pages. Those things are strong as fuck.

[LordPorkins]

Physics gets kinda weird when it comes to armor materials. Like, who was the idiot/genius who thought ceramic would be tough? Or that a 1 inch thick piece of fabric could stop a bullet?