 Hovercars and Jetpacks, Where the frag are they? |
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 Aug 4 2006, 02:58 PM
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#26
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 914 Joined: 26-August 05 From: Louisville, KY (Well, Memphis, IN technically but you won't know where that is.) Member No.: 7,626  |
Jet packs exist today, technically rocket packs, that have been used in movies (James Bond Thunderball, I think). However it's only got about 2 minutes of fuel and weighs about 100lbs. If you strapped that thrust system onto a hang glider, you could probably get something like 15 minutes of flight thanks to wing lift.
Heck, I seem to recall that the LAVs can achieve free flight but they rarely do b/c of the exhorbitant fuel expenditure. So flying vehicles are possible. They are just horribly expensive, dangerous as heck, and incredibly rare. That is why they are exotic vehicles. They have small fuel capacities, are relatively dangerous to use (too low for parachutes, close to buildings & birds, too fast for body armor, etc), have limited range, and are generally bleeding edge. The auto became common when it was mass produced at an affordable price point and wasn't an automatic deathtrap to users. Give a car to a 14 year old and they can probably drive it safely in a parking lot. Give a jet pack to a 14yro in a wide open field and you've got at least a broken bone and possibly a dead 14yro. Which doesn't mean that Shadowrunners won't have them but that they are small-production, limited availability, custom devices that GMs should probably think very hard about before allowing. If you want to allow a very small group of people (secret service, Red Samurai, etc) to have Deckard's jetcar, go ahead and no one will give you grief. Give everyone jetcars and you start entering 5th Element land. Which is not a bad place (I *love* the Zorg homing rounds; one guy shoots the homer, every body elses wastes the target) but it starts drifting from SR4. |
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Aug 4 2006, 05:26 PM
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#27
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,556 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Seattle Member No.: 98 |
The energy requirements to generate a laser beam capable of behaving in the way that the weapons from earlier editions of SR performed (thousand-meter ranges, halving hard armor, incredibly high penetration, and the ability to apply the kind of damage they did nearly instantaneously, rather than over time...) are incredible. You'll note that we don't have weapons like that today. If you're interested in more particular specs, there's other people on the board who love to rip into laser weapons every time they come up. But think about it for a second... if it were so easy to generate that kind of power, we'd have battlefield laser weapons powered by backpack-carried gas-fired generators. The energy requirements to power an electric motor driving a fan or turbine powerfully enough to lift itself off the ground are things we can easily meet today. The power supply is the main problem (namely, that it's heavy or short-lived). If the kind of tech required to power a laser weapon as effective as the ones we've seen in SR was as light as the power packs for those weapons have been, getting an electrically-powered flying car in SR would be a cinch. Add a drone Pilot program and have the operator issue it directions, and you're flying in no time, no skill required. |
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Aug 4 2006, 06:13 PM
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#28
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 433 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Somewhere in Iraq Member No.: 1,789 |
Here are my basic thoughts/ideas on the hovercycle. First: It's not "flying" like I mentioned earlier. It has a flight ceiling of maybe 15 feet and is limited by a hardwired chip (legal reasons :)). Mostly used by the well-to-do but priced well enough to be acquired by the serious hobbyist. A security/law-enforcement version is also available.
Sikorsky-Bell Swoop Hoverbike Appearance: Maybe like this http://www.bzoll.com/bikextra.html Civilian Stats: Handling: +1 Accel: 20/60 Speed: 250 Pilot: 3 Body: 8 Armor: 6 Sensor: 1 Avail: 10 Cost: 150,000 :nuyen: Security/Law-Enforcement Stats: Handling: +1 Accel: 25/75 Speed: 300 Pilot: 3 Body: 9 Armor: 8 Sensor: 2 Avail: 12R Cost: 200,000 :nuyen: For the jetpack, all I did for 3rd edition was develop a specialized VTOL drone that you could run DNI through a datajack or VCR. I guess in SR4 I would just need to adapt that to wireless connectivity or something. I just need to find the stats :D |
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Aug 4 2006, 07:19 PM
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#29
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,556 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Seattle Member No.: 98 |
That's basically what I did with Rigger 2. I put on a rollcage to protect the wearer in case of a crash (figured it as a kind of "cockpit" built of bars wrapped around their torso and head), had a security helmet with an induction datajack pickup inside for controlling it, and just for laughs, added an Ares Redline (the laser pistol) with 5 magazines daisy-chained together inside of the jetpack. The initial fuel capacity was 20 liters to save on weight, but that only gave me an operating radius of something like 1500 meters. The strap-on 100 liter tank was ridiculously heavy when full (an extra 220+ pounds), but if the device that weighs that much keeps you off the ground, it's not like you have to worry about the weight quite as much. Good for chasing cars around :) |
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Aug 4 2006, 09:32 PM
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#30
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 914 Joined: 26-August 05 From: Louisville, KY (Well, Memphis, IN technically but you won't know where that is.) Member No.: 7,626 |
People should look at Fields of Fire, it has a strap-on set of wings with a small eletric ducted fan system. It's not a "jet pack" and it's SR2 but it's something to start with.
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Aug 5 2006, 04:59 AM
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#31
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Bushido Cowgirl Group: Members Posts: 5,782 Joined: 8-July 05 From: On the Double K Ranch a half day's ride out of Phlogiston Flats Member No.: 7,490 |
...and with the way I see people drive in RL today, I'd want a permanent Anti Falling Vehicle Barrier Spell quickened on me. Close your eyes when you listen to tomorrow morning's traffic report and imagine the carnage. [addendum] ....worse yet, thnk of smeone all tanked up on several pitchers of Spud Lite getting behind the controls of one of these machines. "I don need no shtinkin audiopilot ahhh kin fly jusht fine." |
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Aug 5 2006, 11:36 AM
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#32
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Incertum est quo loco te mors expectet; Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,548 Joined: 24-October 03 From: DeeCee, U.S. Member No.: 5,760 |
The advantage of this system is the bad drivers breed themselves out over time (as opposed to now when |
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Aug 5 2006, 11:59 AM
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#33
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Horror Group: Members Posts: 5,322 Joined: 15-June 05 From: BumFuck, New Jersey Member No.: 7,445 |
To handle DUI, you can simply take the route that Schlock Mercenary did.
Have mandatory intoxication interlocks on all vehicles. You get in drunk or high or whatever, and it won't let you fly, it will just take you home. There is no DUI crime in Schlock Mercenary, there's MOUI - Manually Operating Under the Influence. This is a capital crime if it involved someone else's death, because not only did it mean you had to disable several layers of security, an act which certainly takes stone-cold sobriety, but in some cases actually had to install a manual mode of operation in the first place. |
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