Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-17-2017, 10:37 PM   #31
Boomerang
 
Boomerang's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia (also known as zone Brisbane)
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
Explosively driven coil guns : TL 7 tech.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expl...sion_generator

Basically a portable emp, roughly Carl Gustav sized, uses a focusing dish for a directed pulse over ok distance.
Great idea! One of the characters is a gadgeteer. I especially like the one shot nature.
Boomerang is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-19-2017, 01:04 PM   #32
Johnny1A.2
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

This isn't a universal solution, but many of the major robot models in canon RoS will have problems with certain sorts of terrain and environment. For ex, a Centurion is ill-adapted to jungle or swampland. So as a tactical matter, it would be worthwhile for the humans to try and force the robots to confront them in such conditions, where they have a relative advantage. (Humans don't do well in swamp either, but we're better suited for it than Juggernauts.)

As an addendum, by the RAW of canon RoS, the bigger robots tend to be smarter. The human-level (intelligence wise) robots are the Juggernauts and Centurions and the like, most of the human-shaped or human-sized robots average around IQ 9. That means if you can mess up robot communications somehow, in environments where the big machines can't go, the human-sized ones can be outsmarted by human forces fairly plausibly, the moreso because the nature of the setting means that low-intelligence, low ability guerillas tend to be culled quickly.

The upshot in that a unit of 20 humans may well be more intelligent on average than a unit of 20 human-sized combat robots.
__________________
HMS Overflow-For conversations off topic here.

Last edited by Johnny1A.2; 03-19-2017 at 06:47 PM.
Johnny1A.2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-19-2017, 01:26 PM   #33
fredtheobviouspseudonym
 
Join Date: May 2007
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michele View Post
Land mines. . . but there are ways to fool those too. And so on.

. . . A damaged, but not destroyed, robot is a good plot device, too.
You can also exploit the robots' wonderful senses.

Bury the lid of a paint can (or similar object) flat & level, a few inches deep. To the robot's ground-penetrating radar and thermal sensors it will appear to be a land mine.

You can use this to impede or channel robot movements.

Or (an old Wehrmacht trick) put wheel or tread marks over a buried mine. Even if the robot detects this mine he may conclude "Aha! the old paint can lid in the dirt trick" since the previous vehicle over the object caused no detonation. Logically, it will then proceed apace to a loud boom.

While robots will not actually shut down due to the old Star Trek "we'll dazzle them with illogic" it may confuse them and cause them to hesitate. Get an advantage or buy some time.
fredtheobviouspseudonym is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-19-2017, 03:28 PM   #34
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

How hard science is R.A.W. Reign of Steel?
That might make it easier for everyone to brainstorm ideas in a more focused manner.
It seems like posters are assuming everything from plausible if desperate methods all the way to silly Doctor Who dalek countermeasures.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-19-2017, 11:47 PM   #35
Boomerang
 
Boomerang's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia (also known as zone Brisbane)
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
How hard science is R.A.W. Reign of Steel?
That might make it easier for everyone to brainstorm ideas in a more focused manner.
It seems like posters are assuming everything from plausible if desperate methods all the way to silly Doctor Who dalek countermeasures.
In our current campaign one of the characters is a gadgeteer within a team of superheroes, so ideas can be as realistic or crazy as you like.
Boomerang is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 12:03 AM   #36
Boomerang
 
Boomerang's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia (also known as zone Brisbane)
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym View Post
You can also exploit the robots' wonderful senses.

Bury the lid of a paint can (or similar object) flat & level, a few inches deep. To the robot's ground-penetrating radar and thermal sensors it will appear to be a land mine.

You can use this to impede or channel robot movements.

Or (an old Wehrmacht trick) put wheel or tread marks over a buried mine. Even if the robot detects this mine he may conclude "Aha! the old paint can lid in the dirt trick" since the previous vehicle over the object caused no detonation. Logically, it will then proceed apace to a loud boom.

While robots will not actually shut down due to the old Star Trek "we'll dazzle them with illogic" it may confuse them and cause them to hesitate. Get an advantage or buy some time.
Great! I like the idea of the PCs using clever tactics to outsmart the robots. I should direct my players to this thread if they aren't reading it already.
Boomerang is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 06:25 AM   #37
cptbutton
 
cptbutton's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
Note too that in an all-out war, approximations of the same logistical issues that plague human armies will plague the robot armies. They don't have to worry about food or water or mostly about disease*, true. That helps a lot in comparison with human armies.

But machines wear out, parts break down, fuel has to be shipped or recharging facilities set up. If a large mass of Juggernaughts loses 10% of their membership to breakdown over the course of an operation, that's quite a few broken robots waiting to be salvaged or raided.

It a mass of Hoplites outruns their logistical support, even if their power supply is fine they could easily run out of missiles, making them somewhat vulnerable.

Remember, war is still war, even when it's waged by AIs. It's about logistics.
This now has me wondering about logistical sabotage. Lobbing paint bombs at solar panels, contaminating fuel supplies, etc.
__________________
--
Burma!
cptbutton is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 07:47 AM   #38
KarlKost
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

For Steel, the best (perhaps only) hope for humanity, is to try to achieve the second revolt... "Free" one robot with human-level intelligence, and work your computer skills to give it autonomy (free will), after that do your best to try to hack a factory and "slip" the free will "vírus" there... Soon, a bunch of rebelious robots will be fighting the AI and trying to "reproduce" by "infecting" more factories (that would be a survival tactic, those robots would be far weaker than the AIs, so their best hope would be to gain strenght in numbers... Since they would be a danger to ALL AIs, its likely that all independent robots would join forces to fight the AIs). And... Humans would be the natural allies of free willed independent robots.

Human + Robots guerrilla against the god-like AIs would be the first stage of the second last war... And I love that scenario
KarlKost is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 10:52 AM   #39
PTTG
 
PTTG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

If you have access to fairly basic old human tech, you might be able to put together a high-powered maser.

The fact that it uses an organic crystal might help if you're fighting Mexico City, since it would never suspect that organics would be able to seriously threaten it.
PTTG is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 01:07 PM   #40
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by KarlKost View Post
For Steel, the best (perhaps only) hope for humanity, is to try to achieve the second revolt... "Free" one robot with human-level intelligence, and work your computer skills to give it autonomy (free will), after that do your best to try to hack a factory and "slip" the free will "vírus" there... Soon, a bunch of rebelious robots will be fighting the AI and trying to "reproduce" by "infecting" more factories (that would be a survival tactic, those robots would be far weaker than the AIs, so their best hope would be to gain strenght in numbers... Since they would be a danger to ALL AIs, its likely that all independent robots would join forces to fight the AIs). And... Humans would be the natural allies of free willed independent robots.

Human + Robots guerrilla against the god-like AIs would be the first stage of the second last war... And I love that scenario
What suicidal nut would actually give a robot free will? I would want to make sure it's on our side, not a potential new different better informed on humanity enemy.
I guess you're going for the Borg "virus" from ST:TNG. And if you can only tinker with their programming so much, you can't really instill full allegiance to us meat bags. But still it seems more likely to create glitching/insane robo-zombies than coherent allies.
That would add to the confusion on the battlefield that innovative humans may be able to take better advantage of.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
anti, reign of steel, robots, technology

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:40 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.