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01-09-2019, 02:22 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Kenai, Alaska
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Clone Army Or Droid Army?
At TL11 which is preferable, an army of genetically augmented Clones, or one of Droids?
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01-09-2019, 02:30 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Clone Army Or Droid Army?
Droids. They can be produced more quickly and they're made out of more durable materials. Inorganic is better for every purpose unless you take a pessimistic view of the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
Last edited by David Johnston2; 01-09-2019 at 02:33 PM. |
01-09-2019, 03:46 PM | #3 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Clone Army Or Droid Army?
Yup. Unless you decide for "reasons" that AI is hampered somehow, chrome outperforms meat in every category.
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01-10-2019, 11:27 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Clone Army Or Droid Army?
Quote:
You can say that if you have the capability to build robots at all, actual clones always lose out in production *speed*, because it will always take much longer to grow an organism from a cell or cutting than to build something in a factory. But many fictional "clones" are clearly not cloned from anything, and being faster isn't necessarily cheaper, so if you are not in a hurry.... You're going to need tighter definitions of the words to say very much.
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-- MA Lloyd |
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01-09-2019, 02:39 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Mojave
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Re: Clone Army Or Droid Army?
It's mainly a question of quality vs quantity. Clones/bioroids would be expensive depending on the miracle tech is involved. Like are they adult grown in vats or are they artificially carried to term? Are they taught the old school way or dream loaded information? Not to mention food and by extension logistics needed for battle. Droids would not likely be cognitive ability unless having artificial neural network or some kind of artificial intelligence. Droids might be easier to teach/program and logistics would just be maintenance and fuel, easier to move in war campaigns.
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01-09-2019, 03:09 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Clone Army Or Droid Army?
Mark me down as a "Yes".
The mass production of combat droids for the reasons given make them ideally suited for infantry, mechanized infantry, mechanized cavalry/armor, artillery, personnel and materiel transport, air attack, and strategic bombing divisions, and a case could be made for air superiority wings (though my personal thought is that air superiority and interception should remain manned). However, special forces, because of the need to operate independently of the main force and the necessity to adapt quickly and intuitively to changing and previously unknown conditions due to lack of intel (or worse, bad intel), should remain organic. Whether this means clones, bioroids, or well-trained volunteers in a space marine corps force is up to the setting specifics.
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
01-09-2019, 03:29 PM | #7 | ||
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Clone Army Or Droid Army?
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Depending on context, organic special forces might be better able to live off the land with light equipment. On the other hand, do you actually operate forces with light equipment? Also relevant, organic special forces probably need at least a little sleep, which machines don't.
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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01-09-2019, 04:41 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Clone Army Or Droid Army?
Depends on tech details. Realistically mechanical for most purposes, but plenty of GURPS tech is more rule of cool than actual plausibility.
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01-10-2019, 07:24 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Clone Army Or Droid Army?
Well, clones and drones have their own issues, but TL11 genetic engineering allows for massive improvements in biological capabilities, so it may be better to talk about bioroids versus androids. At TL11, a combat android has a default internal complexity 9 microframe, which supports an IQ 12 VAI. At TL11, you can give a combat bioroid an average IQ 13 and, with brain tissue grafts, boost them to an average IQ 15 (you could do something similar to the combat android by giving it fast, raising average IQ to 14, for +$190,000, but that is $170,000 more expensive than brain tissue grafts for the combat bioroid and less effective).
A TL11 military may consist of augmented 'human' officers giving orders to combat bioroid NCOs, who control squads of NAI combat androids. Since everything will likely be wearing Dreadnought Battlesuits on the battlefield, it will be difficult for enemies to tell which member of a company is actually essential and which is replaceable. A smart military makes sure that the combat bioroids and combat androids are easily confused for humans, so enemy intelligence cannot easily spot them off the battlefield. |
01-10-2019, 08:26 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: Clone Army Or Droid Army?
Droids should win because of no FP restrictions, food spoilage, etc. The only reason they sucked in the prequel trilogy was AI limitations and being only controlled opposition not intended to win.
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