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Old 04-24-2013, 10:19 PM   #11
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Default Bacteria Make Biofuel

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...e-biofuel.html

I'm sorry -- *what* fuel shortage? :)
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Old 05-01-2013, 11:56 AM   #12
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Default Drones

So here's a piece of technology you wouldn't expect to totally disappear over the next 100 years: drones.

"It is the idea of being able to use a machine to kill other human beings from the comfort of a chair thousands of miles away, using a screen reminiscent of a video game..."

Not killer robots or AI:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22250664
Just drones used for surveillance, dropping bombs, and other targeted killings:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22320767
While operated from hundreds of miles away:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-22320275
Or maybe just used to spy on your neighbor:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22134898
Or protect wildlife from poachers:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22075311

Now, I'm not suggesting that Car Wars would be a better game if you could sit at home in your simrig and drive the vehicle over yonder in the arena (yawn). But... Wouldn't every convoy deploy a drone a mile down the road to scout for ambushes?

Also not arguing it should be part of the core game, but it could be a sensible expansion. You've got to think with better battery/motor technology they'd only get *more* popular. Plus with cameras so small a pretty decent one fits in your 1/4" cell phone, I don't think a surveillance drone would even need any real payload capacity to be useful. Makes you wonder how small they could get. Probably small enough the cycle gang would never spot it. Hmm.

Edit: Rail network to fight graffiti with drones. Maybe good for patrolling oil pipelines in the distant future?

Last edited by ammulder; 05-28-2013 at 05:32 AM.
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Old 05-01-2013, 06:33 PM   #13
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Default Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News

Well, perhaps some ridiculously cheap technology makes drones nearly useless, like the laser towers that keep long-range nukes from being effective in OGRE. For example, a little box with sensors and a low-power laser that spots drones and blinds their cameras, or some ECM technology that prevents them from reliably relaying signals back to the operator?

Or maybe someone has perfected the art of training pigeons to take them out. =] (pigeon kamibombs?)
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Old 05-01-2013, 06:39 PM   #14
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Default Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News

More on current Drone tech: http://gizmodo.com/5979372/watch-the...mera-in-action
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Old 05-02-2013, 03:29 PM   #15
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Default Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News

Drones are one of several technological advances in our Real World that ought to be considered in 6e. I wonder if hybrid engines are another.
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Old 05-02-2013, 03:50 PM   #16
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Default Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News

Quote:
Originally Posted by ElLoboGordo View Post
Drones are one of several technological advances in our Real World that ought to be considered in 6e. I wonder if hybrid engines are another.
Hybrid powerplants definitely are. Drones, I dunno. Do we want to get into cyber-battlespace, and have the cars equiped with anti-drone hacking kits or crude electromagnetic noise makers?
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Old 05-03-2013, 10:19 AM   #17
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Default Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News

The thing with drones is that all the stuff is already in the rules -- it's just the 1980 version. There's infrared, radar, radar detectors, radar jammers, radar-guided weapons, the bollix, and so on. You can create a helicopter (or off-road buggy) with a vehicular camera and a remote-control guidance system, it's just atrociously big and expensive. As far as miniaturization goes, I'm fine if 6e doesn't include nanotechnology, but you can't walk through a shopping mall in 2013 without getting buzzed by a remote-control helicopter on display. And as I said, cameras are already tiny and battery tech will supposedly be much more advanced. Denying that drones would exist in such a world is sort of like saying the world has forgotten how to make cell phones. (OK, maybe the satellites were all trashed so you don't get signal outside the city, but still... are kids going to be too mature to be texting and shooting photos to their friends in 100 years?)

Now I'm fine if Chassis & Crossbow drones are as in the present rules -- perhaps the finer details of manufacturing have been lost. But I don't think that's what the main edition of the rules will be targeting.

I guess the question is where to draw the line so that Car Wars doesn't become cyberpunk. So I'm OK if the decision is made to eliminate some things. But it would be pretty disconcerting if the 1980 version is included while other tech advances 100 years. I would be totally OK if there was an "electronics" type expansion and all the camera/radar/infrared/jamming/drones/etc. was deferred to that -- certainly it would be an easy way to prevent any of it from showing up in the arena ("everything in this book is restricted from arena usage").

Anyway, two more links:

Tiny robot flies like a fly:
http://www.nature.com/news/tiny-robo...-a-fly-1.12926
A proposed drone-detection system (article mentions others):
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/...ection-system/
An photo overview of military ground drones:
http://news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10017023.html

Last edited by ammulder; 06-01-2013 at 05:07 AM. Reason: New link
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Old 05-03-2013, 10:21 AM   #18
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Default GPS

And I guess GPS is another post-1980 technology that should be considered -- though it would be easy enough to eliminate if part of the future history is that the satellites were all whacked or went un-maintained until they died a natural death.
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Old 05-03-2013, 03:23 PM   #19
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Default Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News

The simple counter vs. Drones, and GPS is a Bollix.
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Old 05-03-2013, 06:08 PM   #20
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Default Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News

You don't need to pack a gun. Just make one when you get there.

Power to the people, baby. :)
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