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 03-20-2017, 05:03 PM   #41
fredtheobviouspseudonym
 
Join Date: May 2007
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boomerang View Post
Great! I like the idea of the PCs using clever tactics to outsmart the robots. . .
Odds are high that in any society, even a hunter/gatherer/tribal one, the few warriors who survive to get old will be effective tutors of the young. You can transmit a lot of military knowledge without the benefit of an academy. IIRC Stephen Ambrose's book on Crazy Horse & Custer had a fair amount of anecdotal information about how this process proceeded with the Lakota people.
fredtheobviouspseudonym is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 05:31 PM   #42
sir_pudding
Wielder of Smart Pants
 
sir_pudding's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym View Post
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.
You can make a detonator out of some common bits of household trash (which I am not going to specify for obvious reasons) that will trigger only after a few vehicles have driven over it. This was pretty common for IEDs when I was in the sandbox.
sir_pudding is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 05:42 PM   #43
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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.
That depends a lot on how actually wonderful those senses are. The biggest problem with such a trick is that it's actually not a whole lot easier to bury a paint can lid than it is to bury a land mine.
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 05:47 PM   #44
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
That depends a lot on how actually wonderful those senses are. The biggest problem with such a trick is that it's actually not a whole lot easier to bury a paint can lid than it is to bury a land mine.
There are however more paint can lids available than landmines. Well probably. I hope anyway.
__________________
--
MA Lloyd
malloyd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2017, 05:50 PM   #45
evileeyore
Banned
 
evileeyore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
That depends a lot on how actually wonderful those senses are. The biggest problem with such a trick is that it's actually not a whole lot easier to bury a paint can lid than it is to bury a land mine.
No, but when you have more paint can lids than land mines...
evileeyore is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 12:32 AM   #46
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 PTTG View Post
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.
I'm currently tired from jet lag. Can you explain why masers are a form of anti robot technology?
Boomerang is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 08:06 AM   #47
lwcamp
 
lwcamp's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: The plutonium rich regions of Washington State
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boomerang View Post
I'm currently tired from jet lag. Can you explain why masers are a form of anti robot technology?
Presumably they're thinking about high powered microwave (HPM) weapons, which use a pulse of, well, high powered microwaves to disable electronics. The voltage that builds up across conductors due to the electric field component of the microwave's electromagnetic field can burn out delicate integrated circuits in its path, or at least lock up or force a reset of electronic components. In practice, masers are not the design of choice - those I have seen described use klystrons, viricators, or traveling wave tubes.

Luke
lwcamp is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 10:48 AM   #48
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
There are however more paint can lids available than landmines. Well probably. I hope anyway.
Yes, but emplacement isn't risk-free; there's a good chance that the number you can practically make use of is smaller than your supply of land mines.
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 01:03 PM   #49
starslayer
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Another important thing, my understanding is that while the zone minds are genius, individual bots are quite dumb, and would be vulnerable to hacks, both physical and via wireless.

The zone minds may not even armour against this, as the system can 'phone home' for help and jamming that means jamming any attacker ability to do likewise, but humans are not paralyzed when they can't call higher command for advice...
starslayer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2017, 02:20 PM   #50
sir_pudding
Wielder of Smart Pants
 
sir_pudding's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
Default Re: Ideas for Anti Robot Technology

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
Yes, but emplacement isn't risk-free; there's a good chance that the number you can practically make use of is smaller than your supply of land mines.
Most places where you would likely be fighting a guerilla war against the Zoneminds, there should already be enough trash and debris around to camouflage your traps; you shouldn't need to add more generally.

Quote:
Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
The zone minds may not even armour against this,
Not defending against hostile hacking seems like a really bad idea when your most significant enemies are the other Zoneminds.
sir_pudding 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 06:23 AM.


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