Reign of Steel: Spoofing the IFF and other fun

[LokRobster]

I'm looking for information/feedback on the difficulty level of imitating an AI's IFF. The advantages of doing so should be obvious, but equally obvious to me is that the task would be incredibly hard...

Are there any present rules out there for attempting this? UltraTech or HighTech perhaps? I don't recall running across copying IFF techniques anywhere.

I'm also interested in the viability of EMP devices, like cops can use at TL8 to stop high-speed chase vehicles. It sure seems like a short-range effective EMP would be a very useful tool for a Reign-of-Steeler! I'm just curious if anyone has come up with stats/effects for such a weapon - though the 'Surge' power is probably all I need... and build a gadget on it.

The last device that I can think of that seems amazingly useful that a gadgeteer might develop is the Car Wars / Autoduel jammer device, it would block all RF transmissions in a certain large radius... called like a 'Bulloxxor' or something similar, anyone remember that thang? - I'm thinking it was from Uncle Als; largely cinematic I'd imagine... Would/could such a device work in RoS against the Machines?

I'm running a cross-genre campaign currently, a Gernsbachian scientist stranded in Reign of Steel... [SCIENCE!]

[johndallman]

The difficulties are formidable. The AI's IFF is presumably going to be TL10, and trying to spoof that at TL8 or 9 is like trying to spoof a 2010 mature TL8 system with WWII-vintage kit. The biggest problem is that, as best we can guess, it will use TL10 cryptography to generate the correct responses to query pulses. And humans in RoS don't know much about TL10 cryptography.

The best bet will be to take down an appropriate robot without trashing it utterly, and try to reverse-engineer it. Then there's the problem of getting the keys of the day/hour.

EMPs look far easier to build. Some wire coils, a lot of batteries, an explosive charge - to get the coils moving rapidly - and some cackling, and you have an EMP weapon.

Jamming is harder: the TL difference is painful when you're dealing with high-TL frequency agility and error correction. You can do it, given enough power, but a Vulture will be along with missiles quite shortly, given how far away the jamming will be detectable.

[Valadrim]

As far as EMP weapons go, there is ammunition in Ultra-tech.

For a highly cinematic game of robot stomping, I came up with this attack

Affliction 6 (Follow-up+0%; HT-4 +20%; Stunning + 10%; -20% electrical only, breakable DR 5 -15%; SM -6 -10%; Can be stolen quick contest -30%) [33]

and

Innate attack 26d burn (Follow-up+0%; electrical only -20%, breakable DR 5 -15%; SM -6 -10%; Can be stolen quick contest -30%; alternative attack /5) [7]

So for 40 points he can use a gadget attached to his smallsword to stun a robot (which gets a -6 to its roll to resist), and if successful the robot has a further -4 (total of -10) to all rolls to recover. Once stunned the smallsword can do an extra 26d damage as an alternate attack. I did not use the surge modifier, but it could easily be included. The whole attack could be scaled down for a less point intensive game as well.

[RogerBW]

WILL TO LIVE covers this - p.40 for crypto at differing TLs (of which IFF is just one implementation), p.44 for EMP rounds (though note that the high DR on many robots will render them ineffective).

As johndallman points out, you'd do better to kill a robot before it can call for help, salvage its IFF module (p. 39), and use that to cover your party.

The wide-area jammer in Car Wars was the Bollix; for GURPS, I'd use the deceptive jammers on p.99 of ULTRA-TECH.

[Anthony]

A wide area jammer isn't particularly unrealistic, it just requires large quantities of power and is incredibly obvious (yeah, that robot isn't yelling for help, but someone is probably going to fire a HARM at your jammer).

[LokRobster]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

WILL TO LIVE covers this - p.40 for crypto at differing TLs (of which IFF is just one implementation), p.44 for EMP rounds (though note that the high DR on many robots will render them ineffective).

As johndallman points out, you'd do better to kill a robot before it can call for help, salvage its IFF module (p. 39), and use that to cover your party.

The wide-area jammer in Car Wars was the Bollix; for GURPS, I'd use the deceptive jammers on p.99 of ULTRA-TECH.

Thanks everyone for your input. I picked up Will To Live the first week it was out - I'll re-read the crypto section.

I'm curious about an AI spoofing the IFF of another AI - it'd have to be difficult even for them; a human gadgeteer would be pretty much out of luck. Maybe if the friendly AI hiding out on the moon was helping...

[cptbutton]

Well, it may be a bit of a stretch but I got a comp copy in the playtest by suggesting that there might be legally mandated cryptographic keys in escrow*.

And the production of the crypto chips was automated and it never occurred to the AIs to change it because they knew the codes were unbreakable, all the manuals say so**.

Plus of course you can send the PCs on a quest for the key escrow files.

* Actually I made a joke about "Clipper chips" but who remembers what they were?

** If you assume that the AIs do have some blind spots it makes the game less totally hopeless.

[LokRobster]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

WILL TO LIVE covers this ... p.44 for EMP rounds (though note that the high DR on many robots will render them ineffective).
...

I re-read UltraTech and Will To Live last night about this. I didn't get the impression that EMP rounds needed to penetrate DR in order to have an effect. Don't they just need to get close enough for the target computer brain to be within the area of effect? Unless the robot has a built-in Faraday cage I would think an electro-magnetic pulse effect would go right through armor... and Will To Live points out that pretty much only the AIs themselves are Hardened.

This seems like a pretty big, exploitable weakness - until people start using EMP weapons very much, then I imagine the AIs will start building most combat units as Hardened as well. But for now, it really seems like EMPs would be extremely useful.

[LokRobster]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

Well, it may be a bit of a stretch but I got a comp copy in the playtest by suggesting that there might be legally mandated cryptographic keys in escrow*.

And the production of the crypto chips was automated and it never occurred to the AIs to change it because they knew the codes were unbreakable, all the manuals say so**.

Plus of course you can send the PCs on a quest for the key escrow files.

* Actually I made a joke about "Clipper chips" but who remembers what they were?

** If you assume that the AIs do have some blind spots it makes the game less totally hopeless.

What does it mean - the crypto keys are "in escrow"?

Does that mean that override or key codes to these chips are sitting around in some lab or manufacturing facility waiting to be found and used? Some kind of hardware device, or data stored on an old computer?

That does sound like a fun adventure idea - another idea that will work for as long as the AIs don't learn of the vulnerability and start correcting for it!

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by LokRobster

What does it mean - the crypto keys are "in escrow"?

They are stored in some way that made them accessible to authorised persons, but not to the general public. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_escrow .