Clone Army Or Droid Army?

[Minuteman37]

At TL11 which is preferable, an army of genetically augmented Clones, or one of Droids?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Minuteman37

At TL11 which is preferable, an army of genetically augmented Clones, or one of Droids?

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.

[SteamBub]

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.

[Phantasm]

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.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

(though my personal thought is that air superiority and interception should remain manned).

Air superiority is one of the best cases for AI, though. The environment is simpler than almost any other role, it's pure machine-operation which gives advantage to the option that interfaces natively, and it's much easier to g-harden computers than meat.

Originally Posted by Phantasm

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.

I guess you're assuming that there's no human-or-better sapient AI.

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.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

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.

Yup. Unless you decide for "reasons" that AI is hampered somehow, chrome outperforms meat in every category.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Minuteman37

At TL11 which is preferable, an army of genetically augmented Clones, or one of Droids?

Depends on tech details. Realistically mechanical for most purposes, but plenty of GURPS tech is more rule of cool than actual plausibility.

[AlexanderHowl]

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.

[Plane]

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.

[ericthered]

I've been looking at drones in warfare at slightly lower Tech levels recently, and one thing that meat does better than drones is moving silently. Electric wheelchairs are loud. Noise is one of the things holding back the modern military from using wheeled drones more.



I'm not sure how true that is at TL 11, but I'm sure its a concern at TL 8, and probably up through TL 10 as well