What a Military Supply Depot Contains

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by thrash

This is a place where you would be justified in throwing obstacles at the player characters. In my experience, automated supply systems are frequently the last dying place of obsolete, legacy (e.g. -- no joke -- DOS 3.0-based) computer systems and proprietary hardware. Upgrades are decades apart, because it's so traumatic to move everything to a new system. The new system, which was a compromise designed by committee and provided by the lowest bidder, was probably obsolete before it was fielded because it took so long to implement. And the cycle starts all over again.

The logisticians who use the system are resigned to its quirks and know the work-arounds to get the most out of it. Anyone else who comes in expecting to turn it on and go is likely in for a rude shock.

The military is one of a few fields well known for using outdated systems. COBOL, for example, would be as dead as Sumerian if not for military, government, and banking systems being stuck in it. The data is formatted for it, so the existing code remains in use, so the data remains formatted for it.