What are your thoughts on the Technology differences between our world and Car Wars?

[harmyn]

I started a new roleplaying campaign this past weekend set in the world of Car Wars/Autoduel. We adapted the Mini Six RPG for our characters and are using a slightly tweaked version of the Compendium v2.5 for vehicle construction. I also set the start clock of the campaign at 2035 and am using the straight up timeline from CW with just a few minor additions/tweaks to it.

This got me to thinking though about how different our world is from theirs. Not just on the oil front, other things too.

First and biggest is cell phones, in our 2012 there's basically nationwide/internation cell phone networks giving 3g to 4g internet connection speeds, texting, and easy calling to anyone else in the world. Now in Car Wars, there would be no nationwide cell systems. The towers needed wouldn't have been built across the rural areas, and those that were would have been detroyed by biker gangs and bandits. Why let your potential victims have easy communications with the outside world. So then I was wondering, would cities have small local cell networks? I haven't decided yet myself.

Also, the internet is very different. Because of The Worm and rampant hacking as they describe it, the internet would also be very different I imagine. As a friend pointed out, the attitude towards wireless networks and linking systems is a lot like the attitude in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica because of the Cylon Wars.

So what are your thoughts on how our modern tech would be different in the war torn, famine plagued, world of Car Wars?

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As an aside, for those interested, we used Action, Operations, Savvy, and Tech for the attributes, gave everyone 11D in starting attribute dice and used 10 skills under each based off the Car Wars skill list. For those who don't know this is a modified D6 system similar to what was used in the old West End Games Star Wars game.

[terryocarroll]

Computer systems generally seem less capable than they are today. Computerised targeting systems are expensive and not very capable. That could indicate that the infrastructure to create microchips has been lost, or that there are strict government controls on computers with potential military applications, or both.

There's less oil in the CW world than there is in ours. Or at least, less is known, so obviously oil exploration technology is more limited there. In their world, they hit "Peak Oil" before 2012, but in ours the U.S. is estimated to have domestic oil and gas reserves sufficient to last 300 years at present levels of consumption.

[D351]

Originally Posted by terryocarroll

Computer systems generally seem less capable than they are today. Computerised targeting systems are expensive and not very capable. That could indicate that the infrastructure to create microchips has been lost, or that there are strict government controls on computers with potential military applications, or both.

There's less oil in the CW world than there is in ours.

There's a great deal of oil involved in the manufacturing of computer systems, so this makes sense. However, oil's required to manufacture a lot of things that do not seem to have similarly suffered. Either way, oil shortage is a good plot excuse for all kinds of technological setbacks ranging from inconvenience (switching back to using paper bags) to a new dark ages (majority shut down of all manufacturing due to lack of both computers and lubricant for the machines). It's incredibly easy to come up with plot excuses from there... as to what's canon, I have no clue.

[offsides]

Originally Posted by terryocarroll

Computer systems generally seem less capable than they are today. Computerised targeting systems are expensive and not very capable. That could indicate that the infrastructure to create microchips has been lost, or that there are strict government controls on computers with potential military applications, or both.

There's less oil in the CW world than there is in ours. Or at least, less is known, so obviously oil exploration technology is more limited there. In their world, they hit "Peak Oil" before 2012, but in ours the U.S. is estimated to have domestic oil and gas reserves sufficient to last 300 years at present levels of consumption.

Given the loss of global infrastructure and the resources needed for both exploration and exploitation, it makes sense that there's less oil available, even if it's still out there. I know the CW world hit peak oil earlier and that led to some of the collapse as well, but I expect that the fact that the entire oil processing infrastructure requires extra security and the like, combined with the fact that rebuilding that infrastructure requires refined oil, which requires the infrastructure, and round she goes...

[harmyn]

Good point about computers not seeming to be quite as advanced as ours are Terry. I tend to think that in addition to the lack of proper resources related to the oil shortage, the Grain Blight helped focus some of that development into medical and agricultural fields that the real world saw go into the tech field.

So while their computers may not be quite as sophisticated, they have developed cloning, brain taping, advanced genetics research, and development of the famed algae food stuffs.

Also, while the concept of way cool laser weapons as seen in sci-fi pulp does not seem likely or reasonable, I have handwaved their development as a byproduct of the more advanced electric power plants used in most cars. Their ideas and technology around energy storage and usage has allowed them to develop these high efficiency electric engines and the lasers that some high end cars and military craft use.

For my part, I see the world of Car Wars as lacking in the oil resources we have. Most of the reserves we have found and can exploit do not exist at all in this world. Where it is found though Offsides makes a great point, because of the violence of the world and destabilized governments it takes far more resources to exploit what new finds there are and that does help feed back into that ongoing loop.

[swordtart]

I'm not sure that you can say that computers are less capable. Given they take up no space or weight, they could be the size of a Raspberry PI or smaller. The +2 to a skill from a hi-res version is a significant increase. In the mid range it can almost double your chance of success and at really tough shots the improvement can be even greater (needing a 10 rather than 12 means a six fold increase in your chance to hit). Is $4000 for that really that expensive?

You also have auto pilots on cars, that is only just possible now (and CW hasn't been updated for 20 years or so). The current systems are fairly crude so it will be some time before they can pilot a car unaided down a post-apocalypse highway.

It comes down to the analogy others have used with Knights. A peasant in the middle ages could get by on pennies a week. The harness for a knight would cost several years income for an entire several village.

There is a massive discrepancy between a dirt farmer in the boonies and a road warrior and between the road warrior and the pampered salary man in the corporate enclaves. Their comfort levels may not be that dissimilar, but they will pay very different amounts for an equivalent level of benefits. As a result the richer mans toys will be more expensive simply because he has more money to spend on them and the price will follow the market.

[Traska]

Here's my problem with the oil shortage situation: Just about every vehicle has armor made of plastic that has to be at least partially replaced after every combat. Plastic is made from petroleum. How are they still making plastic?

[ARBco]

It's a good question. It could be that a lot of plastics (like plastic armor) in the Car Wars world are actually bioplastics, made from plants and other organic materials (that aren't petro, and presumably not anything touched by the blight). The only issue, of course, is where you have bioplastics, you'll have biofuel, too...

... and even as inefficient as that is, it's likely not $40 a gallon. Of course, Car Wars is still pretty much running on the guesswork from 25 years ago. All the same, I don't think gas at $5 or $20 a gallon would change the world significantly. It'd make areas with gas reserves (Free Oil States, Australia?) less economically powerful, but ultimately I'm not sure it matters if cars putter or hum.

Of course, that raises the question if any other crops were affected in addition to grain, too. Can anybody else think of any other major impacts from the possible presence of biofuel?

[D351]

Originally Posted by ARBco

Of course, Car Wars is still pretty much running on the guesswork from 25 years ago.

Well, I know it isn't dieselpunk, so what do you call this genre of alternate history?

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Traska

Just about every vehicle has armor made of plastic that has to be at least partially replaced after every combat. Plastic is made from petroleum.

There's current research into bacteria-based pseudoplastic production - for good reason, it's a lot harder to replace plastics in our world than to replace fuel oil! - and I could certainly believe in special-purpose algae vats producing a matrix that could be moulded into vehicular armour.