Augmentation

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Grayhome
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Augmentation

Post by Grayhome »

Arioch I was wondering (mostly due to my own ignorance) what types of genetic, cybernetic and surgical modifications would be useful for a manned fighter to have in this setting? I've been looking through the GURPS Bio-Tech booklet and I've found some obvious ones such as: 3D Spatial Sense: As above, but works in three dimensions. This ability is useful in deep space – although it does not help you if you travel across dimensions. You get the skill bonuses given for Absolute Direction, plus +1 to Piloting and +2 to Aerobatics, Free Fall, and Navigation (Hyperspace or Space). 10 points.

Other things like increased HT, IQ and DX as well as improved resistance to acceleration and G pressures are obvious ones. But less obvious ones such as low pressure lungs, temperature tolerance (cold) and reduced consumption would also be useful in reducing the mortal necessities required for a pilot, but could you shed some light due to your better understanding of the forces involved of anything else that would be useful? Such as shrinking down pilots as per the very skinny disadvantage or reductions in height? Would that have a noticeable effect upon sustained G forces?

I am very curious about this but I lack the necessary knowledge of the rules that govern the extra-planetary forces that must be overcome to become a space fighter pilot.

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Re: Augmentation

Post by sunphoenix »

High G-Tolerance, High Pain Threshold, Combat Reflexes, Increased Lung Capacity
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Grayhome
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Re: Augmentation

Post by Grayhome »

Yes, those all caught my eye. Rapid healing and extended lifespan lvl 2 would also be beneficial as well in reducing stress on the body of the pilot.

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Arioch
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Re: Augmentation

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A pilot needs to be able to think in three dimensions, but I think that's more a matter of training than an innate advantage. Having a natural sense of direction is nice if you're a bush pilot, but a space fighter is going to have a very sophisticated information display that will always tell you which way you're pointed.

I think at this tech level, being a good pilot will be less about physical dexterity and more about having a superior tactical mind; the machine does a lot of the physical stuff for you. The most important physical attributes will be those involved with dealing with the stresses of high acceleration, and in GURPS that's all homogenized in the Increased G-Tolerance advantage. Reduced life support and the like would be useful in theory, but probably not in gameplay terms. Most GURPS advantages involve very substantial improvements (double or triple X), and usually not 5-10% improvements.

In an air-breathing environment, your two biggest problems are difficulty in breathing (because of the multiplied weight pressing on your lungs) and the pooling of blood in the lower extremities, both of which cause lack of oxygen and blackout. Having a smaller body helps in both situations, and having a lower center of gravity (as females do) helps prevent blood pooling (as there is less blood in your upper body), but I don't think the variations possible in normal human body size are going to have a significant impact on G-tolerance in GURPS terms. But even if you have a very small body (like an Ewok, say), your increased G-tolerance would be covered by the Increased G-Tolerance advantage. Though the Loroi are naturally G-tolerant, in an air-breathing environment they still won't be able to maintain consciousness at accelerations more than 10G for extended periods; at higher accelerations, air-filled lungs will inevitably collapse.

Loroi pilots cope with higher acceleration stress by wearing hardsuits filled with a liquid breathing medium. The suit applies uniform pressure to the body, reducing blood pooling, and the liquid medium fills the lungs, eliminating pressure on them (because liquid is incompresible). This arrangement mostly eliminates issues of body weight and shape in G-tolerance, and allows the pilot to resist prolonged acceleration stress of 40-50G, but comes with its own problems. The first is having to ingest the liquid breathing medium itself; it's essentially drowning. The liquid is viscous and requires effort to breathe, and the suit/liquid combination is very claustrophobic. It restricts vision and hearing, and renders the pilot mute (vocal cords won't operate in liquid). Because of the increased weight under acceleration (at 40G, even a light human body weighs several tons), the pilots will be mostly unable to move without powered assistance. So I think the most valuable augmentations for a pilot using this system will be those that help with input/output to the pilot.

For a pilot that's not telepathic, some sort of neural interface will be very helpful to allow for communication, improved sensory perception, and perhaps mental control of the craft. The ability to cope with the mental and physical stresses of using the liquid breathing medium will be important, but it's not covered by any existing GURPS advantages (you'd have to make up your own).

Once you get into accelerations of hundreds or even thousands of G's, the difference in density between the different tissues in your body become critical; eventually your bones will begin tearing into the lighter soft tissues and you'll be ripped apart. The only way to avoid that is to engineer tissues that are all of uniform density... but that's getting outside the capabilities of this setting.

If you were going to engineer a fighter pilot from scratch, it would perhaps be a small aquatic water-breathing creature with a good in-water communication system, which had compact, uniformly-dense body tissues.

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Grayhome
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Re: Augmentation

Post by Grayhome »

Wow that's a pretty explanation list! What about computer drones? would there be limits on bandwidth and range of drones like in Eve online? If not, then why the heck are the Loroi so gung ho about fighter pilots-oh wait, that's right. Warrior culture. Forgot for a second there.

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Re: Augmentation

Post by Arioch »

The range limitations on a remotely-controlled fighter would only be the communications lag time that increases with distance (and can easily get into hours), and the requirement to remain in line-of-sight with the controller. The Loroi had a tradition of using fighters in the offensive role, at long range and in situation where having a pilot gave a real advantage. The way fighters are currently used as mobile point-defense, there's no real reason that they couldn't be unmanned, but tradition persists.

The other possible limitation on unmanned craft is the possibility of jamming or hacking. I'm coming more and more to the opinion that either would be very difficult, but the notion of it still makes me pretty nervous.

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Re: Augmentation

Post by Suederwind »

It restricts vision and hearing, and renders the pilot mute (vocal cords won't operate in liquid).
For a pilot that's not telepathic, some sort of neural interface will be very helpful to allow for communication, improved sensory perception, and perhaps mental control of the craft.
Just out of curiosity: how do the Loroi fighter pilots communicate over long distances (with each other or their base)? Speech won't work, telepathic messages have limited range and I think sending a text-message might be a bit impractical while fighting. Are they using neural interfaces in their helmets for that?
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Arioch
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Re: Augmentation

Post by Arioch »

Suederwind wrote:
It restricts vision and hearing, and renders the pilot mute (vocal cords won't operate in liquid).
For a pilot that's not telepathic, some sort of neural interface will be very helpful to allow for communication, improved sensory perception, and perhaps mental control of the craft.
Just out of curiosity: how do the Loroi fighter pilots communicate over long distances (with each other or their base)? Speech won't work, telepathic messages have limited range and I think sending a text-message might be a bit impractical while fighting. Are they using neural interfaces in their helmets for that?
They use both non-invasive neural interfaces, primarily to aid in control of the ship (as a pilot's limbs have limited movement under acceleration), and low-powered telepathic amplifiers.

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Grayhome
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Re: Augmentation

Post by Grayhome »

So Arioch just to be clear, on Earth ALL augmentation is illegal for everyone? Surgical, cybernetic, genetic? even for police, firefighter, and military forces? Or am I misremembering this information.

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Re: Augmentation

Post by Arioch »

Grayhome wrote:So Arioch just to be clear, on Earth ALL augmentation is illegal for everyone? Surgical, cybernetic, genetic? even for police, firefighter, and military forces? Or am I misremembering this information.
No, it's only genetic manipulation of humans that's restricted in most countries.

Cybernetic enhancements are rare, because they don't work very well (at least at this tech level). The problem is the human/machine interface: it's not hard to hook up the implant, but it's very difficult to teach the nervous system how to use it.

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