C.R.A.F.T. wrote:Why is it that a majority of posters here have an easier time believing that magic has NO limits, but when it comes to creating a technological advance, you can't introduce one that will change the "feel" of the game?
I have tried to take current technology in development and put it into a Rifts game, but was 'shot' down because it would have changed the way the Coalition States would have viewed the rest of the region.
Is this merely hatred for the way that the CS acts and not wanting to give them any advantages or a personal bias against technology in such a magic-rich game?
I have no real bias one way or the other. I agree that technology has an advantage in some areas and magic has advantages in others. A good example is that a high tech jet fighter aircraft will outperform a purely magical aircraft MOST of the time. However a high tech jet fighter souped up with magical systems becomes a terrible weapon to behold.
In my Rifter article on Air Combat I include a new system that allows CS aircraft to actually pick up on the electromagnetic distortions caused by magic, including Invisibility Superior.
During the Tolkeen War a techno-wizard devised a specialized system that added invisibility superior to some of the tech fighters that Tolkeen deployed. This was done in conjunction with PPE power cells similar to the PPE clips produced by Stormspire, thereby allowing even non-magic using pilots to 'cloak' their aircraft.
The result was a fighter that could sneak up on CS aircraft and attack without being detected until the attack was made - oftentimes resulting in suprise attack effects. With the flip of a switch, after the attack, the invisibility was resumed, thereby basically preventing a counter-attack. The results were horrific and terribly demoralizing to CS fighter pilots. The original squadron that developed this tactic became so dreaded, in fact, that many CS fighter pilots started to abort missions at the first sign of Tolkeenite fighter aircraft.
This was a temporary imbalance, in favor of the magical air forces of Tolkeen. After the Sorcerer's Revenge campaign (Sorcerous Fury campain, according to our group's timeline.), the CS struggled, with Triax help, to devise a system that could detect these mystically empowered aircraft before they attacked. They succeeded in creating a short ranged (1 NM - about 6,000'.) detection device that could literally detect the electromagnetic distortions caused by magical effects. This used basic existing technology of today, Magnetic Anomalys Detection, BUT slightly more refined and specific to these distortions. The only drawbacks were it's weight - about 250 Lb. making it only possible to mount it in a full sized jet fighter aircraft (OR in specially converted old style Sky Cycles that only carried this system and no weaponry, that could act as a warning aircraft for an entire squadron of Sky/Rocket Cycles), it's comparatively short range, and that it was essentially blind to mystically empowered devices or individuals inside of Ley Lines. (Towards the end of the war larger systems that weighed closer to a ton were developed that could detect these sorts of effects up to 50 miles away, that carried on board of specially modified DHTs, could act as a sort of Early Warning Aircraft for an entire front. Similar systems could be installed in fixed positions such as cities to ferret out magic users and to detect approaching magical vehicles.) In time these systems may have a range as great as 10 miles for a small +/-200 Lb. system, and larger systems +/- 1 ton, may have a range of 150 miles or more, but for the time being, in our campaign anyway, this technology is in it's infancy.
Do I KNOW if magic creates a sort of E-mag distortion? No, I don't, but it was a way to balance things out, and it was a fun mid-war arm's race, with each side reaching for an ultimate advantage over the other. There was more to the race than I've mentioned here, but this is sufficient for now.
My point in revealing all of this is to say that both sides of the argument have advantages, and IF you figure out a way for one side to have too terribly much of an advantage, work with the other side to level the playing field before it's too late. It makes it fun that way... Our Tolkeenite pilots had a blast tearing up the CS Air Forces, but the campaign didn't become truly epic until after their enemy was able to level the playing field to some degree.
"Private Rex, I choose... EEWWW..." 
