Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 1:40 am
Fun fact.
Growing an uber army of dog boys means you need to have a ton of facilities to house, raise and even feed that uber army of dog boys. You can't just pull them and the resources needed to make/support them out of where the sun don't shine.
Magic users can literally pull food out of thin air, the CS can't and has a ton more people to feed in the first place. This limits how much the CS can 'grow' as far as mutant animals. It also means that trying to fire bomb 'enemy' farm land might not work, and backfire politically because of trying to purposely endanger those who are not involved in the war.
A mix of robots, dog boys, other mutant animals and cyborgs (perhaps even juicers) might be a bit better than just mass producing dog boys.
Things like the kill hounds and ursa warriors would be handy in larger numbers. Robots are handy since they don't sleep, and cyborgs don't need much to 'eat'.
One gruesome idea is mass producing specially 'tailored' dog boys and other mutant animals in sensory deprivation tanks and using VR type systems to train them, then simply turn them into borgs. Having never really experienced various sensations when growing up, they should have minimal negative psychological impact from being turned into full conversion borgs.
I can also see an army of cheaper Skelebots made with a purpose humanoid shape/size and programming to put all those spare SAMAS to use. They would draw power from the SAMAS and not really need their own power, except maybe some reserve power supplies should they need to continue a fight after the SAMAS gets scrapped/destroyed.
Another alternative would be to 'rebuild' the spare SAMAS, simply adding robot parts where the pilot should go. Using cheaper/easier to make materials (since the SAMAS is already strong, has MDC armor and has a nuke power source) means many SAMAS could probably be retrofitted faster than regular skelebots could be made, and at a much cheaper cost.
1.6 million SAMAS units that never need to sleep or get out of their armor would be a force to be reckoned with.
One thing I do wonder about. Why the CS doesn't have something like the SNARLS system in Rifts Japan. It seems to me that the RSCG should have come up with something like that.
Stuff like Invis Sup has a flaw... it doesn't say that the spell can hide itself... Sure, the person affected can't be detected, but the spell itself is something that anything like the SNARLS system, a Psi-Stalker or other Mutant Animal should be able to detect as being 'active' magic.
While Tolkeen could technically hand the CS its own rear, by all regards, the CS should be capable of doing similar to Tolkeen. I guess it comes down to what's being used and how effectively it's being used.
Oh, for a deadly weapon, a weapon of great range and power exists in the CS... well, two of them to be exact.
The First is the 155mm Electromagnetic Howitzer that had its stats left out of the CS Navy book. The other is a long range, moderate power gun stuck on something that isn't a front line vehicle. I'm referring to the C-30R on the CS Command Car in the CWC. 6D6 from a 30 round burst, a wo mile range (a few hundred feet shy of a GB's BG) and a nice 80 burst payload.... That's a 25% reduction in rounds shot but only a 10% reduction in damage and a x5 increase in range... what kind of person puts that kind of a gun on a command car that will rarely see direct combat and not put it on front line combat vehicles?
That gun should be a standard vehicle rail gun.
Used with forward observers, the weapons could cause much chaos. All it takes is for a lone psi-stalker or sneaky special forces to spot an enemy and give a rough position and head for cover as a bunch of the long ranged guns lay waste to the target area at range. The weapon is practically like a lower powered version of a GB's BG as far as range.
Growing an uber army of dog boys means you need to have a ton of facilities to house, raise and even feed that uber army of dog boys. You can't just pull them and the resources needed to make/support them out of where the sun don't shine.
Magic users can literally pull food out of thin air, the CS can't and has a ton more people to feed in the first place. This limits how much the CS can 'grow' as far as mutant animals. It also means that trying to fire bomb 'enemy' farm land might not work, and backfire politically because of trying to purposely endanger those who are not involved in the war.
A mix of robots, dog boys, other mutant animals and cyborgs (perhaps even juicers) might be a bit better than just mass producing dog boys.
Things like the kill hounds and ursa warriors would be handy in larger numbers. Robots are handy since they don't sleep, and cyborgs don't need much to 'eat'.
One gruesome idea is mass producing specially 'tailored' dog boys and other mutant animals in sensory deprivation tanks and using VR type systems to train them, then simply turn them into borgs. Having never really experienced various sensations when growing up, they should have minimal negative psychological impact from being turned into full conversion borgs.
I can also see an army of cheaper Skelebots made with a purpose humanoid shape/size and programming to put all those spare SAMAS to use. They would draw power from the SAMAS and not really need their own power, except maybe some reserve power supplies should they need to continue a fight after the SAMAS gets scrapped/destroyed.
Another alternative would be to 'rebuild' the spare SAMAS, simply adding robot parts where the pilot should go. Using cheaper/easier to make materials (since the SAMAS is already strong, has MDC armor and has a nuke power source) means many SAMAS could probably be retrofitted faster than regular skelebots could be made, and at a much cheaper cost.
1.6 million SAMAS units that never need to sleep or get out of their armor would be a force to be reckoned with.
One thing I do wonder about. Why the CS doesn't have something like the SNARLS system in Rifts Japan. It seems to me that the RSCG should have come up with something like that.
Stuff like Invis Sup has a flaw... it doesn't say that the spell can hide itself... Sure, the person affected can't be detected, but the spell itself is something that anything like the SNARLS system, a Psi-Stalker or other Mutant Animal should be able to detect as being 'active' magic.
While Tolkeen could technically hand the CS its own rear, by all regards, the CS should be capable of doing similar to Tolkeen. I guess it comes down to what's being used and how effectively it's being used.
Oh, for a deadly weapon, a weapon of great range and power exists in the CS... well, two of them to be exact.
The First is the 155mm Electromagnetic Howitzer that had its stats left out of the CS Navy book. The other is a long range, moderate power gun stuck on something that isn't a front line vehicle. I'm referring to the C-30R on the CS Command Car in the CWC. 6D6 from a 30 round burst, a wo mile range (a few hundred feet shy of a GB's BG) and a nice 80 burst payload.... That's a 25% reduction in rounds shot but only a 10% reduction in damage and a x5 increase in range... what kind of person puts that kind of a gun on a command car that will rarely see direct combat and not put it on front line combat vehicles?
That gun should be a standard vehicle rail gun.
Used with forward observers, the weapons could cause much chaos. All it takes is for a lone psi-stalker or sneaky special forces to spot an enemy and give a rough position and head for cover as a bunch of the long ranged guns lay waste to the target area at range. The weapon is practically like a lower powered version of a GB's BG as far as range.
) 
