Monday, August 22, 2011

Rifts tech level

One of the miraculous things about Rifts is how contradictory the technology is. This is more or less my attempt at reconciling these things.

The biggest difference between Rifts and the modern world is the level of sophistication of computer software. Computer hardware in Rifts is well beyond modern levels and is continuing to advance. However, software, especially in terms of artificial intelligence and automation of tasks, is far below that of the modern day. Rifts computers use roughly modern-day operating system software (probably some GUI version of Unix; any 2092 dated Microsoft and Apple OS likely became unstable without internet access) and much use of Microsoft and Apple applications post-Rifts is due to the discovery of pre-Rifts developed emulation software (which was probably updated in the last 50 years to be able to more or less flawlessly emulate either environment). However, computer technology in general is far below the modern level of advancement, largely because the socio-economic demand for computers is so much lower when over 50% of America is illiterate. Holographic UIs (with special gloves) still exist; they're current as of modern day, and there's no reason to suggest that they wouldn't have been reverse-engineered, since they are far more convenient.

The big shocker, really, is that all computer-automated weapons of North American manufacture do not exist. While the ability to interface with a machine via a UI exists, the ability of a computer to independently make decisions based on events is simply not present anymore. Computers in Rifts do what they are told. This means weapons such as the Wellington SAWS work only based on manual guidance and cannot automatically assign targets. Coalition Skelebots simply do not exist (in any form) and neither do any other American weapons maker's robots (obviously there's A3, but that is an exception and they don't make robots for sale, also knowing about them is meta). German robots might (haven't decided yet), but they are definitely not for sale anywhere in America. The closest approximation is full conversion borgs. Take it or leave it.

Obviously the alternative is robots that completely obsolete foot soldiers. Skelebots would be completely unbeatable by normal infantry if they had computer guidance; and remote operation isn't really consistent with the level of tech required in Rifts. This also means RPA are intensely difficult to pilot without pre-programmed movement routines that correspond with user input. The concept of the RPA Elite skill is a character that can overwrite these pre-programmed routines (somewhat) and still operate their vehicle competently.

This applies also to the silly portable robot repair kits. You weren't using them anyway (see the gear section for repair prices).

Nanotechnology also does not exist at all. This means IRMSS kits do not exist. Juicer bio-comps fortunately do not need nanotechnology to do what they do (it's at least plausible just with real-world tech; the designer drugs are the bigger problem than the monitoring system); just assume that Juicer tech is a little more macro than it exists in the books.

Molecular sciences must be somewhat present, but limiting the scope of computers also limits what can be done likewise with molecular manipulation. Understandably, computers have to be programmed to do things to even process laser weapons, robot vehicles and really anything. In general, my understanding is that, to some extent, machines are not trusted to do things without human intervention. I may have to present some sort of history in the CS regarding AI running amok (and being neutralized) in order to accurately represent this.

The end result is that the CS do not trust machines to do the work of humans. This explains their general dislike of full conversion borg technology (throwing away one's humanity). I don't get the Dog Packs in the CS morality (with or without this change). Most likely they were essential in the Fed of Magic campaign and sort of got the rep as house pets or something. I dunno.

On the subject of Dog Packs, the technology used to make them is light years ahead, but that's okay because we know the Lone Star complex is hyper advanced. I don't feel the need to explain the science behind it, but the Dog Packs are for the most part no longer cloned (they're bred). I am probably going to lower down the overall stupidity of the Lone Star complex. It's not a big deal, since my world version had some sabotage there prior to your game starting anyway, so raising the scale of it is no problem.

Real life bulletproof vests are more resistant to energy weapons than they are to bullets, so really little explanation is necessary. Technically, MDC body armor should be much less effective against hypersonic rail guns and other types of kinetic energy weapon. Unfortunately, I have to concede things for game balance; fortunately rail guns do boatloads of damage to MDC body armor as it is, with only the Explorer, Gladiator, and CA-1 really being viable protection against them.

Energy weapons pose an annoying problem in that all known methods of producing a dangerous energy weapon require ammunition. There are quite a few possibilities for producing a less-than-lethal laser weapon, and ion weapons are plausible. Since plasma weapons are technically ion weapons, well... fuck, Palladium's writers are retarded.

The solution:
  • All energy weapons have a loudish emitter in the 80-90 decibel range.
  • Lasers do "laser" type damage. Lasers are diffused by smoke or heavy moisture in the atmosphere; they bloom very quickly and deal reduced (none in most smoke-related cases). They have no recoil. The laser bolt itself is very quiet, making a sort of popping noise as the displaced air from the laser moves back into place. They move at the speed of light. They are useless underwater.
  • Ion weapons do "electric" type damage. They look and sound like a bolt of lightning. They are effective in any environment but are useless underwater.
  • Plasma weapons do "fire" type damage. They do not burn long (melt combustibles rather than burning) and dissipate quickly once they hit something or travel to their maximum range. They look like an orange streaming bolt and cause a massive whoosh sound as they superheat the air around the blast, causing it to expand. People near the wake of a plasma bolt will feel a noticable increase in temperature as the plasma bolt bleeds heat. Plasma cartridge rounds sound like a gun (have chemical propellant) and explode with aforementioned "whoosh" on impact.
  • Particle beam weapons deal "smashing" damage. Ignore the RL physics behind them, especially the fact that getting hit by one is like getting hit by a small nuclear explosion. They are very loud and make stereotypical FREEM noises. No particle beam weapon is semi or fully automatic.
  • Rail guns fire awesome, fully automatic style. They do "piercing" damage. Their gun makes a loud high pitched whine when fired (80 decibels) and the crack of the sound barrier being broken can be heard as they spew projectiles at Mach 8 or faster.

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