Would you be cool with the idea of me playing a three-man unit of 'ankle-biters' Highly specialized anti-mech / support infantry?

Would you be cool with the idea of me playing a three-man unit of 'ankle-biters' Highly specialized anti-mech / support infantry?

That sounds like a really cool idea! Imperial, Asian, European or other?

WIP

character info [+]

✎Name:
Vex Ranthos

✎Age:
18

✎appearance
Vex stands at 6'1 and is athletically built. His eyes are verdant green, and he has spiked black hair. Generally he wears glasses with transition lenses and a black leather jacket with jeans. He has three scars on his chest from an accident with a mech.

✎Sex:
male

✎Nationality:
American Imperium

✎Character Type:
military

✎Rank/Title:
knight

✎Job/Position:
mech pilot

✎History:
Born into the "Holy" American Imperium he was raised by poor parents among the dregs of society. Every day he watched his family and others struggle to survive in the poverty. Finally came the chance he had been waiting for an underground resistance. To small as of yet for a full out revolution they began to attempt to get the children to rise the ranks. He strived for excellence hoping to escape the poverty in which he was born. He worked harder than any of the others rising through the ranks of the military trying to excel in his service.

When the Resistance cell was discovered it was stamped out. This included his family and many others he knew. Rather than speak out he actively aided the military in hunting them down further securing his place. He had found his true passion serving as a mech pilot and strived every day to keep this alive. That is where his history ends and our story begins

*If you don't know this reference don't ask; it's a spoiler.
† Do not for the love Megatron actually use that personality type indicator as this section. Well I mean do if you want, but at least write something. (idk this reference)

mech info [+]

Name/Designation:

panzerfaust Paladin

Faction:
American imperium

Type:

bipedal, remotely operated

Dimensions:

2x3x2

Appearance:



Armour & Armament:

.80 caliber semi-automatic assault rifle, High frequency vibration knife stored on left leg, and a single hydrogen grenade

Production History:
He has no freaking idea, he pilots the thing he didn't build it.

I'm just going to break this down point for point.

-The writing, in this submission is not up to the minimum standard of what I considered Advanced. This isn't a discussion; as GM it's my prerogative to dictate standards.

-I am however, not some elitist snob. I'm more than happy to have you join the RP if you're willing to buck up the standard a bit, and I am willing to help however I can.

-The sheet just isn't long enough. Though fair enough if it's not complete, I mean there's asides not edited out.

-An American mech would not have Panzerfaust in its name, or anything remotely 'panzer' associated with it.

-The lack of characterisation other than 'I killed my parents 'cause mechs are cooler.'

-How is it piloted and remotely operated surely it's one or the other? Unless you're using the word pilot to refer to control in general?

-Dimensions 2x3x2 what? Metres? That's pretty small and very oddly shaped.

-As for the picture even if it is for illustrative purposes, it doesn't fit the setting. We're somewhere between 'real-robots' and quasi 'superrobots' not ultra sci-fi interstellar mechs.

-I just generally feel you may have skimmed the concept, jumped on the word mech and filled in some blanks.

I don't mean to sound overly harsh, but I don't think adequate thought/effort was put into this application.

I understand it is a work in progress and the final product may invalidate a lot of the above points, but I just wanted to express my concerns for what I can see.

Nonetheless, I am happy you expressed an interest and would wish to join, if you're willing to address my issues, I'm willing to discuss anything I can do to accommodate.

@Darkmatter
Not necessarily specific types of characters, but characters you hope to have that could easily be involved with the plot. I've often observed characters being made and then doing little with the core story simply because of its nature by design.

For example, you wouldn't want us to create a hobo just because someone thinks it would be 'fun' to play as one in this setting. It's an extreme example, but I think it illustrates my point clearly.

@Darkmatter
Not necessarily specific types of characters, but characters you hope to have that could easily be involved with the plot. I've often observed characters being made and then doing little with the core story simply because of its nature by design.

For example, you wouldn't want us to create a hobo just because someone thinks it would be 'fun' to play as one in this setting. It's an extreme example, but I think it illustrates my point clearly.

Then based on that, here are some character types I consider viable.

-Rebels from any dominion, or within the Asiatic alliance.

-Any member of the Imperial aristocracy, as it is such a militaristic monarchy that they'd all have a vested interest in keeping the gears turning.

-Any of the Alliance's Oligarchs

-Military personal from either of the two big factions, or from another smaller player faction as long as there is reasonable cause and ability for them to be involved in the conflict.

-Diplomatic characters.

-Technology plays a big part in the setting so engineers and R&D characters are more than welcome.

To be honest, there's more than this these would just be, in my immediate thoughts, the ones people would gravitate towards. Realistically I repeated myself a bit in the above list. I think people have the correct idea of the kinds of characters they want anyway.

It's possible to have any character involved somehow when it's a global setting.

I think more will be made clear with my first IC post.
Essentially the Imperium have a goal now in Europe, and the resistance fighters are fighting for their own sake.

@Darkmatter

Question [+]

So I was wondering about nukes, or more precisely nuclear deterrence. Currently nine nations--the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — possess approximately 16,300 nuclear weapons. in total. Russia and the United States have reduced their inventories but still account for more than 93% of all operational nuclear warheads. Moreover China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA— are either deploying new nuclear weapon delivery systems or have announced programs to do so.

Even if this RP takes place after a massive nuclear disarmament initiative the issue would be in how quickly the aforementioned nations could rearm themselves--to that end I had a suggestion:

Perhaps it's the delivery system, not the munition itself that's become outmoded. This would also handily explain why the existing nations aren't simply turtling up and launching endless missile barrages at each other's capitals. If advanced anti-ICBM technology was at the forefront of 'WW3' then resorting to a 'boots on the ground' campaign would make more sense.

How I read this message:

Someone finally asked one of the obvious questions.

this guys got the numbers.

you answered with essentially what I would have said.

Basically, as it's such a 'win' condition I was just going to use GM magic and ignore it. If anyone brought it up the answer was going to be long range missiles are near useless with the advancements in air superiority vehicles, anti-air weaponry etc.

@Darkmatter Care to expand a bit on how diplomatic characters would work?

I have a hard-on for diplomacy and am currently going to school for a career in it so I'm very interested ^u^

@babbysama

Diplomacy will be huge! Politicing between the Empire's ranks, between Asia and the Empire, with any other faction! Even resistance leaders will have to double as diplomats.

I aim for 50/50 split on action and interaction.

I'm like 100% ready to start the IC but I'd rather wait for at least 2-3 other characters to be submitted. Hopefully that'll happen soon

A few quick questions @darkmatter, all in regards to mechs.

I am very glad you asked these questions, because as GM, I have a very clear picture of the setting and this there is a breakdown in relay this information efficiently all the time. You're right to ask, the OP was probably too sparse of mech details. I'll post my exact thoughts, but it is all up for debate/discussion.

---

Q: What's the basic size of current era mechs? Does it vary from faction to faction? Has artillery evolved along side them? How so? Do cannons crab around on legs or are there just blockier mechs with big guns?
A: The 'era' I keep saying I'm pushing is real-robotish. With a bit more lenience for sci fi tech given it's 60+ in the future: rail based rifles, basic energy weapons, etc. Though I realise cyberwarfare would be a pretty big aspect also. Sizes would for example from 5 meters tall up to like 20, nothing going near 50, fifty meters is very tall. Tech levels will obviously vary here and there, but basic design goals would be similar. A good comparison is aircraft arms races and developments. Yes crab tanks exist, as seen in my CS. They 'running tanks' were staples of the European forces.

Q: You mentioned that mechs won't be hoofing it cross country. Do they lie down on flatbeds/stow inside transport planes after every engagement or do most designs incorporate a wheeled drive? If so please describe it.
A: Well maybe the mechs should be running around? I just didn't expect them to stroll from France to Germany say? Within deployment zones they'd move 'on foot' like infantry but for long range deployment, specialized transports would be used; land, air and sea. The wheeled drive system is something that's maybe used in conjunction with 'walking' maneuvers.

Q: Your CS mentioned how the Federation's 4 gen Dragoons make use of neural assisted targeting. Is battle fatigue a major concern? Do several pilots crew the same suit and operate in shifts? Would damaging/overloading/overstimulating this system over-stress the pilot? Is there a secondary targeting system in case of malfunction?
A: In my CS it notes comas were caused in three specifically trained pilots after prolonged use of entirely neural systems. So yes, battle fatigue is an element that exists. Of course you'd expect fairly rigorous training among pilots, preventative measures and the whole sci-fi lends itself to pilots themselves being enhanced beyond regular operational limits. Yes there could be potential cause of stress in pilots due to malfunctioning neural systems. I'd assume our engineers know what they're doing and have redundancy built in, including manual aiming and firing mechanisms.

Q:*What powers most mechs? If it's not diesel why does everyone need oil so badly? Solely for civilian and manufacturing needs? If so why haven't they begun to shift to secondary energy sources?
A: Good question, I hadn't put huge thought into the setting's Applied Phlebtonium, and had just used oil as its a well known substance/energy source. Diesel mechs may be a bit too grungy for the feel we're going for. I'm open to suggestions on this one. I'm much more used to writing in hard space opera settings, so these down to earth sci fi techs aren't my forte! Some possible ideas include; a new refining method for the oil, compact nuclear reactors but they have obvious issues with mass production and inevitable destruction, and just coming up with some magic plot compound like most mech settings do.

Q:*Operation and maintenance times/costs for mechs please? Just a rough ballpark estimate would be great. How far could most mechs travel on their own/ how long could they maintain combat readiness without refuel/repairs? Are more modern/sophisticated mechs more vulnerable to this than older, out-dated models?
A: Ha! Going to answer this based on my actual job as an aircraft quality assurance engineer! Assuming the mechs are of an equal tech level in their own setting, and the average technician is as skilled as those working with me, a minor maintenance could take place in hours, large repairs and replacements in a day or two and complete overhauls would be a week or so. Homeland Empire maintenance stations might be able to do thirty overhauls a day though, and underground resistance garages might struggle to weld panels back on. It's a bit relative this one. We can assume older mechs are more prone to total failure, but mechs with more complex systems are more prone to regular minor issues. Bare in mind though that again, the term 'complex' is a very subjective.

Q:*How vulnerable are mechs to air-to-ground based bombardment? As in helicopters/planes. One would assume very--but then it raises the question of anti-air mechs. Are their any flight-capable mechs?
A: You'd assume it's a two way fiasco, with many basic mech models being prone to bombardment, but some advanced models being agile enough to attempt to avoid it. There's inevitably going to be AA based mechs, flaks and missiles and such.

@darkmatterA few thoughts on power-sources:

Any boosters/jet-packs/etc would need to rely on chemical rockets--as electrical/plasma engines are more suited for deep space exploration than planetary combat maneuvers.

The mechs themselves could rely on diesel--they'd be thirsty machines but they could manage--if we're limiting them to just being able to run/sprint with jumping and acrobatics relying solely on a secondary system (which probably won't last all that long into engagements) Nuclear power and propulsion would mean mechs could stay operational for extremely long periods of time--but the problem we never solved in the real world when it came to nuclear aircraft was how to keep the pilots safe from all that radiation. Though with nukes having been neutered much of the material from those war-heads could be repurposed.

Now if we're going near sci-fi here are a few alternatives.
These could be used to power the mechs themselves, with the added danger of tearing the machine apart if they're damaged.

Just awake and saw this. I'll read through it proper once I'm in the office and I'll post a response then.

Only things I ever designed for university and in jobs were aircraft engines and propulsion system. It's what I have my degree in. So in my mind it's what I almost always think of when talking energy. I 100% can confirm that MPD the first plasma engines being developed do indeed accelerate very slowly, but for a much longer time leading to better overall accelerations in the frictionless of space!

@EVERYONE
Those with less of an interest in the hard science don't worry! Don't be put off by all this chat, feel free to ask any other questions. If you just want to apply and know that the mechs work, feel free Looking forward to seeing some characters before the weekend hopefully

Actual response:

@Beach Burrito

Flywheels
Actually in fact flywheel generators are used in high-end air/spacecraft applications as gyroscopes called reaction wheels and they are used as attitude adjusters. I think the currently best proposed solution to a lot of the problems that the system has is the idea of stacked layers of flywheel generators rotating in alternating directions. Kind of like how the Russians make the world's best attack choppers by using co-axial pairs of main rotors.

Friction is a big issue. Obviously the actual wheel housing can be made vacuum but there's still friction between moving parts. An idea, but maybe too far of a leap would be suspension of the wheels in the vacuum via non-traditional means i.e. gravitationally or magnetically suspended. The high energy thing wouldn't really be an issue I don't think, I think it's safe to assume materials' properties quality has dramatically increased in this setting and the whole process would be pretty stable. For general operations I'd assume the thing doesn't run at full capacity but is perhaps also used an energy source for the boosters/burst movement systems and energy weapons and the generator can be pulsed when needed. That's a main advantage of such a power supply.

EPG:
I know quite a deal about rail gun operation. It's been my favourite weapon system for some time and I even considered including it in my masters, but its one of the few weapon systems without and aerial application being realistically possibly an time soon!
The railguns I'd envisioned here were standard two rail rifles, but instead of ferromagnetic rounds, having the projectile rest on a 'bed' of plasma which would complete the circuit and accelerate the round. Reason being, initial fire is more energy intensive, but any round type/material can be used.

Essentially what your suggesting is a system somewhat similar, in that the round itself need not be conductive, and that the loaded EPG 'magazine' would provide the emp burst to complete the circuit, power it, and add an additional explosive kick. Correct?

@darkmatter More or less hitting the nail on the head. I figured that EPGs meshed really well with the raillweapons of the setting and could give an extra bit of character to whatever laser/plasma rifles end up in play (How many times have you heard a laser go bang?)

Mostly I'm just trying to get a better grasp on the 'guts' of the mechs and tech, since I'll be making a trio of soldiers specialized in ambushing enemy pilots.

Awesome to have such interest. Hopefully characters start popping up soon!

@Darkmatter
I have begun writing my characters.

However, as I was writing, I reached a dilemma. Is it possible to have more than one character?

Inspiration took me and I was thinking of creating a group of brothers that are all part of the Holy American Imperium but each brother deals with a different aspect of it. The eldest serves as a politician and military commander (taking on a more tactical role), the second oldest is a civilian that engages in the business enterprises of the family, the third joins the military and serves on the front lines, and the youngest brother is an engineer and scientist who loves tinkering with mechs.

Yes multiple characters are more than welcome! I'll be posting a second myself soon!

LIVE GOD DAMN YOU! LIVE!

I've still got this subscribed for what's it's worth. Was just lurking around to see if anyone else was making a character. If you'd like I can give it just a little longer--and should no one else throw in--we can just play a 'bunch' of characters each.

Quick refresher, since it's been a while. Was there going to be a particular plot line or was this more freeform?