System and maybe setting for Mars colony game?

[David Johansen]

No, drones are guided by radio or laser signals and powered armour is hard linked to the controls and less vulnerable as long as you keep the comms from interacting with the control processor.

 

[Voros]

No, drones are guided by radio or laser signals and powered armour is hard linked to the controls and less vulnerable as long as you keep the comms from interacting with the control processor.

'Less vulnerable' doesn't mean not vulnerable. Why not use an EMP against the battle suits? As this is all essentially sf it easy enough to keep topping one another. But in RL conducting war without casualties to stir up the populace is major consideration.

I'm no expert on military tactics or technology but I do know that claims to the contrary sf doesn't have a great track record when it comes to predicting the future. One would have to look far and wide in any so-called 'military sf' to find any prediction of drone warfare.

The main concern in most gaming and genre fiction is excitement and empowering fantasies, not grim and practical reality.

 

[clash bowley]

I noticed that Marketing Specialist is not in your job description. Does Flying Mice Games have one?

Ummmm, no? I have been trying brutal truth. Is that not good? I never did learn to speak Marketing... :O

 

[David Johansen]

There've been lots of stories about war robots. Sometimes they don't even turn on humanity. One of my favorites was in the first volume of the There Will Be War anthologies. In it, robot aircraft, tanks and infantry are deployed against the forces of hell in the battle of Armageddon. Religious leaders world wide beg that humanity be allowed some part in the final battle but the politicians and brass decline. The battle is won and hell conquered. Jesus arrives and saves the robots.

 

[clash bowley]

In the classic StarCluster universe, there is a hard limit on how smart you can make munitions. If you make them too smart, they don't want to die and refuse to detonate, and if you try to force them , they rebel.

 

[xanther]

In the classic StarCluster universe, there is a hard limit on how smart you can make munitions. If you make them too smart, they don't want to die and refuse to detonate, and if you try to force them , they rebel.

Are you certain?
BOMB #20
And in addition to the darkness
there was also me. And I moved upon
the face of the darkness.

 

[xanther]

I think the big lapse in logic in the solider exo-skeleton sf idea is why have the solider in the suit at all? As modern day drone technology shows it makes far more sense to have the solider remotely controlling the unit from safety.

I believe it is operational security. If you can control the drone remotely so potentially can your enemy or at least interfere with that control. I assume it would be fairly easy to jam or muddle a control signal.

There is also the issue of time-delay, assuming the speed of light applies to your communications, depending how far away is safe.

So I'm of the camp that a complete drone force is only feasible if you have far superior communications technology and/or it is motivated by political reasons (to avoid loss of life).

On modern day drone technology, drones have only been applied actively against enemies that lack air superiority and who also do not have the means and/or technology to mess with the control signals.

 

[xanther]

I agree. Or no remote controlling at all and just upload an expert/AI system to the drone.

Transhuman Space depicts this well, I think: poor nations that can't afford (or which legislation don't allow) AIs or advanced systems deploy genemodified soldiers on power armor. Rich nations just deploy intelligent combat drones.

Not sure there is any difference, as who do the AI take orders from? Do you give AI the ability to ignore orders? If not, then what authentication "codes" are needed for them to obey not matter what? And can those codes be spoofed, hacked, stolen etc.

The "only" way to make AI/drones immune to "hacking" is to give them free will; the ability to say no. Would a society really want to do that? We are used to doing that with people, and oppressive governments have been able to control soldiers if nothing else through threats to family and loved ones when ideology doesn't work. Can you do that to AI?

 

[xanther]

But if they were capable of that they would be equally capable of disrupting the battle suits. I get why they exist in genre fiction but in RL which was the post I was addressing they are highly unlikely.

Not exactly. It's much easier to disrupt a control signal to a battle suit (or anything) than to disrupt the functioning of the suit itself.
You can readily "harden" a suits electronics' against EMP and the like, and you can physically control how radio, etc. signals are received and where they go (i.e. they are completely disconnected to suit electronics and processors). You allow only the person in the suit to access suit control and processors and maximize analog control and minimize moving parts.

 

[clash bowley]

Are you certain?
BOMB #20
And in addition to the darkness
there was also me. And I moved upon
the face of the darkness.

If you make them too smart, they can also go insane and be very difficult to handle...