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Subject: 
Re: Tanks or Power Armor
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.geek, lugnet.build.mecha, lugnet.space
Date: 
Fri, 27 Aug 2004 01:16:15 GMT
Viewed: 
489 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.geek, Lindsay Frederick Braun wrote:

   Fair enough, but we do all make certain levels of “realism” necessary in our creations, be they space suits for all little spacemen, enclosed cockpits, engines, or even making sure there are wings on our Galaxy Enforcers. :D

That’s more or less what I was saying. Any creation, no matter how implausible or unrealistic, must have a certain internal consistency as it were. There will be rules that apply to that creation to make it ‘real’ enough, whatever that may mean, but I have no compunction in breaking them or creating an entire new set of rules for the next one. I somewhat ease the burden in creating all these multiple universes by avoiding any attempt at back story for my models.


   Well, fair enough. It also is important, even for the “realists,” to understand that just because raw Darwinian calculations of idealized combat efficiency is currently the rage in modern human militaries predicated on the idea of knock-down, drag-out WWII style combat, that doesn’t mean that all civilizations (human or alien) must prioritize the way we do. They may have religious, cultural, historical, or simple aesthetic reasons for preferring bipedal walkers, or tripods, or giant samurai warriors on bicycles. Who knows what factors will go into future and non-human militaries, or even that combat will involve a dedicated military? That’s half the fun to me--devising the little quirks and seemingly strange choices that make their own sense in an alternate reading of the universe.

In other words: build whatever you want, no matter how fantastic. You can always think up a compelling backstory later. Is that what your saying? I agree. But we’re getting away from realism now, in terms of what we are actually likely to see, and into fiction, which while it must conform to it’s own set of rules, it doesn’t necessarily have to conform to reality.

Either way, it’s all good to me, and bipedal mechs, viable or not, are a worthwhile building challenge to take up.

Allister



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Tanks or Power Armor
 
(...) Fair enough, but we do all make certain levels of "realism" necessary in our creations, be they space suits for all little spacemen, enclosed cockpits, engines, or even making sure there are wings on our Galaxy Enforcers. :D (...) Well, fair (...) (20 years ago, 27-Aug-04, to lugnet.off-topic.geek, lugnet.build.mecha, lugnet.space, FTX)

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