Triton

With the collapse of the British monarchy, did Canada also become a republic in Cyberpunk 2020 canon? Did the British Commonwealth also collapse?

I wonder if this would be the roundel of the European Defense Force (EDF) from the Eurocorps beret badge:

When I wrote this topic two years ago, I could not have predicted the Russian Federation's annexation of Crimea or the current civil unrest and secession movements in the Ukraine and Moldova. What about Estonia, Latvia, and/or Belarus and the ethnic Russian population?

A new Russian Empire in Cyberpunk?

Though Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, and Poland are members of NATO in the real world. I am not so sure about the alternative history that is Cyberpunk 2020.

This may give you some ideas in writing Hell's Antechamber and the shape of a future Middle East:

DISCLAIMER: I present these maps as ideas for the creation of an interesting environment for the Cyberpunk science fiction role-playing game. These maps are not a reflection of my political beliefs.

How 5 Countries in the Middle East Become 14

Robin Wright’s Audacious Remapping of the Middle East

There could also be a larger State of Israel. Perhaps based on the British Mandate for Palestine:

Again, these ideas are being presented to create an interesting environment for science fiction role-playing. These ideas are not reflection of the author's political beliefs or desired outcomes. It's a thought exercise for science fiction role-playing.

NASA Climate Time Machine:

Climate Time Machine

There is a report called "Megaregions - America 2050":

Megaregions

Texas Triangle

 

By 2050 about 35 million people, or 70 percent of the population of Texas, will live in the four metropolitan areas that comprise the Texas Triangle. Three of the nation's 10 largest cities are in the Triangle, including Houston, which has a port that handles more foreign tonnage than any other U.S. port. Efforts to create a NAFTA superhighway from Mexico to Canada could create a developed corridor through San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas. Tradition and economics create the potential for economic collaboration between the metro regions, which could also address serious environmental concerns.

 

Principal Cities: Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio

Population 2010: 19,728,244

Percent of U.S. Population: 6%

Population 2025: 24,809,567

Population 2050: 38,132,600

Projected Growth (2010 - 2050): 93.3% (18,404,356)

2005 GDP: $817,510,000,000

Percent of US GDP: 7%

Personally, I like the name Texas Triangle better than Texaplex.

I thought that I would add my two cents.

List of Active Separatist Movements in South America

There is an active separatist movement to separate the Rio de Janeiro state from Brazil to create the República do Rio de Janeiro, which is probably what was meant as the City State of Rio de Janeiro.

There are also active separatist movements to separate Rio Grande do Sul from Brazil, a separatist movement to create a federation of the Brazilian states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, a separatist movement for the Northeast Region, and a separatist movement for the state of São Paulo.

List of Territorial Disputes South America

So you can disintegrate and reintegrate Brazil according to your creative tastes.

General Skroup is the leader of the pro-EU government of the Czech Republic. After influencing the Czech parliament to authorize a brief and unsuccessful war with Poland in 2018, the resulting internal disorder gave him his chance for supreme power. His military coup in the early 2020’s forced the civilian government to flee to their former ‘enemy’, Poland. A simmering civil war has brewed for almost thirty years between Skroup’s forces back by the EU and the (so-called) Free Czech Army of the rump parliament sitting in Poland. The war is now a series of guerilla (or terrorist) actions (depending on your point of view) that target EU businesses and citizens (especially German ones). The Free Czech Army avoids targeting Czech citizens so the common policeman doesn’t work too hard against the rebels. Skroup, now in his late seventies, is losing his grip and fearful of being replaced by his EU masters.

I also wonder if Moravia or Czech Silesia will take the opportunity to secede from the Czech Republic?:

List of Active Separatist Movements in Europe

It seems that most of these "immortality" schemes in science fiction and RPGs are really just memory replication procedures and are not really what I would consider to be immortality or reincarnation. A cortical stack or cyberbrain is a backed-up replica of a human brain. It's a copy. If placed in a cloned body or a mechanical body, the individual's original body and brain would still be dead. In essence you would be creating a replica or copy of the original person, not a continuation of the original. Like transferring data from one computer to another. A cloned body made from the original's cells with the contents of the brain transferred would be a high-fidelity replica.

Unless you introduce the idea of a human spirit, ghost, or soul similar to the "ghost line" in Ghost in the Shell. Would you then be required to transfer this "ghost line" into a computer system, cyberbrain, or clone body before brain death of the original person?

This form of immortality/reincarnation seems right out of a Philip K Dick novel. In the movie Blade Runner, there was the idea of memory implants to gift the replicants with a past. Would the individual then have difficulty processing what were "real" emotions and experiences and which were "fake"?

In the urban jungle that is [/i]Cyberpunk 2020[/i] etc., should flares and chaff be installed on civil aircraft such as airliners, corporate jets, and general aviation rotorcraft? I was thinking of the threat posed by Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS or MPADS).

It doesn't appear that flares/chaff are included on civil aircraft in the Datafortress 2020 Corporate Military Catalog. Thoughts?

Yep, Wisdom preferred to make up the numbers. I did the same when I was doing the space vehicles section of Mircale Mile / Corporate & Military Vehicle Catalog for him (as there were no construction rules).

 

I'm not sure about the ACPAs on his site.

 

The only part that was made "by the book" is the FBC catalog, and it was done along CheapFBC rules (which are unofficial), andf that's because I had the zeal to do it and a lot of free time that summer...

 

 

Now as for Chorme 1 & 2 vehicles - please note that they generally predate the release fo Maximum Metal, so the vehicle specs were basically pulled out of thin air. Chrome 3 & 4 are more in line with it. Nobody re-wrote the old books once "consistent" vehicle construction rules showed up. Only some vehicles from Chromebook 1 and Protect & Serve have been re-written in MaxMetal with corrected stats (Sikorsky-Mitsubishi Dragon, AV-3, BMW 2020...)

I put "consistent" in double commas since you've already noticed yourself they're not exactly consistent...

 

I can see two solutions here, Triton.

1) accept the values from the books as-is. It is just a game after all...

2) take a copy of Maximum Metal and check every single vahicle - which would mean re-creating it from scratch.

I guess an advanced spreadsheet / macro would be very useful here...

Thank you for the information. Nice to know that others have found that the "correct" books are also inconsistent. I thought that I was being stupid and I was misunderstanding the application of the Maximum Metal rules.

A fake COIN aircraft with a very cool look is the Stavatti SM-27S/T Machete.

"Stavatti Aerospace — A new player..."

PZL-230F Skorpion ahh, the merry days of my childhood... I remeber all the hype about it being designed and the mockup being presented.

And then bah! gone due to budget cuts.

 

20+ years later, and the guys still fly SU-22m4 as ground attack aircraft...

That was a pretty cool ground attack aircraft from PZL. BAe had several CAS concepts for their Small Agile Battlefield Aircraft (SABA).

British Aerospace SABA

Were you going to create stats for the PZL-230F Skorpion for Cyberpunk?

ISTR looking at COIN aircraft a while back and one of the more interesting options was basically a new-build P51 outfitted with modern avionics and weapons, which opens up a wealth of research into WW2 in-theatre operations and temporary airfields for info.

Look at the Piper PA-48 Enforcer:

Piper PA-48 Enforcer

Aeroprogress, later ROKS-Aero and then Khrunichev Aviatekhnika, of Russia under Chief Designer Evgeny Grunin proposed several COIN aircraft in the early 1990s. None of these aircraft were built.

I believe that some of them have a very futuristic look. I was intending to create these aircraft using Maximum Metal rules.

As for COIN planes, the United States Air Force recently had the Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) or Light Air Support (LAS) program:

LAAR/LAS

The competition was won by Sierra Nevada and Embraer with the A-29 Super Tucano. What is interesting is Boeing proposed building new aircraft based on the OV-10 Bronco which it labelled the OV-10X Super Bronco.

ATK and Mohawk Technologies intended to retrofit the Grumman OV-10 Mohawk aircraft in the boneyard for the COIN market. The retrofit included the 30mm chain gun from the Boeing AH-64 Apache, plus a glass cockpit and integrated targeting system with electro-optical/infrared sensor turret.

OV-1D Mohawk revived as modern gunship

...this topic was intended to help Compy make up the rules required for an Aviationpunk game...

Sorry, I didn't mean to take the thread off topic. Thank you very much for your response, Mikael.

I have also read that solid-state lasers are being developed as optional weapons for the F-35 and that high-power microwave (HPM) weapons are also being developed. Has anyone come up with rules for lasers and HPM weapons in the atmosphere for Cyberpunk? Mekton Zeta?

Northrop Grumman Firestrike solid-state laser

"Air Force Seeks Laser Weapons for Next Generation Fighters"

“Laser and beam control systems are being investigated independent of platform in the flight regime from altitudes Sea Level to [65,000ft] and speeds from Mach 0.6 to 2.5,” the AFRL posting states.

 

The USAF is interested in three categories of lasers. These include low-power lasers for illuminating, tracking, targeting, and denying/defeating enemy sensors. The AFRL is also interested in moderate-power laser protective weapons system, which would presumably eliminate incoming missiles and high-powered lasers for offensive operations against other aircraft or ground targets.

 

The development of directed energy weapons are an ongoing trend with the Department of Defense. The U.S. Navy has been working on a shipboard solid-state laser that would be demonstrated onboard the USS Ponce (AFSB-(I)-15) in fiscal year 2014 to defend the vessel against threats like small boats.

The DORNIER F-128 THUNDERCLOUD ground attack aircraft has ACC/DEC: 20/25 mph in Shockware. Wouldn't you want to have the maximum ACC/DEC for a ground attack aircraft of 40/43 mph?

While the A-01 BLITZ ground attack aircraft in Maximum Metal has ACC/DEC: 10/35 mph. Base ACC/DEC for jet aircraft is 20/25 mph. Is the A-01 BLITZ trying to approximate the ACC/DEC performance of the FAIRCHILD REPUBLIC A-10 THUNDERBOLT II aka "Warhog"? The A-01 BLITZ has a mass of 20 metric tons while the A-10 configured for the CAS mission has a weight of 21,361 kg or 21 metric tons.

My understanding is that Wisdom000 (Deric's name on these forums) didn't build all those vehicles with the Max Metal creation rules, he just wrote numbers that seemed right and went with them.

 

And thank fuck for that - Wis might have the work ethic of a calvinist saint when it comes to producing CP2020 content, but no mere mortal could have produced that document if he'd done it by the book!

I hope that my post was not seen as a criticism of Wisdom000. I am trying to figure out vehicle creation using the Maximum Metal rules and the book says that the Cyberpunk 2020 Core Rulebook, Chromebook I, and Chromebook II have incorrect vehicle stats. So I was checking to see if there were some additional rules or corrections concerning vehicle creation in Miracle Mile. CP2020 doesn't seem to be very consistent across rulebooks and sourcebooks.

The BMW 9-SERIES PERFORMANCE INTERCEPTOR in Protect & Serve has a maximum speed of 350 kph (217 mph). The book does not list ACC/DEC values for this vehicle. Should I presume the maximum Speed Boost and maximum Heavy-Duty Brakes with a ACC/DEC: 30/80?

I am looking at the Maximum Acceleration/Deceleration rules in Maximum Metal and trying to reconcile them with values given in Miracle Mile by Deric Bernier.

Per Maximum Metal, maximum boost is 100% Acceleration. The base Acceleration of a Car is 15 mph. This would mean that the maximum Acceleration for a car would be 30 mph. In Miracle Mile by Deric Bernier, there are high performance cars that have Acceleration above 30. For example, the JAGUAR VACUITA MZX has an ACC of 35 mph. How is Acceleration above 30 mph possible per Maximum Metal rules?

Per Maximum Metal, maximum Deceleration (Heavy-Duty Brakes) is 50% for air vehicles and 100% for ground vehicles. The base Deceleration for a Car is 40 mph. This would mean that the maximum Deceleration for a car would be 80 mph.

Is this correct? Comments?

Afterburning and going supersonic?

 

Speed of sound equals 1080 km/h at 10 000m, and 1234 km/h at sea level, adjust by humidity.

 

Generally, only jet or rocket-powered aircraft are capable of achieving such speeds.

 

Jets and (at increased cost due to complexity) AVs can be equipped with afterburners on their engines, allowing extra thrust to be produced at the expense of very rapid fuel consumption and producing a high IR signature.

 

An ability to achieve supersonic speed without afterburning is called supercruise.

 

Game rules:

Afterburner (when engaged) adds +50% maximum speed and +100% acceleration.

Fuel consumption when afterburning is 400% of the standard fuel consumption.

Any IR-based sensor gets a +5 modifier to detect / track on an afterburning vehicle, in case of IR homing missiles it means +5 to hit.

What is the fuel consumption of aircraft in supercruise? Supercruising uses much more fuel than traveling the same distance at subsonic speeds. The F-22 has demonstrated supercruise speeds of at least Mach 1.7.

Is there a bonus to hit an aircraft in supercruise using IR homing? Or is there no bonus because aircraft that have supercruise also have low observable technology also popularly known as "stealth"?

Although considering that the Harley-Davidson Blue Knight has a top speed of 240 kph (150 mph), the Honda Ryujin is kinda slow. What would be a reasonable top speed of the Honda Ryujin? The Suzuki Hayabusa (GSX1300R) is currently the fastest production motorcycle with a top speed of 312 kph (194 mph).

Any and all comments, and corrections, would be greatly appreciated concerning statistic calculations using Maximum Metal. Any suggestions for "Special Equipment" for this motorcycle?

HONDA RYUJIN

Top Speed: 100 mph (161 kph)

Acc/Dec: 18 (29) / 30 (48) mph (kph)

Crew: 1

Passengers: 0

Range: 400 miles (644 km)

Cargo: 1 Space (20 kg)?

Maneuver: 0?

SDP: 74 (4 Body)

SP: 5 (Armor 0)

Type: Cycle

Mass: 296 kg

Cost: 7,400 €

It certainly appears that tensions between the United States and the Russians is not a thing of the past:

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-defends-weapo...-124020836.html

Russia has historical allies who may be hostile to western governments or have contrary goals. Russia also desires to return to super power status. Proceeds from the sales of oil and natural gas from state-owned companies may allow it to modernize its neglected military. We've recently seen the Sukhoi T-50 stealth fighter (Su-49?) aka PAK FA, new SSBN with the Bulova ICBM, and the desire to build the French Mistral-class under license.

I also presume that there is a lot of technology transfer that is going on with Russia's joint-ventures with France and India.

On reflection, it isn't the hard science that is the appeal. It's the whole "space truckers" design aesthetic. Prometheus and Nostromo look like space-travelling diesel electric locomotives. Blocky and utilitarian in design. Rugged. I know there are some who find them ugly, but I find them handsome.