At 11:32 PM 8/1/98 +0800, Chan Wei LIk wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Chan Wei LIk [mailto:weimin@pl.jaring.my]
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 1998 11:03 PM
To: 'JLee100441@aol.com'
Subject: RE: [FFML] [EVA] Update on fics and idea
From: JLee100441@aol.com
An interesting idea you got here. Reminds me of that other idea of setting
NGE in the 19th century.
The date is early 1946. World War II is still raging and the Axis is
desperite
for any weapon that will turn the tide. Thus armored walkers are introduce.
Germany first deployes the armored walkers in late 1945. <<
Two words: Manhattan Project. Unless you remove the A-bomb from the scene,
Germany will get nuked instead of Japan if WW2 is still going on by 1946.
Walkers won't be of any help. With the attitude of the time, they would have
been lobbing A-bombs all over Europe to stop those walkers if they had to.
This isn't too difficult, I could elaborate if no one else knows what I'm
talking about.
The Manhattan Project came into being because several of the refugee
scientists believed that Germany had the capability to build an atomic bomb
and persuaded Einstein to alert the US government to the danger. If the
perceived threat were EVA technology, the Manhattan project may well have
been to develop EVAs rather than atomic weappons. Since the Nazi
leadership had a penchant for the mystical and occult (at one time they
sponsored a study to detect sub locations by using a crystal swung over a
map of the Atlantic ... anyone want to do an Escaflowne/WW2 crossover?),
something like the EVA would appeal strongly to them. Read David Brin's
story "Thor Meets Captain America" for a look at a successful Nazi occult
venture. Despite the title, it is a dark story.
The armored walkers are humaniod war machine. Like the EVAs they are
powered
by an electric line. Due to lack of strategic materals, the armored walkers
are made small (about 30 feet high).<<
With the tech of the time (no integrated circuts, advanced alloys or
syntetics), they'd be lucky to develop something that works like the (legs
of) AT-ST in 'Star Wars'. A humaniod form like the EVAs is just too
vulnerable with 40's tech. It would have to be a squat armored box, like the
AT-STs again.
But if they are a hybrid with Angel technology, the material base may still
be rather exotic. Just what are Angels made of?
This small size plus the fact that they
are built with 1940's technoligy, force the size of the cockpit to be vary
small. Thus requiring a very small pilot.<<
Shinji and his friends should feel lucky they have automatic loading
systems. In WW2 tanks (and modern ones like the M1) the shells are loaded
manually. An auto-loader using 40's tech would NOT fit onto a walker of the
size you specified. You need 3 people per walker. Driver, loader and
commander.
But an autoloader for larger cannon (WW2 had 40mm autocannon) would be a
minor technological development by comparison. The US deployed a 75mm
autocannon for air defense in the 1950s (the Sky Sweeper IIRC).
We don't know to what extent the ability to interface with an EVA and
direct it it inherently due to the Angel technology. I don't think it
unreasonable to assume that WW2 EVAs would need only one person. Much of
the sophisticated add-on electronics in NGE EVAs were for communications,
fire control, sensors, and external control. The main question would be
the interface and without a pilot/EVA interface you wouldn't have EVAs, you
would just have mecha. One of the most distinctive features of the EVA is
that it could be considered to be alive and that the pilot can mentally
mesh with it.
As to why some tanks don't use auto-loaders even today, it's because those
systems are considered too flimsy to survive combat and require a shell to
be in the tube at all times.
Just about all modern MBT designs use autoloaders.
Were you planning to use machineguns only on the walkers? It'd be fun
shooting troops, until they drove a tank to knock out your legs.
Rockets might be feasible, but they'd have to be aimed by the crew through
the viewports (no auto-targeting remember)
However, the US did develop miniature radar sets for artillery shells (the
proximity fuze) that could be used for the EVA gun. Also, depending upon
the degree of synchronization between pilot and EVA, their natural
targetting skill could be very high.
Another thought for you is that the Allies need NOT build small walkers. The
US has all the resources it need to build giant walking fortresses if they
have to. If they had to use large cumbersome hydraulics to drive the walker
legs they could afford to.
I don't suppose anyone still remembers that idea about fusing NGE and
Dilbert? Because I have a few ideas I'd like to share. As soon as I get
around to writting them...
A Dilbert/NGE fusion? AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
dml