@Zarel & Mousemaster,
If you look at lasers being developed, they're only being favored over projectile weapons for two reasons:
-To kill missiles and artillery shells by causing their fuel to explode or their airframe to fall apart. For example, YAL-1 Airborne Laser and THEL/M-THEL.
-To precision-kill insurgents with no collateral damage. Still useless against any sort of vehicle(esp. armored vehicles). For example, Boeing ATL and Firestrike.
Even the LasSat is a countermeasure device designed to shoot down ICBMs, which travel in the thin high atmosphere. The seriously unrealistic thing, apart from the laser being visible and having a stupid-looking charge-up sequence, is how it can be so powerful against ground targets, which:
-Are much farther away than a high-flying ICBM.
-Are tougher than an ICBM.
-Are defended by more and denser layers of atmosphere.
You can't really argue that NASDA had anti-ground capability considered when they designed the LasSats, since:
-It would be much easier to use a large Gauss cannon, which would need
a lot less energy and not be such a hideous cooling nightmare, as well as being more effective against ground targets.
-They already had serious anti-ground capability in the form of space-to-ground missiles armed with *cough* thermonuclear warheads *cough*.
Against armor, projectiles are simply better.
Now, consider a very high-tech, very high-power electrolaser(you could call it a particle beam or whatever).
-It would be visible, like lightning.
-It would do thermal damage twice over in rapid succession(once by laser, and again by electric shock).
-It would fry electronics. Bad news for those extremely electronics-dependent cyborgs and VTOL aircraft, and to a lesser extent for ground vehicles.
That's my idea of a good futuristic SciFi weapon for ground/air combat, along with mass drivers and high-tech missiles.
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Although the factories and research centers can be explained, the trucks and repair turrets/facilities are a perfect example of Applied Phlebotinum.
Factories can be accounted for by saying:
-1. That the game time does run faster than real time. Even in combat, real 120mm cannons, 155mm howitzers, etc. don't load that quickly.
-2. That the cyborg powersuits, vehicle bodies, vehicle turrets and ground propulsion are all modular and prepared from before(which they are).
-3. That the time taken to build a vehicle is actually the time taken to bolt the 3 parts together and shove it out the door, in compliance with point 2 above.
-4. That the time taken to build a cyborg is actually the time taken to get the guy into the powersuit and bolt on the weapon.
-5. That points 2 and 3 are actually confirmed in one of the videos, which shows a pre-built turret and wheels being robotically bolted on to a pre-built body before the completed vehicle is dropped on to the ground and driven out the factory door.
-6. VTOL construction ought to be more complex, and this is properly represented in game since:
-VTOLs have a much higher tech requirement.
-VTOLs need their own separate full-sized factory.
-VTOLs need their own factory production upgrade techs.
-VTOLs, even after all this, are still constructed slower than ground units.
Research Centers can be accounted for by saying:
-1. Same first point as with the Factories, that time moves faster in the game.
-2. The artifacts are rather comprehensive, with working examples of the tech and information about it.
-3. The robotic "Research Brains" are either DNA computers or quantum computers, or both. Both of these technologies are in an early research phase.
-4. Any and all required facilities needed for researching the artifact are present in the complex.
Trucks and repair turrets, though, get no such explanation, apart from being extreme whacked-out nanophlebotinum, which brings up the question of why such awesome levels of tech aren't there anywhere else in the game. They're simply an acceptable break from reality. I, for one, wouldn't want my repair facilities running at realistic rates.
Trucks and mobile repair turrets can be defined as systems that take existing molecules and change/rearrange them to build things, in 100 years that could very well be possible. You could also explain it to be carbon nano bot technology which we as a species are already exploring.
Light molecules can be large and heavy when extremely energized causing them to move slower than the speed of light, these would pack a bigger punch than current laser light technology, thus making them more appealing. Heavy extremely energized photons will glow thus giving them a color, that color is changed while passing through any focus lenses that the weapon may have.
The NEXUS link is not unrealistic assuming the target is and can be fully automated, it can be taken over by a virus, WZ seems to suggest that all vehicles are unmanned and so are the structures excluding the HQ where everything is controlled and handled.
The nexus link turret should however have an invisible link to the target, in WZ it does not.
I am not insulting you by posting this, i am merely engaging in an intelligent debate.
If trucks and repair turrets have such awesome technology, why don't we start out with nano-disassembler weapons that rapidly rip an enemy apart at the molecular level? Why do we use 200-year old machineguns instead?
The carbon nanotechnology we are currently exploring is mainly a form of material sciences that results in mundane stuff with better properties, i.e, better crack resistance, better tensile strength, better conductivity, etc. Carbon fiber used to make Formula 1 cars is amazingly light, strong and flexible, but when you look at it, it's nothing but a black plasticky thing and not some awesome nano-scale machine.
Actual nanomachines in the near future will be mainly based around biomimicry, using techniques that nature has already developed in microorganisms, and then applying them to the tasks we want, like targeted medicines, immunity nanobots etc.
And yes, Per said it right as far as photons are concerned. Light does not exist as "molecules". We can't even detect the existence of a photon until it hits our eyes or detectors.
In WZ, units do not seem to be fully automated except for trucks and repair vehicles, since they gain experience as they or other units under their command gain kills. This experience makes them more accurate, which is understandable, but also seems to make them tougher, which is inexplicable except for VTOLs(where the crew can learn better evasive maneuvers). You could say that they are remote controlled or synaptic linked(after the tech is recovered in the Alpha Campaign), but that doesn't explain how an experienced crew is also lost when a unit is lost.
You could also say that the units are controlled by "Brains" like the ones in the research center, which adapt with experience. But then, they should be able to share this experience with other units of the same type and increase the experience of all units of that type, which they don't, except for commanders and sensor units. Even then, the cyborgs are explicitly said to be humans in powersuits which they are synaptic-linked to. The only way to take them over would be to hack the synaptic link and make it take orders from you instead of the wearer's mind, which would be a rather scary experience for the troop in the powersuit.
So I conclude this:
-Trucks & Repair Vehicles are unmanned and remote controlled.
-Combat Vehicles are unmanned and controlled by artificial Brains.
-Commanders and Sensor Vehicles are manned(I've not seen them hacked yet).
-VTOLs are unmanned and controlled by artificial Brains as well as remote control.
-Cyborgs are manned but are synaptic link dependent.
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