Joshua A.C. Newman wrote:Perfect camo also means that it's the dominant military technology. Which means we don't get to fight robots.
Not necessarily. Its use could be limited due to reliance on rare/exotic materials. It could be a "power hungry" system that uses more power than what any frame could produce on-board. And/or it could be so prohibitively expensive to deploy on the scale of a mobile frame that use is limited to a handful of spec ops units within SU military or the richest of the rich Jovian corporations. It could just be theoretically possible in the MF0 lore, but wildly impractical.
Or, consider the tactical advantage. That sort of technology could be used sparingly to avoid letting the enemy know about it. They will never suspect invisible robots if they don't even think that that is possible. But once they do, all they have to do is set up some mother-hutching trip wires, and all of the camo in the world counts for nothing. Remember when the Ewoks crushed the head of an AT-ST in Return of the Jedi? Yeah, just like that.
And, on a practical note, sure, you might not be able to
see the giant hutching robot coming toward you, but I assume that you could probably
hear the frakking thing clanking along. Or feel the vibrations of many tons of metal thumping along. Or pick up the heat signature from reactor exhaust. Or get a radar hit. Or sonar. Or passively detect its EM signature.
Bottom line, unless you come up with a method that masks
ALL OF THE THINGS, any sort of active camouflage is pretty much useless for a frame engaging in an
active combat role. It could be great for snipers or surveillance drones, just like in real life.
gusindor wrote:Holograms. Do they exist? How effective/accessible/etc. are they? Is active camouflage a viable defense system?
tl;dr 1. maybe
2. not very
3. probably not