A normal tripod is just a heavy metal gunmount with three stabilization arms that keep the weapon's recoil within manageable levels and enable the gunner to rapidly pivot the weapon in order to engage targets.
However, with the introduction of the Digital Battlefield Initiative in the early 21st Century, smartframes, and gyro-stabilization, tripods got their first upgrade in over two centuries.
An enhanced tripod has a small energy cylinder capable of powering the weapon (treat as 5 belt-packs), three (and four sometimes, even though it is still called a tripod out of habit) legs, a BaNTI, gyroscopic recoil compensation, a weapon mount, and some contain a minaturized version of the Chromium Guardsmen pylon system.
In 2085 the "Remote Adjustable Firing Position" became available to NEMA. Formerly in use by the US Army, this allowed the tripod to scuttle along under its own power to change position. NEMA only fielded a few of these, as they required direct supervision since smartframes usually became confused and ran into things, off ledges, or ran in circles firing the weapon wildly.
The US Army and USCM used "Tripod Battle Shielding", a foldable screen made of hardened polyceramic material that was see-through.
Many of the high end enhanced tripods had a micro-drone launcher by 2097, which used a seperate piece to launch a ninth-generation Predator Drone and allowed the user of the weapon to control it on the BaNTI. These drones were made of memory plastic, used high powered electrical turbines entirely made out of plastic that were nearly silent, and a "top-down" camera in addition to the nose camera. This was only fielded by large military units, usually at the Regiment or Battalion level, for battlefield control and surveillance.
Most of the stuff above was entirely consumed in the fighting after the Cataclysm, and by the Cataclysm itself. However the odd tripod has been found, as well as servo rig. However, most explorers simply tear the attachments off of the tripods and servo-rigs and use the bare-bone systems, unaware that they are forgoing advanced combat systems.
By 20 PA, there are no enhanced tripods in use or being manufactured, servo rigs are rare, and smartframes are a thing of the past. However, in 102 PA the NRG brought back smartframes again on thier newest Glitter Boy variant.
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