Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Alot of people say mecha design are too anime ish to be believable.
But i think we just lack the imagination to visualize it.
Well here is a video that is truly impressive: ( i mean even far fetched mechas looks natural when
its rendered realistically ).

2:14 probably the only mecha accepted by war game community
and IMO to what transformer star scream scene should have looked like

That's pretty cool, but mechas would take decades of development in real life. Don't get me wrong, I'm a mecha fan,but we've only just developed a combat exoskeleton; this isn't something you'd see for a long time.

It still looks unreal to me, the designs look a little too "Because it looks cool" and they would need to be covered in boosters to pull off half the manuvers, it's good CG though.

Those are gundams. They are unoriginal designs of giant airplane men wearing japanese armor doing things that would kill their pilots and break so many physical laws that it's ridiculous.

Those are not realistic.
Those are not original.
They aren't even particularly well designed or rendered, they are pretty damn generic.


Mechs will never exist. They are a non sensical design based off of the human frame, which itself is very poorly designed as a weapon of war. Also, those things couldn't fly. They are not aerodynamic and lack functioning engine systems that make even the slightest bit of sense. Putting a hole on something doesn't mean flames will whoosh out of it. While all of this could be surmounted with "technology!" keep in mind the technology that it would take to make a functioning mech could just be used to make a flying deathorb of lasermissile superpower which would then kill all the gundams because giant robot samurai men are stupid and minimalism and redundancy of design is an inherent attribute of all things designed for combat.

For once Shuma I agree with you.

Plus what always kills me, is that with all this wonderful tech that enables us to field massive Transforming Samari Robots... we still have generic attack helicopters and T-34 style russian tanks.

Okay, so it's more because it looks cool than because it's realistic. If you want realism, get yourselves DVD's or Patton, The longest day and Bridge over the river Kwai. I have never had a problem with the mecha, because I am able to separate fantasy from reality. What turns me off is the big eyes/small mouth animation style the the weird premise of most of them. I mean, who in their right mind trusts a 300 ton super-mech to a high school kid, when he's involved in a love triangle with two of his fellow pilots? Just stick to the fighting and leave the soap operas for daytime tv.

Walkers would be very ineffective and easy to destroy in real-life.

Why? They'd likely be really slow, and they have a nice elevated profile that is a bulls-eye for anti-tank weaponry. Also, they'd need some REALLY flat terrain in order to even move safely.

AT-STs from Star Wars for example, are physically impossible. They're not around because it's the future, they're there because George Lucas likes stop-motion animation.

Your fancy pants mechs for example, are impossible. Period. There is no chance in hell that they will be able to move that fast. Even if they could, the pilot would be shaken like no tomorrow. He would be a bloody mess by the time that mech stops.

Btw, we haven't discovered lazer swordz yet, we don't even know how Lightsabers would work!

Amusingly enough one of the few mecha designs that could even be the smallest bit useful in combat would be the old style tripod designs; except replace three with four legs. The very minimal hit profile, controllable elevation, ability to maneuver well in dense urban environments, relative immunity to unmanned IED explosives, relative immunity to small arms fire, and relative simplicity of design (compared to other mechs) would give it a situational but defined support role in urban combat situations. Basically a helicopter, but without the high vulnerability to small arms ground fire and much harder to target with an anti armor weapon.

Of course, you would never put a person in one. They would likely be remote controlled or drone by necessity of design. Cockpits are just giant glass vulnerabilities. The image only has 3 legs, which is stupid, but it gets the basic design down. Thin, legs supporting a small "torso" which in essence is little more than batteries, ammo, and cameras.

What a coincidence, im currently stuck in that game at the part where im supposed to kill the striders so the missle can launch.

LunaHound wrote:What a coincidence, im currently stuck in that game at the part where im supposed to kill the striders so the missle can launch.

You have to use the magnussens.

Yes but the yellow lasers seem to blow them up even after it attaches. (how many magnussen does it take to kill 1 strider? ) strider and hunter pair always kill the whole party in less then 1 min.

*back on mecha topic:

regarding boosters , maybe in future they would have different technology for stronger boost ( sort of like what steam is to us )

pilot inside would be squished ,yes i think so too. No doubt remote controlled would be better.

Story is childish etc etc, yes i agree. But we dont need to care about the story , just the mecha / walker designs.

Regarding the speed / velocity all the tech mumble jumbo , we can assume the computer calculates all those fine details.

Ramming the hunters with the car is also a good idea. Better than trying to deal with them on foot anyway.

i allways liked the armored core mechs... code geass has some good ones as well.



but yes... very impractical, a lot of the crap that they do would kill the pilots. or at least make them black / red out... they would have to be covered in boosters to be half as mobile.

the AT walkers from startwars would be much easier to make a reality IMO... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z7GaBCIdhM



it was tackled though... a design flaw that must be worked on.

but i have yet to see mecha bust some moves like that.

All walking vehicles have the basic design fault that they can fall over.

still one of my favorite mech games
i had som awesome hounds

did one of those mechs hav dreads
mecha already exist know though
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_walker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-52_Enryu

ShumaGorath wrote:Those are gundams. They are unoriginal designs of giant airplane men wearing japanese armor doing things that would kill their pilots and break so many physical laws that it's ridiculous.

Those are not realistic.
Those are not original.
They aren't even particularly well designed or rendered, they are pretty damn generic.


Mechs will never exist. They are a non sensical design based off of the human frame, which itself is very poorly designed as a weapon of war. Also, those things couldn't fly. They are not aerodynamic and lack functioning engine systems that make even the slightest bit of sense. Putting a hole on something doesn't mean flames will whoosh out of it. While all of this could be surmounted with "technology!" keep in mind the technology that it would take to make a functioning mech could just be used to make a flying deathorb of lasermissile superpower which would then kill all the gundams because giant robot samurai men are stupid and minimalism and redundancy of design is an inherent attribute of all things designed for combat.

Coolness factor aside, Shuma is directly on point.

EDIT: A javelin or hellfire would turn it into scrap almost immediately. Its too slow to avoid anti air missiles, and to big to cover.

What you see you can hit
What you hit you can kill

Well one thing you should factor in is that a mech would work better in space not in earths gravity, its clear to see that the designs are based on what looks cool not what would work in real life. If you want realife mechs look at the Battletech designs, they are actually functional compared to most Japanese designs.

Still it would be damn cool, even though this video reminded me so much of Armored Core i might have to dust it off again.

Also Luna 2:14 is Wing Zero, Starscream would have looked really silly with angel wings.

Well one thing you should factor in is that a mech would work better in space not in earths gravity, its clear to see that the designs are based on what looks cool not what would work in real life. If you want realife mechs look at the Battletech designs, they are actually functional compared to most Japanese designs.

For one thing half the battletech designs WERE ROBOTECH DESIGNS that battletech stole. Secondly no, they are just as terrible as the giant men in samurai armor. Giant exposed missile racks are stupid and three quarters of battletech designs wouldn't be able to move up a hill or turn.

And why would mechs work better in space? The ability to manipulate objects is kind of worthless in the void and having large, pointless, non redundant systems increasing your profile is bad.

The only "mechs" we need in space are blocks of remote-controlled ships with batteries and a railgun. Maybe a missile.

Hey, wait, What?!

To those who are for-mechas (not counting you garret to the same extent), are we saying lightning fast hyperactive revenant titans are feasible?

why not me?

stonefox wrote:The only "mechs" we need in space are blocks of remote-controlled ships with batteries and a railgun. Maybe a missile.

If ships are moving at orbital speed, running into a ball bearing would pose a significant hazard. A gatling gun firing 00 buckshot would be a cheap and effective defence against anything without a lot of armour.

Exactly why we have all those treaties against the weaponization of space.

dogma wrote:Exactly why we have all those treaties against the weaponization of space.

Because space based arms races are a bad idea?

So we can shoot the paper into orbit to intercept their missiles?

I think tau Crisis suits would be semi feasable, except for theyr wierd hoof-like feet. that would ahve to be fixed. it just needs a stonking powerful power source and you've got a weapon that's about twice the height of a normal human MUCH more heavily armoured. plus it's jet pack makes it very speedy. pretty good for urban warfare IMO

ShumaGorath wrote:

dogma wrote:Exactly why we have all those treaties against the weaponization of space.

Because space based arms races are a bad idea?

No, because one destroyed satellite instantly becomes 5-6000 additional satellite destroying pieces of debris; making space-based arms races about 5-6000 times worse than ordinary arms races. Unless you don't find international communication, GPS, weather forecasting, or orbital survey terribly useful.

Garret, because the chrome hounds don't fly by means of a series of small holes in their backs at rediculous speeds, thats why.