How do Dreadnoughts walk down hills without falling?

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**ivangterrace**

I'm serious about this light-hearted question.

I was thinking about one of the robocop movies in math class about the walker-type robot that tries walking down some stairs, but fails at it.

So that got me to thinking about "How can dreadnoughts walk down hills?"

They are top heavy, their upper body is like 3x as big as their lower body.

Most dreads have only one hand, the other is a gun, so getting up from a fall seems difficult.

Are there any answers perhaps in lore for this?

**MechaEmperor7000**

Dreadnoughts have much more sensitive sensors than normal robots. However they're still clunky and cumbersome, so they likely can only tackle a gentle slope (meaning mountain climbing is out of the question). Although a Dreadnought might intentionally fall down, to squish anyone in front of it. As for how they get up, they might get creative with their weapons (using the barrel of a lascannon as a crutch for example) and their arms have been shown in DoW to be able to extend.

**purplefood**

They jump?
Turn sideways?
Go backwards?
They have knee joints...

**ivangterrace**

purplefood wrote:They jump?
Turn sideways?
Go backwards?
They have knee joints...

I can see crab walking but that doesn't explain how they would keep up with infantry in both tabletop or the video games

**Maurin**

Simple answer. They just roll down the hills! Think how much damage a rolling dread could inflict to charging infantry

**MechaEmperor7000**

Katamari Damacy....

**purplefood**

ivangterrace wrote:
purplefood wrote:They jump?
Turn sideways?
Go backwards?
They have knee joints...

I can see crab walking but that doesn't explain how they would keep up with infantry in both tabletop or the video games

They just go faster... They do have knees so hills wouldn't be too much of a problem.

**ivangterrace**

Top-heavy.

Walk down a hill with a heavy backpack.

**Gavo**

Well, Furioso Dreads just fly down the hill

**shrike**

I read the "roll down it!" and thought of indiana jones.

I would guess it just doesn't fall. If it really needs to get down a hill, it's feet would tip to make up for the slope, IMO.

**Mr Nobody**

ivangterrace wrote:Top-heavy.

Walk down a hill with a heavy backpack.

I can do this sprinting, a dreadnought should be able to handle walking pace.

**Ailaros**

They ski, like in Tribes.

In all serious, they probably just slide down steeper slopes. Not like it's going to damage them.

The real question is, "how do dreadnoughts walk UP hill?"

**Slick**

In robocop ed-209 has reverse knees and has long lower legs to compensate for a front and top heavy body. Walking down or up a hill with a heavy backpack is not an issue of body mechanics as much as physical limitations, which I'm assuming an ancient war machine body would not have many of.

**Kroothawk**

Counterquestion: How do Dreadnoughts walk on a flat surface with these kind of legs? Almost impossible with current physics.

**Cerebrium**

Shuffle. Shuffle like a mad penguin.

**MechaEmperor7000**

take a look at the Dreadnought in DoW. Clunky, but effective.

**Luke_Prowler**

Very slowly.

**Shas'O Dorian**

Gyroscopic stabilization? I know it's probably not the right answer but hey anyone else got "realistic" ideas?

**Kommissar Kel**

Slick wrote:In robocop ed-209 has reverse knees and has long lower legs to compensate for a front and top heavy body.

Yet is completely foiled by stairs and open Manholes.

**Mr Nobody**

Kommissar Kel wrote:
Slick wrote:In robocop ed-209 has reverse knees and has long lower legs to compensate for a front and top heavy body.

Yet is completely foiled by stairs and open Manholes.

Now I have the robocop scene in my head, but with a giant dreadnought cursing robocop.

**Commander Endova**

It think it's got to do with who's piloting the Dreadnought. Remember, there's still a human, or at least, part of one, in there.

I imagine he maneuvers his new body downhill the same way we do with ours. If we feel off balance, we shift our weight to compensate. I imagine by the time Dreadnoughts were developed, they were able to replicate the organs that regulate things like balance and sense of motion. I believe that is a vestibular function?

**MechaEmperor7000**

The head is still intact, so I assume the ears are as well. That, combined with vision and how our bodies are aware of "where" it is (likely duplicated with a Dreadnought with sensors on the outside) is how we balance, so it's plausable that a Dreadnought Pilot will innately balance himself as he walks. the body of a Dread has it's weight roughly evenly distributed on both sides, so it shouldnt be too different from how we would walk.

**Crevab**

New question: How does a dread manage to go straight up in a ruin?

**SagesStone**

Shas'O Dorian wrote:Gyroscopic stabilization? I know it's probably not the right answer but hey anyone else got "realistic" ideas?

The Emprah gives them the power to do it?

**Brother-Thunder**

Crevab wrote:New question: How does a dread manage to go straight up in a ruin?

He jumps!

**Jaon**

They roll like droidekas.

**Eura**

What hill? all I see is a crater that dared to challenge me.

**Phototoxin**

The machine spirit does it.

**Matt.Kingsley**

If it has to close cobat arms, it would climb down.
If it doesn't, it would slide down it like Bear Gryls from Man vs Wild

**PraetorDave**

Imagine how a human would walk down a hill: we bend at the waist, shifting our weight to compensate for the gradient.

Dreadnoughts have a ball joint at the "waist", therefore they would simply bend just like a normal human and shift their weight. Ta-da!