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Everything Identical to Original Game

2 (2.7%)

ERA: 2020

11 (15.1%)

ERA: 1945

4 (5.5%)

ERA: 1920

4 (5.5%)

ERA: 1890

2 (2.7%)

Alt-History : Scarce Resources

9 (12.3%)

Alt-History : No Modern Chemistry

1 (1.4%)

Alt-History : Lower Gravity

5 (6.8%)

Alt-History : Higher Gravity

1 (1.4%)

Alt-History : Lower Athmospheric Density

1 (1.4%)

Alt-History : Higher Athmospheric Density

4 (5.5%)

Alt-History : Low Fantasy (You know, I'm not going to do this anyway)

3 (4.1%)

Alt-History : Different Races (You know, I'm not going to do this anyway)

3 (4.1%)

Moh's Scale: Hard Science (Real Life)

6 (8.2%)

Moh's Scale: Flexible Science (Marginal technologies become viable, though not commonplace)

9 (12.3%)

Moh's Scale: Brave New World (Marginal and some Speculative technologies viable)

7 (9.6%)

Moh's Scale: Physics Plus (The rules of physics are not what they used to be) [CAUTION: GM-VETO ]

1 (1.4%)

Total Members Voted: 17

[Stirk]

Did I mention its an auto cannon, and not the single shot weapons that we used starting before WW2?

I know. I brought up the article about it, including the actual model name.

Well, they got it good enough to the point where they can dump it on top of a stick poking out of the water attached to a sub 40-odd feet below it and not fuck up the sub when it fires. And it even rotates and elevates on its own, without needing the sub to move.
I call that pretty darn close to recoilless.

The study itself is pretty out there, for one. Besides that, the mast would probably be several tons of metal, at least a few feet thick, you could probably put a normal 30mm without messing things up at that point. And it isn't really meant for serious fights, just warning shots and fighting craft to small to fight with normal weaponry.

Pretending like the gun has no recoil is just heartbreaking. There are plenty of ways to lesson recoil, but non to remove it to the point it would make a realistic mech hand weapon. Especially when you consider all recoiless weapons need to have a back blast by design. Rockets and such may be able to get rid of a high percentage of recoil, but I would be surprised if this design managed to get close to 50% less than normal.

[Aseaheru]

Who would want ha-
Oh, you mean THOSE sorts of mechs. Yah, those are just retarded.
If you are gonna dump a gun on a mech, put it at the fucking MOST STABLE part of it, not the parts you are gonna be using to stabilize.

And Im not saying the gun has no recoil at all, just that it has alot less. As for my comment about it being an autocannon, you where talking a fairwack about the single shot ones to the point where I felt it necessary to point out, again, that they are radically different.

[Stirk]

If you are gonna dump a gun on a mech, put it at the fucking MOST STABLE part of it, not the parts you are gonna be using to stabilize.

Then what is the point of giving it arms? Or if it doesn't have arms, why make it humanoid at all? A low-to the ground spider tank would still have the same benefits, with less weaknesses. I think that is what Kevak was talking about, since it would need to be changed incredibly quickly. Are we thinking about two very different kinds of mechs? I can name a dozen that wield weapons in their hands, but none that have internal weapons as a first resort.

I would probably just go with a helicopter. More mobile, more guns, less work.

And Im not saying the gun has no recoil at all, just that it has alot less. As for my comment about it being an autocannon, you where talking a fairwack about the single shot ones to the point where I felt it necessary to point out, again, that they are radically different.

Not really, the mechanism is different but the idea is the same. If anything, I would rather put a triad and true single shot on a mech, making it large enough to actual effect the vehicals it is probably fighting against.

[~Neri]

I was talking about the multilegged spidertank style mech with a railgun literally built into the length of its central chassis. Preferably a drone and not piloted by a human.

High maneuverability on rough terrain, could brace itself for firing, the preloaded barrels would allow it to eject empty barrels, possibly out the back, (Railgun barrels degrade due to heat, they should be considered disposable.) and rapidly slide a new barrel into position. Powersource would probably be built around the barrel since the bot is built around the weapon, AI core should be near the back. although the legs and sensors should be on what amount to rings circuiting the bot that allow them to realign for terrain or to compensate for lost legs. Probably more like ten or twelve legs. Also probably tube shaped and preferably kept low to the ground, although the legs could extend to allow firing over obstacles. If we make it modular, we could swap out main weapons easily enough and replace the ammo storages with extra armoring or additional power sources, or other parts to support alternate weaponsystems. With the back being able to open to eject a disposable rail barrel, it could allow for mostly recoilless standard kinetics since the gas would have a way to escape. Technically we could do whatever the fuck we wanted with a modular spiderdronetank. If we really wanted we could make it a terrestrial mining drone with a bit of work.

We are undermanned, best to focus on robots.

[Aseaheru]

Spoiler: Images for some of the things Ive been talking about for mechs in spoiler. (click to show/hide)

Both of these are from the leviathan series of books by one Scott Westerfield. Yes, not THAT realistic, but still.


Not positive where this is from, but hey, follow that image address if you want.

Another deviant art thing. I think this is what I was mostly thinking of. Arms for manipulation if needed, else for keeping the thing steady during firing.

I think I often use "mech" to mean "And vehicle used in combat with legs"
Yah, Helis are alot better than the average mech.

True, general idea is similar for them.

speaking of tankettes, if we start in the 20s I am gonna suggest we make THIS SORTA THING as soon as we can, since hey, tank, big guns, light weight, cheap, IRL version worked wonders...
Fecking ninja.

Yes, thats a thing, but drones are EXPENSIVE and SHORT RANGE, or else BIG and REALLY, REALLY EXPENSIVE. AI is EXPENSIVE and HARD. Robots are EXPENSIVE and HARD. Plus, EMPs are NASTY. As in, fry all the things nasty. as in, DEATH TO DRONES/ROBOTS/AI/ELECTRONIC/EVERYTHING BUT VACUUM TUBES.

[Stirk]

Both of these are from the leviathan series of books by one Scott Westerfield. Yes, not THAT realistic, but still.

Yeah, I remember reading those. They where steam powered, and that was one of the smaller ones. They still made some with hands, if I remember, in the second book.

As an anime fan, these are the kind of things I think about when I think "Mech"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That is what I assume everyone thinks of.

[~Neri]

The nice thing about EMP is that if EMP becomes a problem, we have bigger things to worry about since somebody just bloody nuked us.

That, or they were using a microwave projector to fry the components. The microwave projector by the way has an extremely short range and is more effective VS the living.

Drones are actually fairly longrange given the facilities to create their own power. Solar panels go a looooong way, they can easily enclose them during battle since the rotational circuit system for the legs and sensors would allow them to slide inward and between armor plates. Could also give them a system to syphon off of downed vehicle power supplies or nom on energy in electrical wires, could even have some specialized to be power stores and producers. Some specialized to repair. Others specialized for combat. They'd all look rather similar alsos, soooo bit hard to target the supports.

If we get that commnet of satellites up, we have a functional commandnet for the drones to function on.

If we let them mine for themselves, we could give them assemblers that can construct on command using available materials mined by the miners. Course the builders and miners would need a kill switch installed so they can't go rogue and go all VonNum on us.

Regardless, a self propagating army could be extremely useful down the road.

Expensive shortterm, cheap longterm.

AIwise, we couuuuld technically repurpose a videogame control AI for it, they would only really be operational within areas that have been mapped in the AI's world, but with the orbital net, easy enough to expand it. If you've ever read Daemon and its sequel, they touched on that quite a bit.

Spoiler: Images for some of the things Ive been talking about for mechs in spoiler. (click to show/hide)

Both of these are from the leviathan series of books by one Scott Westerfield. Yes, not THAT realistic, but still.


Not positive where this is from, but hey, follow that image address if you want.

Another deviant art thing. I think this is what I was mostly thinking of. Arms for manipulation if needed, else for keeping the thing steady during firing.

I think I often use "mech" to mean "And vehicle used in combat with legs"
Yah, Helis are alot better than the average mech.

True, general idea is similar for them.

speaking of tankettes, if we start in the 20s I am gonna suggest we make THIS SORTA THING as soon as we can, since hey, tank, big guns, light weight, cheap, IRL version worked wonders...
Fecking ninja.

Yes, thats a thing, but drones are EXPENSIVE and SHORT RANGE, or else BIG and REALLY, REALLY EXPENSIVE. AI is EXPENSIVE and HARD. Robots are EXPENSIVE and HARD. Plus, EMPs are NASTY. As in, fry all the things nasty. as in, DEATH TO DRONES/ROBOTS/AI/ELECTRONIC/EVERYTHING BUT VACUUM TUBES.

Uuugh, those leeegs! They're so weak! And the joints! A simple large kinetic tank slug would rend the entire darned leg!

[Taricus]

To be fair Kevak, the sane thing applies to a tank tread or wheel so.

As for the mech discussion, anyone basing their assumption on anime mechs ought to push those ones out of their mind. For the most part, stuff like that's just not practical. Rather, go search for battletech mechs or the like. Those are far more... viable in design.

[~Neri]

I'm thinking spidertank drones~ Very low to the ground, tubular with lots of legs, main weapon is built into the center of their chassis~

[10ebbor10]

Note, the start date is probably going to end up being 2020, not 2120

[~Neri]

And this is all feasible literally tomorrow with money and design added. We currently have the tech for all of this, just the current military stances are against giving the kill decision to robots due to the "what if they go rogue" thought. The U.S. is against letting the drones even fly themselves without human input, although they're perfectly fine with robotic munitions carriers and ground based anti infantry tankbots driven with an RC style controller.

[Prudent Viper]

the current military stances are against giving the kill decision to robots due to the "what if they go rogue" thought.

Wait, that's a real risk? Really? Always thought that was just sci-fi bullshit.

[Kashyyk]

I assume their concern is more "What if it starts recognising us as hostile" rather than it suddenly becoming SkyNet.

[Taricus]

'Quad' mechs have one rather important thing to note about them: They don't have much space to actually mount a weapon. While they are more stable and can use lateral movement, they aren't going to be loaded with as many weapons a bipedal design can carry.

Drones tend to lack the intelligence to be really useful outside a few niche roles. While they can be more heavily armed than a manned unit, that lack of intelligence and fine motor control.

And Ebbor, We'd have voted for a 2120 option if it was there

[Aseaheru]

I would have still voted for 2020.

Stirk,the only steampowered one was one of the handed ones. And the handed ones had no other weapons, so...


As for the whole rouge weapon thingies, the US army currently has a automated turret that osent really have a way to sense friend from foe, they just have it set to say "anything in this area? kill it."

Anyways, why are we still talking about mechs? haven't I already pointed out how flawed they can be without recoilless weapons, then point out that most of those either arent or are lasers, which are shit unless you are in space?