Mechs are not really personally combat units, like tanks in my mind, but more like mobile siege bases. And for the moving aspect, they could be gyrostabilized while moving
The supposedly ultmate killing machine armed with nuclear warhead is destroyed by one gritty special op for christ sake, why does the government keep making a big fuzz over this stupid mech.
What a waste of resource.
MKII Monsters on board SDF-1, on the other hand, are partly responsible for the destruction of Zentraedi main fleet numbering over hundred of thousands.
metal gear doesn't just have a mecha-wang, it also has mecha-highheels :o
If they developed a legged gun platform properly it'd be rather nasty; remember vehicles normally can't jump :p Tachikomas jump about a lot and even seem to have some kind of anti-grav tech incorporated into them.
It'd be a reasonably good artillery platform as it could storm about with alarming agility then 'stabilise' itself like ye olde standard artillery units before firing ^^ Think about those crane vehicles that deploy 4 stabalizers when they stop so they can deploy the crane itself. Heck a legged unit could do one better... it could sit down to fire XD
I'll admit that a two-legged walker designed to fire while it moved would be pretty impractical based on what's been said before, though that doesn't rule out the mech's smaller cousins; landmates/gears (from heavy gear, not metal gear solid)/battle frames/etc :o
<!--QuoteBegin-Pulse+Apr 14 2005, 02:48 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Pulse @ Apr 14 2005, 02:48 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <img src='http://www.studiooxmox.com/bilder/halo2_5x.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /> ? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Exo Skeleton? Mech Warrior Mechs will never exist in a practical military environment. Seriously would you want a 5 story tall 40 ton mech or a extremely low profile 10ton tank that can do the same damage without drawing an ungodly amount of attention Exo Skeleton are perfectly viable. about as big or slightly bigger than a man. It can give him practically limitless endurance give him the strength of 10 men. And it's mobile and agile unlike a 2 legged 40ton rpg magnet
while it won't really apply to real-life I found the super-mechs called 'titans' in one of the board games I played to be a fantastic attack-magnet like you mentioned. I'd often have it storm ahead making people freak out and unload their weaponry (which bounced off it's stupendously thick armour and shields) leaving my entire army to move forward and attack unharmed <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
hmmm... would mechs be more viable if they were so big their footprint span was the size of the white-house? I can't see something with that much mass being knocked over by an RPG and the amount of armour you could plaster something like that with would be immense. Course I wasn't really thinking about using them for actually fighting but as a mobile command center <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
That's why it'd have really, really, really big feet; like camels. It'd move with giant tremendous shuffles of deeeewm that would rend the very earth <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Where could you deploy it? It'd have to be some barren flat terrain because using it in urban combat is impractical. For the cost of one of those you could buil 10,000 tanks that do practically the same thing
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
<!--QuoteBegin-Geminosity+Apr 14 2005, 01:59 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Geminosity @ Apr 14 2005, 01:59 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> That's why it'd have really, really, really big feet; like camels. It'd move with giant tremendous shuffles of deeeewm that would rend the very earth <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> you make them sound cute <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
PulseTo create, to create and escape.Join Date: 2002-08-29Member: 1248Members, Constellation
<!--QuoteBegin-DrSuredeath+Apr 14 2005, 11:13 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (DrSuredeath @ Apr 14 2005, 11:13 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> The supposedly ultmate killing machine armed with nuclear warhead is destroyed by one gritty special op for christ sake, why does the government keep making a big fuzz over this stupid mech. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Because it's supposed to be a mobile platform from which to launch nukes and not a "Battle mech" that gets sent out to blow up ten billion tanks or whatever it is that Battletech mechs do when they're not fighting each other?
Despite a battle mech being extremely cool, it serves no logical tactical purpose. That thing is one huge walking target and a RPG magnet at that. Still cool though. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
that's the beauty of it chem... whever you deploy it becomes a barren flatland under it's mighty feet!!! forests, cities, the enemy army? It's all flat once the mobile mega battle command fortress DX has been deployed ontop of it :o
<!--QuoteBegin-StormLiong+Apr 14 2005, 02:54 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (StormLiong @ Apr 14 2005, 02:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> What we need is the people at the Pentagon to be replace by scifi fans who will push R&D into the praticalities of Mechs. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> And that will be the day when some army takes over the U.S. because all we have to defend ourselves with is cool-looking sci-fi themed mechs that were created for the sole purpose of being awesome.
what if they harnessed the awesomeness the units gave off and used it to power a mega cannon that shoots pure bolts of molten awesome though? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Geminosity+Apr 14 2005, 03:18 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Geminosity @ Apr 14 2005, 03:18 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> what if they harnessed the awesomeness the units gave off and used it to power a mega cannon that shoots pure bolts of molten awesome though? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Well then, I guess that would be alright. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Geminosity+Apr 14 2005, 03:18 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Geminosity @ Apr 14 2005, 03:18 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> what if they harnessed the awesomeness the units gave off and used it to power a mega cannon that shoots pure bolts of molten awesome though? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> That amount of awesome is unsustainable.
Only if you go by the laws of awesome fission. If you look beyond that to fusion and follow the guidelines set out by einstein it's theoretically possible to make 'cool awesome'; a limitless source of awesomeness that has no waste product!
There's also many scientists out there studying other sources of awesome including nil-point awesome and even the strange and dubious physics of quantum awesomeness :o
Of course the one ingredient missing in most of these theories is mechs. We can create the ninjas, pirates and dinosaurs but in order for any theory to be truely carried out the 4th mecha equation needs to be fufilled and in order to study that they need awesome mechs <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I think that for a serious discussion of realworld military application of mechs, two important steps must be taken first:
1) Throw everything you know about mechs from video games and science fiction (and ESPECIALLY anime) out the window. When the military thinks of weapons, it is doubtful they have a gundam/metal gear/valkyrie in mind. Even more than that, it just makes you look silly and non-anime/scifi fans (read: the people making the decisions) will never take you seriously. The only thing these mechs would have in common with real-life mechs is perhaps the paint job.
2) In the long term, cost constraints become a non-issue. Technology will continue to become cheaper and cheaper (and thus building a mech becomes more economical). When it comes to military supremacy, there really isn't a limit on how much money can be spent. The average fighter jet costs, what, $10 million each? Something like that. Its not something views as expendable like, oh say, education... :/
As far as technology goes, its hard to tell what the future holds. On one hand, look how far we've come in only 100 years. The face of civilization doesn't even look the same. On the other hand, its 2005: where the hell is my flying car?
I think one day we will have mechs, but it won't be like what you see in movies. It probably won't be any more exciting than your average fighter jet/attack helicopter/tank (which can all be pretty damn exciting). I think what's most important though is that people out there are trying.
For a little background, they're the largest vehicles fielded by the Imperium. To get a scale definiton, the average trooper comes up to the top of the toe, and the image shown is a Warhound, which is just a Scout Titan. Warlords (The MBT of the Titan world) are about a factor of 5 larger, with Imperator being the same again larger.
The background is that Titans (because they're actually controlled through pickups installed into the brain of the crew) over the centuries become quasi-intelligent creatures all to themselves, and the crew don't so much steer as "direct" it in the direction of the target.
Imagine a creature dedicated to waging war, whose only purpose was to find foes in battle & destroy them. Now give it the weaponry to level a city (which is what Warlords often do if they're required in Urban terrain, they flatten it & fight over what's left!) and you have a Titan.
Comedy Factoid : In the background there is actually a Titan class above Imperator, Apocalypse class. The Adeptus Mechanicus don't even dare use them anymore, as their sheer power & size means they eventually overwhelm the crew mentally, and effectively become skyscraper sized gods of war.
The principle there? These things take on entire land-based armies, and win. I love 'em. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
bingo! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> The titan I was thinking of when I described that funnily enough was my imperator ^^
Didn't know about the apocolypse class though, the imperator was scary enough and only matched on the armies available by the mega-gargant (well... ok the mega didn't match it but you could almost buy two for the price of the single imperator <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> ).
ShockehIf a packet drops on the web and nobody's near to see it...Join Date: 2002-11-19Member: 9336NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
What can I say, I'm a fluff-fiction ****. I can name the 18 founding legions off the top of my head too. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Shockwave+Apr 15 2005, 12:06 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Shockwave @ Apr 15 2005, 12:06 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> What can I say, I'm a fluff-fiction ****. I can name the 18 founding legions off the top of my head too. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Name their Primarchs and founding worlds and I'll be more impressed <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-EEK+Sep 22 2004, 09:47 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (EEK @ Sep 22 2004, 09:47 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Walker machines will never exist in military combat <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> You don't know that. As a matter of fact I will bet you will be wrong. Walkers are very useful in urban and uneven terrain. The main issues are: weight vrs. power, the diffucult of biped movement algorithms, and the difficulty of remote control (or even harder with autonomity). We take for granted how difficult moving on two feet is. It's not just walking and running forward or backward or strafing, you have to account for balance and uneven terrain adjustment.
Furthermore the US military brass is highly conservative to existing technology. They live by the doctrine: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Which is often a excellent doctrine for a military to follow but it tend to hamper creativity and new ideas that seem bizzare. If you want to see a perfect example of innate military opposition to new ideas and inventions which are actually good, look at the m16's history. It went even as far as intentional sabotage of the weapons prior to testing to they could be guranteed a bad performance.
Personally I think we will be more likely to see 4-8 limbs on our walkers as it is far more stable, can carry more weight, and has a massively better margin for arror with the movement.
As a matter of fact the US Army is working with Dr. Björn Verrelst and a few other civilian engineers (mostly computer engineers) to develop a spider like walker called the x403e to be a sucessor to the first generation of Talon robots in the SWORDS program. (SWORDS = Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems)
As a matter of fact: Next month, the US Army will be putting robot soldiers in the field in Iraq. The SWORDS robots are fully armed; when the human operator verifies that a suitable target is within sight, it fires. They are equipped with either the M249 (which fires 5.56-millimeter rounds at 750 rounds per minute) or the M240 (which fires 7.62-millimeter rounds at up to 1,000 per minute).
These robots are poised be the first working robots that are actually designed to break Isaac Asimov's First Law of Robotics: "A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."
The three-foot tall bots are not autonomous killing machines; they are modified Talon robots that have been used by the military for at least four years. SWORD robots are more accurate than human soldiers; the gun is mounted on a stable platform and fired electronically, eliminating trigger recoil, anticipation problems and timing the breathing cycle when firing. At present, the SWORD robot is operated with a thirty-pound control unit with two joysticks, buttons and a video screen. According to Bob Quinn, general manager of Talon robots for Foster-Miller, Inc., this control system may be replaced with a "Gameboy" type of controller hooked up to virtual reality goggles.
The SWORDS robot is described as a "bootstrapped" effort, retrofitting weapons onto an existing platform. The military is still a long way from the Tactical Autonomous Combatant (TAC) described in a Project Alpha study "Unmanned Effects: Taking the Human out of the Loop"; TAC robots are seen as being faster and more lethal than human soldiers, and able to work in more hazardous environments. This study, which was done in 2003, saw TACs as a reality by 2025.
<a href='http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=23457&session=dae.8387792.1106722472.Qfc@qMOa9dUAAHoowrA&modele=jdc_1' target='_blank'>Robotics to play major role in future warfighting</a> as it will help in the "war on terror" by reducing the risk to US soldiers in deadly situations, like house to house fighting we saw in Fallujah.
PS: The spider robot sucessor to SWORD will be used by both the Navy Seals and Army and is scheduled to be viable in 2008.
The main problem with a mech is that even I Venmoch, a weedy internet nerd with a tendency to ignore exercise and whos getting a bit flabby around the waste area. Could (in theory) take one out. I could take an RPG-2 (Or similar) and take out one of the vital legs and the whole things over (A little like the Apaches Jesus Nut.) And in an urban area, I could be anywhere. <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif' /><!--endemo-->
The jesus nut is more prone to failure from insufficient maintenance than fire... It's not that large and if an enemy gets into a position to fire upon it you're dead from the engine being torn apart anyway.
ripped some stuff from my appleseed dvd.. some nice landmate action <a href='http://yanai.blackmage.org/vidsngames/landmate-divx_v3.20a.avi' target='_blank'>quality turned out good enough..but its still 40 megs big</a>
Oh I see... the objective of this thread is not discussion but to display you favorite mechs then is it? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> Very well...
<a href='http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/megasxlr/gen1/index.html' target='_blank'>*wink*</a> (wait for intro to load)
&
Model number: ZGMF-X10A Code name: Freedom Gundam Unit type: prototype assault mobile suit Manufacturer: ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty) Operator: Orb Union/Three Ships Alliance First deployment: 5 May C.E. 71 Accommodation: pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso Dimensions: head height 18.03 meters Weight: max gross weight 71.5 metric tons Construction: unknown Powerplant: ultracompact nuclear fission reactor, power output rated at 8826 kW Equipment and design features: sensors, range unknown; Phase Shift (PS) armor; Neutron Jammer Canceler Fixed armaments: 2 x MA-M01 "Lacerta" beam saber, stored on hips, hand-carried in use; 2 x MMI-GAU2 "Picus" 76mm CIWS, fire-linked, mounted on head; 2 x M100 "Balaena" plasma beam cannon, stored in wings, mounted over shoulders in use in HiMAT mode; 2 x MMI-M15 "Xiphias" rail cannon, folded underneath hips, spread out in use in HiMAT (High Mobility Aerial Tactics) mode Optional fixed armaments (docked with METEOR): 2 x 120cm high-energy beam cannon, 2 x 93.7cm high-energy beam cannon, 2 x MA-X200 beam sword , 77 x 60cm "Erinaceus" anti-ship missile launchers (22 per pod, 12 per arm unit, 9 on tail fin) Optional hand armaments: MA-M20 "Lupus" beam rifle
Comments
And for the moving aspect, they could be gyrostabilized while moving
What a waste of resource.
MKII Monsters on board SDF-1, on the other hand, are partly responsible for the destruction of Zentraedi main fleet numbering over hundred of thousands.
If they developed a legged gun platform properly it'd be rather nasty; remember vehicles normally can't jump :p
Tachikomas jump about a lot and even seem to have some kind of anti-grav tech incorporated into them.
It'd be a reasonably good artillery platform as it could storm about with alarming agility then 'stabilise' itself like ye olde standard artillery units before firing ^^
Think about those crane vehicles that deploy 4 stabalizers when they stop so they can deploy the crane itself.
Heck a legged unit could do one better... it could sit down to fire XD
I'll admit that a two-legged walker designed to fire while it moved would be pretty impractical based on what's been said before, though that doesn't rule out the mech's smaller cousins; landmates/gears (from heavy gear, not metal gear solid)/battle frames/etc :o
? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Exo Skeleton?
Mech Warrior Mechs will never exist in a practical military environment.
Seriously would you want a 5 story tall 40 ton mech or a extremely low profile 10ton tank that can do the same damage without drawing an ungodly amount of attention
Exo Skeleton are perfectly viable. about as big or slightly bigger than a man. It can give him practically limitless endurance give him the strength of 10 men. And it's mobile and agile unlike a 2 legged 40ton rpg magnet
Mechs in games/movies are quick, for the most part, they have quick humanlike reflexes, or are able to aim quickly enough to make them useable.
hmmm... would mechs be more viable if they were so big their footprint span was the size of the white-house? I can't see something with that much mass being knocked over by an RPG and the amount of armour you could plaster something like that with would be immense. Course I wasn't really thinking about using them for actually fighting but as a mobile command center <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
you make them sound cute <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Because it's supposed to be a mobile platform from which to launch nukes and not a "Battle mech" that gets sent out to blow up ten billion tanks or whatever it is that Battletech mechs do when they're not fighting each other?
And that will be the day when some army takes over the U.S. because all we have to defend ourselves with is cool-looking sci-fi themed mechs that were created for the sole purpose of being awesome.
Well then, I guess that would be alright. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Edit: +1 postcount to get 1000
That amount of awesome is unsustainable.
There's also many scientists out there studying other sources of awesome including nil-point awesome and even the strange and dubious physics of quantum awesomeness :o
Of course the one ingredient missing in most of these theories is mechs. We can create the ninjas, pirates and dinosaurs but in order for any theory to be truely carried out the 4th mecha equation needs to be fufilled and in order to study that they need awesome mechs <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
1) Throw everything you know about mechs from video games and science fiction (and ESPECIALLY anime) out the window. When the military thinks of weapons, it is doubtful they have a gundam/metal gear/valkyrie in mind. Even more than that, it just makes you look silly and non-anime/scifi fans (read: the people making the decisions) will never take you seriously. The only thing these mechs would have in common with real-life mechs is perhaps the paint job.
2) In the long term, cost constraints become a non-issue. Technology will continue to become cheaper and cheaper (and thus building a mech becomes more economical). When it comes to military supremacy, there really isn't a limit on how much money can be spent. The average fighter jet costs, what, $10 million each? Something like that. Its not something views as expendable like, oh say, education... :/
As far as technology goes, its hard to tell what the future holds. On one hand, look how far we've come in only 100 years. The face of civilization doesn't even look the same. On the other hand, its 2005: where the hell is my flying car?
I think one day we will have mechs, but it won't be like what you see in movies. It probably won't be any more exciting than your average fighter jet/attack helicopter/tank (which can all be pretty damn exciting). I think what's most important though is that people out there are trying.
<img src='http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhound%20pictures/Paintwarhound4g.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
For a little background, they're the largest vehicles fielded by the Imperium. To get a scale definiton, the average trooper comes up to the top of the toe, and the image shown is a Warhound, which is just a Scout Titan. Warlords (The MBT of the Titan world) are about a factor of 5 larger, with Imperator being the same again larger.
The background is that Titans (because they're actually controlled through pickups installed into the brain of the crew) over the centuries become quasi-intelligent creatures all to themselves, and the crew don't so much steer as "direct" it in the direction of the target.
Imagine a creature dedicated to waging war, whose only purpose was to find foes in battle & destroy them. Now give it the weaponry to level a city (which is what Warlords often do if they're required in Urban terrain, they flatten it & fight over what's left!) and you have a Titan.
Comedy Factoid : In the background there is actually a Titan class above Imperator, Apocalypse class. The Adeptus Mechanicus don't even dare use them anymore, as their sheer power & size means they eventually overwhelm the crew mentally, and effectively become skyscraper sized gods of war.
The principle there? These things take on entire land-based armies, and win. I love 'em. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
- Shockwave
The titan I was thinking of when I described that funnily enough was my imperator ^^
Didn't know about the apocolypse class though, the imperator was scary enough and only matched on the armies available by the mega-gargant (well... ok the mega didn't match it but you could almost buy two for the price of the single imperator <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> ).
Name their Primarchs and founding worlds and I'll be more impressed <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
You don't know that. As a matter of fact I will bet you will be wrong. Walkers are very useful in urban and uneven terrain. The main issues are: weight vrs. power, the diffucult of biped movement algorithms, and the difficulty of remote control (or even harder with autonomity). We take for granted how difficult moving on two feet is. It's not just walking and running forward or backward or strafing, you have to account for balance and uneven terrain adjustment.
Furthermore the US military brass is highly conservative to existing technology. They live by the doctrine: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Which is often a excellent doctrine for a military to follow but it tend to hamper creativity and new ideas that seem bizzare. If you want to see a perfect example of innate military opposition to new ideas and inventions which are actually good, look at the m16's history. It went even as far as intentional sabotage of the weapons prior to testing to they could be guranteed a bad performance.
Personally I think we will be more likely to see 4-8 limbs on our walkers as it is far more stable, can carry more weight, and has a massively better margin for arror with the movement.
As a matter of fact the US Army is working with Dr. Björn Verrelst and a few other civilian engineers (mostly computer engineers) to develop a spider like walker called the x403e to be a sucessor to the first generation of Talon robots in the SWORDS program. (SWORDS = Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems)
As a matter of fact:
Next month, the US Army will be putting robot soldiers in the field in Iraq. The SWORDS robots are fully armed; when the human operator verifies that a suitable target is within sight, it fires. They are equipped with either the M249 (which fires 5.56-millimeter rounds at 750 rounds per minute) or the M240 (which fires 7.62-millimeter rounds at up to 1,000 per minute).
These robots are poised be the first working robots that are actually designed to break Isaac Asimov's First Law of Robotics: "A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."
The three-foot tall bots are not autonomous killing machines; they are modified Talon robots that have been used by the military for at least four years. SWORD robots are more accurate than human soldiers; the gun is mounted on a stable platform and fired electronically, eliminating trigger recoil, anticipation problems and timing the breathing cycle when firing. At present, the SWORD robot is operated with a thirty-pound control unit with two joysticks, buttons and a video screen. According to Bob Quinn, general manager of Talon robots for Foster-Miller, Inc., this control system may be replaced with a "Gameboy" type of controller hooked up to virtual reality goggles.
The SWORDS robot is described as a "bootstrapped" effort, retrofitting weapons onto an existing platform. The military is still a long way from the Tactical Autonomous Combatant (TAC) described in a Project Alpha study "Unmanned Effects: Taking the Human out of the Loop"; TAC robots are seen as being faster and more lethal than human soldiers, and able to work in more hazardous environments. This study, which was done in 2003, saw TACs as a reality by 2025.
<a href='http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=23457&session=dae.8387792.1106722472.Qfc@qMOa9dUAAHoowrA&modele=jdc_1' target='_blank'>Robotics to play major role in future warfighting</a> as it will help in the "war on terror" by reducing the risk to US soldiers in deadly situations, like house to house fighting we saw in Fallujah.
PS: The spider robot sucessor to SWORD will be used by both the Navy Seals and Army and is scheduled to be viable in 2008.
<a href='http://yanai.blackmage.org/vidsngames/landmate-divx_v3.20a.avi' target='_blank'>quality turned out good enough..but its still 40 megs big</a>
<a href='http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/megasxlr/gen1/index.html' target='_blank'>*wink*</a> (wait for intro to load)
&
Model number: ZGMF-X10A
Code name: Freedom Gundam
Unit type: prototype assault mobile suit
Manufacturer: ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty)
Operator: Orb Union/Three Ships Alliance
First deployment: 5 May C.E. 71
Accommodation: pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso
Dimensions: head height 18.03 meters
Weight: max gross weight 71.5 metric tons
Construction: unknown
Powerplant: ultracompact nuclear fission reactor, power output rated at 8826 kW
Equipment and design features: sensors, range unknown; Phase Shift (PS) armor; Neutron Jammer Canceler
Fixed armaments: 2 x MA-M01 "Lacerta" beam saber, stored on hips, hand-carried in use; 2 x MMI-GAU2 "Picus" 76mm CIWS, fire-linked, mounted on head; 2 x M100 "Balaena" plasma beam cannon, stored in wings, mounted over shoulders in use in HiMAT mode; 2 x MMI-M15 "Xiphias" rail cannon, folded underneath hips, spread out in use in HiMAT (High Mobility Aerial Tactics) mode
Optional fixed armaments (docked with METEOR): 2 x 120cm high-energy beam cannon, 2 x 93.7cm high-energy beam cannon, 2 x MA-X200 beam sword , 77 x 60cm "Erinaceus" anti-ship missile launchers (22 per pod, 12 per arm unit, 9 on tail fin)
Optional hand armaments: MA-M20 "Lupus" beam rifle
PIC: