63 replies to this topic

[Bront]

Increased shake when getting hit in the air? Fine. Makes sense.

Actual change in trajectory? Bad. Let's assume an AC20 round weighs 1/10th of a ton (the extra .2 tons are the loading mechanism, and it makes the math simple). Round hitting a spider means you have something 1/100th of the weight hitting the mech. That's actually pretty close to the baseball analogy earlier. Sure it's traveling fast, but there;s a lot of force behind the mech already. And that's just the current lightest comparison. Get up to the highlander, and you're really not talking about a lot of mass, regardless of how fast it's traveling.

[Vernon Jettlund]

Bront, on 01 October 2013 - 01:00 PM, said:

Increased shake when getting hit in the air? Fine. Makes sense.

Actual change in trajectory? Bad. Let's assume an AC20 round weighs 1/10th of a ton (the extra .2 tons are the loading mechanism, and it makes the math simple). Round hitting a spider means you have something 1/100th of the weight hitting the mech. That's actually pretty close to the baseball analogy earlier. Sure it's traveling fast, but there;s a lot of force behind the mech already. And that's just the current lightest comparison. Get up to the highlander, and you're really not talking about a lot of mass, regardless of how fast it's traveling.

As someone pointed out earlier, an AC/20 round actually impacts with something like 314 tons of energy (I may be misquoting, and I did not see the math, but 900m/s * 100kg = 90 metric tons if impact takes place over 1 second, or ~300 tons if 1/3 of a second) imparted from its velocity alone, not to mention whatever energy is added from the explosive. Add to that the energy from the forward movement of the mech (assuming you are charging at one another, roughly head-on) and it is just that much higher - it will actually hit harder if you are moving towards it, the net velocity is the projective speed + your mech speed, which can be a significant fraction of the projectile's starting velocity.

In short, physics states that a lot of energy is being imparted, a whole lot, which is why the AC/20 is a scary scary weapon. More energy than a Atlas has weight, almost certainly, and possibly by a factor of 3, depending how you calc it.

[Vernon Jettlund]

Vernon Jettlund, on 01 October 2013 - 01:47 PM, said:

As someone pointed out earlier, an AC/20 round actually impacts with something like 314 tons of energy (I may be misquoting, and I did not see the math, but 900m/s * 100kg = 90 metric tons if impact takes place over 1 second, or ~300 tons if 1/3 of a second) imparted from its velocity alone, not to mention whatever energy is added from the explosive. Add to that the energy from the forward movement of the mech (assuming you are charging at one another, roughly head-on) and it is just that much higher - it will actually hit harder if you are moving towards it, the net velocity is the projective speed + your mech speed, which can be a significant fraction of the projectile's starting velocity.

In short, physics states that a lot of energy is being imparted, a whole lot, which is why the AC/20 is a scary scary weapon. More energy than a Atlas has weight, almost certainly, and possibly by a factor of 3, depending how you calc it.

Actually, I think I miscalculated, I mistook the result to be in kilos, but it should be in Newtons, which brings it down to 10-30 metric tons - still enough to send a light airborne, or knock a larger mech over.

[Bront]

Vernon Jettlund, on 01 October 2013 - 01:47 PM, said:

As someone pointed out earlier, an AC/20 round actually impacts with something like 314 tons of energy (I may be misquoting, and I did not see the math, but 900m/s * 100kg = 90 metric tons if impact takes place over 1 second, or ~300 tons if 1/3 of a second) imparted from its velocity alone, not to mention whatever energy is added from the explosive. Add to that the energy from the forward movement of the mech (assuming you are charging at one another, roughly head-on) and it is just that much higher - it will actually hit harder if you are moving towards it, the net velocity is the projective speed + your mech speed, which can be a significant fraction of the projectile's starting velocity.

In short, physics states that a lot of energy is being imparted, a whole lot, which is why the AC/20 is a scary scary weapon. More energy than a Atlas has weight, almost certainly, and possibly by a factor of 3, depending how you calc it.

On the other hand, this is a game about giant walking robots.

The other issue is, if you ad that, then what about jumping mechs FIRING the weapons? Shouldn't they be going the other way or have slower than normal weapons?

Even if the real physics would make it so (which they may), I think it's not a good idea.