DarkElf, on 14 June 2012 - 05:53 PM, said:
I believe you are thinking to small. If human keep expanding and researching new tech, if human have hyperdrive and able to colonize other planet, why ever bother to build a mech for a war?
Build 1 giant drop ship, jump in, destroy the entire planet from a far or make the star go supernova.
Tterrag, on 14 June 2012 - 05:56 PM, said:
I'd imagine they would still want the planet but yeah
Tterrag, on 14 June 2012 - 06:02 PM, said:
Speaking of wiping out planets with minimal damage to the actual planet has there ever been any talk on books out lore about biological warfare?
I hate to say it, but you are missing the entire point of mech warfare...
If you actually read any of the books, they use their orbital dropships as semi-mobile battle platforms, they mount so much weaponry they could easily level a city...however, unless you are bent on destroying the entire civilization you are attacking, at some point you will have to move in and participate in ground combat...
Think about it for a second, why is the USA having such problems rooting out terrorists? It is because they [the USA] are NOT willing to nuke the entire area...it is the same thing with orbital bombardment, if you dont mind destroying EVERYTHING in the area you are attacking, go ahead and commence orbital bombardment...but be aware that all the other governments and most of your own country/planet's population will be rioting because you "murdered" millions of innocent civilians by leveling the entire area, not to even mention bio warfare...
Now that I have ragged on you for talking about orbital bombardment and bio warfare as the answer for every military problem, any mechs built in real life would be ALOT smaller than the 60 ft tall monstrosities that you see in the books.
it would be hard to match the size of a wheeled vehicle for scouting, but any "scout mech" would be designed to travel in hilly or mountainous terrain, and might weigh between 20-40 tons (a M-11 may only weigh 3.5 tons but has almost no armoring) but that is with very light armor and not much in the way of weaponry.
The M1 Abram battle tank weighs just under 70 tons, showing that some of the combat vehicles (tanks) in the mech universe are a little understated as well (something like a 40 ton Myrmidon would have such light armor that modern infantry heavy weapons would cut through it like paper)
Any "mech" created for a modern military would probably be based of a modified M1 Abram (or whatever the newest equivalent MBT is) with walker legs replacing the treads, most likely 4-8 legs similar to that small crane...I imagine the legs lifting the "mech" no more than probably 8-10 feet off the ground, meaning the "battle mech" would be no more than around 20 feet tall. The "arms" would most likely be swivel mounted machine guns or auto cannons (anything with a round more than a .57 caliber round is considered an auto cannon not a machine gun). Probably something similar to a M2 Browning for anti-infantry and a M242 Bushmaster for anti-helicopter/anti-light vehicle or heavy infantry suppression.
No matter what it would probably need a crew of at least 2, a pilot and a gunner. I think if would be the most similar to the Blue Flame or maybe the Barghest in appearance, but with maybe twice the number of legs (imagine taking a Barghest and replacing the body with a M1 Abram)