19 replies to this topic

[theta123]

I have been writing a little fanfiction for a while now. Mostly for self entertainment but its coming out rather well. I've got a few hundred pages by now.
(Long story short, alien invasion of earth, they create battlemechs, they fight. cliche scenario, but its my favorite of all SCI-FI lore)

But yeah, i am not the schedule type of guy..i started in the middle, then went to the mid-end
then to the beginning

YOU NAME IT. Why? because things came up...suddently

And now i am writing with much joy about the technical specs of battlemechs...but i find out...
how frikking tall are these battlemechs anyway?

The battlemaster is the first operational battlemech in the story. So yeah, getting the height of this mech alone can get my further alot. But i'm also searching for the heights of various mechs to use as a comparison. Namely the=

-Atlas
-Banshee
-Highlander
-Jagermech
-Thunderbolt
-Shadowhawk
-Griffin (rather important)
-Vindicator
-Jenner
-Raven
-Firestarter

I dont need exact heights tough. A "This mech is taller then that mech" alone would be sufficient on only a few of the above mentioned mechs

[Kveldulf]

The average 'mech height, according to the Battletech fluff, is 10 meters. The Atlas is (If I recall correctly) about 11 or 12 meters in height and is one of the taller 'mechs. If I were to give a rough estimate to go by I would say light mechs 8 meters, medium 9, heavy 10, assault 11. Subtract a meter or so for a hunched over design (ala Raven and Catapult) and add up to a meter for very upright designs (ala Atlas and Griffon).

[HlynkaCG]

Cannonically the Banshee is the tallest mech ever mass produced and it's somewhere in the 16 - 18 meter range, sources disagree on it's exact height.

Beyond that Kveldulf is correct in that most mechs are described as being approximately 3 stories tall (10 meters give or take) with lighter mechs obviously being smaller.

Edited by HlynkaCG, 19 August 2014 - 02:33 PM.

[kuangmk11]

There are not really any hard numbers and there are contradictions in lots of the source material. You are just going to get a general idea of the height. Here is the chart from TRO 3039 with height in meters extrapolated based on a 1.7 meter average human male height.

[Mech42Ace]

Atlas is 18 meters tall

[theta123]

Thank you very much guys. This can get me heck-alot further.

[CN9 ACE PILOT]

I did a fairly simple test to see ingame how tall my Centurion was.

The in game maps are coded by XYZ axis in unlabeled units, but its fairly easy to find they are measuring it by meters, since distance for weapons will be the same x/y plane. By calculating your distance fallen on a ledge roughly similar to your size, and calculating the difference in Z and the velocity of the fall, (Which is in meters, hence i found it incredibly odd they did f/s for fall damage originally) you can find the height of a 'mech.

CN9's are roughly 16m tall give or take a few cm or around 52ft. Ingame at least.

ps. toggle f9 to see the x/y/z axis, If i remembered correctly, X+ was north X- south, Y+ east Y-west, Z+up Z-down, i had a bunch of sticky notes and spent quite a few hours number crunching lol, i don't know what i did with them, so if i get the directions wrong, its fairly easy to figure it out.

Edited by CN9 ACE PILOT, 20 August 2014 - 01:56 PM.

[Nebfer]

Mech42Ace, on 19 August 2014 - 04:05 PM, said:

Atlas is 18 meters tall

Completely incorrect no assault mechs are that tall, MW3 & Mechcommanders tended to make them a bit taller than they are supposed to be.

From what I have
Yu Huang = 13m Threads of ambition
Vixen under 13m Ghost of Winter (ceiling was 13m high with the top of the mech being a few meters lower)
Jupiter = 13m A Call to arms
Victor = 14m lethal heritage, Sword and dagger seems to agree (roughly 1/3rd the height of a 45m tall wall, though the book supposedly also mentions it's around 10 meters tall?)
Hatcheman = 11m lethal heritage
Centurion 10+ meter
Firestarter = 12m Heir to the dragon
Gallowglas = 10 meter highlander gambit
Marauder =12m Thunder rift
Shadow hawk Mercenary star =10m?
Warhammer =10m Shrapnel
Atlas =13m Shrapnel
Vindicator =9m tall
Phoenix Hawk =11m lethal heritage
Goliath =nearly 12m Warrior ripost
Locust =10m Warrior coupa
Crusader =10m Assumption of risk

This largely comes from a DA era book called the Technology of destruction IIRC...
Phoenix Hawk 11m
Victor 14m
Atlas 13m
Black Hawk 9m
Black Knight 11m
Catapult 11m -12m to the top of the missile racks
Centurion 11m
Cougar 10m
Firestarter 10m
Hatchetman 11m
Locust 10m
Mad Cat III 11m
Mongoose II 10m
Shadow Cat II 11m
Spider 11m
Thor 11m -12m if you count the shoulder-mounted missile rack
Thunderbolt 12m
Uller 9m
Vulture 11m
Wolfhound 11m
Zeus 12m
Bushwacker just under 8m
Annihilator 12m
Legionnaire 12m

[Strum Wealh]

Nebfer, on 07 September 2014 - 03:51 PM, said:

Completely incorrect no assault mechs are that tall, MW3 & Mechcommanders tended to make them a bit taller than they are supposed to be.

From what I have
Yu Huang = 13m Threads of ambition
Vixen under 13m Ghost of Winter (ceiling was 13m high with the top of the mech being a few meters lower)
Jupiter = 13m A Call to arms
Victor = 14m lethal heritage, Sword and dagger seems to agree (roughly 1/3rd the height of a 45m tall wall, though the book supposedly also mentions it's around 10 meters tall?)
Hatcheman = 11m lethal heritage
Centurion 10+ meter
Firestarter = 12m Heir to the dragon
Gallowglas = 10 meter highlander gambit
Marauder =12m Thunder rift
Shadow hawk Mercenary star =10m?
Warhammer =10m Shrapnel
Atlas =13m Shrapnel
Vindicator =9m tall
Phoenix Hawk =11m lethal heritage
Goliath =nearly 12m Warrior ripost
Locust =10m Warrior coupa
Crusader =10m Assumption of risk

This largely comes from a DA era book called the Technology of destruction IIRC...
Phoenix Hawk 11m
Victor 14m
Atlas 13m
Black Hawk 9m
Black Knight 11m
Catapult 11m -12m to the top of the missile racks
Centurion 11m
Cougar 10m
Firestarter 10m
Hatchetman 11m
Locust 10m
Mad Cat III 11m
Mongoose II 10m
Shadow Cat II 11m
Spider 11m
Thor 11m -12m if you count the shoulder-mounted missile rack
Thunderbolt 12m
Uller 9m
Vulture 11m
Wolfhound 11m
Zeus 12m
Bushwacker just under 8m
Annihilator 12m
Legionnaire 12m

Excellent post, Nebfer!

[Nebfer]

Basically all battlemechs fall between 8 and 14 meters, also their is this image of the 3050 era clan mechs, theirs a few minor contradictions with the previously noted lists (though at the most the differences are a meter apart)
Thor 11m -12m below pic is 12.4m
Black Hawk 9m below pic lists 8.3m
Uller 9m the below pic lists 8.7m
Vulture 11m below pic is 11m

Per the rules a mech can hide behind a level 2 hill which is 12m tall, something that is notably higher than this would make it a bit hard to hide behind (sans bending over or something like that).

[Mech42Ace]

Nebfer, on 07 September 2014 - 03:51 PM, said:

Completely incorrect no assault mechs are that tall, MW3 & Mechcommanders tended to make them a bit taller than they are supposed to be.

From what I have
Yu Huang = 13m Threads of ambition
Vixen under 13m Ghost of Winter (ceiling was 13m high with the top of the mech being a few meters lower)
Jupiter = 13m A Call to arms
Victor = 14m lethal heritage, Sword and dagger seems to agree (roughly 1/3rd the height of a 45m tall wall, though the book
supposedly also mentions it's around 10 meters tall?)

Hatcheman = 11m lethal heritage
Centurion 10+ meter
Firestarter = 12m Heir to the dragon
Gallowglas = 10 meter highlander gambit
Marauder =12m Thunder rift
Shadow hawk Mercenary star =10m?
Warhammer =10m Shrapnel
Atlas =13m Shrapnel
Vindicator =9m tall
Phoenix Hawk =11m lethal heritage
Goliath =nearly 12m Warrior ripost
Locust =10m Warrior coupa
Crusader =10m Assumption of risk

This largely comes from a DA era book called the Technology of destruction IIRC...
Phoenix Hawk 11m
Victor 14m
Atlas 13m
Black Hawk 9m
Black Knight 11m
Catapult 11m -12m to the top of the missile racks
Centurion 11m
Cougar 10m
Firestarter 10m
Hatchetman 11m
Locust 10m
Mad Cat III 11m
Mongoose II 10m
Shadow Cat II 11m
Spider 11m
Thor 11m -12m if you count the shoulder-mounted missile rack
Thunderbolt 12m
Uller 9m
Vulture 11m
Wolfhound 11m
Zeus 12m
Bushwacker just under 8m
Annihilator 12m
Legionnaire 12m

Damn I stand corrected. Sorry for the false information I just remember one of the DEV'S telling us that.
Though I did find this:

"The official height of a Mech has always been a discussion point, some official products have given different heights for certain Mechs, licenced products (like computer games) have given a plethora of conflicting heights for Mechs, and the official miniatures are so out of scale that it isn't funny. The thing that binds most official direct sources of height is that almost all of them are pretty old. So now enter the "General Size Comparison Chart" from Technical Readout: 3039 (2009), that's pretty recent.

We have a couple of Mechs from the different weight classes, Vehicles from the various weight classes, a couple of Dropships (Leopard, Union, Overlord) and a 'standard' man. If we measure the 'standard' man at ~1.8m tall (and the height of the Dropships confirms that approximation) we get heights for the Mechs listed.

Mechs (height)
Light => Commando (25 ton) = 9m
Medium => Enforcer (50 ton) = 12m
Heavy => Grashopper (70 ton) = 14m
Assault => Banshee (95 ton) = 15.2m

Vehicles (length)
Light => J. Edgar Light Hover Tank = 4.7m
Medium => Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun = 6.9m
Heavy => Rommel Tank = 8.6m
Assault => Banshee = 9.5m

Now we all know that the IWM and RPE miniatures aren't to scale, but a lot of us thought that the Armorcast 1:60 (advertised) were to scale:
Atlas (100 ton) => 10.5" (26.5cm) = ~16m
Mad Cat (75 ton) => 8.25" (21cm) = ~12.5m
Vulture (60 ton) => 8.25" (21cm) = ~12.5m

I could believe the height of 16m for the Atlas it's 100 tons (5 tons heavier then the Banshee), so I can explain the 0.8m extra. The Mad Cat and the Vulture are pretty much the same size, which isn't all that strange because they have the same underchassis (at least visually). The Madcat discrepancy (when compared to the grasshopper) could be explained due to the being bird legs, the Vulture is pretty hard to explain imho (with 15 ton difference in weight). So a 20 ton Locust could be half the size of a 100 ton Atlas according to these figures.

The question is how 'cannon' are these drawings, the extracted heights and how comfortable are you with these heights in your game?"

Link here to original post:
http://bg.battletech...hp?topic=5751.0

Edited by Mech42Ace, 12 September 2014 - 06:33 AM.

[theta123]

Wow guys thanks a Bunch.

I have another question...Would the cockpit of a battlemaster allow a stranded civilian (Girl 19 ish years old, 1.63meters tall) to be stuffed/seated somewhere? There is a part where the Protagonist inside his BLR-1G finds a girl under attack by Alien forces. He dispatches the forces quickly, and then takes in the unconsious girl inside the cockpit back towards the frontline.

[Nebfer]

theta123, on 16 September 2014 - 06:57 AM, said:

Wow guys thanks a Bunch.

I have another question...Would the cockpit of a battlemaster allow a stranded civilian (Girl 19 ish years old, 1.63meters tall) to be stuffed/seated somewhere? There is a part where the Protagonist inside his BLR-1G finds a girl under attack by Alien forces. He dispatches the forces quickly, and then takes in the unconsious girl inside the cockpit back towards the frontline.

Many a Mech has room for a Jump seat, so a Second passenger can be employed, Though Clan mechs I do not believe have as much room, and units with the small cockpit option even less.

[theta123]

And how would a mech pilot decend from his mech when no ample stairs/facilities are located? A line. rope? Ropeladder??

[Mech42Ace]

That's a good qeustion, I think either the pilot would have to eject, or jump though I remember in mechassault you always had a ladder that popped out from somewhere in your mech. Hope this helps.

(Also to hardcore BT fans I'm sorry I brought up mechassault.)

[Egomane]

theta123, on 17 September 2014 - 04:18 AM, said:

And how would a mech pilot decend from his mech when no ample stairs/facilities are located? A line. rope? Ropeladder??

The pilot can always make his mech go prone, if he has no rope ladder available. Might even be the better option, the to drag an unconcious body up ten meters high on nothing but footholes or a rope ladder.

[9erRed]

Greetings all,

From what I read in the books there was a wire ladder available in all Mechs.

- Again, depending on the size of the Mech, if it could adapt the kneeling position, this would facilitate a much shorter climb.
- The 19 yr old in question should not be that difficult to shoulder carry that shorter height, at least for a fit MechWarrior Pilot.
- at the least she could be harnessed and pulled up.

Now all Mech's with hands can be used to 'carefully' pick up a person, the BattleMaster's left arm has a perfectly good hand on it. So the Pilot could either position the hand, exit, place her in, and bring the hand to the cockpit area. Or just pick her up and move her to the cockpit hatch location. All normally requiring the Mech to kneel first.

- newer 'Mechs have more capable computers, programming, and sensor controls that allow for some more complex movements such as grasping an improvised club, carefully carrying an unconscious pilot, or engaging in large scale battlefield engineering, all without much pilot input.
- the main joystick; The finger rests are sensitive and are used to help control the 'Mechs hands in physical modes. When in physical mode the joystick moves up and down as well as side to side.

9erRed

[Mech42Ace]

9erRed, on 17 September 2014 - 11:44 AM, said:

Greetings all,

From what I read in the books there was a wire ladder available in all Mechs.

- Again, depending on the size of the Mech, if it could adapt the kneeling position, this would facilitate a much shorter climb.
- The 19 yr old in question should not be that difficult to shoulder carry that shorter height, at least for a fit MechWarrior Pilot.
- at the least she could be harnessed and pulled up.

Now all Mech's with hands can be used to 'carefully' pick up a person, the BattleMaster's left arm has a perfectly good hand on it. So the Pilot could either position the hand, exit, place her in, and bring the hand to the cockpit area. Or just pick her up and move her to the cockpit hatch location. All normally requiring the Mech to kneel first.

- newer 'Mechs have more capable computers, programming, and sensor controls that allow for some more complex movements such as grasping an improvised club, carefully carrying an unconscious pilot, or engaging in large scale battlefield engineering, all without much pilot input.
- the main joystick; The finger rests are sensitive and are used to help control the 'Mechs hands in physical modes. When in physical mode the joystick moves up and down as well as side to side.

9erRed

Yea I bet the battlemaster could pick her up, kinda like in the iron Giant Movie?

[theta123]

Why dint i tought of this before...Derp....


A big big BIG thank you to all you fine gentlemen for providing me with this fantastic info.
If this ever goes to retail, a free copy for anyone who helped

but i bet that would be impossible because i included the warhammer and Archer mech in the story.......And one evil american company has the rights to those mechs

[Mech42Ace]

theta123, on 18 September 2014 - 09:15 AM, said:

Why dint i tought of this before...Derp....


A big big BIG thank you to all you fine gentlemen for providing me with this fantastic info.
If this ever goes to retail, a free copy for anyone who helped

but i bet that would be impossible because i included the warhammer and Archer mech in the story.......And one evil american company has the rights to those mechs

Good luck on this book!

Need any other info it might not be that accurate but I'm happy to help!

Also using the war hammer and Archer wouldn't be TO much of a problem, they're both reseen mechs right? Yea I really wish HG didn't own the rights to those mechs either. *sigh*

Edited by Mech42Ace, 18 September 2014 - 08:37 PM.