Ethak, on 26 February 2016 - 09:20 PM, said:
What tells me that in the year 3052 we can't have tanks with legs?
The things that tell you that you can are pure ignorance of how armoured vehicle combat works, what principles and physics are involved. This is all totally off topic so I'll be brief and only say this once.
Modern tanks are built with a few things in mind that are completely impossible with mechs. Firstly, frontal profile - the smaller the frontal profile of a tank, the more difficult it becomes to hit. This is achieved by using a low profile and minimal width. Tank combat makes every effort for the tank to perform optimally while using the frontal profile, hence why flanking is crucial.
Modern tanks are also better capable of absorbing the kinetic energy of incoming fire, and deflecting it, due to their stability, achieved by having a large footprint - sqaure measurement of choice in contact with the ground at all times. Mechs will always have a lower footprint, and thus less stability, due to legs and feet. Also the mech would have to actively brace to artificially increase footprint via spreading the feet apart - tanks don't have to do this actively, they are at all times as braced as they can be, barring battlefield terrain / situations.
Modern tanks are also extremely dense, which again aids them in absorbing and deflecting incoming fire. Mechs lack this density, their mass is very spread out in comparison, reducing ability to absorb and deflect enemy fire.
All of the above taken together adds up to mechs vs tanks:
Mechs are easier to hit with huge frontal profiles.
Mechs are less stable and more prone to being knocked over or imbalanced.
Mechs are less able to absorb and deflect incoming enemy fire.
Lastly, mechs are also unstable weapon platforms, and realistically speaking would not be able to devote as much of the interior to weaponry as depicted in BT/MW. So not only would they have less weaponry and / or less powerful weapons, they also would never be as accurate as tanks already are. Even advanced weaponry wouldn't change this as tanks built-in stability and low frontal profile would mean they're still a superior platform to a mech.
These are the main points of research done by the military and civilian think tanks every time this question comes up - as cool as mechs are in fiction, they will only ever be fiction.
Apologies for being off topic and for how not-brief that ended up being, won't happen again.