13 replies to this topic

[Tom Sawyer]

I can understand that battletech is a game. That big giant stompy combat robots are fiction. But so often today's science fiction becomes tomorrows science fact.

http://www.foxnews.c...-and-climb.html

Look back at some of the campy science fiction series. Like 60's star trek. Doors that open when someone approaches? Ludicrous. Faster than the speed of sound? Never will happen. Treads will always be the mech of tomorrow. Big stompy bots are just ludicrous.

But what if something like myomer suddenly was invented? Again anything is possible.

The future has so many branches and paths, but then again we are living yesterdays future today.

[Humpday]

Wouldn't it be nuts if BT happend IRL.
God everyone would be geeked out.

What if they build mini mechs, and we could all play paintball...but in mechs!

[Eisenhorne]

I think battlemechs will eventually happen because collectively enough people want them to happen. They may never be practical weapons of war, but I could definitely see them involved in demolition derbies and such.

[Angel of Annihilation]

I think mechs will happen but they aren't going to be anything near the scale of Battletech. In fact I envision things being very much like Heavy Gear with mechs that are generally only 3-4 meters tall give of take. Think an Abrams tank stood up on end. Anything bigger can't really hide itself but something 9-12 feet tall would be able to effectively conceal itself behind 1-story homes or even light forest. Also material cost will be a major factor.

As far as the tech, we are really already there expect for one thing, a power source small enough to fit in a mech but powerful enough to give the mech top performance. Everything else we have including the ability for a robot to self balance on two legs.

Another thing to consider is that even if we do have mechs, there is a big possibility they will be unmanned especially since we are already becoming so reliant on drones.

[Luminis]

Exo-skeletons? Yes, very likely. They're actively being developed after all.

Mechs like BT / MW or various animes? Nope. Too susceptible to air strikes, too many drawbacks compared to tanks to be worth the few advantages.

[TheArisen]

Imo the biggest a combat mech will ever get is something like a Votoms.

[BumbleBee]

I'll be happy with an Elemental

[Bulletsponge0]

[process]

There are many challenges to overcome before we get anywhere close to giant robits. Square-cube law, materials engineering, energy generation and storage to name a few. Plus determining what a mech would do better than something more utilitarian.

[Snowbluff]

Luminis, on 11 May 2018 - 12:55 PM, said:

Exo-skeletons? Yes, very likely. They're actively being developed after all.

Mechs like BT / MW or various animes? Nope. Too susceptible to air strikes, too many drawbacks compared to tanks to be worth the few advantages.

Not that tanks will fair well against airstrike. Even in the future, ground based APS radars are too weak, easily jammed by better cooled A/C radar, and the munitions are generally made to take out smaller projectiles, like an RPG, which weighs a fraction of even an SDB.

[Dragonporn]

Is that me or it is a Jenner IIC early prototype?...

Edited by Dragonporn, 11 May 2018 - 06:02 PM.

[FupDup]

process, on 11 May 2018 - 03:02 PM, said:

...Plus determining what a mech would do better than something more utilitarian.

Well, depending on the specific sizing a mech would be able to maneuver much more effectively in environments with limited horizontal space but excess vertical space (i.e. urban and jungle). It would have to be a fairly small-ish mech though, not anywhere close to a Battletech heavy or assault size.

[El Bandito]

Stupid Fox News. Which part of that was nightmare-inducing? I like my robots running, jumping, and firing rockets out of their crotch launchers.

Edited by El Bandito, 11 May 2018 - 08:29 PM.

[Bombast]

Tom Sawyer, on 11 May 2018 - 12:05 PM, said:

But what if something like myomer suddenly was invented? Again anything is possible.

Artificial muscle mass predate Battletech, actually. They didn't make that up, they just extrapolated it to giant robots.

Refinement of the technology has been going on for decades. Just recently they made a pretty big breakthrough in both durability and ease of manufacturing

Tom Sawyer, on 11 May 2018 - 12:05 PM, said:

Faster than the speed of sound? Never will happen.

I assume you mean speed of light, since we've already beaten the speed of sound (Which is actually relative, unlike the speed of light which is constant). Traveling faster than the speed of light is mathematically feasible, actually - You just can't actually go faster than the speed of light. We already know of several theoretically possible methods of FTL speed, all of which involve cheating (Bending or bypassing space), we just don't quite know how to actually affect the changes necessary to make them work. Much like how we understand how gravity works, we just don't yet have the machinery necessary to bend it to our will.