Bishop Steiner, on 05 June 2018 - 05:42 PM, said:
Is it pneumatic instead of Myomer though, or were pneumatic added to help absorb shock? One doesn't rule out the other and other mech have been shown with pneumatic. But all battlemechs are built around the myomer/skeleton design, to my recollection. as for the Flea itself, I do prefer the style of the one shown in the old rules of warfare.
more along the lines of this guy
One could consider it as shock absorbtion, but this would only really make sense for the 15 ton Flea as that is the only one that jumps... and then in both versions of its art, it is the only Flea that fails to have it.
Also would having gas-powered cylinders aka pnuematics not have the side effect of getting in the way of a mech that runs at 60 miles per hour? Evidently it does get in the way of going 150 kph (93+ mph) as such its removed from the only variant that genuinely would need shock absorption (unless we make those landings more gentle with the same jumpjets but considering that they count as twice their weight and power by allowing two jumps in 10 seconds for a total travel of 8 hexes on only 4 jumpjets... that's expecting a lot of them to not back them up with said shock absorbers, compared to the rest that never jump at all.)
(Side note your leg design has the same issue that theirs does, there's no visible means of angling the legs for a change of direction. Though at least the ankle design appears to allow for rotating. The legs might at the hip but it seems unlikely. I may borrow your ankle design.
poopenshire, on 06 June 2018 - 04:21 AM, said:
From an engineering stand point, there is precedent to consider this as shock absorption. The idea and implementation of Myomer from a Bio-Kinetic stand point is of the same application of muscle, which is an analog application of force along a rigid support structure for controlled application of said force. Pneumatics are more Binary, meaning you don't get great fine tuned speed control, its mostly an on off type of situation. As I will state below this can be remedied by application of multiple pumps for additional force application. With this size and mass distribution we are talking fluid applications here obviously not air based.
Pneumatics are strong, but slow, and as I said tend to not have fine speed control (yes I know you can have Pneumatic actuators that have variable speed, but not in the same sense as other types of force application, these are limited by pump size and strength). Speed can be achieved with them, but it requires complex engineering and the Flea was a mass produced Mech so complex engineering would not suit this style. You talking about multiple pumps and reservoirs to apply pressure adding to the complexity and well just making things difficult.
When all is said and done from a practical standpoint, I would call it artistic license. Someone somewhere thought it looked cool, and I do like the look of the old Flea with it, even though the purpose for it is rather mundane and not useful. Muscle by its nature and structure around bone and by design Myomer and Internal Structure do absorb so much energy as I would say the mech might only need Pneumatics to suppliment forces at high speed or angular velocity, i.e. making sharp turns or added support from changes in height.
Slow is a bit perplexing. While I'm certain they aren't as fast as muscles, the examples I have seen have been jerky, violent, and perhaps a bit too fast. Then again the examples I have seen has also been those of the King Kong animatronic in Universal Studios. This was back in the 90s. Though looking at more recent stuff there seems to be much finer control.
Though from what I seen there's even less reason to believe it is slow when there's enough power behind it. The question is would be fast enough, why is it only there, and the even bigger mystery: Doesn't that limit both the range in which the limb can move and restrict it to only being able to move it one way (no pivoting at an angle at the knee or pushing off sideways to help it stand back up).
Sadly supporting sharp turns seems unlikely as it doesn't allow the mech to make said turns, in fact theFlea's design prohibits this throughout the entire leg design by not having any method to pivot left/right. This however is a failure on the artists.
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All said and done though, the Flea I have made is currently shaped like the red and black one. The viewport is pretty limited but 2 to 4 monitors can supplement this to a limited capacity especially for a rear turret. The internal space is relatively cramped, though the mech is a bit thicker than Bishop's version. As that particular one is the Flea 4 (aka the Trooper 4), I kinda made the arms in such a way that they can come close to converging when faced forward or backward, but when pointed down they spread and when pointed up they converge tightly. This was done to give it a unique trait as well as yet another flaw. However I may scrap this aspect.
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Pain G0D, on 06 June 2018 - 06:24 AM, said:
The flea looks like a locust . What exactly is the difference ?
A Locust is a very slim and until recently a somewhat tall, long-legged design that can reach 129.6 kph or 80+ miles per hour. Its weapons are few and basic.
A Flea is a short, stocky and box on short stubby legs that tops out at 97 kph or barely more than 60 miles per hour and tends to carry quite a bit more weapons. Some carry either a lot more small weapons and some carry really large weapons such as the large laser (which most lights do not carry).
In terms of 1980s art/lore... A Flea can torso twist. A Locust cannot. Both have turrets for their CT weapons, however the Flea could have it mounted to the front or the back. The Locust only mounts the turret on the front, though artistically it has quite a bit more 'aiming range' than the Flea does. Locust typically has better sensors and its taller height gives it more of a "vantage point" from which to see and scan things.
Though the real difference is in the Ultra-Light 15 ton Flea, in its ability to not only jump but jump twice as often as any other mech in addition to a before-then unheard of 150 kph or 93+ miles per hour as well as carry infantry on its platform. This is the Flea that gave it the name, as no other Flea jumps.
Fleas were notorious, however, for being cheaply made with unreliable parts that had plagued Earthwerks and this chassis for a long time. 13 redesigns of the mech between 2475 and 2519 (so 13 redesigns in 44 years, with a 14th design in that time) were complete flops with only any promise coming from the Flea 4, which went extinct and then came back thanks to the Wolf's Dragoons building old designs without knowing it completely got wiped out before making their way to the IS to pose as mercenaries despite being Clan spies for Clan Wolf.
Once Trooper number 14 hit the field, they found a way to rebrand it all by going with the nickname it earned during testing and battles. Thus came about the Flea. Even then, the Flea 14 was still a flop but a much more positive one, and so came the Flea 15 and so on. But yes in 44 years it was redesigned 14 times and almost immediately a 15th design was being conceptualized. Oughtta give you an idea of the trouble they had with it.
Meanwhile Locusts were introduced in 2499, and the 1st model may have had modifications creating many sub variants, but these are all Locust 1s regardless of the sub-variant. The first model gets its latest modification in 3060 as the LCT-1V2. And no, it isn't the only model. The 3rd model also made some headway and the 5th model is ahead of our time. So if we discount the second model as no details were worth sharing, Locusts only had 2 actual models make it to the Clan Invasion. But the Fleas had a total of 16 different models between 2475 and 3050.
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