185 replies to this topic

[Pht]

Jacob, on 05 April 2012 - 05:50 AM, said:

Can anyone explain why there are no tracked battle mechs?

The gains in stability do not offset the loss of mobility, and a tracked 'mech is half as good as a normal mech and half as good as a tank.

[ethnic minority]

I remember seeing a logo somewhere with a blackjack battlemech on tank tracks...
Looked really awesome

[Jacob]

Pht, on 05 April 2012 - 11:45 AM, said:

The gains in stability do not offset the loss of mobility, and a tracked 'mech is half as good as a normal mech and half as good as a tank.

Still they would be much cheaper to produce (no gyro) and maintain and thanks to the stability of the tracks they would make great fire support platfoms.
Also i remember that i read somhwere that precise control of mech hands is achieved by gloves, since in tracked vehicle you wouldnt use throttle but pedals, gloves could be used at all times which would really improve accuracy.

[Pht]

Jacob, on 07 April 2012 - 01:30 AM, said:

Still they would be much cheaper to produce (no gyro) and maintain and thanks to the stability of the tracks they would make great fire support platfoms.

... and they would be more expensive than a tank, which has the same stability and the same level of mobility, but they would also suffer from having a much higher visual and EM profile on the battlefield, and they would be more expensive than the tanks which they would be sub-par replacements for.

Quote

Also i remember that i read somhwere...

Like, say, the Original post in this thread?

Quote

...that precise control of mech hands is achieved by gloves, since in tracked vehicle you wouldnt use throttle but pedals, gloves could be used at all times which would really improve accuracy.

The waldo gloves are only for the hand motions, and they're only used in older battlemechs. Newer 'mechs do the same things via programming, and actually, it would be less accurate, because the battle computer crunches a titanic amount of information from sensors and feedback loops to get a good aim. That's part of what makes a battlemech so cool - it handles enough of the lower level details such that it (the mech) can effectively be piloted by one man instead of a crew.

[Victor Morson]

Lt Trevnor, on 05 April 2012 - 09:50 AM, said:

Because they would then be tanks... Also, Battlemechs are somewhat more versatile in rougher terrain than something with treads is.

Somebody should have done a system for this in the Periphery books. Not as built-that-way 'mechs or anything, but as "alternate repair rules." If a 'mech loses it's gyros/legs and can't walk anymore, include rules for a field refit using tracked or wheeled vehicles.

Mostly because the hilarious image of a 'mech torso riding around strapped to the back of a semi-truck just seems so, so bandit kingdom.

[Trevnor]

Victor Morson, on 09 April 2012 - 11:04 PM, said:

Somebody should have done a system for this in the Periphery books. Not as built-that-way 'mechs or anything, but as "alternate repair rules." If a 'mech loses it's gyros/legs and can't walk anymore, include rules for a field refit using tracked or wheeled vehicles.

Mostly because the hilarious image of a 'mech torso riding around strapped to the back of a semi-truck just seems so, so bandit kingdom.

This is true, but everytime I think of 'mechs on treads, I'm reminded of Chromehounds... Tracked 'mechs there were easy pickings....

[ChalybsUmbra]

In Mechwarrior 4, which I know is horrible when it comes to canon, used Kalvin in it's temperature gauge for your mech. At idle, the mech would say it was at 0 K, or absolute zero. Does anyone how the mech comes anywhere close to this temperature, even at idle, using pretty much conventional heat pumps?

[Pht]

ChalybsUmbra, on 15 April 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:

In Mechwarrior 4, which I know is horrible when it comes to canon, used Kalvin in it's temperature gauge for your mech. At idle, the mech would say it was at 0 K, or absolute zero. Does anyone how the mech comes anywhere close to this temperature, even at idle, using pretty much conventional heat pumps?

... I never thought of that. Yet another thing the mw4 guys messed up ... no, mechs don't run at absolute zero.

[Watchit]

ChalybsUmbra, on 15 April 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:

In Mechwarrior 4, which I know is horrible when it comes to canon, used Kalvin in it's temperature gauge for your mech. At idle, the mech would say it was at 0 K, or absolute zero. Does anyone how the mech comes anywhere close to this temperature, even at idle, using pretty much conventional heat pumps?

Maybe it was referring to excess heat? idk, I'm just guessing.

[Eruthis]

Awesome stuff, this was a fun refresher. I am curious what if any changes would be made to this info in light of new science/tech discoveries.

[Bazak]

i only have one problem, fusion produces no radioactive waste..... (with the exception of reactor componants themselves becomeing radioactive). at least as far as im aware, so i would assume the physics of mechwarrior are radicaly different than our universe(not accounting for obvious things like FTL) or whoever wrote that part didnt kno enough about fusion.

EDIT: k was wrong there is radioactive waste but its only the Core, which wud be small in a mech, (interestingly it would be high level radioactive waste for 50 years then low level for about 100 years much better compared to the 10k years or so for fission), point being still not enough waste to be worthy of talking about.

Edited by Bazak, 16 May 2012 - 03:04 PM.

[Chunkymonkey]

Sloth901, on 22 February 2012 - 05:11 PM, said:

O.o ok im not sure on what to read next. This, or all 7 Harry Potter books, There is alot of info here it may take me a while to process it

There's over a hundred ten novels by the way...,.might want to get started. Then there's also the Technical readouts...

[Rivy]

At first I thought "man, that is too long I won't read that", but now I'm glad I did. It was quite interesting !

[Pht]

Rivy, on 16 May 2012 - 06:41 PM, said:

At first I thought "man, that is too long I won't read that", but now I'm glad I did. It was quite interesting !

EXACTLY the reaction I was hoping for.

[Wolf Hreda]

I dare say this man may have come from the 31st Century. Tell me, oh traveler of the continuum, what are next week's winning lottery numbers? I ask only for reference, of course. Not for enough money to research and create my own 'Mech. Seriously, though, I like this post very much. It is so informative. And frankly, it's just the type of useless-in-the-real-world knowledge that I can't help but to cram into my brain. I LOVE it. Excellent work.

[Voridan Atreides]

Thank you for this post. I've wanted to learn more about Mechs and battletech but didn't know where to look so thank you for this.

[Pht]

Wolf Hreda, on 17 May 2012 - 04:05 AM, said:

I dare say this man may have come from the 31st Century. Tell me, oh traveler of the continuum, what are next week's winning lottery numbers? I ask only for reference, of course. Not for enough money to research and create my own 'Mech. Seriously, though, I like this post very much. It is so informative. And frankly, it's just the type of useless-in-the-real-world knowledge that I can't help but to cram into my brain. I LOVE it. Excellent work.

Oh, I'm firmly from the 20th century.

You'd be referring to cray, the guy that did the original work... and no, he won't let anyone else near his timemachine.

Voridan Atreides, on 18 May 2012 - 08:06 AM, said:

Thank you for this post. I've wanted to learn more about Mechs and battletech but didn't know where to look so thank you for this.

It seems I was not the only one to see this massive gaping chasm in the information given out in the MechWarrior video game community.

Glad you liked it.

[MuffinTop]

Geist Null, on 22 February 2012 - 05:06 PM, said:

why would someone leave stuff stored in the back of the pit. how embarrassing is it to get KO'd by your ice chest in the middle of a fight...

Paramedics and EMTs will tell you in MVCs( No longer called MVAs thanks to insurance lobbying) that items in the back of a car or truck become secondary missiles. True Story Bro !

[Alexsamson]

I really want to thank you for this. I knew nothing about this other then that people I knew at World of Tanks were excited about it, and this has helped me learn about it a lot

[Asfaloth]

Good job compiling all that, now we just need someone to do the same for the backstory fluff. I've got a few friends that are finally coming around to Battletech and are having trouble keeping atop the story.