this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
405 points (97.4% liked)

NonCredibleDefense

3523 readers
3 users here now

Rules:

  1. Posts must abide by lemmy.world terms and conditions
  2. No spam or soliciting for money.
  3. No racism or other bigotry allowed.
  4. Obviously nothing illegal.

If you see these please report them.

Related communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Kbin_space_program@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Actually, did the surface area math for a Timberwolf/Madcat mech years and years ago and they were (unexpectedly) fine.

They had something like 25% more surface area per foot than a challenger 2 does with both treads.

The bigger issues are that chicken walker legs don't work to support 60 some odd tons of weight, and that the 10-15m height is a little bIt too noticeable

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I don't even care about the legs or the structure, I care about the ground.

Walkers would obliterate pavement and sink so deep into the mud.

The walkers would need hilarious duck feets

[–] jscummy@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago

I'm all in on clown shoe mechs

Yes, and I'm saying that some of them have those hilarious duck feet.

[–] Jaytreeman@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Picture a bipedal mech with a big gun that looks like rock. It has a shroud for people to hide under, so they can't be seen by thermal imaging. It could allow special forces to exist on mountains undetected for extended periods of time.
Admittedly, a quadruped would be better for traction purposes, but there could be specialized use cases.

Or the Titanfall mechs, that are much smaller than typical and used for industrial purposes, which canonically are used to speed up colonization because they don't need a lot of the infrastructure that wheels need.