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5/12/2013 6:52:09 PM
11
Why mechs might actually exist in the near future
Supply and demand, my friend. Now you may be asking "Spyda, you idiot don't you know there IS no demand for mechs and that's the very reason why they don't exist?" There is no demand for mechs? That's the reason they don't exist? Implying that we have the technology to build one, which we probably do. Heck, we could already see star destroyers floating around in orbit with today's technology but the only reason we don't is the same reason we don't see mechs. There's simply no demand for such a thing.
But is it true that there's really no demand? Or is there? Ever watch TV as, or with a kid only to see [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iShcHoV1Hw]this[/url] happen? What? There was no demand for Hasbro's Best Thing Ever while it was still in concept but once someone brought it out of conception and into reality all of the sudden people want one. It's like how there was no demand for the Iphone before Steve Jobs invented it. Maybe this is the key to the rise of mechs? If someone got out there, started planning how they could build one; designed, built, and tested the worlds first prototype then my friends we're looking at the world's next billionaire.
A few years later we won't even be conceiving the awesomeness of mechs existing. It will be about how to design a better one to beat competition and they only get bigger and better from there. Am I wrong?
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2 RepliesEdited by Bolt: 5/12/2013 7:24:31 PMThe problem is that (in terms of combat) you add a whole lot of complication with very little gain. Building a bipedal mech that can walk on it's own (even without enduring recoil from firing a weapon or receiving fire) is a huge engineering challenge in and of itself. Designing for combat scenarios is even more daunting. But let's say you throw 3 decades and trillions of dollars at it. What do you gain? Advantages: -Higher firing position -Possibly better performance in some terrain Disadvantages: -Much larger profile in the vertical direction, meaning you're more vulnerable from [I]all[/I] sides. -Worse performance in almost every terrain. -Loading is distributed much more compactly than a tank, meaning the odds of destroying a bridge or other structure through shear stress are much higher. -The trade-off between armor weight and movement speed will never match that of a tank. In my eyes, there's no real advantage to building giant mechs in realistic terms. I think the thing we'll see that comes closest to it will be exoskeletons.
