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That Time I Became A Dictator Of A Small Asian Communist Nation

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OK, here it is. First draft. I'm open to suggestions - especially about forearm vs shoulder mounts.
The former let the mech shoot from behind cover, which does let us build it lighter in terms of armor, but requires fancier arms which might wipe out the gains in terms of lightening.
Shoulder mounts allow us to eliminate the armored motion capture arms that poke out of the suit, but mean that the mech is more likely to take fire to the torso.

Hmmmm... ok, I might have another design tomorrow that gets around a lot of the left/right switchover issues I talk about below, but I need to run it by some people first.

[X] Armoured Combat Humanoid Type 3 (Iron Tabby)

Name: Armoured Combat Humanoid Type 3
Nickname: Iron Tabby
Type: Mech
Branch: Army
Intended Role: Organic Light Artillery Support, Super-Heavy Infantry, Combat Engineering
Notable Quirks:
  • Mass Production Goes BRRRRRRR
  • Anti-Reverse Engineering Measures
  • A Maturing Technology
Fluff
    • Concept of Operations
      • While the Gen 1 Iron Tiger taught our engineers and military a lot about how NOT to build and use mechs and refined the theoretical doctrinal niches for them, we still haven't used them in said niches, so the new ITs are designed to be fairly flexible in terms of loadout to account for expected changed in conops from field deployment (throw stuff at the wall and hope it sticks).
      • The new mechs occupy a happy medium between power armor and mecha: large enough to avoid the joint alignment and miniaturization issues of power armor, but small enough to sidestep most of the square cube law and joint maintenance issues of large mechs.
      • At 2.5m tall and 1.25 tonnes in weight, the Tabby cannot readily enter residential spaces, though it will be able to navigate most industrial ones. The largest issue is ensuring that the floors can bear the load. It can however make effective use of urban terrain to break LOS from the enemy for protection.
      • Shoulder mounted vs forearm mounted weapons are a bit of an open question, so the arms are designed to be modular and accept both options, with the expectation that we'll figure out what works best in actual combat.
      • Specialized combat engineering units forgo most of the armor for lower cost and lighter weight.
    • Armor
      • Perforated steel plate on spacers with a aluminum alloy backing offering high multi-hit protection from 0.62x54mm R B-32 AP (Chicom) equivalents on the front of the torso and upper legs, (the parts the contain both pilot limbs and mobility critical actuators).
      • The front and sides of the upper arm actuators and the rear of the thighs and torso are protected with laminated silicon carbide plates to reduce bulk. They can't take as many hits as the torso and thighs, but there are no operator bits inside the arms and a hit there won't mobility kill the mech. The rear of the torso and thighs in the meantime is judged to be less likely to be hit so the decision was made to trade protection for lighter weight there.
      • The operator arm-sleeves are armored with titanium backed ceramic plates as a lighter and less bulky alternative to the perforated steel.
      • The rest of the mech is (supposedly) proof against artillery shrapnel at 8 meters by dint of the aluminum exoskeleton or kevlar fabric covers.
      • Machined aluminum exoskeleton with incomplete coverage - load bearing exoskeleton doubles as backing layer or armor while exposing internals for maintenance on less likely angles of fire (interior thigh, interior arms, back/top).
    • Defenses
      • Smoke dispensers can provide cover for the mech and its attached infantry.
      • Shape disrupting ponchos in several camouflage patterns are meant to make it harder to identify at range.
      • A breaching shield may sometimes be equipped for niche urban combat scenarios.
      • Airtight seals and air filtration built into the AC unit needed for the computer allows operation in NBC environments.
    • Weapons Loadouts
      • To keep development time and costs down, the Tabby uses mostly off the shelf Soviet military hardware when it comes to weapons:
        • In urban combat, the Tabby can be equipped with an automatic grenade launcher and light machine gun, and used as shock troops or reconnaissance in force.
        • When attached to infantry units in urban combat, the grenade launcher can be used for making mouseholes for infantry to use or makes the enemy's lives miserable, while the LMG with deep ammo magazines provides covering fire.
        • Swapping the grenade launcher for a recoilless rifle gives it anti armor and anti-fortification firepower that can be organically attached to infantry units, while the infantry support can be used to reload the recoilless rifle magazines.
        • In rough terrain ops where longer range is a boon, the Tabby can use its arms to wield a tripod mounted, crew served 35mm cannon gives it plenty of ranged firepower to bring to bear against light vehicles.
        • Organic indirect fire support can be provided when attached to infantry units by a crew served, backpack mounted 120mm mortar (120-PM-43 Samovar) fired from a kneeling position.
        • Shoulder mounted 9K38 Igla launcher for short ranged anti-air capability that can be organically attached to an infantry unit operating in very rough terrain.
      • Shoulder mounts are suitable for heavier weapons and are easier to balance but expose the pilot to more danger since they can't poke out behind cover as well. They're also easier to switch from left to right by spinning the shoulders 360 degrees and spinning the weapon around the shoulder joint in order to accommodate the left/right shooting around cover that makes up most of urban combat.
      • Forearm mounted weapons allow the pilot to shoot around cover without exposing the mech as much, but are harder to stabilize and armor. They're also harder to reverse left/right, and require reversible elbows to do so.
      • Fiberscope sights integrated into weapons for peeking around/over cover.
      • Rule of thumb: you get about 5% of your curb weight as arm/handheld weapons, 10% if you can get both arms into it (remember to account for ammo weight).
    • Powerplant
      • Smaller size of Tabby made turbines a poor fit due to their poor scaling to smaller sizes, and their expected production numbers would have strained native production capacity to the breaking point.
      • Instead, Free Piston Linear Generators were developed, mechanically coupled in pairs of two to minimize vibration. Their lesser number of moving parts compared to traditional internal combustion engines, coupled with their ability to gracefully shut down pairs of pistons in lower intensity operations made them an obvious choice - as well as their application to other hybrid electric drive vehicles.
      • The power plant was also moved to a power egg akin to an insect abdomen that swings out behind the mech's buttocks, both allowing for easier servicing as well as improving stability by lowering the mech's center of gravity.
      • The abdomen is also actuated and serves as a counter balance that both actively stabilizes the mech and acts as a spring-like energy recovery mechanism when walking and running, replacing the dedicated gyroscopic stabilizer of the Tigers.
    • Actuation
      • The transmission is the same air cooled copper used on previous ITs and aircraft.
      • To better approximate the range of motion of the pilot and make it easier to pilot, the limbs have double jointed elbows and knees.
      • 3-axis weapon stabilization and mirror first sights allow for firing on the move.
      • Swap from straight electro-hydrostatic suspension, to hydropneumatic for better shock absorption to mitigate health effects of high acceleration, as well as faster and wider range of movement.
      • Three fingered end effectors on the ends of the arms balance dexterity with reliability.
      • Gortex 'coveralls' to keep debris out of high wear areas like joints.
    • Control
      • While it's difficult to prevent other nations from reverse engineering an IT by examining the physical hardware, the processors and (even more crucially) the software algorithms used for the dynamic balancing and gait cycle control are much easier to deal with.
      • The processors and hard drive are black boxed in tamper resistant containment units with thermite charges that will melt it all to slag if anyone tries to get in or fails to provide the appropriate ID over a period of time.
      • The computer is air cooled for reliability, using filtered and conditioned air from a small AC unit.
      • The pilot drives it via a motion capture rig, reducing the computing load by relying on the pilot's natural sense of balance and sympathetic proprioception of the mech's limbs.
      • Pilot enters and exits the mech via a top mounted hatch that the sensor cluster 'head' rests on. Its position means that it's unlikely to be blocked if the mech topples over.
      • The pilots arms are encased in armored sleeves that terminate in an armored ball glove that contains a number of controls for the mech.
    • Sensors
      • Sensors are clustered in an armored 'head' on top of the pilot hatch:
        • Fiberscope based binocular vision, with a head mounted 'eyes' connected to the pilot's headset. Said headset can switch between several fiberscopes, including gun cameras in both arms, because urban combat is a lot of side peek. (Fiberscopes have the advantage over era appropriate CCTVs in terms of bulk, unpowered operation, and image quality.)
        • IR optics for nighttime operation.
        • Laser rangefinder/designator for when you need to call in artillery or designate a target to get bombed with a laser guided bomb (not to self: we need a laser guided bomb).
      • Information is conveyed through audio cues and minor heads up display around the fiberscope visor. For complex tasks, the pilot can flip up one of both fiberscope ends to look at a screen inside the cockpit.
    • Equipment
      • Hard-wearing Goretex fabric covers for the limbs and body are standard in order to weatherproof the mech.
      • Outer camouflage poncho designed to break up its silhouette and can be easily swapped based on environment.
      • The new waterproofing allows it to wade through water with the aid of shoulder mounted air intakes and exhaust vents that prevent water ingestion.
    [*]
 
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CyberFemme said:
The pilots arms are encased in armored sleeves that terminate in an armored ball glove that contains a number of controls for the mech.
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I feel like I need to point out once again that sticking the pilots arms outside the mech is likely to end up with their arms shot off, to say nothing about what would happen if the mech tips over with the arm caught between the ground and it's 1.25 tonne bulk, and once they're gone the pilot can't use them to move the mech's arms any more. No matter how hard we try to make our mech fight as just superheavy infantry, I fully expect that it will still be a priority target for high caliber autocannons and anti-tank rockets/missiles for no other reason than, well, it's our mech and it needs to die before it mulches their infantry.

If you armor up the pilots limbs enough so that they aren't an automatic write-off against any anti-armor weapons that will be homing in on it like white on rice, you'll have a hell of a time trying to retain enough range of motion to get useful mo-cap control, and even if you do the and inertia of all that protection is going to make it extremely hard to move armored sleeves and control the mech with just muscle power. If you can protect individual pilot limbs that well, while retaining full/almost full range of motion needed for mo-cap, and manage to fit some motive system that lets the pilot easily move the armored sleeves to make full use of the mo-cap control possibilities, why not just make infantry sized power armor instead? That way your superheavy infantry is no longer such a large target, can more easily maneuver indoors than they could if they were a 2.5m giant, and may even be able to consider the possibility of walking up stairs if the smaller size makes them light enough.

I know you talked about trying to find a sweet spot between power armor and large mechs, but I can't help but feel like you've ended up with the worst of both worlds:

On the mech side, it doesn't carry any of the heavy weapons a larger mech could bring to the fight, nor does it have the easy pilot protection that comes with being able to just wrap the cockpit in an armored box; instead having to develop a weird partial armored suit that retains full protection and mobility.

On the power armor side, the weapons loadout is good and .50 cal protection for the pilot is fine. But at 2.5m tall and however wide and long so much of the concealment and cover that normal infantry use to avoid getting shot by heavy weapons will be unavailable to it because the mech's bulk won't let it fully shelter behind them, leaving it very much more exposed to those heavy weapons capable of hurting it than an infantry sized platform would be. Also, as you said it will have a harder time maneuvering in some indoor locations meant for human sized occupants than a smaller set of power armor.
 
Wish was good enough at spelling and sentences to put up a plan of a walking tank as a mech one model we could make with other mech plans but I'm not unfortunately.
 
OK! New concept that fixes most of the issues brought up with the previous once, including eliminating the armored hand sleeves, switching to a inherently ambidextrous weapons mount, and adding a little soft kill countermeasure for ATGMs - as an (optional) treat. Also removed the FPLG and swapped it to a boring boxer engine-generator combo.

[X] Armored Walker Type 3 (Iron Dragon)

Name: Armored Walker Type 3
Nickname: Iron Dragon (note: derived from the term for dinosaur, konglong - fearsome dragon)
Type: Mech
Branch: Army
Intended Role: Organic Light Artillery Support, Super-Heavy Infantry
Notable Quirks:
  • Mass Production Goes BRRRRRRR
  • Anti-Reverse Engineering Measures
  • A Maturing Technology
Fluff
    • Concept of Operations
      • While the Gen 1 Iron Tiger taught our engineers and military a lot about how NOT to build and use mechs and refined the theoretical doctrinal niches for them, we still haven't used them in said niches, so the new ITs are designed to be fairly flexible in terms of loadout to account for expected changed in conops from field deployment (throw stuff at the wall and hope it sticks).
      • The new mechs occupy a happy medium between power armor and mecha: large enough to avoid the joint alignment and miniaturization issues of power armor, but small enough to sidestep most of the square cube law and joint maintenance issues of large mechs.
      • At 2.4 meters tall and 1.25 tonnes in weight, the Dragon cannot readily enter residential spaces, though it will be able to navigate most industrial ones. The largest issue is ensuring that the floors can bear the load and its 'tail' is kept from striking obstacles. It can however make effective use of urban terrain to break LOS from the enemy for protection.
      • The Dragon is a bipedal, digitigrade machine that resembles a small, mechanical tyrannosaurus. The pilot suspended in between its legs, the 'head' mounts a top mounted turret that can peak around and above cover without exposing the rest of the mech, and the rear contains a power egg that doubles as a dynamic stabilizer.
      • This layout allows us to keep the motion capture for the legs while protecting the pilot from the front via the bulk of the mech, allows us to keep the height of the mech relatively low without forcing us into miniaturization hell, and gives us a ambidextrous weapons station up front that doesn't require weird acrobatics like a humanoid mech with shoulder or arm mounts.
      • The digitigrade legs are there to free up room for footpad actuators, as well as make front-back balancing easier via the dynamically actuated power egg - it's easier to do that sort of tail balancing with digitigrade legs, apparently.
      • This setup also frees up the operator's hands to manage controls in the cockpit and avoids the need for armored sleeves ala landmates.
    • Armor
      • Perforated steel plate on spacers with a aluminum alloy backing offering high multi-hit protection from 0.62x54mm R B-32 AP (Chicom) equivalents on the sides and front of the legs (sheltering both the pilot and the mobility critical leg actuators).
      • The power egg and the forward weapons station and ammo dump protect the pilot from the rear and front.
      • The front and sides of the neck, and the rear of the legs are protected with laminated silicon carbide plates to reduce bulk. They can't take as many hits as the torso and thighs, but there are no operator bits there and a hit there won't mobility kill the mech. The rear of legs in the meantime is judged to be less likely to be hit so the decision was made to trade protection for lighter weight there.
      • The rest of the mech is (supposedly) proof against artillery shrapnel at 8 meters by dint of the aluminum exoskeleton or kevlar fabric covers.
      • Machined aluminum exoskeleton with incomplete coverage - load bearing exoskeleton doubles as backing layer or armor while exposing internals for maintenance on less likely angles of fire (interior thigh, under body).
    • Defenses
      • Smoke dispensers can provide cover for the mech and its attached infantry.
      • Shape disrupting ponchos in several camouflage patterns are meant to make it harder to identify at range.
      • Airtight seals and air filtration built into the AC unit needed for the computer allows operation in NBC environments.
      • An optional cut-down soft kill countermeasure system based on Shtora-1 (which we got because the Soviets wanted our input on better electronics for their version) can be mounted over the neck in field combat scenarios to improve survivability vs ATGMs - though current theory is that in an urban environment it doesn't do much.
    • Weapons Loadouts
      • To keep development time and costs down, the Dragon uses mostly off the shelf Soviet military hardware when it comes to weapons:
        • In urban combat, the Tabby can be equipped with an automatic grenade launcher and light machine gun, and used as shock troops or reconnaissance in force.
        • When attached to infantry units in urban combat, the grenade launcher can be used for making mouseholes for infantry to use or makes the enemy's lives miserable, while the LMG with deep ammo magazines provides covering fire.
        • Swapping the grenade launcher for a recoilless rifle gives it anti armor and anti-fortification firepower that can be organically attached to infantry units, while the infantry support can be used to reload the recoilless rifle magazines.
        • In rough terrain ops where longer range is a boon, the Dragon can brace itself and go 'tail down' - turning itself into a makeshift tripod that can fire a crew served 35mm cannon that gives it plenty of ranged firepower to bring to bear against light vehicles.
        • Organic indirect fire support can be provided when attached to infantry units by a crew served, tail mounted 120mm mortar (120-PM-43 Samovar) fired from a tail-down position.
        • Neck mounted 9K38 Igla pod for short ranged anti-air capability that can be organically attached to an infantry unit operating in very rough terrain.
      • Fiberscope sights integrated into weapons for peeking around/over cover without exposing the rest of the mech.
    • Powerplant
      • The smaller size of the Dragon made turbines a poor fit due to their poor scaling to smaller sizes, and their expected production numbers would have strained native production capacity to the breaking point.
      • Instead the Dragon uses a forced air cooled 6 cylinder boxer engine coupled to a high power to weight generator to provide electrical power. The flat engine is easier to armor from the sides and relatively quiet and vibration free thanks to its balanced pistons.
      • The power plant was also moved to a power egg akin to an insect abdomen that swings out behind the mech's buttocks, both allowing for easier servicing as well as improving stability by lowering the mech's center of gravity.
      • The abdomen is also actuated and serves as a counter balance that both actively stabilizes the mech and acts as a spring-like energy recovery mechanism when walking and running, replacing the dedicated gyroscopic stabilizer of the Tigers.
    • Actuation
      • The transmission is the same air cooled copper used on previous ITs and aircraft.
      • 3-axis weapon stabilization of the neck, and mirror first sights allow for firing on the move.
      • Swap from straight electro-hydrostatic suspension, to hydropneumatic for better shock absorption to mitigate health effects of high acceleration, as well as faster and wider range of movement.
      • Gortex 'coveralls' to keep debris out of high wear areas like joints.
    • Control
      • While it's difficult to prevent other nations from reverse engineering an IT by examining the physical hardware, the processors and (even more crucially) the software algorithms used for the dynamic balancing and gait cycle control are much easier to deal with.
      • The processors and hard drive are black boxed in tamper resistant containment units with thermite charges that will melt it all to slag if anyone tries to get in or fails to provide the appropriate ID over a period of time.
      • Likewise, the pilots and attached infantry crews are trained in how to quickly arm a series of scuttling charges that will wreck sensitive equipment and render the unit inoperable.
      • The computer is air cooled for reliability, using filtered and conditioned air from a small AC unit.
      • The pilot drives it via a motion capture rig, reducing the computing load by relying on the pilot's natural sense of balance and sympathetic proprioception of the mech's limbs for side to side stability.
      • Pilot enters and exits the mech via a top mounted hatch whose position means that it's unlikely to be blocked if the mech topples over.
    • Sensors
      • Sensors are clustered in the armored 'head' at the front of the mech:
        • Fiberscope based binocular vision, with 'eyes' connected to the pilot's headset. Said headset can switch between head and tail fiberscopes. (Fiberscopes have the advantage over era appropriate CCTVs in terms of bulk, unpowered operation, and image quality.)
        • IR optics for nighttime operation.
        • Laser rangefinder/designator for when you need to call in artillery or designate a target to get bombed with a laser guided bomb (not to self: we need a laser guided bomb).
      • Information is conveyed through audio cues and minor heads up display around the fiberscope visor. For complex tasks, the pilot can flip up one of both fiberscope ends to look at a screen inside the cockpit.
    • Equipment
      • Hard-wearing Goretex fabric covers for the limbs and body are standard in order to weatherproof the mech.
      • Outer camouflage poncho designed to break up its silhouette and can be easily swapped based on environment.
      • The new waterproofing allows it to wade through water with the aid of dorsal air intakes and exhaust vents that prevent water ingestion.


A decent idea of how the pilot rests between the mech's thigh and calf. (original picture is the Hardiman exoskeleton)


The general shape of the mech and how the pilot fits inside of it (ignore the weapons, the scale is way off - and the hip aligment, this is for illustrative purposes).


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iV_hB08Uns
The Boston Dynamics Handle bot is a pretty good demonstration of a power egg as a dynamic countermass.
 
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[X] Armored Walker Type 3 (Iron Dragon)


My only fear with this plan is that if we name our generation 2 "dragon", what even more impressive name can we find for the next ones?
 
Hmm, well that certainly fixes the arm issue so I got no where near as many problems with it winning. I think I'll be sticking with the G1 upgrade plan rather than a total revamp though, because I like our current big jumpy mechs with high caliber autocannons.
 
CyberFemme said:
Material name changes: steel dragon, titanium dragon, etc.
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Trying to read the full description of the mech in the previous message and all I have is an enormous unbroken wall of text. Were there supposed to be line breaks, or am I just particularly thick-headed this morning?
 
Looks good.
[X] Armored Walker Type 3 (Iron Dragon)
 
[X] Armored Walker Type 3 (Iron Dragon)

Functional mech design is functional, Looks pretty dope, and if all else fails it serves as a far more functional testbed for ideas and concepts. Better than the wunderwaffe anyway.
 
Making another case for the big mechs and high caliber autocannons with a more fleshed out design proposal than just a list as it was originally. Mostly because I don't really see the point about trying to keep ourselves to "realistic" mechs when the cat's already out of the bag (and halfway across the island by now) with the physics breaking tech we've got. Even if you don't consider the mechs themselves, or the fact the Wolfsmenschen exist, we've already built so much of the nation on a foundation of IT component and derivative tech that just doesn't work in real life that to try to apply the same level of realism would likely gut the heart of Guangchou.

We've been integrate alloys and electronics into our military with our aviation development, made the electronics integral to our economy with our CyberSyn copy, and now we've been diplomatically bludgeoning other countries with the mechs and other tech to get what we want at the negotiating table. The QM classified the Iron Tigers and everything that comes from them as "Era-Defining" level, shit just not working the way we understand it is part and parcel of that. Trying to design our mechs to conform to the laws that were accepted before the era of mechs rather than the era we're in now feels like needlessly holding ourselves back.

[X] T104 Steel Leopard

Full Official Name: Type 104 Armored Walker For Very Rough Terrain Plus Urban Combat (T104 AWFVRTPUC)
Name Everyone Actually Uses: T104 Steel Leopard
Classification: Army Mech
Role: Jungle/Woodland/Broken Terrain Light Armored Support, Urban Combat, Superheavy Mortar Carrier, Combat Engineering
Additional Traits: Modular loadout nature allows for easy inclusion of newly developed equipment and upgrades to existing modules in the future, inclusion of self destruct function to prevent reverse engineering from disabled examples.


General Principles
  • The 2nd generation T104 Steel Leopard is a revamp and rationalization of the 1st generation Iron Tiger, done to pare back unnecessary features. What that frees up is to be used to focus the Steel Leopard more on what roles mechs have been determined to be usable in, rather than the wild spread of equipment for the original generation which couldn't be used to full effectiveness, if at all.
  • The body layout of the Snow Leopard is the same as the Iron Tiger that proceeded it: a bipedal humanoid with articulated hands for interacting with the environment, piloted from a fully enclosed armored cockpit, powered by a turbine engine providing power to the motive systems. It has been improved with a switch to double jointed limbs for greatly increased range of movement in the limbs. Some of the changes to the internals and weapons loadout proposed below may result in the possibility of the Steel Leopard being lighter or shorter than the Iron Tiger. Both of these are to be considered good if it can be done without compromising the rest of the design, as the former would result in an even lower ground pressure and the latter would make the Steel Leopard a smaller target and be able to fit within more spaces. If it cannot be done without compromises, the Steel Leopard will be staying just as heavy and tall as the Iron Tiger, as the generation 1 mech is already much better at rough terrain movement and urban combat than any other armored vehicle we have access too.
  • Above all else: the development of the Steel Leopard must not result in a mech with worse terrain performance than the Iron Tiger. The existence of armored vehicle carrying heavy weapons that is capable of moving through very dense woodlands, crossing rough terrain impassable to even tracked vehicles, and jumping over any obstacle that is impassable normally even for a walker has been deemed strategically paramount, and Guangchou can not give up this capability.
Controls
  • Like the IT, the pilot of the SL operates the mech from an enclosed armored cockpit. The SL's cockpit foregoes the heavy and bulky full SCARS for a smaller and lighter heavy-duty air filter and A/C unit while keeping the overpressure system and airtight seals. There is also only a single reserve periscope for the pilot in the ceiling, with the primary viewing apparatus being a bank of screens covering the front and side interior cockpit walls showing real-time footage stitched together from fixed, protected cameras into a single panorama providing a 240 degree FoV without having the turn the SL. The lack of veiwports leads to much fewer weak spots in the cockpit's protection scheme and improved pilot survivability over the IT. Additional cameras that can be activated and deactivated are mounted facing outward from the back of the SL's palms, allowing it to peek around corners without exposing anything more than a single hand. With everything being viewed though cameras, the screen bank is also capable of showing that same FoV in a night vision mode.
  • The "Tigerlink" overseer system from the IT makes a reappearance in a new and upgraded form, taking the information it gathers on the SL's systems and displaying it in an unobtrusive but easily visible location in a form of heads up display. Now, it also works as the SL's targeting system, combining it's knowledge of the weapons modules equipped with the position and extension of each limb and joint of the SL to calculate where each weapon is pointing, before providing that information to the pilot in the form of a floating target reticle on the screen bank. In addition, gunsight cameras will be included in each of the weapons and connected to the system too, allowing for pop-up windows showing a view as if the pilot was aiming the weapon like they would a man-portable rifle or missile launcher.
  • At this juncture it is critical to have some form of preventing reverse engineering a mech from a downed example. However, too large or thorough a self-destruct system would take up too much mass and volume to be feasible to include while still having a significant weapons load. Therefore destruction has just been limited to the priorities: the joints, balancing system, software, and electronics. While losing the design of the weapons and overall frame would be bad, there is nothing particularly secret in the mechanisms of the former, and it is infeasible to destroy all the later. It is those four specifically though that let the SL actually move and fight instead of being a particularly expensive statue, and so there is a miniature thermite charge for each of them alongside the ability to brick the software. All of them can be manually activated by the pilot at once via a clearly labeled handle, which upon triggering jettisons the cockpit door with a small number of explosive bolts, giving the pilot time to get clear, before igniting all charges and forcing the gyroscope to spin up to maximum safe RPM and beyond until it explosively shatters in the interior of the SL.
Armor
  • The existence of the modular equipment system means that one SL may end up dedicating much more of it's maximum weight capacity to weapons than another with a different loadout. To that end, the modular armor plate system from the IT has been retained, a feat made much easier by the modular equipment by definition sharing the same attachment mechanism, meaning only a single shape of armor must be developed, not one to match how each individual piece of equipment fits to the SL.
  • The bare "skin" of the SL, a non-removable weakest level of protection for maximum weight savings and mechs that aren't expected to see combat, is a simple sheet of RHA with enough thickness to resists light rifle and pistol fire comfortably for a time. In the areas where this skin can't be mounted due to movement of joints, there is a baggy water-resistant fabric covering to provide some protection against the elements for the internals. Some work has been put in to make this fabric resistant to even 1 or 2 pistol shots, providing a small modicum of protection. On top of this metal skin are reinforced heavy duty mounting points for additional armor plate overlays that make up the bulk of the protective options for the SL.
  • The modular armor system is comprised of a single composite plate for each section of the body, made out of alternating levels of metal alloy, ceramic, and elastic materials. Each plate can be produced at a set number of thicknesses, and therefore masses, each rated for a different level of protection.
  • A separate armored "plug" for each modular equipment mounting point will also be made at each level of protection, for a situation where if any SL goes into combat without using a particular mounting point a gaping weak spot in the protective scheme is not left open.
Weapons and Equipment
  • Due to the modular nature of the SL, it is expected that many more systems will be developed for it's use in the coming years. The list below is merely what is ready for use at the time production of the SL starts.
    • Hand Weapons
      • The "Thunderfire" has not been updated for use with the SL at all, as it is unnecessarily massive with it's triple barrels, chews through it's ammunition allotment too fast, is prone to malfunction if used at full capacity, and the SL is not being considered for AA duty anyway.
      • "Dragon Spite" 57mm Mech Autorifle: The 57mm caliber has been retained due to it's ability to punch through dense underbrush and unreinforced walls without losing too much energy immediately after, both location where the SL is expected to be fighting. It is a single-barrel electrically driven chain gun held in the mechs hands, firing bursts of one of two new ammunition types developed for the caliber and use against ground targets rather than aircraft.
        • HEDP bursts are effective against lightly armored targets and infantry, the contact fused HEAT warhead capable of puncturing the protection of the former, while the AoE of the fragmentation casing is capable of shredding groups of the latter.
        • APDS bursts are effective against more heavily armored targets, even having enough penetration to go through the side and rear armor of some MBTs if the SL finds itself close enough in a flanking position. Beyond that it is also capable of punching through walls and continuing into whatever, or whoever, is on the other side, bringing a cloud of spall fragments with it.
        • Ammo switching mid-combat has been achieved by having both reservoirs of ammo run into the same linkless feed mechanism before reaching the Dragon Spite. To swap from one type to the other, the feed system simple back feeds the unwanted ammo type into it's magazine until the feed is clear, then pulls from the other magazine instead.
      • L246 Anti-Infantry Weapon System: A simple rifle-caliber machine gun, the L246 is held in a vambrace mount on the outside of the forearms, kept that small a caliber to avoid taking up too much space in such a small location. It provides a lower-collateral way of dealing with hostile infantry and unarmored vehicles than any of the other non-zero range weapons. Technically two can be mounted, one per arm, but most of the time only one will be to reduce the possibility of any interference with equipment held in the hands.
    • Back Weapons
      • The "Lightningbolt" is quite frankly a really good cannon, and as such has been updated for inclusion on the SL as an equipment option with an improved muzzle break and enhanced recoil absorption system to put less stress on the mech during firing. With it's already hefty bulk being increased further by the additions, any SL mounting one of these will not be able to make use of the highest rated protection scheme. Despite that, it is still expected to see significant (if still reduced from the IT) usage by the SL for when you need to bring a tank cannon to a place tanks just can't reach.
      • "Pouncing Cat" ATGM:Developed as a low-recoil lighter weight anti-tank alternative to the Lightningbolt, the Pouncing Cat is a HEAT missile operating using laser beam riding principles making it difficult to jam, and is also able to receive information mid-flight from the launcher though modulation of the guiding beam. It is expected to have a much lower ammo pool than the Lightningbolt due to the larger size of the missiles compared to the tank shells, but this is an acceptable tradeoff.
        • It takes many of the systems from the Lightningbolt, such as it's ability to reload itself and swap between alternate ammo types, and the ability of the launcher to aim at a target individually in it's firing arc without pilot direction. The latter is used to keep the missile guided towards the target after launch even as the pilot has shifter their attention and mech away to engage a different enemy.
        • The alternate ammunition type is a missile capable of overfly top attacks through the use of an explosively formed penetrator pointing directly downwards to triggers as the missile is guided over the top of the target. It further comes in two subvariants for use depending on the target, one that produces a single large penetrator and one that produces a spread of smaller penetrators. Further, the missiles are capable of listening to the modulated laser to be manually detonated at any point in flight by the pilot, and roll to any degree mid flight. These two combined allow the Pouncing Cat to launch it's EFP any direction on a plane perpendicular to the flight path, letting it "shoot" around corners the SL may not be able to aim around itself.
      • "Water Buffalo" Portage System: A tool rather than a weapon, the Water Buffalo is a heavy-duty lifting arm with an attachment point at the end for hooking on to various cargo containers. When taking a knee, the SL will be able to pick up or put down from it's back anything with a compatible attachment system, while a camera system at the end hooked up the Tigerlink makes it easier for the pilot to manuver the arm despite this all happening behind them and out of view. Good for hauling construction material for combat engineers and other misc equipment.
      • "Heavenly Response" Superheavy Mortar: Taking advantage of the Water Buffalo to move something by mech that has given up all pretense of being fired while mounted, the Heavenly Response is a 250mm mortar and attached crate of ammunition that is carried into position by the Water Buffalo. Once there, a single mech is able to set it up on the ground and operate it, though teams of two are usually sent so one can provide a lookout and protection for the one operating the mortar. As it is an entirely separate weapons system not connected to the SL, the Heavenly Response does not interface with the Tigerlink system at all and so the pilot must rely on infantry or other mech spotters to adjust aim. The extremely large payload capacity combined with our ridiculously durable electronics has some engineers salivating over the possibility of guided mortar shells that still pack a massive punch though.
    • Zero Range
      • "Dragon's Tooth" Combat Knife: Kept around for the SL mostly because it wasn't much work to do so. While if the mech pilot is ever actually in a position to use this something's gone wrong, but if they ever need to they'll be glad they have it.
      • Iron Tiger Scale Combat Engineering Tool - Shovel Axe Hybrid (ITSCET-SAH): A dedicated mech-scale combat engineering tool made out of the same alloy as the Dragon's Tooth, it is a simple shovel for digging with one side sharpened to allow it to serve as a passable axe for felling trees and structures. While not the best for SL meant to actually see combat because of it's size, with only a minimum of collapsibility allowed due to the need for it to survive being swung into objects by a mech, it can theoretically be used as an axe against enemies too.
 
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Thinking over it, having the vote start right off the bat instead of collecting entries to be voted upon was a mistake that caused late-movers disadvantage upon those wishing to make their own entry, but didn't have the time to do so in the allocated time.

As such, I'll be presenting the options given to the thread once more to give people another chance to look over the options.

[] Iron Tabby
(Realist Mecha...with a tail!)
Name: Armoured Combat Humanoid Type 3
Nickname: Iron Tabby
Type: Mech
Branch: Army
Intended Role: Organic Light Artillery Support, Super-Heavy Infantry, Combat Engineering
Notable Quirks:
-Mass Production Goes BRRRRRRR
-Anti-Reverse Engineering Measures
-A Maturing Technology

[] Iron Dragon
(Realist Mecha...with a tail! But no engineering...)
Name: Armored Walker Type 3
Nickname: Iron Dragon (note: derived from the term for dinosaur, konglong - fearsome dragon)
Type: Mech
Branch: Army
Intended Role: Organic Light Artillery Support, Super-Heavy Infantry
Notable Quirks:
-Mass Production Goes BRRRRRRR
-Anti-Reverse Engineering Measures
-A Maturing Technology

[] Steel Leopard
(Lean into the Era-Defining Mecha Science)
Full Official Name: Type 104 Armored Walker For Very Rough Terrain Plus Urban Combat (T104 AWFVRTPUC)
Name Everyone Actually Uses: T104 Steel Leopard
Classification: Army Mech
Role: Jungle/Woodland/Broken Terrain Light Armored Support, Urban Combat, Superheavy Mortar Carrier, Combat Engineering
Additional Traits: Modular loadout nature allows for easy inclusion of newly developed equipment and upgrades to existing modules in the future, inclusion of self destruct function to prevent reverse engineering from disabled examples.
 
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I like Steel Leopard the most.

I came to this conclusion by standing up in the middle of my room and performing wide arm motions while shouting "[Name], SHOWTIME" until I found the one that rolls off the tongue the best.
[X] Steel Leopard
 
I should say that with regards to engineering, the arms are mutually exclusive with it at this scale, so the dedicated Industrial IT Exoskeleton would be better and I would like to research that either the next turn or the turn after so that we have it in time for labour army and Dragon Rail start.
 
[X] Steel Leopard

Faster, sleeker, and learning from Iron Tiger Mark 1 without abandoning the role. Shovel-axe is something that a bigger frame is going to generate more utility (all the momentum, weight, leverage, etc. stuff works better and work wonderfully against anything bigger / slower)
 
@7th Hex, can you include some of if the Tabby features on Leopard?

The power egg with dynamic balancing is lighter than the gyro, cameras are IIRC not very good at this time so fiberscopes would be better, and you should double joint the limbs to more closely approximate a human range of motion.

Making the Lightning Bolt a crew served tripod mounted gun would also cut down an most of the issues that mounting a high caliber tank gun on a bipedal mech involves.

The mortar on the other hand could use a backpack mount no it can be fired from a kneeling position so it man relocate quick in case of counter battery fire.

And add soft kill ATGM countermeasures, 3-axis arm stabilization, and the mech sized BDUs to keep dirt and dust out of the joints.

Edit: On the note of mechs being era defining, maybe that's because the ancillary techs are the era defining bits.:V

And an the coolness side, consider the aesthetic of a mechanical T-Rex stalking it's prey through the urban jungle. :cool:
 
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I'm re-re-reading the quest and I was wondering, once we've finished reading it, can we publish our father's diary?
 
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