Verisaimilitude
Meridian 'Mira' Visari
- Location
- Great Library of Verisaimilitude
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Looks correct, it matches what I've got on my spreadsheet calculator.
Project Knight [Mecha Design Bureau]
- Thread starter Verisaimilitude
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi Fantasy
Looks correct, it matches what I've got on my spreadsheet calculator.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
That's good. Looking at the numbers this mech is very dependent on its legs and could be seen as a conscious in universe effort to resolve the limb drive and power connections issue while still keeping it defensive. I was surprised that the Limb Drive Speed ended up being so high.
Analyasis of the options:
Size
Balanced is good, with no real pros or cons.
Snub-nose is also good, but the weapon hardpoints reduction is a major drawback that puts it out of the running.
Compact looks liek it's trying to make it not a firebase anymore?
Enlarges trades wieght and production cost for more weapons and heat managment.
(favoring Enlarge, then Balanced, then Compact, and not even considerign snub nosed)
Body Style:
Standard is standared
Armored is more armor, but most espensive in production
Gunboat lacks armor, for more weapons addtions.
Ergonomic is harder to maintain, but blends the advantage of Gunboat and Armored nicely.
(no real preffrence, but Ergonomik looks to be slightly better to me)
Limb style:
Deviding this into two parts for analysis
Simple: Defauly style, basle line for the otehr two mored
Crouched: get low to the ground and have better stability, at cost of speed.
Heavy: Cost more, for better armor and durability.
Lareral: eayes to mantain,
Merial: fast and more agile for tech cost
Dorsal: More armor in exchange for speed:
(crouched greatl outwighs the others, and Merial is what most important for the legs. So Crouched Medial Legs)
Acutuators
Basic: Baseline
Simplified: No, F***'s over the mecha. if we were designinga total mook maybe, but we're not.
Durable: Limbs that are less likely to be disabled is a good thing,
Powerful Actuator: off sets the penlty from enlarged hull, and decent limb speed.
Flexible: More stablity and Agility for limbe speed and tech cost. not worth it.
Precise: same as flexiable, just more precision then agility.
(Durable or powerfull works the best. )
[] [Body Size] Enlarged Hull
[] [Body Style] Ergonomic Hull
[] [Limb Style] Crouched Medial Legs
[] [Actuators] Powerful Actuator Design
Overall output is:
[+4] Limb Drive Speed, [+1] Reduced Height, [+1] Skeletal Stability, [+1] Joint Protection, [+1] Skeletal Efficiency, [+1] Skeletal Agility, [+2] Weapon Hardpoints, [+1] Armour Plating, [+1] Power Control [+1] Roll Bonus when designing/adding components to Project's Body, [+1] Heat Management,
[-2] Production Cost, [-3] Technology Cost, [-1] Ease of Maintenance
Incressed production adn tech cost, but that was pretty mucha given unless we went minimal. slightyl harder to maintain.
good speed gain, overall improvement to the skeletal structure, 2 weapon hard points and decent support for those weapons. and bonuses to producing components for it.
Little speedy, chunky boy.
Size
Balanced is good, with no real pros or cons.
Snub-nose is also good, but the weapon hardpoints reduction is a major drawback that puts it out of the running.
Compact looks liek it's trying to make it not a firebase anymore?
Enlarges trades wieght and production cost for more weapons and heat managment.
(favoring Enlarge, then Balanced, then Compact, and not even considerign snub nosed)
Body Style:
Standard is standared
Armored is more armor, but most espensive in production
Gunboat lacks armor, for more weapons addtions.
Ergonomic is harder to maintain, but blends the advantage of Gunboat and Armored nicely.
(no real preffrence, but Ergonomik looks to be slightly better to me)
Limb style:
Deviding this into two parts for analysis
Simple: Defauly style, basle line for the otehr two mored
Crouched: get low to the ground and have better stability, at cost of speed.
Heavy: Cost more, for better armor and durability.
Lareral: eayes to mantain,
Merial: fast and more agile for tech cost
Dorsal: More armor in exchange for speed:
(crouched greatl outwighs the others, and Merial is what most important for the legs. So Crouched Medial Legs)
Acutuators
Basic: Baseline
Simplified: No, F***'s over the mecha. if we were designinga total mook maybe, but we're not.
Durable: Limbs that are less likely to be disabled is a good thing,
Powerful Actuator: off sets the penlty from enlarged hull, and decent limb speed.
Flexible: More stablity and Agility for limbe speed and tech cost. not worth it.
Precise: same as flexiable, just more precision then agility.
(Durable or powerfull works the best. )
[] [Body Size] Enlarged Hull
[] [Body Style] Ergonomic Hull
[] [Limb Style] Crouched Medial Legs
[] [Actuators] Powerful Actuator Design
Overall output is:
[+4] Limb Drive Speed, [+1] Reduced Height, [+1] Skeletal Stability, [+1] Joint Protection, [+1] Skeletal Efficiency, [+1] Skeletal Agility, [+2] Weapon Hardpoints, [+1] Armour Plating, [+1] Power Control [+1] Roll Bonus when designing/adding components to Project's Body, [+1] Heat Management,
[-2] Production Cost, [-3] Technology Cost, [-1] Ease of Maintenance
Incressed production adn tech cost, but that was pretty mucha given unless we went minimal. slightyl harder to maintain.
good speed gain, overall improvement to the skeletal structure, 2 weapon hard points and decent support for those weapons. and bonuses to producing components for it.
Little speedy, chunky boy.
Last edited:
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
A little too tired to directly compared our chosen combinations right now, but it seems that yours is a little more pricy than mine with the decrease of Ease of Maintenance. The protection also appears to be less for the sake of movement and weapons. Would this be correct?
That sounds about right. Playing to the advantages of being small
Edit: also more hard points is a good selling point for the potential mech while reducing its eventual base cost, is what I'm thinking. more potential value to present about it, even if we don't sell the base model with anything attached to them. And more add on to sell to the buyers. Oh, you want missile racks? Well just deliver them with, for an additional cost of XXXX$.
Last edited:
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
That does sound like something more similar to a combat mech that a defensive mobile artillery. You may need an efficient engine and/or power plant to get the most out of it.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Pardon, could you replace the bolded with
[] [Actuators] Powerful Actuator Design
Right now the tally is counting
[][Powerful Actuator Design]
and
[][Actuators] Powerful Actuator Design
as different votes in different categories. It probably won't hurt anything the way it is but it would keep the tally neater.
true. It's more emphasis on the mobile bit then the artillery. Stay at range, out speed then enemy while dodging and returning a larger then expected amount of fire. Be small enough that were relatively hard to hit. Enough armor to shrug off a lucky hit.
We were never designing a pure artillery platform really
Also Fixed the vote I made
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, not after we voted for the Small chassis, anyway. A 100 tonne six or eight-legged mecha could take a naval 5 inch gun or two, and a rack of recce drones, and make itself terribly annoying in a forty kilometer radius.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
The problems I see is that we were asked to make defensive mechs not combat and recon mechs. You're strategy is well suited for a recon or skirmisher mech but less so for those that are supposed to be defending areas. It also pretty much requires a powerful and efficient engine system which is going to be hard to justify with the dips in Production and Tech Costs that we are going to be taking. There is also the matter of the neuro-link and how the difference in body structure is going to affect the efficiency of the mech. You very well could end up with a mech that is small but has problems doing its job and its job is safeguarding rather than engagement.
Sad but true, perhaps we should focus on the mech's ability to lock down an area over direct fire power?
But Gorilla tactics is pretty much the only option for a defensive mech we have at this point, with what options we have already picked. Harrass and keep enemy mechs pinned down from long range. Evade and make it expensive for everything they take. We do not have the bulk for extreme range artillery or just out armor an enemy to hold a line.
Last edited:
Alright, the rolls gave us some spare leeway to play with in the requirements, so -
[X] [Body Size] Balanced Hull
[X] [Body Size] Snub-Nosed Hull
Either of these is fine, none of the other options provide a decent benefit to penalty ratio.
[X] [Body Style] Reinforced Hull
Reinforced Hull provides some outrageously good and comprehensive defensive benefits for a small ProdCost and no TechCost, so that's going in the selection
[X] [Limb Style] Crouched Dorsal Legs
Similar thing - that is some ludicrous defensive and productive benefits for its cost.
[X] [Actuators] Flexible Actuator Design
And this eliminates most of the Agility loss. So final score comes out to this;
[+2] Build & Repair Speeds
[+1] Reduced Height
[+3] Armour Plating
[+1] Skeletal Durability
[+3] Skeletal Stability
[+1] Pilot Protection
[+2] Component Protection
[+1] Actuator Precision
[-1] Production Cost
[-1] Technology Cost
[-2] Limb Drive Speed
So for a minor loss in ProdCost + TechCost + DriSpeed, we get
Significantly improved Building and Repair Speed,
MASSIVELY improved across the board durability through a combination of increased armor and reduced chassis size
Mildly improved agility
And perhaps most importantly, more Skeletal Stability which will both keep us going good in rough terrain, and allow us to mount bigger weapons and more armor.
Plus, assuming we vote to keep our Limb Agility and Skeletal Stability medium-rate or above, this will be an excellent rough-terrain and urban chassis. And that doesn't account for the possibilities of hefty defenses.
[X] [Body Size] Balanced Hull
[X] [Body Size] Snub-Nosed Hull
Either of these is fine, none of the other options provide a decent benefit to penalty ratio.
[X] [Body Style] Reinforced Hull
Reinforced Hull provides some outrageously good and comprehensive defensive benefits for a small ProdCost and no TechCost, so that's going in the selection
[X] [Limb Style] Crouched Dorsal Legs
Similar thing - that is some ludicrous defensive and productive benefits for its cost.
[X] [Actuators] Flexible Actuator Design
And this eliminates most of the Agility loss. So final score comes out to this;
[+2] Build & Repair Speeds
[+1] Reduced Height
[+3] Armour Plating
[+1] Skeletal Durability
[+3] Skeletal Stability
[+1] Pilot Protection
[+2] Component Protection
[+1] Actuator Precision
[-1] Production Cost
[-1] Technology Cost
[-2] Limb Drive Speed
So for a minor loss in ProdCost + TechCost + DriSpeed, we get
Significantly improved Building and Repair Speed,
MASSIVELY improved across the board durability through a combination of increased armor and reduced chassis size
Mildly improved agility
And perhaps most importantly, more Skeletal Stability which will both keep us going good in rough terrain, and allow us to mount bigger weapons and more armor.
This Mech is in the 55-ton range. A standard 5-inch Artillery Gun in the real world (like the kind you'd mount on a naval destroyer) weighs, with ammunition, a total of 24 tons or so. Depending on how much it actually weighs after this with tech levels and whatnot, we can absolutely do decent artillery.
Plus, assuming we vote to keep our Limb Agility and Skeletal Stability medium-rate or above, this will be an excellent rough-terrain and urban chassis. And that doesn't account for the possibilities of hefty defenses.
Last edited:
[X] [Body Size] Balanced Hull
[X] [Body Size] Snub-Nosed Hull
[X] [Body Style] Reinforced Hull
[X] [Limb Style] Crouched Dorsal Legs
[X] [Actuators] Flexible Actuator Design
@CanYouMeme, you have convinced me. They don't need to be supper fast. They need defensive. Also saves on for other systems.
[X] [Body Size] Snub-Nosed Hull
[X] [Body Style] Reinforced Hull
[X] [Limb Style] Crouched Dorsal Legs
[X] [Actuators] Flexible Actuator Design
@CanYouMeme, you have convinced me. They don't need to be supper fast. They need defensive. Also saves on for other systems.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
That's where our choice of weapon systems come in. Our mechs are supposed to glorified gate keepers against pirates and raiders. So heavy weaponry isn't as needed. We can instead use an attack drone package and then have the main mech be equipped with anti-aircraft/infantry and EM systems. The drones would be doing the intercepting while the mech inhibilitates opposition with metal corrosive or glue like ammo and EM systems and being a "go away" body when needed. I doubt pirates will have mechs after all. So pretty much a defense and support role ment to deter raiders rather than deal with heavy armor.
We have options, but the job description is pretty much anti-pirate guard duty.
The only thing to keep in mind with that paradigm is that we will want a light anti-armor weapon at least - something like a missile/rocket battery or a 3-inch autocannon. It does need to be able to reliably kill other chassis of its size, at least a couple times. One of the mission requirements.
Frankly, I want bigger, but I'll keep my expectations down for now.
Last edited:
But can we do it better/cheaper/mobile then their currently artillery? Because if not our customers will just buy those instead.
And this discussion has clarified some of the reasons I went with the choices I picked
We're not here to design a mech like artillery platform. We're here to design a Defensive Mecha. Who's primary foes will be other Mecha. we need something that can get to the other Mecha and pin them down, stoping any attack they are makeing (by killing them, or stopping the long enough that artillery can do so)
Makeing an artillery piece is not going to sell the Mecha, unless we add an equal amount of direct combat potential. To the point that we're better off removing the artillery because it's cheaper and the mech will sell better without it.
This is a $&@$& Mecha designing quest and I don't want to design a $&!?& artillery piece I want to design a MECHA!
Edit: now a drone control Mecha with light skirmish weapons to fall Back upon would be a cool idea, as proposed by the two post made while I was typing this up.
Last edited:
Verisaimilitude
Meridian 'Mira' Visari
- Location
- Great Library of Verisaimilitude
- Pronouns
- She/Her
All this discussion over both current and future options is great and I'm enjoying seeing people get invested - but as a reminder, please remember to stay civil and avoid getting hostile if there are disagreements!
Last edited:
For a guy who talks about wanting to build cool shit, I'm a little surprised at how specific you're being.
I'm here to come as close as possible to an apocalyptic nation-shattering kill bot as tech and skill allows. I only tolerate the mission restrictions because we're fresh-faced newbies, and humility demands some parameters.
In other words, I'm here for MOAR DAKKA.
You know what goes amazingly well in a 5-inch artillery gun? High-Explosive Fragmentation Incendiary rounds. And because it's an anti-personnel round, that's something you can fire at pretty close to point blank range without damaging the Mech. Heavy armor? Discarding Sabot. Also very nice at point blank range. And if you want to go semi-classic, Beehive Flechette.
With just a single press of a button, a shot selector is activated and one gun goes from long-range artillery to close-range butcher barrel. Just make sure the gun mount, be it a partial turret or the chassis itself, can spin pretty fast (ahemSkeletalAgility/Precisionahem).
Cool Mechas are nice. A 3-bot team with autoloading guns marching forward and turning an appreciable portion of a square kilometer into screaming hellfire is nice too. Now lets add some flamethro- I mean, fluid sprayers as secondary weapons, and get some blades for kicking on it for good measure.
And you know what our second Mech after this is, when we've teched up a bit and worked out the kinks in multi-leg design? Centaur Bot. Built for speed with a giant slab shield and chainswo- I mean, modified industrial chainsaw.
Don't be so impatient. We're getting there. Simple killing now, complex killing tomorrow.
Last edited:
- Location
- US
[X] [Body Size] Balanced Hull
[X] [Body Style] Reinforced Hull
[X] [Limb Style] Simple Medial Legs
[X] [Actuators] Basic Actuator Design
[X] [Actuators] Simplified Actuator Design
[X] [Body Style] Reinforced Hull
[X] [Limb Style] Simple Medial Legs
[X] [Actuators] Basic Actuator Design
[X] [Actuators] Simplified Actuator Design
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, yes and no. Most of that weight is going to be armour, so the gun will have to be substantially lighter.
A 120mm tank gun is almost the same bore as a 5-inch(127mm) naval gun, but the naval gun has a heavier barrel and autoloader to sustain a rate of fire of 3 seconds per round, compared to an auto-loaded 120mm gun of six seconds per round.
You know what we could fit on this thing, though? 120mm gatling mortar with direct/indirect fire modes. Only 10 kilometer range but holy shit.
Please. It's not a centaur if it doesn't have a bow.
With chainsaw arrows.
(It's also not a hoplite if it doesn't have the round shield and spear, but that's another issue.)
I will only accept gatling mortar if we can load HEFI/Rocket-Sabot and level it for direct fire.
Oh come now, any sensible person knows you do drill arrows and chainsaw spears with an electrified shield.
Verisaimilitude
Meridian 'Mira' Visari
- Location
- Great Library of Verisaimilitude
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Just to make sure everyone is aware, 55t was the lowest end of the range, and the initial rolls have put the prototype you're working on at ~71, near the highest end of the range for the small chassis. It's currently fairly chunky:
There's a lot of inefficiency in the materials and your designers still aren't great at this. Gen 1 Mecha are pretty likely to be over-tonned.
Yhea that would be cool, but that's way beyond the starter Mecha we're trying to build in functionality. To achieve it we're going to need to build a more expensive copy of some conventional artillery, that no one will buy. We also need tech up before building such a replacement becomes feasible.
(Not that the idea you're proposing is not super cool and I would not mind winning, I just don't think it will sell well to our potential customers yet. Nor be a good testbed for future Mecha development).
(Centaur bot is also something I'm aiming for. Preferably with hichable trailer/chariot and mounting for a humanoid Mecha to ride.)