| 15mm and 28mm Fanatik | 09 Jul 2014 12:24 p.m. PST |
So cool. It would be even cooler if it has functioning weapon systems. link |
| Patrick R | 09 Jul 2014 12:34 p.m. PST |
My guess is that it will be a shuffling kind of walking motion using wheels, like this one. YouTube link |
| Mr Canuck | 09 Jul 2014 12:38 p.m. PST |
If anyone can do it, my money would be on the Japanese and their advancements in robotics. It would be even cooler if it has functioning weapon systems. …only a matter of time, if they get the first one working… |
| Cergorach | 09 Jul 2014 12:43 p.m. PST |
Over 50 years some kid is wondering why every military has walking robots as their primary combat vehicle. His dad still blames the Japanese and their silly cartoon obsessions for that foobar! ;-) |
| DsGilbert | 09 Jul 2014 2:15 p.m. PST |
My question is, why do people feel we need a walking platform? If anything we should be focusing on hovering type platforms. |
| Lion in the Stars | 09 Jul 2014 4:28 p.m. PST |
Walking platforms make sense in urban and other dense terrain. tracks make sense in the open desert/steppes. hover on the water, or transitioning between water and sandy beach. Hover is very loud and requires a crapton of power. The USN LCAC has 16,000hp installed, and weighs 180 tons fully loaded. A 70-ton M1 Abrams has all of 1500 horsepower installed. 6x the horsepower per ton of a main battle tank. |
rvandusen  | 09 Jul 2014 5:54 p.m. PST |
Now if only the Japanese can genetically engineer a super schoolgirl to pilot the gundam, they will be invincible. |
| Sargonarhes | 09 Jul 2014 5:59 p.m. PST |
They're not going to go for just a shuffling walk, they got RC mobile suits that already do that. YouTube link But I got to feel sorry for this poor little Gundam being picked on by a Zaku bigger than it.
YouTube link |
| Coelacanth | 09 Jul 2014 7:49 p.m. PST |
My question is, why do people feel we need a walking platform? They're planning to cancel the Apocalypse?  Ron |
| Khusrau | 10 Jul 2014 3:18 a.m. PST |
walking is much more power efficient than hover or flying – carries a bigger payload, and less risk if things foul up mechanically – and much more versatile over bad terrain than tracks or wheels – BUT – a much better target than a fast flyer or a low profile vehicle. Horses for Courses- |
| DsGilbert | 10 Jul 2014 5:37 a.m. PST |
We make silent helicopters now. How is a giant walking machine that shakes the very ground a viable platform? I understand a power suit, but these things are ridiculous. |
| Lion in the Stars | 10 Jul 2014 12:08 p.m. PST |
I agree that Gundams are ludicrously oversized for land combat. Personally, I'd be surprised to see anything bigger than 5m tall in a ground-combat walker, with 3.5-4.5m being the most likely size range. 3.5m is a meter or so taller than an Abrams, and roughly 50cm taller than an M2 Bradley. If your ground-combat walker can go prone like an infantryman, it would be even shorter than an Abram's hull. In space, however, a humanoid form may have some advantages in stretching delta-v. After all, a human shape can shift it's center of gravity relative to the center of thrust. |
| Stryderg | 10 Jul 2014 8:08 p.m. PST |
But if they're over 30 feet tall, they can shoot OVER the trees. |
 Legion 4  | 10 Jul 2014 10:09 p.m. PST |
Any thing that big is just a target … Even though Sci-fi games often have them … |
| retzlaffmd | 11 Jul 2014 2:09 p.m. PST |
Hover sucks as a motive system- too loud, and the wind pushes them around too much. Recoil for anything larger than a HMG will push them around as well. As for large humanoid walkers, I agree that for ground combat they're too tall/large to be practical… But the cool factor is too high to not have them, at least in sci-fi settings. Battletech fluff covered why they proliferated in that setting, sheer amount of weaponry/types of weapons with fewest crew needed/more armor protection per area of vehicle vs. larger cargo footprint/fewer weapons & types/more crew/fuel for IC engines on traditional tanks – though even then the need for traditional vehicles never went away. |
| Sargonarhes | 11 Jul 2014 5:04 p.m. PST |
Well Retzlaffmd Gundam has often had it's own fluff of why mobile suits became the weapon of choice, as they primarily started as a space borne weapon. When the Zeon's landed on Earth they did make tanks and aircraft, but because more Zeon designers and engineers were born on the colonies they had little experience with actual aircraft. As a result Federation fighters tended to perform better, for the most part the Zeon's mobile suits often out performed any the Feddies had. Until the Gundam showed up. UC Gundam has Minovsky particles which when in use jammed radar and interfered with many electronic signals, making all combat pretty much back to close quarters affair. The giant robots were just an extension of that idea, the Feddies even went back to using close range wire guided missiles. Don't ask about the other Gundam universes, they just go ahead and assume the mobile suits are there and give no explanation for the why they are used. |
