Are humongous mechs practical?

[Threesan]

Probably not. But if we had some in Afghanistan, one would hope they could do mountainous terrain better than our other ground vehicles. As well, there might be some scrambling for effective weapons against them. RPGs probably wouldn't be enough (or maybe that's a necessary assumption, because if it was enough they'd have not so much use).

Other than that, they might be able to help clear short multi-story buildings. In old-school conventional warfare, perhaps they would have an edge over tanks not just in mobility over rough terrain, but in that they could peak over buildings or hills, pop off a shot, and then duck behind cover. Maybe they could ford shallow waters, but mud sounds like a bad idea.

 

[Burst6]

With giant legs like that, a long trip wire can do wonders. Just imagine a group of men sneaking up on a bot and tying a thick chord around their legs. So cartoonish.

 

[Kuhkren]

I could see smaller mechs being probable, like one to three story ones that act as mobile support tanks in order to charge and disorient, blitzkrieg style. Maybe give them a hammer to crush structures/tanks with, yeah that sounds sweet .

 

[Skeleon]

RPGs probably wouldn't be enough (or maybe that's a necessary assumption, because if it was enough they'd have not so much use).

I'd say it's the latter, because if you can build a 20 metres 'Mech, you can also build a 20 metres tank. Considering how "skinny" 'Mechs are (yes, even a Daishi is skinny if you compared it to a tank if you scaled it up to the same dimension), their armor would probably be far weaker than that of a tank and overall riddled with new weak spots (particularily the joints, I'd assume).

Why do tanks suck in 'Mechwarrior? Only because they're so goddamn small, really.

 

[Valiance]

The amount of money and resources you would spend on a comparable tank or similar design vs your average mech, obviously a tank would be a better choice.

However, there are things mechs can do that tanks cannot, say, traverse harsh terrain.

Battletech: impractical
Anime: impractical
Earthsiege: Almost practical
Shattered Steel: practical

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

They're pretty much useless, a fact lampshaded in MGS3. Higher ground clearance is bad (bigger target. Legs for bad terrain (tanks have treads).

In our world, laser weapons would probably be useless because they're too powerful. Why shoot the tank with a giant laser gun when you can blow it up? Plus we can't even make laser weapons that look like the ones in fiction anyway. That's why Gundam feels the need to create a fictional branch of science to even explain the possibility of beam weapons.

 

[bcponpcp27]

Nope. Infantry units don't need to be that big. Ever.

 

[Zetsubou]

Unless you have the Gurren Lagann, they are impractical as hell. Too many ways to blow out a limb and criple the whole thing.

 

[CrysisMcGee]

Not the actual large Mechs, But the ones in Heavy Gear are far more practical.
12 feet tall, 1 man, fast and rather agile. Also take cover, and act very human-Like

Personally, I seriously think this is a type of vehicle worth pursuing. Also they have wheels.

What makes them better than mechs, is their small size, human-like movement and abilites, and can move quite fast. Unlike the sluggish giant Mechs.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Ah....

"Sir, enemy mecha approaching!"

"Roger that driver. Gunner, lay on, enemy mecha-robot, 2300 yards, eighteen degrees from fore."

"Aye sir. Loading...loaded."

"Fire!"

*Mecha is blown apart by a 120mm depleted uranium round*

 

[DJude]

short answer:NO

long answer:NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[ThreeWords]

snippy snip

Actually no, robots aren't and probably won't be as agile as humans, not as long as they are metal. You can do that stuff because of how your weight is balanced and because your body can contort. A giant robot that's made out of metal will have a different center of gravity than you and it can't twist as well. If it can't twist, it can't shift weight. And if it can't shift it's own weight, it can't easily right itself.

Which is why I like Big O. It wouldn't actually work, but that's about how a real mech would behave if you messed with it.

Hmm...

How advanced are the robots in question? I'd have thought that with sufficiently manoeuvrable and powerful joints, a mech could correct any fall, but maybe I'm just being optimistic...

As for centre of gravity, you can shift the canter of gravity by bending legs and shifting stance. If you needed to bend you body to balance, how would people in corsets get around?

 

[GloatingSwine]

No. Any weapon system you could mount on a mech you could mount on a tank, but with a lower centre of gravity you could make it bigger, because the recoil wouldn't be as much of a problem, you could armour it more, because there are no joints, it wouldn't suffer mechanical stress trying to move itself....

Of course, there are large walking vehicles, (logging machines and timber haulers), but no-one is silly enough to try and put weapons on them.

 

[SideburnsPuppy]

If by "practical" you mean "totally flippin' amazingly stupendously fantastically awesome," then yes. Yes, they are very "practical."

In all seriousness, they probably wouldn't help much in a full-on war, District 9 has proven that, against a dozen or so guys with guns, they could kick ass. It's basically just you, only with massive guns and a size which would probably cause intimidation.

 

[Punk Guy24]

All of the impracticality of a giant mech is made up for by the fact that they are fucking awesome. I'm sorry but lets face it, the engineers of the future will find out if giant mechs are useful or not, they don't need us to tell them that. The only reason why they are put in games and media is for fan service, its the same reason why most female anime characters have cleavage you could lose your dog in. For example in the show Dragonauts: the Resonance, there are fucking ROBOT DRAGONS and almost every female character has a C cup at the least. Of course it is set in the future and maybe they have passed some kind of law that says that anything below a c cup is a class A felony, but there is a woman with boobs so big that if she were to put her elbows together to show off her boobs, she'd strangle herself. So I guess this is a roundabout way of saying that the future shall decide whether giant mechs are a good idea, but for now we should just enjoy the spectacle. Of course now everyone can flame me for being uninterested in this subject because I'm an idiot. Well that's enough of my rambling, ta.

 

[Akai Shizuku]

I think they can be as long as you do it right.

 

[spuddyt]

I wonder, in space, and if you had 4 arms but no legs and specialised in close combat...

 

[p3t3r]

ya i had a thought about that a while ago it would be better to just have like tanks or something. but then again they are pretty neat.