Gundam is overrated. Repetitive rehash of the same faction war bullshit where both sides are incompetent and evil and some child soldiers have to clean up the mess.
If we ever see mechas in real militaries, they would fulfill special niche support roles or even logistic roles. A mecha could potentially be able to scale steep inclines or traverse rivers easily. But they would never be used as frontline combatants.
Following the conversation, if you want all terrain walking mechs, bipeds and quadrupeds are both vastly inferior to hexapods and other multi-segmented leg designs. Making a robot like a crab, spider, or scorpion would make the most sense in real life at those sized.
Not sure how this hasn't turned into a battle of the Top five Mech/Exosuit media yet. Mine would be
Exosquad (1993)
BattleTech (1994)
Full Metal Panic! (2002, 2005, 2018)
Zone of the Enders (Games and Anime)
Super Spacetime Fortress Macross (1982)
@Darth Biomech
Never got to see the classic Exosquad did you. Some of the exosuits the Neosapiens used on that show where massive. They seem to follow the WWII idea that bigger vehicles where better. And it made for great fight scenes.
(Cont) Earth and the metal exterior is actually a way to keep it under control and finally there is the ones where they find the mecha of unknown origin.
@Candy Squirrel depends a lot on the setting. Sometimes the mech is made with magic in a fantasy setting, in others they use made-up physics that makes conventional combat inefficient, in others the mecha is not really a machine, the metal is actually encasing a clone of the creatures attacking
George Lucas is not the genius he's made out to be. All of your favorite Star Wars memories were someone else's idea! You want a look at what Star Wars would have been like had George done it all his way, from day one? Go read "The Star Wars" a comic adaptation of his original script. Its AWFUL!
@Loki Kitsune
George Lucas didn't design the walkers, ILM etc did.
He was always the kind of guy who told other people the general idea of what he wanted and then gave them free reign to create various designs until they came up with something he approved of.
Quadrupeds are more reasonable than bipeds, especially when it involves stability and ground pressure. Unless you're George Lucas, in which case you design the worst mechs ever.
I recall a discussion I once talked over how the mechs in Pacific Rim could be improved, having a dedicated leg-person, a torso person, weapon person, a fourth guy to handle any secondary duties, etc. My boyfriend then pointed out that if I put treads on it I basically had designed a big tank.
Assuming you can keep your balance(mankinds evolutionary ace in the hole) Bipeds dedicate less percentage of thier mass to locomotion without sacrificing all-terrain capability, as such they can afford a better balance of armor, firepower, and mobility than a tank ever could.
The only potential advantage of a mech suit is it being able to adapt in a humanlike way. Just pick up a new gun, instead of switching out turrets, be able to peek around a corner while standing, or go prone to shift the profile. But they're fun, so whatever. :)
Exosuits have everything that makes mecha cool (except the size), with the additional bonus point that they're not only realistically viable but one of the current RL military research targets.
Let's be honest here, anyone arguing about mecha being unrealistic is just dumb and being a killjoy. Just like with arguing anything fictional is unrealistic lol
In space mechas make sense, no profile drag, dangerous weapons/high priority targets kept safely away from the cockpit, orientable platforms for thrusters. Maybe Gundam whichever one wasn't wrong about 100% of everything.
I love tachikomas from Ghost in the shell, they get the best of both worlds. Low silhouette, wheels for speed but also spider legs for mobility. And they are cute.
Isn't the point of mechs in most realistic (as realistic as mechs can be) settings to be the lighter and more mobile tanks? Tanks, like most vehicles, can't navigate bad terrain and are pretty clumsy when it comes to maneuvering.
Also, at least in Battletech, tanks vastly outnumber mechs - mechs are easier to transport, are way more mobile (jump jets, climbing, sniping from a roof) and require less manpower so lorewise majority of warfare is based still on tanks, mechs are support ops, fast raids, bad environment, scouts etc
To be perfectly honest the harder the environment, the better mecha is over a tank, similarity to human body will be an asset once we develop neural interface due to similarity to human body, plus a mech can stomp a tank as entire weight of a mech placing entirety of it on the stomping leg.
I like the justifications in the Battletech `verse (AKA the most 'realistic' mech `verse). Which... I don't actually have room to type here. A quick Google search will bring up several sources, including the Battletech reddit.
Tanks pound for pound could mount more weapons, armor etc, but a bipedal unit has some one very key advantage.
Mobility - It can easily go where tanks are slowed or stopped. And in modern warfare that counts for ALOT. Germany proved that eminently well during the early parts of WWII.
There one environments in which I think mechas make sense is outer space. No need to consider aerodynamics, terrain, or them having to carry their own weights, and where limbs would be useful for putting thrusters on them anyway.
Human form robots do also have the advantage of being more natural to control, if you're using some kind of direct neural interface. Humans are used to human type movement
Human form robots don't make sense either, but people want them. The only clear advantage a mecha has over a tank is walking over rough terrain. A well built mecha can handle obstacles a tank can't.
And the only anime where mecha truly make sense is Evangellion... and its just disturbing.
If the law of reality do exist, any mecha that trying to do the suplex will meet a cruel fate of crushing themselves with their weight. That or the impact of anything would crush the pilot inside.
its not that mechs walking tanks would have advantages over a normal tank what are not viable humanoid tanks why suplex a kaiju when you can blow it apart with a 15inch autocannon that you have instead of an arm. wrestling move vs red mist.... I chose red mist. less armorcore more warhammer40k titan
Everyone forgets that tanks have hundreds of weak points; blow out a single track pin and it isn't going anywhere. The M1A2 upgrade was basically "How do we stop infantry running up and throwing explosives under the tracks?"
Bipedal mechs are silly though. POWER ARMOUR, on the other hand...
