Mechs in Traveller?
- Thread starter slyen2002
- Start date
Designing mechs for your game is fairly easy if you use MT. You can extrapolate from Book 8, but for me its just easier to do it in MT.
I would make limited use of mechs IMTU:
1. Small units, about the size of the walkers from 2300ad, usefull for dealing with battledress equipped units.
2. Larger sized units that would serve in the tank/apc role on planets where grav capable units would have a difficult time do to weather/atmospheric conditions.
3. As Bairdec said, ground pressures would definetely be an issue with large units; one would have to be carefull about where you would deploy them. You wouldn't want to have these guys crossing a swamp
On the other hand, you could have fun crushing things under foot with em.
4.IMTU, Large Mech units are few and far between. They are very specialized units, like Mountain troops or Arctic troops are today.
Thats my .02Cr worth.
I would make limited use of mechs IMTU:
1. Small units, about the size of the walkers from 2300ad, usefull for dealing with battledress equipped units.
2. Larger sized units that would serve in the tank/apc role on planets where grav capable units would have a difficult time do to weather/atmospheric conditions.
3. As Bairdec said, ground pressures would definetely be an issue with large units; one would have to be carefull about where you would deploy them. You wouldn't want to have these guys crossing a swamp
4.IMTU, Large Mech units are few and far between. They are very specialized units, like Mountain troops or Arctic troops are today.
Thats my .02Cr worth.
Although I like the Knight, Gladiator theory of mechs.
It also Depends how the ref runs gravitics though doesn't it. How about heavy gravitic worlds with valuables worth fighting for. If a ref is only allowing a certain amount of gravitic compensation at each TL then the mechs might have multiple purposes on heavy gravity worlds where rocket assisted or land based movement is necessary.
This entire "reign of mechs" could have been a brief early interstellar technology point when Gravitics was young and untested. By TL 15 its graduates to traditional combat.
Savage
It also Depends how the ref runs gravitics though doesn't it. How about heavy gravitic worlds with valuables worth fighting for. If a ref is only allowing a certain amount of gravitic compensation at each TL then the mechs might have multiple purposes on heavy gravity worlds where rocket assisted or land based movement is necessary.
This entire "reign of mechs" could have been a brief early interstellar technology point when Gravitics was young and untested. By TL 15 its graduates to traditional combat.
Savage
Slyen2 The BARD pages over on Downport.com have a few CombatWalker/BattleMech's Listed on the Vera page. TNE is not CT but you could adapt them from their derived value's. ie 5 Displacement ton's is still 5 displacement tons. 56kph is still 56 kph etc etc. I suspect you don't necessaily need to know how to design them in order to used their derived values in your game.
It carries weapon x at speed y with duration z ought to be enough for use. Hope this helps.
It carries weapon x at speed y with duration z ought to be enough for use. Hope this helps.
one idea i got was to basicly just enlage the battledress's cost and size for it as well as increasing the cost for weapons for it were as you cant use "man sized" on a mech yet u could use "mech sized" and visaversa.
also does anyone really know who the Julian Proctorat is? i mean like history and other things not spacificly dealing with the 3rd imperium or common knowledge.
also does anyone really know who the Julian Proctorat is? i mean like history and other things not spacificly dealing with the 3rd imperium or common knowledge.
Legs are an ineffecient mode of locomotion. Battledress is a form of armor that is so heavy that it needs powered legs to carry its weight. If you scaled it up to the size of a tank, it will be one big target that isn't capable of going as fast as a regular tank or a grav tank. It may be more able than wheels and treds to negotiate uneven terrain.
Well, I don't know about crushing enemy tanks. Legs are inefficient but I have a list of animals that do pretty good with legs.
1. assume grav takes a few TLs to perfect. It wont work on the hvy gravity world because TL11-12 grav won't cut it.
2. Rocket/jet assisted mechs could probably move pretty good. 60-100+MPH. Add hvy armour, air defense, mobile infantry...
Savage
1. assume grav takes a few TLs to perfect. It wont work on the hvy gravity world because TL11-12 grav won't cut it.
2. Rocket/jet assisted mechs could probably move pretty good. 60-100+MPH. Add hvy armour, air defense, mobile infantry...
Savage
Eventually TL will outstrip mechs as they hit the equivalent of a technological dead-end. It would possibly be feasible for a few TLs, say 9-11. Grav tech would quickly outstrip it as development on it progresses - possibly be unreliable for about one TL while all the bugs are worked out. Maybe 2 if you push it.
Mechs, by their very nature (robotic) would be fragile. Combat would definitely take its toll quickly, and maintenance costs on them would be (I expect) quite high. If mechs are developed, they would likely be modelled after those in the manga/anime "Appleseed", or after the Humpty-Dumpties from the RPG "Battlelords of the 25th Century" (I *think* it was 25th, anyway).
Rocket/jet assisted mechs could move quite quickly, but stopping may be an issue (imagine what the landing loads would be like, not only on all the mech's joints, but also the loads on whatever surface they landed on). Gundam-style (actually, any giant-mecha-styled) combat moves would be pretty hard on both the machine and the environment. Although giant mechs might be fun to have, a hard look at the science behind them would quickly show that cost-effectiveness and robustness is more easily found in more traditional ground and air vehicles.
IMTU, I have Battle Movers, which are upscaled BD able to hot-swap weapon loads. However, that's the ONLY real advantage they have. They're hard to maintain, not very fast (around 30-35 mph continuous, 15-20 mph in adverse terrain), and lightly armored. If they every fall, they're pretty much toast - a lot of the motor tech in the BMs is geared towards keeping it from falling. They may be flexible, but one good shot from a throwaway rocket launcher, and it's hasta...
If you really want Gundam/Nadisco styled mechs in your game, try Mekton, Heavy Gear, or some other system where it can be pulled off without having to stretch the science too far. IMO, I think you're trying too hard to justify them in a technically "hard" SF setting.
Mechs, by their very nature (robotic) would be fragile. Combat would definitely take its toll quickly, and maintenance costs on them would be (I expect) quite high. If mechs are developed, they would likely be modelled after those in the manga/anime "Appleseed", or after the Humpty-Dumpties from the RPG "Battlelords of the 25th Century" (I *think* it was 25th, anyway).
Rocket/jet assisted mechs could move quite quickly, but stopping may be an issue (imagine what the landing loads would be like, not only on all the mech's joints, but also the loads on whatever surface they landed on). Gundam-style (actually, any giant-mecha-styled) combat moves would be pretty hard on both the machine and the environment. Although giant mechs might be fun to have, a hard look at the science behind them would quickly show that cost-effectiveness and robustness is more easily found in more traditional ground and air vehicles.
IMTU, I have Battle Movers, which are upscaled BD able to hot-swap weapon loads. However, that's the ONLY real advantage they have. They're hard to maintain, not very fast (around 30-35 mph continuous, 15-20 mph in adverse terrain), and lightly armored. If they every fall, they're pretty much toast - a lot of the motor tech in the BMs is geared towards keeping it from falling. They may be flexible, but one good shot from a throwaway rocket launcher, and it's hasta...
If you really want Gundam/Nadisco styled mechs in your game, try Mekton, Heavy Gear, or some other system where it can be pulled off without having to stretch the science too far. IMO, I think you're trying too hard to justify them in a technically "hard" SF setting.
Yes. Thing that's what I was getting at.
That's the price one would pay. It could also be vicous.
As a mobile vehicle they may be heavily armoured in traveller, cause severe damage upon the enemy and have a nightmarish maintenance schedule.
As I mentioned there is a TL grouping where it might be reasonable.
Savage
