Why mechs and not insect like machines?

I always thought that spider like units with 4-6-8 legs are superior to 2 legged machines. I think they move bettter, they are sturdier and more balanced, and could potentially hold more weapons, and protect their pilots better.

I guess protoss has copywright over dragoon like units but i still think the terrans should invent one of their own.

 

Humans are an arrogant species and what they build is a reflection of that - i.e. two-legged, bipedal machines. At least that's how I explain the lack of such a spider-like machine.

 

Go play SupCom >.<

it's a video game, in real life they wouldn't use bipedals at all, especially with hover technology. Bipedal happens to be the most pwnage form of robot

 

i think it's just impractical. I mean the legs can be taken out so easily and there are no real special things with having the 4 legs. Sure it might move better, but there are so many more drawbacks. first of all, it's definatly not sturdier than a 2 legged machine. How can insect legs be more sturdy? look at the collosus. it's legs are wimpy. And what do you mean more balanced? like it won't tip over? Not really, i mean mechs are pretty heavy all around, other than the 4 legged insect machines that are way too topheavy. Also it's not always the case that it holds more weapons. Most of the 2 legged mechs have many weapons. The goliath has more than the collosus. And the 4 legged striders do not protect the pilots that much better. first of all, there ussually arn't any pilots in most of the striders i know, except maybe the war of worlds one. Anyways, the strider designs look silly. The terrans are more serious looking, i guess u can say.

 

Terrans are supposed to be the most "familiar" of the races. Treaded weaponry is where it's at. If you need more firepower, drop a nuke on them or a yamato blast.

 

If the crap series "Robot Wars" is any indication quadpedal is much more practical than bipedal. Generally though, quadpedal machines are much larger than bipedal, but in the case of the Thor it's just odd. Quadpedal design almost elminates the need to balance the machine, which you need a lot of if you were to use bipedal. The most efficient form of bipedal design is the inversed one, like the AT-ST in Star Wars.

If you want a picture of what he means by the insect like quad pedal design I suggest you take a look at the monkey-lord in SupCom before anything else. The War of Worlds machine things were Tripods, doesn't really fit in this discussion.

I agree with this, never really knew what blizzard was thinking when putting legs on the Thor, perhaps a korean influence? Goliath was okay because it was speedey, a slow moving bipedal with such an obvious weakness is impractical, not to mention the advantage of being bipedal is the ease in traversing uneven terrain, which as far as I know isn't available to the Thor... Then again, realism isn't a big thing with SC.

It also makes more sense story wise if the Terrans adopted a quadpedal design similar to a dragoon, after all I assume thats where they got their combat efficient hover technology, god knows they couldn't have made that up themselves.

 

What about a psychological factor? I find an iron giant more intimidating than an iron ant...

 

It'll probably resemble more of a Spider, and spiders are terrifying... when Giants are for the most part mythical beings you can't argue the grotesque nature of an arachnid... Not to mention arachnaphobia is probably pretty high up on the list of most common critter fears.

 

True, another reason why they might be bipedal is economy, save reasource and/or walker system fluids (assuming they use hydraulcs to move though i doubt it)

 

And it looks cool?

 

yes, yes it does.

 

I dont think spiders look cool, and they dont fit the terrans. Bersides, weve got immortals, colossi and striders for that. Another 4 legged unit would be too much.

 

Because bipedal robots kick ass ^_^

 

The thing is, maybe insead of having 8 lightly armored legs the bipedal robots have 2 heavily armored legs.

 

yea and in so many games the weakness of the strider type design is the legs. I can think of like 10 games where u first cripple the legs and then go up to kill it.

 

The only problem with bipedals really is the terrain manuverability (which in this case is overcome by the ability to turn into a plain (viking) and the ability to fire from extremely long range (Thor)). Also balance, which is just overcome by taking a proper grappling stance even if the robot is not designed to engage in melee combat.

 

If 6 legged creatures are superior why are humans a dominate species?

Think of it in a different terms. The more parts that move the more parts that can break. Ever had a flat tire? Imagine if you had 8 flat tires. How about this? While 4 legs are probably more stable a person would need to coordinate all 4 legs to a "safe" spot. Imagine you are a "mecha" pilot and you had to concentrate on enemy fire, your own attacks, and movement. With 2 legs you need to worry where to put both legs for maximum movement and maximum stability. As a human you have your own instincts on how to walk, stand, where to use your legs to gain that extra stability and/or movement. In other words, it is more natural for you to gain an equalibrium to your suroundings since you are used to walking with 2 legs. The physics for 4 legs would be different. How would you arrange your body and legs to do a sprint or a crouch or to evade better?

Lastly, if you stand up right now and decide to walk. You already know where your foot will land before you move. Imagine we had to calculate +4 more legs. It would drive us insane since we are not used to thinking in odd terms like that.

Is it possible? Sure! However, if you wanted maximum stability a hover vehicle or a tread or wheel vehicle would be better than 2 foot mecha. If you wanted maximum flexibility you would want a 2 foot/legged mecha since the pilot can easily think naturally.

 

humanoid robots are awesome because mechas and gundams are pwnage

 

I agree with all your points BoydofZINJ, especially about the human drivers. owerup:

 

Gah... Humans are the in the top of the food chain because of intelligence, we got whomped by quadrapedal creatures for millenia before we developed guns. Spears and short range weaponry dont count because we could still get bum raped even with sharp sticks.

As for it being more natural, its a machine, it will do it for you... its hardly natural walking in a giant tin can with no apparent advantage except extra weaponry and armor, you might as well develope an Iron-Man suit and parade that onto the battlefield. In terms of bipedal designs I always though armored suits and not full blown mecha were the way to go. Like the ACU's in the Matrix Movies... back to the quadrapedal thing, I doubt you would have to as much as control every leg on the machine, I mean you don't see someone in a bipedal mecha going "Ok here we get, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot" As long as the machine knows not to get its legs crossed its fine.

Not to mention they're probably trained, its not like they got on it the first time and then head over to Starcraft Iraq. I still remember how unnatural it felt the first time I got on a bus... not most part because I fell and bashed my head, but still I got over it... even the smallest thing, well not literally but the smallest thing messes with your equilibrium... which is exactly what pilots are trained for. And I doubt the military would sacrifice efficiency for comfort.