Mech Cocpit types

Lt. Nebfer · Post by **Lt. Nebfer** » 2002-11-05 07:55pm

Well i know that mechs a on the unpractical side(at least ones over 30 feet that is)but wich cocpit would use

a head mounted one (mechwarrior)

Torso mounted(gundam ect)

and what would be the avanteage and disavantage of each one??

by the way what would be the serfic area of a mech (gundam size(57 feet high)and how much armor would you need to cover it to be suficent for protection(as in wight)

SAMAS · Post by **SAMAS** » 2002-11-05 08:04pm

Definitely the Chest-Mounted one.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2002-11-05 08:14pm

I would say torso-mounted. It would allow for a smaller mech (since torsos are larger than heads), more armor over the cockpit, and a lower position for the pilot (which means less likely to get clobbered peeking over a hill with the presumably head-mounted sensors).

The head would have an advantage only in that it would be more likely to allow for the use of the Mk I Eyeball without cameras, but that does not outweigh the torso advantages.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-11-05 08:30pm

want cockpit in the upper torso. The head would be a small turret containing a FLIR, laser and low and normal light TV systems. There would also be a periscope as a backup. This would be for larger mecha.

Small power armored things would just have either a full face helmet or possible a view port on the lines of the suit show in the original C&C's trailer for Tiberian Sun.

However I'd never have mecha in my army. Just tanks, lots of fucking tanks. Forget mecha, when I've got a four tracked 2-5 turreted 80-200-ton tank I'm happy.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2002-11-05 08:47pm

Sea Skimmer wrote: However I'd never have mecha in my army. Just tanks, lots of fucking tanks. Forget mecha, when I've got a four tracked 2-5 turreted 80-200-ton tank I'm happy.

The Russians tried that whole land battleship theory. Didn't work well, they're too heavy and unmaneuverable to fight effectively.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2002-11-05 08:49pm

You would want to have your cockpit in the torso for maximum armor protection for the crew. The "head" should be more functional than actually looking like a head. A turret like what Skimmer suggested is what i have in mind, or mabye a cupola like on many armored vehicles today.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-11-05 08:57pm

The Dark wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote: However I'd never have mecha in my army. Just tanks, lots of fucking tanks. Forget mecha, when I've got a four tracked 2-5 turreted 80-200-ton tank I'm happy.
The Russians tried that whole land battleship theory. Didn't work well, they're too heavy and unmaneuverable to fight effectively.

It didn't help that the two production models, the T-28 and T-35, 3 and 5 turreted respectively, had about 10mm of armor and could be killed by 152 shrapnel.

Actually, the British came up with the idea of the independent tank. And it is very impractical on a real battlefield. However one of the worlds I created for a work of fiction had such massive use of NCB weapons infantry couldn't dismount 90% of the time. Laser's made artillery ineffective in suppressing defenses. Thus the construction of multi turreted tanks, with there own laser CIWS, that could operate independently against heavy defenses.

paladin · Post by **paladin** » 2002-11-05 10:02pm

The Dark wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote: However I'd never have mecha in my army. Just tanks, lots of fucking tanks. Forget mecha, when I've got a four tracked 2-5 turreted 80-200-ton tank I'm happy.
The Russians tried that whole land battleship theory. Didn't work well, they're too heavy and unmaneuverable to fight effectively.

Germans also tried same thing during WWII. I read that Germany had plans for a super tank that would have weighed 1,500 tons. It never got off the drawing board. It was too impractical.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2002-11-05 10:06pm

paladin wrote:
The Dark wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote: However I'd never have mecha in my army. Just tanks, lots of fucking tanks. Forget mecha, when I've got a four tracked 2-5 turreted 80-200-ton tank I'm happy.
The Russians tried that whole land battleship theory. Didn't work well, they're too heavy and unmaneuverable to fight effectively.
Germans also tried same thing during WWII. I read that Germany had plans for a super tank that would have weighed 1,500 tons. It never got off the drawing board. It was too impractical.

The Germans did end the war trying to develop even larger, more heavily armored and armed tanks. Some of their models even had 88mm high velocity weapons by the end of the war.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-11-05 10:23pm

Master of Ossus wrote:
paladin wrote:
The Dark wrote: The Russians tried that whole land battleship theory. Didn't work well, they're too heavy and unmaneuverable to fight effectively.
Germans also tried same thing during WWII. I read that Germany had plans for a super tank that would have weighed 1,500 tons. It never got off the drawing board. It was too impractical.
The Germans did end the war trying to develop even larger, more heavily armored and armed tanks. Some of their models even had 88mm high velocity weapons by the end of the war.

They had 88's on turreted tanks by 1943, and the Tiger II tank destroyer had a fixed 128.

By the end of the war they where testing the Maus which had a turrted 128mm main gun and a 75mm coax! Frontal armor was 240mm.

The 1,500-ton tank was designed as a design project, much like the 100,000-ton battleships. The idea was to see what was possible to do with existing technology, not to produce a design, which would see service. Hitler showed some interest in it however and that gave it credibility as a real project it didn't actually have.

Armament would have been a short-barreled 800mm gun/mortar, two 150mm guns and a number of lesser cannons plus swarms of machine guns. Four engines normally used by the Type IV U-boat would have powered it.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2002-11-05 10:29pm

Right, the Jagdpanzer VI Jagdtiger had the 128mm, but there were bigger guns on active service German armored units. The Sturmpanzer IV Brummbar carried a 150mm, and the Sturmmorser Tiger had a 380mm (

) rocket mortar with a 6km range (although apparently only 18 were completed).

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-11-05 10:40pm

The Dark wrote:Right, the Jagdpanzer VI Jagdtiger had the 128mm, but there were bigger guns on active service German armored units. The Sturmpanzer IV Brummbar carried a 150mm, and the Sturmmorser Tiger had a 380mm ( ) rocket mortar with a 6km range (although apparently only 18 were completed).

Brummbar however is just a self propelled gun. It has an open roof and about 20mm of armor.

I was only talking about vehicles that where tanks or anti armor. The Germans also had a design for a 170mm Brummbarish SP gun that never got built.

Sturmmorser is a freak. You have to get out and use a crane to reload the damn thing.

Kettch · Post by **Kettch** » 2002-11-06 01:28am

Getting back to where to place the cockpit:

The 'head' designs from BT are an artifact of the nature of Battlemechs.

The engine in a battlemech is one very hot fusion engine. (Heck in the original 2nd edition it's a fission engine!)

In most Mechs you don't want to put the pilot that close to the huge torso mounted engine. (See balance in the practicality thread) There is a good chance of the pilot becoming a crispy critter after the first Alpha strike.

Also it alows some deigns to use a whole head ejection system. (Hatchetman, Axeman, Wolfhound) If you have to stick the pilot in the head might as well take advantage of it.