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Mega Exo skeletons? Viability, Possible uses.
- Thread starter Koi
- Start date
As other people have said, a mech would only really be useful in a place with gravity, since you can just use ships in space. Even if places like the moons got gravity, it would just be easier to make tanks rather than mechs, you'd need to work out a way to build something like a mech with the parts that already exist in-game, but I'd think it would be too hard to control anyway.
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Ehh... visions of grandeur... a ship will indefinitely do those things harder, better, faster, stronger, than a mech... even on gravity... it will be an absolute chore to develope, and control, the rotary gimbals of a mechs arms, let alone legs. It will take complex input to simply extend, rotate, and retract the arm, a task that a simple ship would do with minimal effort and input. I don't think you are realizing the sheer amount of complexity that your mech will require to do even the tiniest movements with any semblance of fluidity.
Dont get me wrong, I think it's an epic idea, and will earn you style points; but let's not pretend it's going to be efficient/effective. I'm likley going to spend loads of time with scripting gear/weapons/bays/arms for various things... but I accept that a simple design would do my chores much much faster, and I'm sacrificing some efficiency for cool points.
An example would be MArmOS (Mechanical Arm Operating System) v3.0 for space engineers:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=767595187
Space engineers is the closest comparison to the functionality that Starbase will have, and while I've built several Arms with that script, and love using them; they are extremely outclassed by the simplicity of an aerial craft... even rovers are wayyyyy less efficient than a simple flying design..
IMHO, the ONLY way mechs will even Marginally effective at Any task; is if the fuel/propellant required to fly, is considerably more expensive/precious than the equivalent power required to operate the mech...
Dont get me wrong, I think it's an epic idea, and will earn you style points; but let's not pretend it's going to be efficient/effective. I'm likley going to spend loads of time with scripting gear/weapons/bays/arms for various things... but I accept that a simple design would do my chores much much faster, and I'm sacrificing some efficiency for cool points.
An example would be MArmOS (Mechanical Arm Operating System) v3.0 for space engineers:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=767595187
Space engineers is the closest comparison to the functionality that Starbase will have, and while I've built several Arms with that script, and love using them; they are extremely outclassed by the simplicity of an aerial craft... even rovers are wayyyyy less efficient than a simple flying design..
IMHO, the ONLY way mechs will even Marginally effective at Any task; is if the fuel/propellant required to fly, is considerably more expensive/precious than the equivalent power required to operate the mech...
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It will certainly have it, and earn style points. Like I said, I'm not against it, and will likely waste a great deal of time with my own ineffective WOW factor stuffs....
But after I caught up on the thread here; I was getting the feeling that some aren't really anticipating just how complex this notion of mechs will be, given the details of the game mechanics that's we've been fed... I forsee some of them being off-put from starbase altogether, once they realize its closer to space engineers than it is robocraft... one "elbow" with a limited range is easy, but when you start adding shoulders, wrists, hands, hips, elbows/knees etc, and need to consider Every DOF(degree of freedom) plausible?
https://www.instructables.com/id/Programmed-Robot-Arm/
A functioning, fluid, mech will require a Healthy understanding of kinematics, coordinate systems and vectors (xyz/ijk), compounded rotary joints and their limitations, trigonometry to bind it all together and script it... and even after all that, it's not going to magically function with your WASD input; you'll require TONS of individual inputs for every required minuscule movement... taking a a single step will be at least 3 or 4 axis activating at specific degrees and intervals with precise timing....
TL;DR: I agree, tons of WOW factor but, Yea, mechs will be HARD...
But after I caught up on the thread here; I was getting the feeling that some aren't really anticipating just how complex this notion of mechs will be, given the details of the game mechanics that's we've been fed... I forsee some of them being off-put from starbase altogether, once they realize its closer to space engineers than it is robocraft... one "elbow" with a limited range is easy, but when you start adding shoulders, wrists, hands, hips, elbows/knees etc, and need to consider Every DOF(degree of freedom) plausible?
https://www.instructables.com/id/Programmed-Robot-Arm/
A functioning, fluid, mech will require a Healthy understanding of kinematics, coordinate systems and vectors (xyz/ijk), compounded rotary joints and their limitations, trigonometry to bind it all together and script it... and even after all that, it's not going to magically function with your WASD input; you'll require TONS of individual inputs for every required minuscule movement... taking a a single step will be at least 3 or 4 axis activating at specific degrees and intervals with precise timing....
TL;DR: I agree, tons of WOW factor but, Yea, mechs will be HARD...
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The fruits of those labors will be ever present, on any side.
Your faction has toiled and trialed for days on end, the entire project has been scrapped and remade from the ground up twice over, but its there,
the efforts of all involved, its time to shine finally at hand as the doors of the engineering bay open to reveal a hail of laser and missile fire bathing the landscape and horizon for as far as anyone can see.
But once those doors open, there's a pause, as all bear witness to a brain-child of an entire base emerging from its armor-clad cage.
The Next Step, is Steel bound.
TL;DR: it's going to be murderously hard, but more rewarding than eating a quadrouple-decker cheeseburger after fasting. I'm up for it.
Your faction has toiled and trialed for days on end, the entire project has been scrapped and remade from the ground up twice over, but its there,
the efforts of all involved, its time to shine finally at hand as the doors of the engineering bay open to reveal a hail of laser and missile fire bathing the landscape and horizon for as far as anyone can see.
But once those doors open, there's a pause, as all bear witness to a brain-child of an entire base emerging from its armor-clad cage.
The Next Step, is Steel bound.
TL;DR: it's going to be murderously hard, but more rewarding than eating a quadrouple-decker cheeseburger after fasting. I'm up for it.
but why would you build one then? in eva the only reason they even CONSIDERED building mechs was because of a specific magical kind of shield they and their enemies had, starbase doesn't have shields, there is no reason in starbase to use mechs over anything else, they'd be cool, but that's about it
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- Dec 4, 2019
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- 23
They'll likely perform poorly on most any chore that a simple ship could do; sure.... and I wont use one for that... but when im done grinding, and stop by the local station hangout; if I see a mech flexing, and pewpew a fireworks/light show, then THATS the guy I want to chat with, and setup a rock'em sock'em robot fighting ring with. For fun. (And maybe starbase Gambling?!?)
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2020
- Messages
- 12
They'll likely perform poorly on most any chore that a simple ship could do; sure.... and I wont use one for that... but when im done grinding, and stop by the local station hangout; if I see a mech flexing, and pewpew a fireworks/light show, then THATS the guy I want to chat with, and setup a rock'em sock'em robot fighting ring with. For fun. (And maybe starbase Gambling?!?)
It will certainly have it, and earn style points. Like I said, I'm not against it, and will likely waste a great deal of time with my own ineffective WOW factor stuffs....
But after I caught up on the thread here; I was getting the feeling that some aren't really anticipating just how complex this notion of mechs will be, given the details of the game mechanics that's we've been fed... I forsee some of them being off-put from starbase altogether, once they realize its closer to space engineers than it is robocraft... one "elbow" with a limited range is easy, but when you start adding shoulders, wrists, hands, hips, elbows/knees etc, and need to consider Every DOF(degree of freedom) plausible?
https://www.instructables.com/id/Programmed-Robot-Arm/
A functioning, fluid, mech will require a Healthy understanding of kinematics, coordinate systems and vectors (xyz/ijk), compounded rotary joints and their limitations, trigonometry to bind it all together and script it... and even after all that, it's not going to magically function with your WASD input; you'll require TONS of individual inputs for every required minuscule movement... taking a a single step will be at least 3 or 4 axis activating at specific degrees and intervals with precise timing....
TL;DR: I agree, tons of WOW factor but, Yea, mechs will be HARD...
But after I caught up on the thread here; I was getting the feeling that some aren't really anticipating just how complex this notion of mechs will be, given the details of the game mechanics that's we've been fed... I forsee some of them being off-put from starbase altogether, once they realize its closer to space engineers than it is robocraft... one "elbow" with a limited range is easy, but when you start adding shoulders, wrists, hands, hips, elbows/knees etc, and need to consider Every DOF(degree of freedom) plausible?
https://www.instructables.com/id/Programmed-Robot-Arm/
A functioning, fluid, mech will require a Healthy understanding of kinematics, coordinate systems and vectors (xyz/ijk), compounded rotary joints and their limitations, trigonometry to bind it all together and script it... and even after all that, it's not going to magically function with your WASD input; you'll require TONS of individual inputs for every required minuscule movement... taking a a single step will be at least 3 or 4 axis activating at specific degrees and intervals with precise timing....
TL;DR: I agree, tons of WOW factor but, Yea, mechs will be HARD...
They'll likely perform poorly on most any chore that a simple ship could do; sure.... and I wont use one for that... but when im done grinding, and stop by the local station hangout; if I see a mech flexing, and pewpew a fireworks/light show, then THATS the guy I want to chat with, and setup a rock'em sock'em robot fighting ring with. For fun. (And maybe starbase Gambling?!?)
This guy gets the ACTUAL use case for mechs. Trying to use them for practical applications is probably going to be morettrouble than its worth, but building them simply for the sheer wow factor, NTM advertising your engineering and YOLOL prowess is totally valid. its like concept cars. They're not supposed to be practical. They exist solely to psh boundaries nd in doing so stumble across conecepts that might actually be applicable to something practical. Your gimbal robot boxing arm might be stupid to put on a mining robot, but the design of the shoulder might actually be a really good rotor for weapons or mining equipment on a more practical vehicle.
After all, if I see a dude that can make a breakdancing robot I'm pretty sure that dude can make pretty bitchin' tank and I'm also pretty sure I wanna see what he did to build the robot.