Machine Guns?

[Profane Arbiter]

King Leer said that Mgun has 1,600m effective range.

More like a "not particularly effective" range of 1600.

[Deathbane]

Dont hate on my (M)ega Guns. I love those things.

[Flyingdebris]

the point was brought up earlier about 1000 lb machineguns

one thing that should be noted about BT weights,  that half ton that your mech has to deal with is not merely just the gun and barrel.

Ammo feed parts
Coolant feed parts
insulation
targeting equipment
power feeds
hardpoint supports
actuators to tweak the aim
recoil reducers
and lots and lots of other crap, use your imagination, lol.

BA can deal with having lighter weight equipment cause they don't have to deal with nearly as many of the complications inherent in mounting it to a large vehicle that gets really hot.

[Squibby]

How about we just say that 0.5 tons was convenient weight the game designers thought up to keep things simple .

No need to come up with a realistic explanation for a very gamey concept.

[HAARP]

How about we just say that 0.5 tons was convenient weight the game designers thought up to keep things simple .

No need to come up with a realistic explanation for a very gamey concept.

Indeed. BT weights are pretty messed up anyway. 100 tons on 2 tiny legs would never work and if it did mechs would sink into the ground

[MerfMerf]

Indeed. BT weights are pretty messed up anyway. 100 tons on 2 tiny legs would never work and if it did mechs would sink into the ground

No! All battles will simply have to be scheduled on solid stable rock ground.
Or we just have to include magic very technomagically advanced anti-gravity generators.

/Merf - Never underestimate the power of a dedicated fan-base to come up with excuses explanations to logical pitfalls in their object of worship. =)

[(TLL) Heretic]

The Archer & Abrams are good examples, both are 70tons, the Abrams tracks (around the same surface area as the Archers feet) exert 15psi on the ground, so have excellent cross country capabilities.....the Archer would be the same.

A 100ton 'mech would need bigger feet, and this is seen in some of the TROs (but not all of the Artists have a good grasp of engineeering/reality).

EDIT: Links,
PS. that Archer is around 10-11m tall so that makes the "shoes" a few sizes bigger than the Abrams.

[MiG]

Bicyle also has very high psi and you still can drive it wihtout sinking to earth

[xInVicTuSx]

lol at marshes.

[MerfMerf]

The Archer & Abrams are good examples, both are 70tons, the Abrams tracks (around the same surface area as the Archers feet) exert 15psi on the ground, so have excellent cross country capabilities.....the Archer would be the same.

And I suppose the Abrams tank lifts one track when it moves forward then? Or maybe the archer doesn't walk as much as it shuffles along?
The point you are making of feet needing to be bigger is valid. Stating that the Abrams tank and the Archer mech would exert the same amount fo pressure on the ground while moving forward however has very little merit.

Some more numbers:
Adult horse (550 kg, 1250 lb): 170 kPa (25 psi).
A galloping horse will exert up to 3.5 MPa (500 psi).

Numbers taken from the somewhat dubious source wikipedia

/Merf - Is however fairly certain there are quite a few battlegrounds where a mech would not have to worry about "sinking".

[MiG]

So everywhere gallopping horse can go, is also possible for mech? I can already see canon stories commanders sending scout force "Send the riders to check ground!"

[MerfMerf]

That would not necessarily be true. Unless its a 4 legged mech with a forward motion similar to a galloping horse with each feet having about the same surface are as an Abrams tank track.

/Merf - Just got some very weird mental images.

[KorJax]

To be fair, you might be surprised at just how effective Mg's can be against air units.

Mgun Stats (from wiki)
Damage: 2.2
Type: Mgun
Multiplier vs Air units: 9.5
RoF: 1200 rounds per minute
Range: 700m listed, effective range is unknown, possibly infinite.

Misc Info
Damage per shot vs Air: 20.9
Damage per sec. vs Air: 418
Magazine size: 700 rounds
Continuous Firing Time: 35 seconds
Reload Cost: 50 Cbills

Note this is per Mgun, so like Zeus said, if you had a unit with any decent amount of Mguns (since they're fricking half a ton each), it would be fantastic AA.  Hell, a Hollander with some mguns, BHP, GECM, and a decent amount of ammo would be fantastic AA.  That amount of Mguns would be decent against BA, but it would be pretty useless against anything else.

King Leer said that Mgun has 1,600m effective range.

No it has a 700m effective range, but it can travel up to 1600m and still (theoretically) hit and deal some level of damage to something.

I'm not sure if there is a damage drop off beyond 700m but I'm pretty sure there is. So you have to think, if you hit something at 1600m assuming there is damage drop off with a MG, you're not looking to be dealing much damage even to a BA (though granted that would be an awesome shot if you hit a BA with an MG 1600m out).

[=KoS= Eldragon]

Some more numbers:
Adult horse (550 kg, 1250 lb): 170 kPa (25 psi).
A galloping horse will exert up to 3.5 MPa (500 psi).

Thats because there is a HUGE difference in PSI running versus walking.

Ever walk on  the top of ice-encrusted snow that supports your weight, but as soon as you try running on it you sink down? Or compare  the depth of foot impressions when running on wet sand versus walking?

It happens because when running you are actually jumping up and down on the ground in a forward direction. So the PSI is your entire bodyweight from a downward fall concentrated on the point of impact (Ball of foot). Resulting in a Much greater PSI.

For Mechs this means there are some surfaces they can walk on, but cannot run without sinking.