The Weight of Mechs are totally inaccurate. Here are accurate weights.

[SushiZinger]

Modern tanks like the Abrams are already 60-70 metric tons, even the smallest size tanks are at least 20 tons. The tanks in this game is smaller than a medium Mech's arm. The Mechs are listed unrealistically light.

Use this formula to calculate close to realistic weight. If a robot at 6ft tall weighs 500 lbs of metal. What would the weight be if 80 ft tall? A cube grows 2 times the height is 8 times the volume and mass (cube power 2^3=8) So.....Weight = (500lbs x (80ft/6ft)^3) / 2200lbs = 538 metric tons.

As you can see...the realistic weight should be around 10 times the listed weight in the game..
Get this right developers...I see giant monster film makers like Godzilla and Pacific Rims get the weight wrong all the time! Even though titanic size creatures are impossible due to the limitation of Cardiovascular system, bones and joints...but that's another topic I won't touch for now.

[Isha]

Mechs are built from advanced materials which are very light and very strong. IIRC armor is composed of a lightweight synthetic material sort of like ceramic on the surface and some sort of titanium alloy beneath it. It's much lighter and much more effective than the rolled homogenous steel used on tanks today (not counting explosive reactive armor which is combined with spacing on modern tanks).

[Wooj]

The first Mech was the Mackie which we know was built somewhere around 2439. What we don't know is WHERE it was designed and built.

Obviously the design process took place on a Low-G world and no one ever fixed the numbers. :D

600 years later mechs are still held to that standard.

[FemmeDracula]

The real answer: Tonnage was an aspect of game balance, enabling you to add a certain amount of equipment and armor to a mech. It doesn't really matter what the literal actual tonnage should be because the in-game tonnage is basically a pool of points you spend to add neat stuff to your giant robots.

[[UPA] Torquemada]

Battletech has always been this way. Not only are the weights of mechs off, but so are the ranges of the weapons. An AIM-4 Falcon from the 1940s has about 10 times the range of Battletech LRMs, and your average modern tank cannon can badly outrange literally anything you can mount on a mech. If you want realism, look elsewhere - Battletech has never been about that.

[Aegic]

Im pretty sure... Things in this game are not to scale LOL. If they were, the dropships would need to be much larger certain buidings might need to be smaller etc.

Its a game ffs where you can be standing right next to a downed mech and miss with half your weapons.

Welcome to video games.

[Wantoomany]

RasaNova a écrit :

Wantoomany a écrit :

Umm, no. It is the total weight of the mech. The weight of all the components can not exceed the total weight of the mech. Its why when you strip off all the equipment on a Centurion you dont get to place 50 tons of gear on it. You only get 20ish tons to play with.

But that's only stripping off weapons & armor. For the purposes of this game reactors, servos, actuators, gyros, electronics etc are all figured in along with the base frame.

edit: I don't actually know. Honestly I never thought about it til now, and was just dismissing it as magic space metal. But if I try to make sense of it, the above fits in my mind.

All of that still has to fit in with the max weight limit. The game rules are very detailed for mech construction. The weights for the various, chassies, engines, gyros, armor and other equipment are all calculated and accounted for. This game just simplifies it by restricting what equipment you can modify. But the rule is the same. A 50 ton mech will weight 50 tons complete and battle ready.

[IllCaesar]

Its magical space metal made convenient for a tabletop game's rules. Its exactly as contrived as any other numerical damage value added to almost every single game there is.

[SushiZinger]

Samsquamch a écrit :

I would also like to point the OP to the grave error made by the developers in using ships that can travel faster than light. No such ships exist, this game is a travesty, frankly an insult and furthermore

True, nothing with any mass can travel faster than light, it is the speed limit and still too slow for space travel. But it seems they're docking on some sort of transport that folds space...meh...It's just this horrible scaling that bothers me.

[Gracey Face]

Jason a écrit :

Mechs are built from advanced materials which are very light and very strong. IIRC armor is composed of a lightweight synthetic material sort of like ceramic on the surface and some sort of titanium alloy beneath it. It's much lighter and much more effective than the rolled homogenous steel used on tanks today (not counting explosive reactive armor which is combined with spacing on modern tanks).

No modern tank uses simple steel. Also lightweight alloys arent necessarily going to work. There is a reason why modern tanks use tungsten or DU in thier armour. The mass is part of how they're able to stop high energy penetrators (though I dont know the exact physics).

[primarccreagor]

Mech's dont use hydrolics to control the arms and legs, they use some thing more like the human body. Its all plastic and rubber under the armor, this is the way they explaned it in the old game. Look @EthanT 's coment for more detail. So armored shell squeshy insides, add the loader/ammo spots and there you go. Want to know how much a mech's ton's are strip the armor and weapons in game, its way low for the frame and internals. Plus unloaded tanks are 5-8 ton's lighter than that 68ton's you listed. That weight is 1)fuel,not used on mech's, and 2)ammo, is used on mech's. But you can't pull a 120 gun off and say swap for rockets, but lets use that.
So a modern tank has the 120 with all the loading and balancing gears, plus any needed frame mounts so, how much of a current tanks weight is just the main gun?

[FemmeDracula]

UPA Torquemada a écrit :

Battletech has always been this way. Not only are the weights of mechs off, but so are the ranges of the weapons. An AIM-4 Falcon from the 1940s has about 10 times the range of Battletech LRMs, and your average modern tank cannon can badly outrange literally anything you can mount on a mech. If you want realism, look elsewhere - Battletech has never been about that.

Omg right?

BattleTech machine gun range: 90m
Real world .50 caliber machine gun range: 1,800m

[FemmeDracula]

Samsquamch a écrit :

I would also like to point the OP to the grave error made by the developers in using ships that can travel faster than light. No such ships exist, this game is a travesty, frankly an insult and furthermore

This is the best comment in this thread.

[Petrothian]

Hint: Mechs are essentially skeletal frames (honey combed) with sheets of armour tacked on.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page

^go read though everything in here (and come back in a few months)

[Isha]

Please don't kill me!! a écrit :

Jason a écrit :

Mechs are built from advanced materials which are very light and very strong. IIRC armor is composed of a lightweight synthetic material sort of like ceramic on the surface and some sort of titanium alloy beneath it. It's much lighter and much more effective than the rolled homogenous steel used on tanks today (not counting explosive reactive armor which is combined with spacing on modern tanks).

No modern tank uses simple steel.

Depends on your definition of 'simple.'

By the standards of Battetech, the steel used in modern tanks (and yes they do use it), is very simple and primitive.

[Petrothian]

Belle Sorciere a écrit :

Samsquamch a écrit :

I would also like to point the OP to the grave error made by the developers in using ships that can travel faster than light. No such ships exist, this game is a travesty, frankly an insult and furthermore

This is the best comment in this thread.

ikr? :D