So suppose your "transforming battle machine" was (for instance) made by Adam and Jaimie of the Mythbusters, rather than some chrome-obsessed visual arts nobs with access to handwavium energy sources and anti-inertial spinnimafrajistats. Or pick your favorite "get things done by hook or by crook" engineers.
What would this stuff look like? How would it function? If you set realism aside somewhat, and just stick with the back-alley-tinkerers aesthetic, how would it be more effective than conventional weaponry?
It would look like my buddy Rob's movie:
Robot Bastard!!! (http://www.robotbastard.com/)
That was a slice of sheer awesome.
Robot Bastard, indeed, rocks.
Also, I look at the mad genius of (say) an eighty-foot-long air-gun that uses pressurized air to propel a stalk of piano wire straight through any damn thing in its way, and I think "I wanna mount that bad boy on a mech ... preferably a mech made from parts salvaged from rusted-out pickup trucks."
A capacitor the size of a coffee can that you charge up and then shoot (via ballistae powered by tractor springs) at another mech for entertaining electrical shock effects (not to mention the amusing arc welding side effect).
A car tire sized electromagnet that you can use for shield bashing that would also really fuck with any electronics on the target being bashed. Imagine it, a giant sized bulk tape eraser going against a mech.
I'm sure I'll think up some more...
Quote from: jeff37923A capacitor the size of a coffee can that you charge up and then shoot
And y'know what would be the perfect casing for such a payload? A coffee can. :D
Not
exactly low-rent, but...
(http://epguides.com/MegasXLR/cast.jpg)
"You GOT-TA FIIIND FIIRST GEEEEAR, in your GI-ANT RO-BOT CAAAAR....!"
ah, too polished. gotta be like those orky walkers from 40K, with bolt heads showing, looking like it was made from garbage cans & the like.
Are the old Adeptus Titanicus models too polished too? Cuz those are pretty down with the whole "belching black smoke, pumping pistons and rusting gears" deal I'd picture this to be like.
-=Grim=-
Holy shit Robot Bastard was great.
-=Grim=-
Quote from: TonyLBAnd y'know what would be the perfect casing for such a payload? A coffee can. :D
That might work as long as it was pretty fucking well insulated! :D
TransFarmers (http://www.threadless.com/product/1011/Transfarmers#zoom)!!
Quote from: beeberah, too polished. gotta be like those orky walkers from 40K, with bolt heads showing, looking like it was made from garbage cans & the like.
Hey, I said it wasn't exactly low-rent. But Coop
did put a car up top, and videogame controllers and all kinds of crazy stuff in there, too.
PIZZA-HAM!
Gods, I miss that show.
this thread just reminded me of another old TV show:
(http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/9782/banner.jpg)
Once upon a time, a junkman had a dream...
"I'm gonna build a spaceship, go to the moon, salvage all the junk that's up there, bring it back and sell it."
So he put together a team. An ex-astronaut...a fuel expert...they built a rocketship...
And they went to the moon. Who knows what they'll do next?
salvage with andy griffith!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079847/
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/9782/salvage1.html
the pic is from the latter page, in case the linky goes wonky
sorry to bump, but no love for salvage-1?
figured that's pretty low-rent, eh?
There was a mech game called Junk I saw at one time. Lost my link to its site though. It was nasty looking scrap built mechs beating on each other as the core focus. That's about all I remember about it.
Junk (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/32418) was reviewed on All Games Considered, episode 36 (http://allgamesconsidered.blogspot.com/search?q=Junk).