androidarts

androidarts, 6 days ago

@nyrath Those were pretty fun. I was reading the old Starsiege Tribes lore and in that universe they have a bunch of laws for the nanotech nanites just to avoid problems.

The First Limit: Control by Man
The Second Limit: Confine the Reach
The Third Limit: Confine the Generation
The Fourth Limit: Strike Not the Living
The Fifth Limit: Destroy Mutations

http://erewhon.superkuh.com/library/Games/Starsiege%20and%20Tribes/tutech.html

androidarts, 27 days ago

Since Ogres are somewhat nuke resistant, maybe they could do small nuclear powered jumps, like Orion rockets on steroids (at the cost of taking some thread damage). Another idea is taking in river and sea water, superheat it in the fusion plant or whatever, and use as reaction mass.

For reference, Starship is 5000 tons (only 300t actual ship!) and an Ogre is probably half or less.

androidarts, 27 days ago

@isaackuo Are Ogres even serviced by humans in the field though? I could imagine dumping entire track modules into repair pits. In the field, maybe individual damaged tracks can be let loose or retracted in some way. Driving on 5 modules might also be possible.

If I read the lore correctly, Ogre vehicles in general aren't serviceable to begin with as parts are cast directly into the solid BPC armour. So they're worse than Macs.

They're like those old potted power supplies.

androidarts, 26 days ago

@isaackuo There's jump sequence in this old animé ("The Third"), but I'm not sure how it's achieved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut71Sxyy98U

I think water jets might be preferable for getting unstuck. Maybe combined with small explosions for clearing problematic topsoil mud out preemptively

androidarts, 26 days ago

@nyrath I guess if you have a fantastic material like BPC already; an abundance of "clean nukes"; no inhibitions, it would be tempting to just go for it. But you'd need a way to take off and detonate a bit away from the bottom in order to not splay out the tracks with a radial blast... bore nukes detonating underground, perhaps? Then hefty track suspension can partially work like on the Orion.

I'm imagining a scene where an Ogre, supposedly blocked by mountains, comes boom-boom-booming over.

androidarts, 29 days ago

@nyrath I could see these being vulnerable to small arms fire and shrapnel, but thinking about it, maybe the skirt is compartmentalized, and constantly inflating.

I wonder if they get stuck going over a trench on land. Some WW1 tanks carried a little bridge or logs they could toss out under the tracks... maybe something like that could work.

androidarts, 29 days ago

@isaackuo Thinking about the issue with trenches, a good design might be a tripod or quadcopter/drone... but one which stays stuck to the ground. If the arms are movable then it could have constant ground contact pretty much, and could perhaps even walk.

O O
X
O O

Otherswise, it might be possible to use a continuous skirt but with compartments for tilting.

androidarts, 29 days ago

@fnordius @nyrath I really need to read up on the setting. Sounds like it's closer to the Rifts TTRPG then, if they can shrug off nukes and whatnot?

Visually the units in Ogre are all quite unique and not just standard tanks with some cool panel lines, so that alone is interesting enough to work with when doodling.

Apparently the Ogres were maybe going to be spheres early on... something which the Heavy Object animé later went all in for.

androidarts, 28 days ago

I don't know if these would have whipple shields or panel lines. The lore apparently states that stuff is often cast in solid bi-phase carbide blocks along with cabling and devices. So maybe no repair hatches and modules. But if BPC has a density of 1.55, then it might make sense to leave some air pockets if stuff needs to float. Separate layers/scales of BPC might also make sense if it tears and unravels as suggested.

androidarts, 27 days ago

Some rough calculations for Ogre length, assuming a cube to model ratio of 2.5 (estimated by sloppy clay model, but the ratio is usually 1.75-3 for chubby things) and a density of carbon fiber, 1.55. I think tanks have a density of around 1, with most other vehicles being below, towards 0.1, mainly due to crew and cargo pockets (AI Ogres might be more solid, but overboard density might make them sink).

(Cube root of ( 2600 Tons / 1.55 )) * 2.5 = 29.7M
2300T = 28.5M
1850T = 26.5M

androidarts, 27 days ago

Added a little Vickers light tank Mk5 for scale reference, and rescaled some stuff.

I think I'd prefer for the vehicles to be kind of normal-sized so the Ogre appears larger, since that's what some of the old art did, with the light and heavy tank parked in front of an Ogre. Also, normal-sized tanks gives a point of reference and it's the Ogre that's the star of the show. I do like that square turret superheavy tank though.

Do tank turrets make sense in Ogre with only one target far away?