What are Issues of Transforming Robots or Robots that Combine into Bigger Mechs?

[cvannrederode]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

Let's say the pilot splits up Combatra to attack the enemy from all sides. They defeat the enemy, but in the process let's say Groundrover 5 gets heavily damaged, as does Skyskater Two. Fine, now the pilot wants to put the parts back together into Combatra...but the feet and upper torso are damaged, which means the head and lower torso can't connect properly, and the feet are damaged, and the reintegrated giant mecha can't even stand up. Damage to one element of the set makes the combination impossible or useless.

Guntron

[Johnny1A.2]

There's another issue with large humanoid mecha, not so much technological as tactical.

Let's say you're striding about the battlezone in your 50 foot tall or 100 foot tall humanoid mecha. Fine. Problem is, you're now a big, visible object, and big, visible objects in a battlezone tend to draw fire. An infantry man with his shoulder-mount missile-launcher can easily see you, aim at you, and fire at you. He can do so from cover, too.

Aircraft can see you, too. You kind of stand out, in effect you're a 100 foot tall guy wandering around the battlefield. You might make a nice place to get rid of a few air-to-ground missiles...

In real life, a favorite tactic of tanks is to park themselves on an uphill slope, go up just far enough to expose the main gun, and fire it from cover. You can't readily do that, granted your mecha can squat down but you're still pretty big and need a big hiding place.

There just isn't much advantage to the giant humanoid form, but there's a lot of vulnerability and vulnerable spots like joints.

Even if you're fighting another 100-foot humanoid mecha...you probably won't get into melee too often. Just as true dogfights between fighters are the exception, not the rule, so probably would be melee combat between giant mecha. Usually, one would nail the other with a missile or a beam at distance by surprise...and if you're doing that, what not use a more practical design?

[Disliker of the mary sue]

Part of me thinks dispite all that humaoid mecha's will be a thing in the future if only as the toys of eccentric billionaires. But as you guy's pointed out, the typical humanoid mecha would basically be not very good in a war without a lot of modifications to the point it would not resemble anything close to what we think a mecha is.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Disliker of the mary sue

Part of me thinks dispite all that humaoid mecha's will be a thing in the future if only as the toys of eccentric billionaires. But as you guy's pointed out, the typical humanoid mecha would basically be not very good in a war without a lot of modifications to the point it would not resemble anything close to what we think a mecha is.

It is part of my unofficial head-canon for Transhuman Space that some of the Martian Millionaires have founded the Battletech Re-Enactment Society.