• Jesus_666@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Yeah, it’s similar for a BattleMech with a torso-mounted cockpit; it can barely keep fighting when decapitated because one of three sensors is in the torso with the rest remaining in the head. If the third sensor also gets hit, however, they’re so blind that they can barely stumble off the battlefield. You can kinda tell that both Mobile Suit Gundam and BattleTech try to make their tech somewhat sensible.

    We even see some of the same tropes. For instance, both mobile suits and BattleMechs tend to fight at close ranges, Gundam justifying it with fusion reactors emitting Minovsky particles and BattleTech with mechs emitting a horrible amount of ECM and RF interference. Both franchises have neurointegrative technologies that tend to be unhealthy for the pilot, although Gundam’s is a lot more powerful on the battlefield.

    A major difference would be that mobile suits are much more, well, mobile than BattleMechs (especially since they can often fly) while many BattleMechs can tank hits that would blow a mobile suit to pieces. (Okay, BT does have flying mechs, but they’re horribly impractical mech-airplane hybrids straight out of Macross.) I suppose that makes sense; one franchise focuses on cinematic battles while the other focuses on big stompy robots blowing each other to pieces.