Licana wrote:Well...first of Helium is almost completely inert and nonreactive, which would make it less prone to Hindenburg type events. Additionally, while some lighter-than-air balloons can get up to some really high altitudes, you'd pretty much have to be at the edge of space to ensure that a fighter couldn't intercept (or protect), and as you get farther into PMT, even that becomes questionable. Additionally, walkers and mecha tanks are bad design concepts pretty much no matter what measures you take to make them "better". Not only do you generally have poorly protected legs, but you have to have a system of controls to power said legs, make them move, and keep the damn thing upright. This, in conjunction with the fact that the legs can't be heavily armoured (unless you don't want your "tanks" to have any reasonable mobility) gives anyone firing at them a realitively easy to hit, easy to damage area to hit (and if something hits your legs, it's bound to hit soemthing important).
Pretty much, a conventional tank design is better in every concievable way than a walker/mech, I'd go more in depth, but i have to go. I'm sure someone has that handy NSD link regarding walkers, though.
So, i did some extensive digging today and decided against the walker tanks. The criticisms out there are simply too convincing for me to resist them. Outside of the cool factor.... meh. I'm going to have to concede that they aren't practical. Still stuck on the airship idea though. Until someone convinces me otherwise. (note the invitation!)