drallinix said
dude that's not even as fast as a truck and its a mech so surely it could be booking it size does not mean it has to be slow.
Oh I agree, heavy stuff can move fast. It's just that hydraulics, the stuff that would be used in a walker, are neither that fast, nor sturdy enough to be fully extended and keep from slowly getting itself bent. Of course, one could use a different material, which may be stronger but heavier, or something lighter and easier to bend or break.
See, a walker, especially a four-legged heavy one, has several problems pertaining to speed. Here are several:
A) Hydraulics are not fast. They can extend and everything, and do so quite powerfully, but the more weight on them, the harder it is. Now, for a leg, where hydraulics are at angles that do NOT point straight downward, the force of having to push out to the side to push something UP is even harder. The more weight, the slower they run. They can still lift, just that it moves slower.
B) Gravity + high speeds + something really tall and heavy = toppling and falling. What happens if you take a big 18-wheeler, take 5 minutes to get up to 100 mph, and then take a turn to the right? You're going to fall right on the side of the truck. Take something even taller with less stability during high speeds, and it'll be even worse and harder to maneuver. You see, the real reason why mechs are a thought-about idea isn't because they'll be fast or because they'll punch giant dinosaurcreatures to death, but because legs and feet let them reach and go places wheels can't. Up a mountain slope, or up and down a valley without having to find different routes. Wheels drive on flat ground and get to destinations quickly. Legs can go up and down hills that don't have roads, can scale a mountain if it's not too steep, or walk around in very rugged terrain with the same ease it might have on an asphalt road. The only thing is that while they can do all these things, legs are not in constant contact with the ground. That means each time it takes a step, it has to land its foot, adjust itself to keep it balanced, and then do so with its other foot or feet, and then start the process over again. Moving quickly means taking away a great deal of your stability, because even with technology that is a whopping 40-50 years ahead of our own, we cannot control gravity and speed up tricky processes.
A walker walks; running would be much more ideal for two-legged walkers with a lower center of gravity, or more animal-like 'bots. It'd get unbalanced and screw stuff up if it moved too fast. When I think walkers, I don't even think them moving 20 mph, unless they're a light-medium or light.
C) Hydraulics are not invincible. Tanks have a low center of gravity, since they are generally pretty low to the ground when compared to width and length, and won't be able to take a whole lot of stress. When you're moving really fast, hydraulics will have to extend and pull back in very, very quickly, while being thrown back and forth and essentially getting banged against something really hard, because of hard, fast footsteps. This will not sit well with hydraulics. They will twist, they will bend, they will get damaged. A bent hydraulic means it can't go in all the way, which impairs extension, which will impair movement. Another thing is the tubes and the wires and the hoses. Constantly bending those, too, will bring them under pressure and increase the chance a hose will pop or a crack will appear. A hydraulic piece will only work when the fluid is moving back and forth. Move that fluid in and out of the tube too quickly, and you'll end up screwing something up. And, of course, pulling a great deal of wait by sucking water through a tube is not that fast. It can be powerful, but the force needed is great. Again, it's difficult to speed something up like this.
Modern-day tanks can, as said before, reach up to 50 mph, or maybe even 60mph. But they have a third or a fourth of their bottom surface area set as tracks. As little moving pieces that cover the right and left sides of the bottom, from the front to back. We are using walkers, not tanks or trucks. Saying that because a tank can move 50mph means your walker can move 60mph is like saying that because we can run up to, what, under 30mph, that cheetahs can't even run over 45mph.