Robot largest size?

nats

Banded Mongoose
From the preview on Drivethru it seems the largest robot you can make is a size 8 chassis which is only the size of a rhino? That's very small. Yet the cover of the book shows a huge cool robot? I was hoping there would be huge robots in the book to reflect some of the classic massive robots in sci-fi lore I remember MekQuake the massive robot in 2000ad, and what about the Transformers lol. I bet someone out there wants to do a Mechwarrior vs giant alien robot Pacific Rim type campaign?

Why is the size so restricted? That is so disappointing.
 
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Anything larger than 8 and you build it as a vehicle and add a robot brain.

A vehicle designed using the Vehicle Handbook can
have a robot brain installed instead of a computer. In all
respects, the vehicle then becomes a very large robot.
A robot brain and any Bandwidth upgrade options are
Space 0 options on vehicles.
 
What Sigtrygg said.
Not responsible for the art... the cover illustration matches the illustration of a Size 8 or Extra-Large repair drone, which is two ship displacement tons (28 cubic meters) in volume. I would guess that it should have been at most 6-8 meters tall (a cube of 3m X 3m X3 would be 27, so okay, the rhino should be put on a diet, but the cover image robot is at least 10m tall in my estimation) , but, artistic license.

I didn't want to stomp (sorry) on vehicle designs, so designers should use light or heavy walker chassis in the Vehicle Handbook for giant robots or robotech walkers.
 
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Anything larger than 8 and you build it as a vehicle and add a robot brain.
More confusion ans spreading of rules and design around - why not just have large robots in the one book?

I have to disagree that the robot on the cover is only 10m high. Its more like 12m but it is confusing because the people shown are not in perpective properly. The person sitting on his knee looks much larger that the two blokes at his feet for example. And the bloke at his head looks similarly much larger than he should look in proper perpective being 10m up in the air. Weird. If those two blokes were to stand on the ground next to the other two blokes they would be at least 8ft tall lol.
 
More confusion ans spreading of rules and design around - why not just have large robots in the one book?
I can't remember if I was explicitly told to keep it smaller than vehicles, but if not, I would have for simplicity. I added the robot brains for vehicles and spacecrafts to bridge the gulf, letting the design rules already in existence continue for those. Vehicles probably needs needs an overhaul as well... Back in ancients times, I designed vehicles with Striker, a pad and pencil and a hand-me-down HP calculator. That design methodology was fun, but it did take a lot of math (and kept me from doing the homework I was supposed to do). The plus was that it used real units of mass and volume, whereas with vehicles we have spaces, and with robots I borrowed slots from the battledress rules. A complete overhaul with real units would be smoother, but it would be a complete overhaul... although, since now its spreadsheets and apps, not pads and pencils, it might be a lot easier to do than in the Before Times.
I have to disagree that the robot on the cover is only 10m high. Its more like 12m but it is confusing because the people shown are not in perpective properly. The person sitting on his knee looks much larger that the two blokes at his feet for example. And the bloke at his head looks similarly much larger than he should look in proper perpective being 10m up in the air. Weird. If those two blokes were to stand on the ground next to the other two blokes they would be at least 8ft tall lol.
Yeah, I just picked one figure, assumed 2 metres and winged it on my estimate, but you're right, different figures seem to be at different scales. So it is likely 12+ metres tall.
 
I like the robots book, it allows me to build anything from a nanoswarm to a sentient battlesuit. if I want a robotic vehicle or starship then I would expect to use Vehicles and High Guard to do the base design. and then add the robot brain plus its drone workforce and avatars...
 
Well I just wanted to be able to build huge robots and this doesnt allow me to do that. Robotic vehicles and robotic ships arent the same as huge robots imo. I grew up reading Asimov and looking at Chris Foss pictures of huge robots lol. It just seems the first thing anyone would want to build for the characters to have to take on - a huge war robot lol.
 
Well I just wanted to be able to build huge robots and this doesnt allow me to do that. Robotic vehicles and robotic ships arent the same as huge robots imo. I grew up reading Asimov and looking at Chris Foss pictures of huge robots lol. It just seems the first thing anyone would want to build for the characters to have to take on - a huge war robot lol.
They are exactly the same. You substitute the robot brain for control surfaces, and take out the passenger parts that are superfluous.
Robot brains are an excellent way to tie in macro-scale mechanisms to the design spectrum.
Now, if you are just dead set against a system, no amount of utility is going to placate you. There is a lot to be said for abstracted systems in today's market.
Few newcomers today would take the time needed to use the old school system, as Geir did with Striker, and as I did for Book 5 High Guard when I memorized the formulae for the volumes of rotated shapes and subtracted volumes, which actually paid off in Calculus class.
 
I think its rather smart to utilize the other build system for bigger robots without trying to duplicate those efforts. And trying to remake similar but slightly different rules would be the kind of rules confusion that nats is supposively against happening.
 
While large walkers and large robotic vehicles (and even autonomous ships) have always had a role in the Traveller universe, including adventure hooks and splatbook content, and the 3rd Imperium setting is of course not the only universe where Traveller campaigns are set, giant robots are not really a major part of the 3rd Imperium universe. So it makes a lot of sense that a Robots book is based around robots that fit in very well with the Traveller 3rd Imperium setting in terms of size & capabilities. Anyone wishing to create a larger robot can use the existing design systems for vehicles or starships. Heck, that's exactly what I did when I realized that the MegaTraveller vehicle design rules included rules for vehicles with arms and legs--which had been adapted almost exactly from LBB 8, Robots. I even wrote an article about mecha in Traveller, for a short-lived fanzine, Northcoast Roleplaying, circa 1990--a copy is attached. My conclusion at the time was that increased interest in mecha in popular culture, SF, and gaming had spread to Traveller (and sort of implied that GDW was setting the stage for a MegaTraveller game universe closer to BattleTech's Star League/Successor States setting), but in game terms it wasn't likely to take over the system--but in a few edge cases (rough terrain, TL 9-11, where grav vehicles for various reasons aren't practical) they were an interesting alternative, and I included a couple of designs and suggestions for their use in play (and what forces in the Domain of Deneb might use them). So I don't want sound like I'd discourage someone from including big robots in their Traveller games: if you want to add Gundams or Tetsujin to your Traveller game, there's easy-to-find rules for you to use--maybe Yaskoydray starts launching interstellar kaiju into Charted Space, and only giant robots can save the day!
 

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It makes you think well what would that robot on the cover actually be for? I suppose giant robots look great in art and film but you have to think what would they actually be used for and why, especially over more numerous cheaper robots.

Once upon a time it as considered that Dreadnoughts were a great idea and they didnt turn out being successful at all because the navy couldnt risk them going out to sea. One could consider giant robots being useful for construction but I think there are much more efficient ways to construct things using lifters than a giant robot with giant claws lol. And imagine the health and safety issues. Similarly a giant war robot would probably just end up being a huge target and last a couple of seconds on a battlefield. And a huge bulldozer robot would probably never manage to get onto site never mind get in between obstacles.

I guess most robots of the future will be man sized or smaller and used to replace human menial labour and do mundane jobs. Thinking about it I can see larger robotic devices will likely be robotic vehicles (cars, lorries, cargo planes, diggers, buses, etc) and robotically piloted ships (those that travel inter-system on long journeys and X boat couriers etc)

Maybe giant robots dont have much in the way of practicality. But they sure look cool.
 
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Nothing wrong with giant robots, they just need to be build with other rules. Expect for the brains.

As for dreadnoughts, it wasn't fear, but airplanes that killed them - literally. Even a superdreadnought with 18 inch guns firing 20+ miles (with questionable accuracy) is no match for a 500lb bombed dropped from a carrier or land based aircraft coming in from hundreds of miles away. Wonder if the super-carrier, even with layered defenses, is essentially obsolete against UAVs, hypersonic missiles, and railguns, but I don't want the war that settles that question...
 
Only 20 or so battleships from all nations were lost to aircraft during WWII, 14 were lost to enemy ships and 7 scuttled.
 
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