OT: LAND WALKER -Japanese Robot suit-

[narf poit chez BOOM]

...I thought that was 'dreaded by many'?

[Kamog]

I got the joke too.

So, when are they going to build a Gundam?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Forget the Gundam. Let's see them build Optimus Prime!

(Cause a sentient giant robot is always cooler.)

I was pretty sure somebody got it; I just expected more fish.

[Renegade 13]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
...I thought that was 'dreaded by many'?

That too.

[Atrocities]

In RL such machines would only serve as weapons of intimidation with no real benefit to any military application aside from fear managment.

[Jack Simth]

There is some advantage to a set of legs and arms on a battlefield:

Bad Terrain:
A man can climb a mountain. A horse, not so much. A car, even less. All land-bound military vehicles have some kind of terrain they must avoid; legs have less issues with many types of terrain, especially when they have arms capable of carrying the weight to suppliment on occasion.

Piloting:
There's less re-training to do when the machine is reading your motions directly off your limbs, and duplicating them near-exactly. In a car, tank, or aircraft, sure, you get the hang of the controls fairly quickly, and in not too terribly long, the vehicle is almost an extension of the driver - almost anyone could be walking around in a proper powered suit in no time flat. Shortly thereafter, dancing.

Moving Stuff:
Occasionally, awkward stuff must be moved. Sometimes, this must happen under fire. A good set of powered hands would do wonders for such things.

[Renegade 13]

Cybernetics has a long way to go before it comes anywhere close to matching the versatility of a real live human being. I have no doubt it will happen sometime, but I highly doubt it will be soon, and its uses would be somewhat limited even then; after all, you'd still need a human controller, so you aren't even reducing manpower requirements.