More Thoughts on Sci-Fi Tank Design

today's video has been sponsored by Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader the brand new crpg from alcat games developers of the critically acclaimed Pathfinder kingmaker take on the role of Lord captain of your very own void ship and explore the perilous coronus expans this Backwater of the Imperium is full of politicking noble houses and vast natural wealth waiting to be exploited as well as dark Forces wishing to make it their own but you won't be doing this alone as you lead a retinue of Warriors Psych and even zenos through this dangerous region of space every step of your journey you will face the consequences of your actions so it's up to you to decide if you'll be kind or cruel loyal or traitorous there's combat too it has fully-fledged turn-based tactical combat adapted from the original tabletop Ru set where cover and clever positioning is vital but if things go bad then Desperate Measures can be taken check out the links below to get Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader on PC PlayStation 5 an Xbox series X or [Music] S hello everybody and welcome back to space do I'm huana and today we're continuing our discussion on sci-fi tanks by taking a look at your comments on the last tanks video to see what you had to say we begin with the top rated comment which was about how hover tanks are essentially amphibious which is highly useful when there's the potential for working on planets with lots of water my immediate reaction to that is to just Point again to helicopters and other aircraft for the closest comparison that works in that same situation also if there's really that much water on a planet then limiting your forces to some jack of all trades hover tank that requires power to not sink rather than just making boats seems a bit assinine there are cool things you can do for boats and aircraft like the ground effect flight that the Sea Dragon uses or just is coming up with a cool and unique hovering method for aircraft oh and what if your hovertech doesn't work on water very well next up is combining a few comments together covering some other issues with hovertanks mainly the ground pressure they would or would not exert as well as how well are they integrated with infantry since the two are very related firstly there's the fairly big concern about how dangerous a hover tank is to Friendly infantry near them which does also apply to real world tracked vehicles to some extent there's the obvious danger of being run over but the over pressure wave from large guns firing can cause significant injury if you're too close to them that said dismounted infantry do still work in close proximity to armored vehicles including directly using them as cover many armored vehicles even include infantry telephones on their rear to facilitate communication between those outside and inside the most modern armored vehicles are even starting to include small cameras around the vehicle to assist the driver with spatial awareness with one example being the M10 Booker here which is a especially important as it's an infantry support vehicle hover tanks can't really do any of that depending on how high off the ground they float even if they're low enough the tech that allows them to float and whatever engines move them around may be hazardous to nearby people that is highly dependent on setting though and as we can see here even a giant MTT can't squish jar jar and Quon this comment noted that due to H Tank's potentially spreading out their ground pressure they could have more mass than regular tracked tanks of equivalent ground pressure but that seems like it's going to introduce problems with momentum Bridge Crossing weight and transporting such heavy vehicles around another one of the top comments brought up how sci-fi tanks are rarely shown with upgrades that were added to them over years instead opting for a factory Fresh Approach this is a very good thing to bring up because tank designs and their requirements can change during the vehicle's lifespan and it's cheaper to update existing Vehicles rather than replace them and their Factory tooling this can apply to the main features of a tank such as the weapons armor and engine which are all common features to be upgraded in real life but also only extras like active protection or remote weapon stations these upgrades all add weight to a vehicle that it may not have had the Headroom for leading to the need for a big old rework of the vehicle to integrate the new tech properly for example that remote weapon system may need its own new computer if added to an older tank along with all the associated wiring in its power supply a new vehicle built with that addition in mind can save that weight by just having one computer that does it all these additions are rarely ones that happen organically in sci-fi and are instead things that were there from the start which is a bit of a worldbuilding oversight though not a terribly important one to its credit though Warhammer 40K does actually include these add-ons for its vehicles and has done since at least the Third Edition in a similar manner all those procedurally named super heavy tanks can also be considered to be somewhat on par with up gunning existing tank designs rather than being direct upgrades though all the ban storm blade veins are just side grades for gameplay purposes so Props to 40K for that sticking with big tanks this commenter posits that the extra room seen inside many sci-fi tanks may very well be a good thing it's a deliberate trade-off made to increase crew comfort in a space they may be stuck in for extended periods in an environment they may not be able to go outside a counterargument to this idea is that hostile exterior environments are already a design consideration for tanks in the form of chemical biological radiological IC and nuclear defense or seab bur protection this came to prominence during the Cold War when armored vehicles were designed to be used in places that were impacted by nuclear fallouts or chemical weapons relevant design considerations here included the crew wearing Seaburn suits and sealing the vehicles and running a filtered ventilation system in fact sealing like this can be so good that with minor preparation many tanks can even for Rivers whilst completely submerged some Vehicles particularly British ones like this Challenger 1 prototype the chieftain is giving a tour of also provided the crew with methods to prepare hot food and to expel waste from the interior without exposing the crew being designed to have crew stuck in a tank for extended periods is already a design concern but tanks have not ballooned in size to accommodate the crew being able to get up and take a stroll but that's real life a Sci-Fi armored vehicle may be intended to function in all sorts of environments where it's always hostile to life outside rather than just temporarily thus the crew may need to live fully inside their vehicle which yeah I guess but I don't think that idea takes into account the existence of support elements all the other vehicles for Logistics and repairs that allow a tank company to actually function which could be scified up to have airlocks and such or even be able to dock together the decision then becomes a larger tank that's worse in combat or some crew discomfort during times they can't reach their support vehicle for rest personally I'd take a crew that was alive but annoyed against one that was dead because their gigantic tank could couldn't avoid being engaged but that decision is also a doctrinal and cultural one as is what to include in a support element so there's certainly a genuine justification for having bigger roomier tanks there another Common Thread was people sharing their thoughts on CAD tracks and their viability but I don't think anyone brought up quad tracks going the other way I.E two sets of fulllength tracks do these even show up in sci-fi I'm sure they have somewhere but generally designs tend to go for tracks that are thick with two C's in dead which is peculiar because double tracks in this manner has been used in real life such as on the T28 or t95 or whatever you want to call it with its extra add-on tracks that were there to reduce the ground pressure of the super heavy vehicle can you believe they lost this thing in a bush for 27 years the Soviet object 279 has them too as part of its unconventional running gear designed to cross extreme terrain like swamps deep MD and even anti-tank obstacles generally it seems like these double tracked systems in fiction are more likely to appear on the really huge land Battleship things those that are based on gigantic Vehicles like the NASA crawler and Bagger 288 this commenter brought up how inefficient Logistics in relation to ammunition types was a feature not a bug of some settings mostly in regards to the Imperium in 40K and yes that is an absolutely valid argument the Imperium is a god- awful hell hole where share Manpower is the most common resource and any inefficiencies are just part of how things work and fixing them is just not how things are done the last thing I want to talk about today wasn't really a comment but it's worth discussing anyway the absolutely terrible sensors and Fire Control Systems often seen on sci-fi armored vehicles especially playable ones in games Fire Control Systems have been capable of tracking moving targets and accounting for lead and range for decades and this is one of the directions for tank development that's become even more important in recent years tanks are no longer just about the gun the armor and the mobility being able to to see identify and react to threats as fast as possible is becoming just as vital think about the outer layers of the defense onion from this video it works the same for attack too yet these features are rarely included in fictional tanks at best there's sometimes thermal sides or interface helper icons placed on enemies but in general aiming is left up to the player obviously this is a concession to gameplay so the player actually has something to do which is fair enough but I feel like it's given the wrong impression of what Advanced armored vehicles are actually cap capable of doing so that's some more pros and cons on various tanky things thanks to you all in the comments but it's good to remember that these practical considerations may not matter all that much depending on the setting and what the media is trying to do but like many of the other realistic things we cover these Concepts May Inspire cool new ideas for your own Creations you can support space doc by joining our patreon where you can get our Space Fighter design reference book alternatively you can support us directly through YouTube by giving us super thanks or by becoming a channel member thanks to our supporters and thank you for [Music] [Applause] [Music] watching

Channel: Spacedock

Views: 135,985

Keywords: Spacedock, space dock, spacedock, tanks, more, thoughts, star citizen, warhammer, 40k, 40000, analysis, breakdown, summary, review, realism, realistic, tank, vehicle, armored, lore, star wars, halo, tracks, military

Id: 48rQOad_4Eg

Length: 10min 13sec (613 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 08 2023