Super- Modular mobile suits

[Recon 5]

Seeing as ZAFT decided to make the Impulse a three- part suit and seeing the advantages of such a construction, would it have been good if they had made suits that were collections of snap- on parts, i.e. having separated arms, torso, legs, head etc. joined by plugs and sockets?

That way, mobile suits could 'repair' themselves on the field by simply switching out damaged parts as well as getting rid of useless mass by jettisoning unnecessary parts. It would also make the suits more mobile as it would give more customization options than just strapping on a backpack.

About durability issues, I believe that there should be no problems there because mobile suits seem to go through limbs more quickly than some of us go through underwear...

[Destroy Gundam]

The Regenerate Gundam did that quite well. As long as the core wasn't damaged too badly and there were enough spare parts, it could last a long time in battle.

[Hyakushiki]

To me a modular design like that makes sense if your performing maintenance between sorties, but seems a little suicidal in the middle of combat too many things can go wrong. In a combat situation I just see it as a opportunity to get shot down mid transformation I wonder why people don't use that tactic more often.

[auriga]

And of course, by building something out of components you compromise structural rigidity.

Also, the regenerative capabilities of such a system only works if there is a source for replacement parts nearby.

[Recon 5]

I was thinking about making super modular grunt units. Seeing as most MS destruction tends to leave one or more limbs intact, why not give allied suits the ability to rip arms and/ or legs off a ruined suit and use them? I mean, if your suit's left arm is damaged and you happen to see a nearby wreck with a perfectly good left arm, wouldn't you want to be able to switch?

[Destroy Gundam]

Sounds a little too expensive and complex for a mass-produced unit. It would be a useful feature if it were implimented, but mixing and matching parts found on a battlefield could mean you end up with a part that's in poor condition, or even worse, booby-trapped.

[Aegis]

It has less to do with want, and more to do with feasibility. Auriga already outlined the underlying flaw of such a concept, namely to do with weakening the mobile suit's structure. Unless you're the Turn X, to which its design is the equivalent of many years beyond other Gundam series, expect the mobile suit to be weak along those seams.

Then there's the whole issue of even finding a proper, workable limb. Chances are, said limb floating around is also heavily damaged, and even if perfectly in one piece, your own MS may still not be able to use that limb depending very much on how the MS got damaged in the first place. What happens when the arm got sliced on the very seam itself? Then you can't attach the arm anyways.

[HalfDemonInuyasha]

There's also the fact that not all Mobile Suits would be built exactly the same way. I mean, it won't be nearly as simple as grabbing the arm and hooking it onto a hinge or anything.

Chances are that the Mobile Suit the floating arm came from is off a slightly different design than your own, so you'd have to make some slight modifications to be able to attach it. Then there's the configurations of using the hand and arm since you'd have to check and make sure that it moves the way it's supposed to, functions properly, can grab and hold things properly, and everything else.

As mentioned, cost is also an issue. Cost is pretty much the sole reason why things like the Core Block System were never TOO widely adopted and was always eliminated when it came to mass production models of the prototypes that used them. Even in Victory Gundam, it's not like there was a massive army using them, but only a few Victory Types using them.

Then again, the League Militaire was a much smaller force than previous resistance groups, so similar to Neo Zeon, they could afford to put more quality into their Mobile Suits. If they were a much more widespread force like the Federation Forces, I doubt they could afford to use so many. They'd have to split their budgets to other branches of their forces, so they'd have to cut thing out to lower costs while still trying to get the best quality into their Mobile Suits.

Also, as mentioned, the concept you're wanting would make Mobile Suits VERY vulnerable to damage. As you would see from regular models themselves, there can constantly be problems with loose parts that wobble around a lot, instability of the Mobile Suit as a whole, balance issues and such. A Mobile Suit like that could simply fall over and break into pieces which would cause problems for maintainance, especially if the parts get (and probably can/will) damaged simply from the fall.

It's not like pilots get their limbs blown off in every single battle either. Sometimes all they'll get is a hole here and there; things that can be easily repaired anyway.

[CHASER]

The closest you'll see to that kind of a super modular design would be in things like Armoured Core, and the TAs from Gasaraki (the latter being the only ones that are really for somewhat-regular military use though). All it really means in the end that you'd only need to disconnect a few things here and there to remove a limb, but still an actual technical crew to reattach one.

Well.. actually there's the Turn X as well, but that's pretty far away from ZAFT. Getting rid of useless mass isn't that hard either; the EZ8 tore its damaged arm off (and used it to smack the Gouf Custom in the face) without too much trouble.

Using parts you find sitting on the field might not be the best idea either. I'd be somewhat iffy about picking up a weapon that someone dropped too. You never know if that limb is already damaged, or if another suit ejected it for a reason, and when a mobile suit explodes there's usually little of it that's left intact anyway.

[Recon 5]

Field self- repair aside, the kind of plug-in-pull-out design that I mentioned i.e. giant plugs and sockets would make even shipboard maintenance a lot easier.

In fact, with such designs they could probably automate repairs to some degree. I mean, you don't need much creativity to insert a round peg into a round hole, right?

As for durability, I haven't precluded the possibility of clamps or hooks that spring into place automatically when parts are plugged in and only need outside control to open and release the plugs. We have such systems today and they're secure enough, so why not make them MS- sized? Beats having a team of technicians having to run around and secure hundreds of smaller connections, which are likely to be of a similar type.

Picture this: A suit lands in the carrier with one arm missing from a close shave with a mega particle beam. Everything else is still fine except the arm, to the extent that the pilot is even able to make a clean landing. All he has to do is back up to a gantry and a crane or system of cranes will simply pull out the damaged arm and insert a new one. Better still, if he was a bit more creative he could have just pulled out or released the arm on his own outside the ship, thus halving the already short downtime.

Then he'd be ready to fight again. Wouldn't that be sweet?

With a fully modular design you'd be able to do that with ANY limb. Now tell me that isn't an advantage.

Let me stress that I'm NOT saying the system will be problem- free.

[auriga]

The way you describe it, I'm reminded of the Primrose Escape Pod from Advance of Zeta. Pretty much the same principle, though it was focused on escaping from the battlefield with the least amount of dead weight. You should probably try reading on that.

Limb replacement seems probable, if not already done in Gundam. But if you're talking about something similar to the Core Splendor system used by the Impulse, or the Core Block system used by Gundams in the UC... Sure they're nifty, but because of their construction you really sacrifice a lot of stability. Especially when you're doing high-G maneuvers, you'd want your MS's torso to be as rigid as possible, but when you're torso's made up of more-than-the-usual number of components... Yeah.

[Maelstromm]

Hmm, it sounds a bit iffy, but it makes for a nice idea, but with all the spare parts lying around, wouldn't it be more cost effective to construct a suit out of them and send it into battle instead (ala Strike Rouge)? And as
auriga mentioned, it would be better to have a nearby source to supply parts as I think that turning tail in the middle of a shoot out to resupply body parts seems a bit risky as you may be shot before you even manage to return. And you don't very often see grunt suits get anything less severe than a instant death when engaging in battle.

[Orbits]

Armored Core Anybody?

[Recon 5]

Well, I raised the issue because I see a number of scenes in the Gundam animations (mostly EVOLVE, SEED and GSD because I haven't been able to get my hands on any others) and some manga where mobile suit wrecks are shown with a number of limbs intact. Isn't that a waste? I mean, that Gelgoog in EVOLVE 4 comes to mind. It was missing and arm and a leg, and yet was even able to aim and fire its beam rifle to kill Defrah Kar.

(Note: I merely tacked ZAFT in at the beginning of the discussion becaused theirs is the only modular mobile suit I have actually seen in action. The ZZ and Victory I know from MAHQ but I haven't actually seen them.)

Lunamaria in her Gunner ZAKU was able to fight the Gaia with a missing leg, although it WOULD have affected her performance. Even in the case of the Impulse, Shinn let go of the lower module after just losing one of its legs. The Impulse aside, we see that mobile suits CAN continue to operate after losing limbs, but with a performance penalty. Those 1- hit kills on grunts seem to happen the most if their opponents are Hero characters. Most grunts probably ditch their suits after losing something or simply hunker down and play dead. Modularity would help them A LOT.

In fact, if the Destiny had been modular, Athrun would have been in serious trouble...

The most extreme example of modularity increasing combat life would be the G- Units and what happened at the end of the manga...

Also, lets look at repair time in between battles. Quite a few times we've seen suits (albeit grunt suits) not being able to return to battle even if their pilots are because repairs aren't complete. Being able to reduce downtime in any way, I feel, would be a great asset.

Let me stress again that I am NOT claiming such a system to be problem- free. I simply would like to know what difference it would have made if ZAFT had gone for the whole 'modular' paradigm from the start and focused on refining it and working out its kinks.

[Randall Miyashiro]

There is also that Zaku headed Zeta in ZZ episode 12. This episode made it seen as easy as swapping parts on MG kits.

[Recon 5]

Exactly. Thats how easy I feel maintenance should be...

[Aegis]

Again, the issue is never about want. It certainly would be very nice to be able to simply snap off unwanted parts and snap on brand new ones altogether, such as limbs. The problem is whether it can truly be applied or not, given that it's not merely a refinement of a few kinks, but actually being able to overcome major obstacles in their design. I won't type them up again, since they've been already addressed, but I will address the issue of structural stability: this is a bipedal, humanoid machine, with complex, constantly moving parts. Unless we're talking about the Turn X, hooks, pegs, and sockets won't be strong enough.

And as for the scenarios you presented? Athrun would've still kicked Shinn's butt even if the Destiny were modular. Afterall, it requires the actual parts to be available the way Impulse was while fighting Freedom, Athrun himself would've been familiar with Shinn's tactics, AND he's no Kira. Aim for the cockpit, and all those spare parts mean nothing.

[wing zero alpha]

Aim for the cockpit, and all those spare parts mean nothing.

Or he could have always pull what Gai did with the Regenerate and just destroy the ship/hangar/installation where all the spare parts are stored, so that even if you can't hit the cockpit (despite that for some reason being Shinn's only "weak point"), you can at least deny the suit in question its ability to "repair" itself and take it from there.

[Maelstromm]

Which would only leave a nearby supply of parts as the answer. But I wonder, is it possible to have an A.I controlled unit identical to an Ace's unit, so when the Ace's unit loses an arm, he can just command the A.I unit to distract the enemy (in 1 to 1 battles) and detach its arm to restore the Ace to full fighting capability.

[HalfDemonInuyasha]

Unless you have something as costly or complex as ALICE from Gundam Sentinal or something like the Stargazer made specifically for combat like that, I don't think so...