Author Topic: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech  (Read 13706 times)

nerd

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #30 on: 05 March 2013, 18:47:00 »
I don't see what part of the open pit mining process a mining mech would really be able to help out with, unless you want to make a glorified 2-legged shovel or something.
Moving large amounts quickly, and safety. The Mining Mech puts (hopefully) fewer people into the pit, and gives the operator enough armor to withstand minor rock falls and blasting incidents.
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RunandFindOut

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #31 on: 05 March 2013, 18:50:10 »
Moving large amounts quickly, and safety. The Mining Mech puts (hopefully) fewer people into the pit, and gives the operator enough armor to withstand minor rock falls and blasting incidents.
Equipment for open pit mines dwarfs mechs.  You're talking 500 ton trucks that carry more than their own weight.  Shovels so large they can fill one of those trucks in two or three passes.  Equipment that weighs as much as small dropships at times.
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GreekFire

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #32 on: 05 March 2013, 20:25:32 »
Like I said - not really all that practical, but probably looks pretty impressive to the shareholders. Or maybe some places can't transport the (heavy heavy and huge) specialized equipment to the mining location (on some ratty planet in the middle of nowhere) so they make mechs because they're easier to transport. I dunno. I imagine contract negotiations go something like this:

"Sure, you could let that ratty little company over there exploit all that gold - or you could let us, the big boys with the 'MECHS, handle it."

That being said having huge stompy 'mechs walking around the bottom of an open-pit mine is just begging for some unstable ground to collapse and trash all your fancy new gear.
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deathfrombeyond

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #33 on: 05 March 2013, 22:43:30 »
I'm not claiming that these jobs put you in a 'Mech, but there's a good chance that it practices skills that would be highly useful in actually piloting a 'Mech.

From what I understand, the biggest hurdle in controlling any 'Mech is being able to use the neurohelmet interface.

Thus, I imagine any job that uses a neurohelmet interface analog to remotely control drones would be highly useful in determining who would be great at piloting a 'Mech. You know, mining drones, retrieval drones, etc.
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Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #34 on: 09 March 2013, 20:38:32 »
RunandFindOut gave us #70
Zepplin Handler.

A recent visit to a WWII aircraft restoration operation made a natural insiration for #71
 #71 'Mech restorer (whether it's lostech buried by the SLDF or simply coming out of mothballs after the Jihad, there's C-Bills to be made in putting old crap back in original condition)

Paul

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #35 on: 15 March 2013, 11:37:48 »
Nice, I really like some of the ideas in this thread! I do agree that it's unlikely to be common in the BT universe, but it's still awesome stuff for a campaign where that 1 in a 1000 instance happens. And hey, if it's cool to the GM and players, have it be common.


Which gives ME another idea.  I can see a city/colony being laid out by urban planners where they expected people to move about in tiny, 10-ton mechs.  Perhaps it was founded at the dawn of the 'mech era in a misguided anticipation that the new technology would render all other vehicles obsolete.  Maybe it was built by an eccentric mega-trillionaire who just loved mechs. Who cares why.  At any rate, such a place with common mech-taxis could also give us:

That one's hilarious. =)
Check out the Celerity for some ideas. (XTR Comstar)

How about deep sea fisher? Even without UMU, I could see them trotting around the bottom of an ocean or lake looking for critters that dwell there, or for stuff like pearls or their alien equivalent.
I also haven't seen pest control mentioned.


A broader idea: a lot of things are the size they are because of the need to repair or replace them later. In many cases, you can scale that quite a bit without difficulty. Sometimes, the bottleneck is the human hand.
How about macro-scaling things like water and sewage plants, even some building maintenance items? 'Mech sized light bulb replacement, HVAC, etc, the 'Mech sized building engineer.
I'm sure there's other 'macro' ideas I haven't pondered yet.

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guardiandashi

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #36 on: 15 March 2013, 11:50:33 »
lol the 'mech sewer maintenance worker, you know those rumors of aligators in the new york sewers they used to have on terra?  well the other day I was working on cleaning out line 147, and I ran into a nest of ... not entirely sure what they were but they looked kinda like something out of an old 2d vid kalled zilla? godzunka? godzilla? and ya I am not working today, thats cause my flusher 'mech needs to be repaired, I never understood why they are so heavilly armored, I mean what do they expect us to do turn the fuid guns on each other?

well I got swarmed by those things and they were going to town shredding my armor, heck you can see them techs pulling the armor thats left off the right leg, they were talking about decontamination radiation or something, but that armor is sure shredded and burnt, ain't it

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #37 on: 15 March 2013, 18:24:14 »
Nice, I really like some of the ideas in this thread! I do agree that it's unlikely to be common in the BT universe, but it's still awesome stuff for a campaign where that 1 in a 1000 instance happens. And hey, if it's cool to the GM and players, have it be common.


That one's hilarious. =)
Check out the Celerity for some ideas. (XTR Comstar)

Thanks for the thoughts :)

Quote
How about deep sea fisher? Even without UMU, I could see them trotting around the bottom of an ocean or lake looking for critters that dwell there, or for stuff like pearls or their alien equivalent.

I totally meant to put something like that in.. thanks for reminding me :)
#72 Crabber/Clamdigger/Lobster Trapper (Xenobiology can push 'deadliest catch' to a whole new level, necessitating extreme measures)
Quote
I also haven't seen pest control mentioned.

#73 Pest Control (How many times has this happened in the history of interstellar colonization?)
(with thanks to guardiandashi too on this one)

Quote
A broader idea: a lot of things are the size they are because of the need to repair or replace them later. In many cases, you can scale that quite a bit without difficulty. Sometimes, the bottleneck is the human hand.
How about macro-scaling things like water and sewage plants, even some building maintenance items? 'Mech sized light bulb replacement, HVAC, etc, the 'Mech sized building engineer.
I'm sure there's other 'macro' ideas I haven't pondered yet.

Paul

#74 Sanitation Engineer (how did I not think of 'Garbageman' before now?)
#75 Junior Sanitation Engineer (not enough seniority to get out of dredging the open lakes at the colonial sewage treatment facility)
#76 Window Washer (no cherry picker or gantry needed!)


Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #38 on: 29 March 2013, 00:36:56 »
One from the world of communications:

#77 Cable Dog (comm cables need to be strung or laid across the most god-forsaken locales.. something tall with hands certainly doesn't hurt either in safe or urban terrain)

Acolyte

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #39 on: 29 March 2013, 00:50:12 »
Megafuana Butcher! for those planets that have really big animals! >:D

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RunandFindOut

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #40 on: 29 March 2013, 01:09:03 »
One from the world of communications:

#77 Cable Dog (comm cables need to be strung or laid across the most god-forsaken locales.. something tall with hands certainly doesn't hurt either in safe or urban terrain)
That's actually a pretty good one.  I spent a little under 5 years wandering around the country in a crappy old truck and trailer.  And one of the best methods to meander way, way off the beaten track was to follow the powerlines through the empty places.  And christ did so many of them go through terrain nothing wheeled had any business covering. 

Anything big with legs would be a godsend in getting to a lot of those places.  Even the ones that were halfway decent would slow a 4x4 running on tractor tires to a dozen or so miles a day.
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Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #41 on: 07 April 2013, 01:33:52 »
#78 Vulcanologist (few better ways to crawl right up dangerously close to active lava flows or into volcanoes for scientific readings)

glitterboy2098

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #42 on: 07 April 2013, 19:57:48 »
As a geologist, mining 'Mechs have always made me lol, especially the Dig Lord and its amazing art. I've always wondered how on earth it could actually be practical and not a hindrance to everyone involved in the mining process, but whatever. I chalk it off to some rich mining CEO wanting his mining operations to look cool, kinda like the Celestial Dominus configurations - they look good on camera, but ain't all that when it comes down to business.

in tunnels they might not work all that well (sadly such use is canon as of warrior: en guard)

but they might work well for certain roles in open pit mining. like drilling holes for blast charges, breaking down large outcrops prior to blasting, and so on.

i suspect mining mechs in tunnel bsed jobs fill the same niche. would explain the use of a rock cutter and drill on the canon models.. cutter to smooth a patch prior to drilling, then use the drill to bore a hole for the blasting charges.
« Last Edit: 07 April 2013, 20:00:11 by glitterboy2098 »

Dassadec

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #43 on: 23 April 2013, 22:22:44 »
#79. Low/high-g habitat construction
#80. Mech Designer
#81. Mech reverse engineer
#82. Mech percussionist (My drum kit is bigger than yours.)
« Last Edit: 03 September 2016, 21:49:34 by Dassadec »

Paul

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #44 on: 24 April 2013, 13:47:28 »
#82. Mech percussionist

...Wait, do you mean a 'Mech sized drum kit?

Tell me more! Do you have a newsletter I could subscribe to? Is TSM required for proper rock?
I presume an Urby suffices for folk music and other genres that hate proper drummers.
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Wolflord

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #45 on: 24 April 2013, 13:52:59 »
#82. Mech percussionist

Sonic Weapons!  [drool]

Time to go design an Ice Warrior mech homage.  :D

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #46 on: 24 April 2013, 16:13:28 »
...Wait, do you mean a 'Mech sized drum kit?

Tell me more! Do you have a newsletter I could subscribe to? Is TSM required for proper rock?
I presume an Urby suffices for folk music and other genres that hate proper drummers.

I can see a mech-scale Taiko performance troop being quite awesome to behold.


Paul

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #47 on: 24 April 2013, 16:16:27 »
I can see a mech-scale Taiko performance troop being quite awesome to behold.

Heck yeah. Maybe a Battle Armor (or ProtoMech) sized one too, since they might benefit from the myomer boosters. MASC only seems to accelerate the legs, while myomer boosters seem to speed up the whole system.

Hmm, Mechs might actually be too slow to do proper taiko...
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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #48 on: 24 April 2013, 20:57:22 »
83. Brontosaurus midwife
We hear that there are tumults and riots in Rome, and that voices are raised concerning the army and the quality of our soldiers. Make haste to reassure us that you love and support us as we love and support you, for if we find that we have left our bones to bleach in these sands in vain, then beware the fury of the legions.


RunandFindOut

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #49 on: 24 April 2013, 22:16:23 »
83. Brontosaurus midwife
Think that falls under the general category of 'Megafauna handler' brought up earlier.
One does not just walk into Detroit

She ignored the dragon, and Freddy Mercury who arrived to battle it with the Power of Rock.

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Re: 101 Civilian Jobs that put you in a 'Mech
« Reply #50 on: 24 April 2013, 22:56:18 »
Think that falls under the general category of 'Megafauna handler' brought up earlier.

But much more icky, and potentially the most dangerous subcatagory!
We hear that there are tumults and riots in Rome, and that voices are raised concerning the army and the quality of our soldiers. Make haste to reassure us that you love and support us as we love and support you, for if we find that we have left our bones to bleach in these sands in vain, then beware the fury of the legions.


 

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