man power alternatives?

[Reese]

doing some research for a different setting

(had an idea or a mobile fortress that's an animal drawn wagon on the scale of a small castle, NM)

a possible 'sixth' mech power source= draft animals

could you run a mech using animals on treadmills? there are plenty of examples of animal powered devices that i can think of in RL mideval times:

mills, roasting spits, wagons (obviously), sky hooks/cranes

so i figured that animals on treadmills might work as an alternative to man power for any mech building societies that can't make steam, clockwork, animated, or necromantic mechs, but are above using slaves to power larger mechs

obviously, animals would deliver a different power output than humans, and would be unable to work under certain contitions that humans can work in (and, OTOH, can continue to work in condiitons that would bother humans)

anyway, was wondering what sort of guidelines might be nessesary to adapt man-powered mechs to animal powered mechs?

for starters, i figured the following changes:

higher PU use for 'crew' (oxen, horses, ets, would need more room for treadmills or wheels than a human would)

larger mech size restriction (animals would not work well in the jostling conditions found in the smallest of mechs)

higher endurance (actions that would exhaust a human crew take longer to exhaust an equivalent animal crew)

can't think of anything ethat would factor in ATM
(maybe this idea is the lack of sleep talking... sweet slumber beckons... i hope this idea sounds as good in the morning)

[cssmythe3]

Some other engine types I'm considering:

Clockwork w/o Steam Engine
Created in coal-scarce regions, these clockwork mechs have NO steam engine. Their mainspring is instead wound at base station - a wind mill, waterwheel, etc

(Caste Turring is like this if you've ever read the post cyberpunk 'diamond age' by Neil Stephenson)

They would cost slightly less than clockwork (no engine to build), have some small bonus to PU, as they don't have engines taking up space, but the big penalty would be no steam! So you can't mount steam breathers or steam cannons.

Bound Fire-elemental steam engine.
The coal fired boiler is replaced by a bound fire elemental. Doesn't need fuel.

[Ken Hart]

I just had this weird image of one of the Giant Space Hamsters from Spelljammer running inside a mammoth wheel....

The big issue I see is crew space. Sure, you wouldn't need engineers manning steam engines and such, but you might need just as many people to take care of the animals before, during, and after their "shifts," providing food, shoveling dung, and tending to their stables or rest areas. That said, this could be an interesting, if bizarre, option for an agrarian or primitive society that happens to stumble across a deserted mech. They wouldn't have the technical know-how to power up the steam engines, so they'd make do with what they have.

--Ken

[Antman]

i liked cssmythe3's suggestion of the bound fire elemental, i had kinda the same idea, just waiting till my coglayer/constructer gets to a high enough level

[Reese]

read the description of spell furnaces

fire elemental heated steam engines is one step away from making a spell furnace like the ones described in the spellfurnace entry

(bottom paragraph, middle column, p143)

[Antman]

True it is close, but i think neither of us are not talking about draining the elemental to a husk as with the spell furnace, more like binding it into the firebox, sure there would probably be more cost involved, but thats what dragon hordes are for , and what fire elemental would give up the chance of boiling away water all day, and with a decanter of endless water no more pit stops for water!!