Discussion "Medieval" isekai: why a horse-driven carriage instead an armored all-terrain vehicle?

In Sevens, Lyle built magic carriages or something similar. He then started to sell others and upgrade his own to be like a transformer or something. Although I’m not 100% sure if it was this series.

 

+1. If you've got the strength and ability to go "F'it, i'm gonna do this properly" then it'd be stupid to not do it

If the protag has a reason to conceal himself (like he's not yet at the stage where he can tell countries where to shove it), sure it's best to keep a low profile. What's stupid is when protags have the legit power to wreck the world but act like a weak protag, that's where it gets stupid.

TL;DR: It's situational. If you've got the power to wreck the world and frak anybody who might oppose you, then ditch the medieval shit and teach them the gospel of modern warfare. Modern Weapons Cheat in Another World is a good example of how to do it properly.
If you're not strong enough to openly do it, then get creative and do it on the sly.

 

Because majority of the transported individuals are neets, highschool boys, highschool girls, salaryman & office ladies with little to no knowledge about building modern vehicles.

 

that would be super incovenient cuz in medieval ages, the poops were all over the streets so if there's water jet coming out of the vehicle's rear, the people behind would get all the sh**-water jet splashing like crazy

 

Noted. Edited. Thanks.

 

That is what the Mc of Magicraft Meister did.
Of course he also build speed boats, and planes, but he made a carriage with golem horses, and upgrades like a proper suspension for traveling since he is hiding just how much above the average nation his ability is (getting horses movement right was major enough).

This is the thing that needs to be considered. Automobiles are not held the same in every country, and many do not understand them well enough to make and fine tune one. Most would understand the basics of the engine, but without a similar fuel that is useless and you would have to rebuild almost everything from scratch.

Outside of crafting series where the Mc gains insane fabrication abilities (like Arifureta, Magicraft Meister, etc) most MC's do not really have the knowledge or skills to make an engine and transmission.

Plus if the setting is still using horse and carriages then that usually means there is some problem with making a pure magic vehicle, as if they know how to make magic items, then that is something they should be able to figure out on their own that the MC might not immediately solve.

 

thats with modern suspensions on the wheels and on an even road and its only for a while. imagine bumpy offroads for like a week straight while sitting on the equalient of a bench(the more high class noble ones would prolly be comfy tho)

 

If you had the magic and the resources can you build a functioning armored vehicle?? Well... some MC can like

• Arifureta don't know how and don't care
• Black Iron’s Glory he tried
  
• Manuke FPS he cheated
  
• Release that Witch he was a mechanic, engineer think

If I end up in a other world situation, all I can do is grow trees and hope to be a druid. Hell, I can't even create a pump and make a revolver so let's forget about the TANK and APC stuff.
BTW the Lazar V gives me the feeling of Hammerhead ??? I think it was called from MassEffect

 

The magic system in Release That Witch is screwed. MC had to design steam machines and steam turbines. Magic is only used in production.

Just make the thing and use magic to move it. No need to complicated controls or differential or manual transmission and sh*t.

 

Hey ossan, nice!

 

I think that what the MC did in RTW is quite realistic, he knows how to make it but couldn't, thats why he used the people that who can use magic to make his ideas. Besides, he made a nuke in the and so who cares about tanks. ... well, he did make tanks and planes and trains and at the very end the SHIELD flying carrier. So yeah he makes a lot of stuff.

 

and if it was that simple, the world would have it already, in some form.

If all you need is to apply magic then the question is not why does the character not make X, it is why with magic to replace science has the world not made X already. People are curious, and tinker. If they have a magic that moves things already, one of the first things anyone is going to ask is can I use that to make this cart move without a horse, and there would be to many valid reasons for wanting such a device.

Outside of horrible writing, there will almost always be some limitation or reason that vehicles like this do not exist, or are not widespread. Sometimes that reason is a missing piece of knowledge the MC comes over with, but in most cases if it is simple the world will already have it, have had and lost due to some disaster, there will be something blocking the development like a religious ban, or they will show signs of developing towards it already.

 

I'm a bit confused why so many comments think that building a car/tank is somehow better than a horse carriage? It's a common misconception to think that what we have now is the ideal rather than a compromise due to lack of technology.

There are plenty of advantages of a horse drawn carriage over a vehicle. One advantage as stated is being low key.

But there are other possibilities such as the fact that horses can be replaced with golem horses. Or magical beasts. Then you can just tell them "get me to location A" and you don't have to drive yourself. Horses can also be used in places that cars can not.

 

You can get the car to be the Golem.

And an ATV will win the cool factor anytime, thank you.

 

In "Yasei no last boss ga arawareta" MC, made a RV Golem

 

Which requires such golems are easy to make in that world, but it they were then the horse and buggy would have already have been replaced with golem vehicles.

The only time you are going to see a MC make modern looking vehicle when everyone else is using while everyone else is using equine and similar beast powered transport, other then horribly writing, is when the MC has some cheat or ability that the rest of the population does not which allows it to be made which the rest do not (like in Arifureta, where the Mc is the only person capable of that level of enchantment) , or they are not used due to being cost prohibitive for some reason (in most D&D settings the cost of making a golem is so high it would not be worth it, and all but the most successful merchants would never be able to afford one anyway).

 

realistically
it require :
~ knowledge
~ access to resource(material, fuel, local world technology expert or something like that)
~ fund
to create and maintenance at least those three must be cleared~ well if using cheat then go ahead
pretty simple

now move to effect if someone make such thing~
he/she will become target from various faction because posses such technology unless somehow big shot ignore it for whatever reason.......... duh~ if this cat was someone on power this cat will make various move to posses such technology~

it is bothersome~

 

Can YOU build these? Ai-chan can't, even if Ai-chan has access to superior materials. Ai-chan doesn't even know how these vehicles work. Unless you actually work in the automobile industry, these things are like magic that the average people does not understand. Most drivers don't even know how to change their tires, much less make these vehicles.

This isn't even going into the realm of fuel yet. Do you know how complicated fuels actually are? Synthetic fuel can be made easily, sure, but is the synthetic fuel you make suitable for your engine? Will it run smoothly or will it stall, clog up or just explode? If you get sent to isekai and you want to build all these yourself, not only you need to know materials science, you also need to know organic chemistry, mechanical science and smithing. It took our scientists almost 100 years to create fuels that are suitable for our engines, through experimenting with adding organic oil, ethanol and lead.

If a single person can do all these, that's a Mary Sue, and that is bad. Because that's not a genius, that's a god. If you know anyone who can fulfill all these roles in real life, start worshipping him.

Now, sterling engine carriage, THAT is doable. The concept of sterling engine is pretty simple, and as long as you have the materials and the ability to create differential temperature (fire or ice magic does the trick), you can make a sterling engine carriage. You can add the gears and breaks as you go along, but the concept of a sterling engine carriage is buildable by medieval standards. The only problem is, sterling engines are kind of heavy, so the materials need to be light and strong, which in medieval standards, means magic materials.

This is a sterling engine car. Not too bad, right? There's just one problem, the materials to make this car did not exist (or were extremely rare) in Europe in the 16th century.

 

BTW, I made this kind of vehicle when I was a kiddo (not that fancy):

(these things are coming back)

No need to know how vehicles work on Earth. About the motor thing, you are in a world with magic and golens. See what others did and make something like that. I bet it's easier to make a motor that turns Mana into rotating torque than to make a horse golem.

 

AND IF IT IS EASY THE LOCALS WOULD HAVE IT ALREADY. Stop coming back to "because magic" because that is not a reason or argument, and the nature of the setting negates it because if it was simple someone would have figured it out and the knowledge would have spread by either trade, or more likely conquest. Look at how much land mass Genghis Khan conquered with horses, now give him motorcycles and try to figure out how much more land he would have taken.

If magic existed in our world then the Romans would have made some form of magic tank (if no one else had done so before hand), let alone 16th century europe. Or the chinese would have, or any number of other ethnic groups. There were many in history that were great engineers, and one of those empires would have figured it out.

Either that or they would have made some form of flying vehicle like the airships you see in to many settings, which make the whole car obsolete from the get go. If I was sent to a magic world, and there is magic was a sufficient reason to be able to make anything, I would be working on some form of airship, not a car much easier as it is take an existing vessel, add levitation and some fans for propulsion and there you go. maybe adding some form of invisibility, and pressure controls for later on.

The question is not why does the main character not make these vehicles, the question you need to answer is why has the setting not made some form of vehicle already. Unless the setting is written by an idiot there will always be a reason somewhere be it there being a lost and/or cheat skill the MC has that is needed (Arifureta is a perfect example), the costs in materials, production fuel and/or maintenance makes them prohibitive, the world is recovering from some tragedy and has not rebuilt their knowledge of magic to that point yet, the people in power have a superior method already like teleportation and as such have no need to a car, so are not funding the development (if say magic is focused on the nobility and hoarded, it could easily be a case where there are have and have nots with the haves not having a need but being the only ones with the means). In most of these worlds the magic system has rules to it, and often those rules actually are not that conductive to making magic tech, which is common in allot of systems focused on elements, heck there could even be suppressed knowledge or religious doctrines where making a car would paint a huge (blasphemer) target on the MC's back (and contrary to belief, the MC is often actually not strong enough to take on the whole world, a notable portion yes, but not the entire world, unless the previously mentioned bad writing comes up), etc.

If all the main character has is I have seen them, that is not enough of an advantage, because the populace has seen similar enough befor eas well.