03-31-2017, 04:29 AM
(03-30-2017, 12:47 PM)Tanis Wrote:(03-25-2017, 06:32 PM)Lost Rinoah Wrote: Power armor refers to the ability to carry vehicle mounted (or simply beyond infantry compliment) weapons into areas where treaded and/or wheeled vehicles normally aren't able to reach. IE anti-armor and large scale anti infantry. Without having to destroy entire sections of terrain to do so. Via using powered servos of any kind to allow a single soldier to carry such a compliment. As the idea behind power armor replacing infantry is flawed at best due to the mass reduction in individual maneuverability. If you look up the original idea behind power armor you'd see how much it's been shifted by mass media. As technically even light mechs in battletech would fall under power armor by the real life design ideal. Due to their capability to still traverse through areas where traded and wheeled vehicles cannot and carry a large compliment of weapons compared to infantry.
That is in my opinion, a rather incomplete definition for "Power Armour"; if your sole objective in the design is to enable an infantryman to carry heavy ordinance, all you need for that is a Powered Exoskeleton:
(Since the image doesn't seem to want to show, i'll post a link to it instead) https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/001/471/006/large/sam-kh-1.jpg?1447013005
Now, if you integrate a Powered Exoskeleton with armour, then you have what amounts to a suit of Powered Armour, but the armour portion itself is irrelevant to allowing the soldier to carry heavy weapons.
I do agree with your point about the issues with equipping ALL infantry in an army with Powered Armour, loss of maneuverability aside, it would be atrociously expensive, and would leave the entire army vulnerable to tech disabling weapons like EMP, and HERF; however its not difficult at all to imagine specialist units or even an entire service branch in well funded armies that would specialize in fielding entire power armour squads, or platoons, for example: if they specialize in off-world operations, where the soldier is going to need a bulky environment suit anyways, the army might as well pay the extra cost for life support equipped power armour instead, soldiers are expensive and time consuming to train replacements for, Spec Ops even more so.
Aye. I pointed to one extreme end of the spectrum. You pointed to the other. Maneuverability is considered to be more important than heavier armors. As finding a balance between not getting hit in the first place and being able to survive getting hit are the two primaries of armor. And such a suit(exo/PA), although increasing strength, would have a massive negative effect on dexterity and fine motor control. Even in the smallest configurations. Meaning that they'd require heavy armor otherwise wearing them is a flat out death sentance. And yet keeping the suits in good repair when equipped with armor would be an absolute hell for maintenance crews Likely requiring a ten person team to repair each suit in any efficient manor. This is why they were foregone in real life, not even the cost of the suit itself hindered it as much as the design flaws in them.