kilemall
SOC-14 5K
I used to as well, but stormtrooper armor just doesn't seem to be vacc capable, and the whole 'same armor level vs. weight' issue ruined it for me.
combat armor
- Thread starter flykiller
- Start date
I used to as well, but stormtrooper armor just doesn't seem to be vacc capable, and the whole 'same armor level vs. weight' issue ruined it for me.
A contradiction in Traveller? Surely not :CoW: :devil:
Frank Chadwick and Dave Nilsen contradicted just about all previous Traveller technology canon in TNE
More seriously, change one word in the LBB:4 entry for combat armour and we get:
Note that in LBB:1 vac suits have a mass that counts against character carrying capacity, while heavier and more bulky combat armour does not. This suggest there must be some sort of aid to dealing with its mass and bulk.
As to how it is powered, if it is electrically powered artificial muscle then TL11 battery and energy conversion technology probably obviate the need to track energy usage.
By the way does anyone know what is the battery life of a suit of battledress is?
I always thought the reason combat doesn't apply towards wieght limits in LBB 1 is because the structure of it supports the weight better than a vacc suit. Instead of just hanging off of the person, and probably resisting motion to the same degree as a bulky, pressurized vacc suit, combat armor is rigid and uses a more efficient frame and harness for load bearing. Like the difference between wearing chainmail or a good suit of Milanese plate. One has like 20+/- pounds of bulk hanging off the arms, legs, and shoulders while the other may look heavier but is actually designed to take as much dead weight as possible off the wearer and support it with the suit's structure.
As for power...IMATU I use rechargeable packs good for 72 hours of activity, supplemented by the kinetic motions of the suit to help keep up the charge as long as possible. A well-maintained suit in near-constant use can go for as long as 4 days with this system, but 3 is average under combat conditions.
The other way to consider is the magic tech method of comparing the FGMP power pack to the battle suit power needs: the high energy weapon uses a (per Mercenary LLB4) small fusion reactor that has unlimited shots and requires only some maintenance and refueling once every 36-48 hours. That's Niven-Known-Space-Efficient for sure!
TL 13 Basic Battledress: 12 days
TL 14 Basic Battledress: 16 days
TL 15 Basic Battledress: 20 days
Same stats for Commando/Cavalry Battledress and Forward Observer Battledress.
TL 10 Assault Battledress: 4 days
TL 13 Assault Battledress: 5 days
TL 14 Assault Battledress: 8 days
TL 15 Imperial Marine Assault Battledress: 20 days
http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/tavspecs/menelvag/mnl_impo.htm
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Many thanks for that, I knew I had seen it somewhere.
T4's Emperor's Arsenal also has endurance for battledress, but the paradigm shifts to battlepods at high TLs.
That's...horrifying.
But I did have a thought last night after some coffee Hagen Dazs chased with chocolate syrup and morphine that might make an even more horrifying encounter. Imagine if someone made suits that were smart enough to fight alongside their wearer. Or at least, smart enough to fight just enough to try to get the casualty to a MASH on a hot battlefield while trying ot keep him alive inside the suit.
They are self-repairing and have enough ability to learn and adapt that they could assist the wearer in a meaningful way while he's in combat. Help with some targeting, tracking, etc...
Now what if...after some long ago apocalyptic war the wearers are now all dead and just the suits continue in this endless war? With skeletons rattling around inside but every outward appearance of being manned by real soldiers. I can't wait to spring this on the players in my current campaign.
khadaji2002
SOC-12
This part of the thread reminds me of the booked "Sentenced to Prism" by Alan Dean Foster. The main character starts the book in a HEV that is armored, has an AI in the suit capable of independent monitoring and threat assessment, and has days of endurance. While the suit is not self-motile it can do almost anything else for the wearer. I can see higher TL BD having many of the same capabilities. And just like Apache helicopter pilots, the men wearing these BD units depend on ability to multi-task and sort data streams at high speeds as much as on their physical responses.
Okaaaay....I haven't read that. I was more inspired by Mike Wightman's thoughts on how advanced TL-13 BD will be.
Boosted by my regular painkillers and liberal amounts of sugar and caffeine. Works wonders for my imagination sometimes; too bad I didn't have to take them back in the 80's when I was running Call of Cthulhu or Sanity rolls might have been literal.
In actuality I go more with less complicated is better when it comes to infantry combat gear. Even in the far future. Some complication is inevitable, but I think it should have a threshold of being repairable - at least enough to keep it running until back at a depot - in the field by the soldier using the gear. If it gets too "advanced" I think it becomes unworkable in real world use, especially with the grinding wear of sustained combat and exotic environments.
But then, I have a lot of grit in my game.
Boosted by my regular painkillers and liberal amounts of sugar and caffeine. Works wonders for my imagination sometimes; too bad I didn't have to take them back in the 80's when I was running Call of Cthulhu or Sanity rolls might have been literal.
In actuality I go more with less complicated is better when it comes to infantry combat gear. Even in the far future. Some complication is inevitable, but I think it should have a threshold of being repairable - at least enough to keep it running until back at a depot - in the field by the soldier using the gear. If it gets too "advanced" I think it becomes unworkable in real world use, especially with the grinding wear of sustained combat and exotic environments.
But then, I have a lot of grit in my game.
Note the Vacc Suit get lighter as Tech Level increases, I assigned this to the weight of the PLSS. Thus CA in vacuum mode has the weight of the PLSS also.
May I point out the Storm Troopers standing outside when the Millennium Falcon is entering into the Deathstar in episode 4.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
WaH?
Hold on.
Youtube of relevant scene-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGp_5gOww0E
Okay, they are in what looks to be standard armor, but notice they also have oxygen tanks and extra gear, I guess for EVA.
I suppose they are there just in case somebody jumps the ship right before being secured in the docking bay?
Apparently these are spacetroopers, specialized zero-G types.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Spacetrooper
https://www.sideshowtoy.com/collectibles/star-wars-spacetrooper-hot-toys-902381/
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Yup, I did notice that bit.
A TL11 vac suit has a mass of 4kg and counts as cloth armour.
A TL11 suit of combat armour counts as battle dress (more correctly under 81 revision battle dress uses the same armour matrix as combat armour) and by the rules as written has no effect on character load limits even in a vacuum.
Unless its mass is compensated by grav modules then some sort of augmentation to offset the mass is the most reasonable explanation.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I imagine the interface inside the battledress helmet will make the stuff we see in the Iron Man films look cluttered.
The suit will:
allow full 360 degree vision, appear to be open rather than closed, be voice and eye command activated, The suit AI will do all the monitoring and only alert the soldier to threats, including system diagnostics;
it will have a full array of microdrone sensors feeding info;
it will be tied into the battlecomputer network, but have its own onboard battlecomputer in addition;
'GPS' and extensive comms are a given, as are sensory enhancements.
And yes, the suit AI can move the battledress if need be in an emergency (it's basically a wearable robot).
Rather than voice and eye command activation I'd been working on TL13+ having a neural interface (non-intrusive if the correct gear has already been implanted/grown) so that the feeds in and the commands out don't have to be articulated. It'd take a fair bit of training, but the soldier coming out the other end would be rather capable of potentially immense and precise applications of force.
Barsanuphius
SOC-12
I would agree...that is why there is Traveller 4 or Marc Miller's Traveller. 
Barsanuphius
SOC-12
Stormtrooper armor has limited Vac suit and life-sustaining capabilities. A Trooper could live in Vacuum for a few minutes to maybe, I'm pushing it, half-an-hour. This allows for the trooper to be rescued quickly, if suck into the black and allow a trooper to be able to enter or cross a combat area that has lost atmosphere. Where his time spent is only long enough to die. :coffeesip:
Well, he is only a Stormtrooper. They seem more expendable than any Redshirt, along with TIE pilots. No shields for those guys, and the ST armor doesn't seem to be able to keep out more than very small rocks. And soft ones, at that.
Canon says Combat is vacc-capable, though. That would also make it valuable for exotic environment combat duty and seems a given in a galaxy-spanning empire.
Which canon?!?
pendragonman
Absent Friends Margrave
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
The passage I quoted in post 40...
