So 500VL is around Landmate size rather than battle dress? OK, that gives me a basis for descriptions for the players on my TL8 world. I don't suppose any official clarification is pending on the vl issue in the near future?
Well... keep in mind that a human doesn't sink. Not unless they are incredibly muscular with absolutely no body fat, and usually not even then.
Exception of course, if they're struggling, or they're me. Bio major, I KNOW that, techincically, I can't sink, no matter how you do the math, but throw me in the water and see what happens. Ayhow, back to our regularly scheduled program...
I do have one world where they're fairly lowtech, I bent some rules to allow it a bit of Steam-punk flavor, they never developed any energy plants after steam... *Boggle* Due to religious restrictions. Now: Make a steam-powered battledress. They tend to be pretty big (The smallest I've made one without it being absurdly useless was about 450vl).