Armored individuals piloting larger armored vehicles, can you help me wrap my head around it...
Unless the individual could quickly disengage what is the purpose of that? How do you make it setting appropriate?
Stuff like pic related makes me grin, can you help make me happy?
Wrong pic
>what is the purpose of that?
look at would you rather fight the big or small version?
Think you got it actually, OP. In case the pilot needs to bail behind enemy lines or potentially protection against infantry boarders. Alternately, one is used to interface with the other as something, likely a control system
Survivability, OP. Shrapnel has a bad tendency to wreck pilots before a machine is combat ineffective.
And you save a lot of weight with an armored suit vs. trying to fully armor a cockpit.
While we're on the topic of mechs, I need a nice cup of Veeky Forums's abundant creative juices.
An NPC I'm designing has this large mech based off Khepri, the Egyptian god that rolls the sun across the sky. He's basically this massive scarab beetle. The mech is designed to have the pilot lying down inside the "carapace" and placed into a coma-like trance, allowing them to control the mech solely with the power of their mind.
My question is how do I translate rolling the sun around into technology. Can it just make fireballs which it pushes people into? Can it launch them at high speed? These are the questions that need answered!
It's an exo-skeleton or assault vehicle. You strap is on over your armour for combat for heavier weapons support. If it gets hit and knocked out, you eject and you're still able to fight in your normal armour.
Well, personally I would go with the pushing arms actually being a plasma weapon that can be used in either melee or ranged capacity, generally by making a huge fuckoff ball of said plasma that it then bum rushes people with while in magnetic containment, or releases/"pops" the field of to release super heated death at it's foes. Could also get creative with applications of this too, where it does things like use this to try melting through things, or if you get them adjustable use unfiltered plasma as a thrust system to reposition.
As a related note, thank you for giving me what I needed in a rival/potential love interest for a PC I have. They play a spider tank!
If the thing just pushes the sun around, then it's claws are basically imbued with the power of the sun. Always on fire, using fire like the sun would.
So melee fire attacks, blinding flashes and your ultimate move is simply a small version of a solar flare or a Coronal mass ejection.
>mech breaks
>get out
>still have armor
That's why.
The EX-gear from Macross Frontier is pretty sweet.
Part of the pilot system for later generation Variable Fighter platforms (space jets that can transform into humanoid tanks in a blink for boarding actions or holding ground) the EX gear reduces the G forces experienced by the pilot, provides protection and life support in the event of an ejection or breach, can fly/glide with collapsible wings, and you can link the gear to the VF to have it, in robot mode, mimick your actions for much finer control or actions too complex to translate through joysticks.
You can even, over a short distance, use specialized motion controls to activate and move your VF remotely, allowing you to recover and reboard it under fire or use it as a distraction. This slave mode is not great for actual combat beyond firing inaccurately in a general direction, but only because Macross had bad experiences with combat AI before.
Jet pilots wear armor in case they have to eject.
Marines in 40K only do it because the implants in their nerves make the armour feel like an extension of their own body. So it has no disadvantage but the extra protection may come in handy. Other than this explanation there is no point I agree.
>Unless the individual could quickly disengage what is the purpose of that?
Maybe that's exactly what it's designed to do. When the big suit goes down, the pilot can take off and continue being a heavy weapons platform on foot. Not as tough, as powerful, or as intimidating as its ablative form, but still more of a presence on the field than an unarmored pilot or casualty.
It rolls around a giant ball that can emit plasma like a super dung beetle.
Fun fact: The force of ejecting from an aircraft causes the pilot to permanently shrink roughly an inch due to the incredible g's necessary to get him out of the way of the craft compressing his spine.
Metal Warriors had the mech pilot wearing an armored spacesuit with an integrated jetpack. In game you frequently had to leave your mech to sidetrack into tight, human-sized spaces were you had to fight your way past enemy infantry. Then again the game was less about frontline fighting and more special missions.
Pretend that doesnt exist. Its a terrible model inspired by a scene ftom Aliens. Lazy design, its a fucking embarassment.
No they dont. Flight suit with a couple kevlar inserts and a helmet =/= armor.
Where did you hear that? Losing an inch at once due to compression of the spinal column would cause fractured vertebrae and almost guaranteed paralysis. 1/8" would have been somewhat believable, but I doubt even that.
>kevlar =/= armor
ok bub
The original Mobile Suit Gundam had a not entirely terrible explanation for why mecha are a thing.
Zeon made the first Zakus based on industrial exoskeletons. The reason they designed them that way was for space combat (oddly enough). The reasoning was that roughly humanoid vehicles can do minor orientation adjustments without fuel since they can use Newton's third law (equal and opposite reaction) to have their limb movement adjust their position and save fuel for forward thrust.
The funny part was that later series mobile suits were all about ALL THE THRUSTERS, ALL DAY EVERY DAY for increased maneuverability but they still kept the humanoid design.
I remember Zechs from Gundam Wing reflecting on this. He said he supposed it was the return to single combat and the humanity that mobile suits provided which endeared them to people. It let their weapons of war be more than just guns on wheels.
I guess the main benefit of the humanoid form is that it's easy for the pilot to spin around in space. So you can easily imagine what motion you need to do to make a 180 facing turn to take a shot at the guy "above" you because its the sort of motion you do everyday as a spacenoid.
It's actually a pretty obvious advantage to the mobile frames that need to use clumsy gyros to spin around.
my nigga. Havoc for life.
I loved ho low-tech that thing were. All other mechs had at least some form of energy-based weapon and/or shield, but the Havoc was all casing-spitting sluggthrowers, a fat chunk of metal as shield and a goddamn hook-and-chain for melee. I always pictured it as the oldest of the playable mechs, the model that should be technologically outclassed by everything by now but just too goddamn well-made to go away. I have spent far too much time thinking about that game
The armour is standard issue. It's what recruit picks on first day of training, it's what gets rank&file through the day, it's what commander wears under their big overcoat glittering with medals. Accessories vary depending on unit designation, but basic core armor is the same. There's couple reasons why this was established - it simplifies manufacture process and maintenance, it encourages sense of camaraderie across the ranks, it forms a basic standard of uniform, it resonates with the idea that the chief purpose of army is their endurance in defense of people. For many armies across the history, the symbol of choice was a weapon - gladius, pilum spear, various swords, AK-47. For our army the symbol is the armor.
...
power fantasy
In case you weren't aware, tank crewmen still wear the same body armour that infantry do.