Of powered armor, mechs and feasibility.

[Terralthra]

Or the powered armor from Starship Troopers, the book.

The powered armor from Starship Troopers isn't unmanned and remote-piloted.

[Ritterin Sophia]

I just saw a Japanese mecha.... with long, flowing hair!!!!

That's nothing, I know one that looks like a Sailor Senshi. G Gundam doesn't give a fuck about your realism, just giant robots fighting.

[takemeout_totheblack]

What.
That...that mech is wearing a skirt and its already vulnerable limbs have been made thinner and more frail to satisfy some technophile's fan service craving. Oh, and hair..and tits...and a metal bow. Ow.

Welp! There goes my faith in anime! Legend of the Galactic Heroes and AT: VOTOMS kept it alive for a bit, but this just sort of took off and nuked it from orbit with a cobalt bomb.

Anyway, what kind of materials would be needed to render a suit of power-armor immune to assault rifle fire and increase survivability of proximity explosives? Are such materials even remotely possible?

[Ritterin Sophia]

What.
That...that mech is wearing a skirt and its already vulnerable limbs have been made thinner and more frail to satisfy some technophile's fan service craving. Oh, and hair..and tits...and a metal bow. Ow.

I suggest you look up Mobile Fighter G Gundam, it's an entirely different kind of Gundam from the rest. That design is over fifteen years old. They even have Gundam horses. Hell the pilots can kick down skyscrapers and destroy enemy mooks with scarves on foot. Here's how it works.

My favorite design is Dog Gundam. Armed with a titanium spiked collar, retractable titanium claws, a beam tongue, a beam tail. Oh and the best part, that little port where the dogs crotch would be? Beam spray gun.

[Shroom Man 777]

G Gundam is the best, most believable, most entertaining and most intelligent Gundam series out there - ever. No other Gundam series comes even close to its quality, and are seriously just trying hard.

[PeZook]

Anyway, what kind of materials would be needed to render a suit of power-armor immune to assault rifle fire and increase survivability of proximity explosives? Are such materials even remotely possible?

Kevlar and steel? US soldiers already have body armor that's pretty much impervious to assault rifle fire. of course, a smart enemy will simply spray a power suit with AP rounds from a machine gun

Or, if he's technologically advanced enough, his infantrymen will carry specialized armor-piercing weapons either as a dedicated system roughly similar to the XM-25 or some sort of attachment to their main weaponry.

[adam_grif]

It's not exactly impervious, although it's fairly good. The idea would be to get them immune to everything up to 7.62 x 54. Armoring it to be able to shrug of 12.7 or 14.5 is going to be mass prohibitive I should think.

[PeZook]

It's not exactly impervious, although it's fairly good. The idea would be to get them immune to everything up to 7.62 x 54.

Interceptor could take that in the chest easily, a powered suit should allow more armor either bolted onto the frame or just loaded onto the soldier.

Armoring it to be able to shrug of 12.7 or 14.5 is going to be mass prohibitive I should think.

Not even most APCs can take 14.5 rounds, and their armor scheme is inherently easier to build, so yeah, it would probably be mass prohibitive barring some radically advanced new material.

[Night_stalker]

Titanium could work, but would be rare and expensive.

[VF5SS]

Welp! There goes my faith in anime! Legend of the Galactic Heroes and AT: VOTOMS kept it alive for a bit, but this just sort of took off and nuked it from orbit with a cobalt bomb.

Oh noez, how can you suspend disbelief about a show like Votoms where the main character is genetically pre-disposed to not dying :3

[PeZook]

Titanium could work, but would be rare and expensive.

And difficult to process, remember that. If powered armor is ever introduced, it will probably use some awesome synthetic material. And so will future tanks and infantry body armor

[takemeout_totheblack]

Welp! There goes my faith in anime! Legend of the Galactic Heroes and AT: VOTOMS kept it alive for a bit, but this just sort of took off and nuked it from orbit with a cobalt bomb.

Oh noez, how can you suspend disbelief about a show like Votoms where the main character is genetically pre-disposed to not dying :3

Yeah, but the whole 'luck gene' thing is far more forgivable to me than robo-titties and hair on a war machine, I'll take an asspull over retardation any day.

[Samuel]

Welp! There goes my faith in anime! Legend of the Galactic Heroes and AT: VOTOMS kept it alive for a bit, but this just sort of took off and nuked it from orbit with a cobalt bomb.

Oh noez, how can you suspend disbelief about a show like Votoms where the main character is genetically pre-disposed to not dying :3

Yeah, but the whole 'luck gene' thing is far more forgivable to me than robo-titties and hair on a war machine, I'll take an asspull over retardation any day.

Well, some people like to feel pretty when they are wading through the broken corpses of their enemies. There isn't anything impossible about the design- it is less efficient, but maybe some one felt like being a magic girl and since they didn't have superpowers compensated with a robotic warmachine.

Plus, luck genes are really stupid in comparison. You can bend the very fabric of reality with the right proteins! How the fuck does that worK?

[Night_stalker]

Did the writers even RESEARCH basic genetics?

[Simon_Jester]

Samus Aran is only good without her armor, when she becomes one of god's most beautiful creations.

That's the point of the armor, though: it protects one of God's most beautiful creations.

Anyway, what kind of materials would be needed to render a suit of power-armor immune to assault rifle fire and increase survivability of proximity explosives? Are such materials even remotely possible?

That question is mostly going to depend on "how much power do we have to play with?" The obvious material choices are things like kevlar, composites, and steel, stuff that already exists. It's just a matter of figuring out how to power it, really.

[Ghost Rider]

Did the writers even RESEARCH basic genetics?

You really have to ask shit that dumb?

Think about the subject matter and realize most writers want a story to tell and really never give a fuck about reality.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Titanium could work, but would be rare and expensive.

And difficult to process, remember that.

Actually, titanium isn't especially rare. It's expensive because of the previously mentioned difficulty in extracting and processing it.

[Shroom Man 777]

Did the writers even RESEARCH basic genetics?

Yes. Then genetics told the writers that they couldn't have people who could shoot lasers from their eyes or have claws come out of their arms or gain gnarly powers from radioactive spiders. So the writers told basic genetics to go research its own asshole.

Samus Aran is only good without her armor, when she becomes one of god's most beautiful creations.

That's the point of the armor, though: it protects one of God's most beautiful creations.

Then I guess that's the whole point of killing all the bad guys who're out to bleed the breasts of one of God's most beautiful creations, so when all the levels are clear, there won't be any need for any armor for protecting one of God's most beautiful creations - and finally, we get to see one of God's most beautiful creations.

[[R_H]]

Titanium could work, but would be rare and expensive.

And difficult to process, remember that. If powered armor is ever introduced, it will probably use some awesome synthetic material. And so will future tanks and infantry body armor

ERA!

Anyway, what kind of materials would be needed to render a suit of power-armor immune to assault rifle fire and increase survivability of proximity explosives? Are such materials even remotely possible?

That question is mostly going to depend on "how much power do we have to play with?" The obvious material choices are things like kevlar, composites, and steel, stuff that already exists. It's just a matter of figuring out how to power it, really.

Don't also forget how heavy and large the suit can be, and how mobile it has to be.

I just thought of this recently, what some sort of an exoskeleton for tank loaders. That way a potential switch to larger ammunition wouldn't necessitate using automatic loaders. Fatigue and loading speed could also benefit.

[Simon_Jester]

ERA!

I would be extremely reluctant to wear explosive reactive armor on my person. On account of it being designed to explode, and being bolted to the outside of my pants. No thanks.

[[R_H]]

ERA!

I would be extremely reluctant to wear explosive reactive armor on my person. On account of it being designed to explode, and being bolted to the outside of my pants. No thanks.

Fine, you'll get one with NERA.

I mean, building an maintaining a humanoid robot soldier should be pretty expensive. You should be able to buy two or more robotic wheeled wolves with guns with the money it would cost to buy one robot humanoid. So which is scarrier, one robot soldier or a small pack of wheeled robotic wolves with machine guns?

Whatever is effective is "scary".

[Iosef Cross]

What.
That...that mech is wearing a skirt and its already vulnerable limbs have been made thinner and more frail to satisfy some technophile's fan service craving. Oh, and hair..and tits...and a metal bow. Ow.

I suggest you look up Mobile Fighter G Gundam, it's an entirely different kind of Gundam from the rest. That design is over fifteen years old. They even have Gundam horses. Hell the pilots can kick down skyscrapers and destroy enemy mooks with scarves on foot. Here's how it works.

My favorite design is Dog Gundam. Armed with a titanium spiked collar, retractable titanium claws, a beam tongue, a beam tail. Oh and the best part, that little port where the dogs crotch would be? Beam spray gun.

So they have girl mechas, dog mechas and horse mechas? That's not really impossible, but really inefficient as warmachines, as it has been pointed out.

[Shroom Man 777]

They have them fight tournaments where there is a giant arena ring encircling the entire world. Each nation is represented by a gundam, like the British gundam which has a monocle and boxing gloves and body proportions similar to a giant mecha Winston Churchill, and a Spaniard gundam that looks like a bullfighter, or something. The Chinese gundam has dragons for arms!

[Ford Prefect]

So they have girl mechas, dog mechas and horse mechas? That's not really impossible, but really inefficient as warmachines, as it has been pointed out.

Why why why why why do people feel the need to say stuff like this? Amazingly, amazingly, mechanical design in visual fiction is generally not intended to present a machine which would actually function to any level of efficiency. Instead, it's to present something which is visually exciting, while fitting the particular aesthetic and for that piece of fiction. Mobile Fighter G Gundam is a deliberately silly super robot kung fu show, so it's designs reflect that; the character of Master Asia rides a horse, but also pilots a giant robot, ergo his horse must also have a giant robot. The Dog Gundam is quite literally a joke design which showed up in an old issue of Newtype magazine - I wouldn't expect many people to know that, but you'd think they might clue in when they realise it has a lightsaber tongue.

[Sea Skimmer]

Actually, titanium isn't especially rare. It's expensive because of the previously mentioned difficulty in extracting and processing it.

The main issue is ores with a high purity are very rare, and since its very energy intensive to smelt and refine titanium purity counts for a damn lot. On the fabrication end, we've gotten absurdly better at welding the stuff since the 1960s when you had to do it inside rooms completely flooded with argon. Titanium already is used for some body armor as it is. The reason all high end body armor doesn't just use titanium isn't even cos really. Its just that since modern body armor can only be intended for one use due to the kevlar threads breaking, ceramics are better because they can absorb more energy per the weight while breaking from the impacts. In a role like powered armor, you'd need to have armor material which is good for many uses.