[SG2] [DS2] [semi OT]PA & various B.S..was Women wargamers

> In fact, one point made by someone else (can't recall the book,

Was it Elizabeth Moon?

Los spake thusly upon matters weighty:

> It seems to me that the prevalence of PA would be a function of

It seems reasonable that NAC and ESU (by virtue of huge economies) and Japan
and maybe NSL (by virtue of powerful smaller economies and high tech) would
have a fair number of PA. It would surely be elite and rarer for PAU, IF, RH,
FCT (size reasons), various independents.

> Of course it depends on the timeline we are talking about. I suppose

Like 3183 not 2183. Of course, we could be mistaken, but the assumptions made
by Jon seem to conform to the PA is complex and expensive theory.

> Now onto pros and cons of power armor. Pros are rpetty easy to figure
Besides
> economic ones? How does one walk through a mangrove swamp in the stuff

Sarcastic response: Fire up the GSR and walk along the bottom.... (I totally
agree that swamps are bad for everyone, but least bad for PBI with some RHIBs
or something).

How about endurance? How long can someone reasonably live
> in PA without a break, power consumption not withstanding?

Of course, this question applies very indirectly to FT too. How long can you
sit at GQ in your vacc suit?

What if I have to
> take a dump? OK what if I have to take a dump every day for a week?

MMMM...... lovely. And what if you sweat into it for a week? Overloaded air
recycler. Imagine days of dirty sweat socks.....

What if I get
> a hard on?

Presumably accounted for in design if you plan to wear it over a day or so.
How do astronauts currently cope with this one?

> How about recharging powerpacks when you have no logistical

Sarcastic: Use energizers.... (really I think solar cells might go some of the
distance on some planets, but you'd need log support big time).

> (Special ops often works for days to months in hostile territory).

And imagine how quiet you are moving through the woods in a ton of metal with
servos..... (you might hear and see better than the average human, and even
hide standing still with chameleon gear, but moving you're a dead giveaway).

 At least the
> GZG PA suits are very short duration affairs, with the NSL suit
SST and
> Steakly's ARMOR PA suits are not very long duration affairs either.

In fact, one point made by someone else (can't recall the book,
female protagonist with ex-marine military training in combat PA) was
that you needed to be really good to use PA to full advantage (if you weren't
you'd fall over, break stuff, hurt yourself with your high strength, etc.). In
this series, only real pros could jack up to 400%
muscle and reflex boost - must be rock steady or you'll twitch and
knock your own head off. Most people run at 150-220% boost once they
have experience. But even here we have a variance in troop quality meaning
faster movement and more combat effectiveness.

> I don't know, just thinking out loud. But whenever I think of military

Of course, ends up that sometimes someone comes up with a darn good piece of
kit that you didn't think would be great, but as a rule, things have way more
snags than armchair concept guys ever think of. (BTW, John, that wasn't a
shot... you made some good points about PA and I think you might be thinking a
few hundred years further ahead than we are in terms of the level of cost and
complexity for the PA).

Tom.
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> At 08:17 PM 9/15/98 -0500, Tom wrote:

If it's just the vac suit, all closed up, maybe not too long. If you can
get air/power connections from the ship, and/or work with your helmet
off but attached or nearby, maybe longer. I imagine tubes or something would
be provided for bodily waste, since the body can do some... involuntary
reactions on occation. Probably the same for power armor.

> At least the
SST and
> Steakly's ARMOR PA suits are not very long duration affairs either.

Well, Steakly's were supposed to be good for five days, under "standard"
combat conditions. Whatever those are. Banshee was just a bit... unfriendly.

> In fact, one point made by someone else (can't recall the book,

Hmm.  _Butterfly and Hellflower_, by Eluki Bes Shahar, makes some of
those points briefly, but without the numbers. So I don't think that's what
you're thinking of. Imperial Hoplite Battle Armor: retired from service and
made illegal because it was too dangerous for the user! (Not to mention those
in the immediate vicinity. Ook....)