Who needs tanks?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Only if you assume all of that height is coming from the legs.

Assuming we aren't pulling out a rack and stretching people, there's only two places it can come from: the legs, and the top of the head.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Assuming we aren't pulling out a rack and stretching people, there's only two places it can come from: the legs, and the top of the head.

Yes, and this invalidates my point how?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Yes, and this invalidates my point how?

Well, power armor with a turret on the top of the head looks silly. PA might plausibly add 2" or so to height, based on boots and helmet, but that's about it unless you're going with odd leg extensions or stuff mounted on top of the head.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Well, power armor with a turret on the top of the head looks silly. PA might plausibly add 2" or so to height, based on boots and helmet, but that's about it unless you're going with odd leg extensions or stuff mounted on top of the head.

Platform boots regularly add more than that, so it's not beyond the realms of feasibility to add quite a bit more material between the ground and your foot without resorting to power bockers.

And a helmet described as a turret certainly sounds silly, but it's useful. You'll need at least as much armor on your head as you do on the rest of your body, and with all that armor, you're going to want to house alot of your electronics and sensors. Quite a bit of that can fit in the body (the computer, the radar), but you're still going to want the night vision and the AR screen all on the head. Finally, you need to move all this around just as much as you need to move around the rest of your body, so your helmet will have a slathering of whatever it is that helps augment your movement. Alot of it will be in the neck, but I don't doubt there will be mooring points on the top of your head.

All of this will expand the size of the "head," and some of that will be expanded "up," adding inches.

So easily more than two inches down bottom, and a not inconsequential amount up top (and quite a bit out on the sides, but that's not for our discussion of height)

[copeab]

I think if you want something larger than a battlesuit, you go with the "classic" mecha where the pilot rides in a cockip.

(Which is, really, what this thread was about before we derailed it ...)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Platform boots regularly add more than that, so it's not beyond the realms of feasibility to add quite a bit more material between the ground and your foot without resorting to power bockers.

True, but you aren't going to do so without a good reason. Ultra-thick heels have no useful purpose, they just reduce your stability.

Originally Posted by Mailanka

And a helmet described as a turret certainly sounds silly, but it's useful.

I said a turret on top of the helmet, not a helmet as a turret. A helmet is a turret. There's still no good reason to add more than an inch of height.

[SuedodeuS]

Originally Posted by Anthony

True, but you aren't going to do so without a good reason. Ultra-thick heels have no useful purpose, they just reduce your stability.

Thick underfoot armor would be good protection against the IED booby-traps powered troopers might encounter in the close-quarter environments they excel in.

Also, some extra height to your soles might be necessary for the jump-jets, retractable rollerblades, etc that the powered troopers use to get around more rapidly.

Originally Posted by Anthony

I said a turret on top of the helmet, not a helmet as a turret. A helmet is a turret. There's still no good reason to add more than an inch of height.

In addition to armor, the helmet needs to be able to accomodate a decent range of head sizes. In fact, a good bit of the armor's extra height for some troopers is going to be what's there so that it can be used with only a little refitting by soldiers of larger-than-average stature. The concept of powered armor's basic design being made for 6'2" or so individuals doesn't seem out of line (USMC equipment is apparently designed for 6' individuals, but such relatively-piecemeal equipment has more "give" for tall soldiers than a suit of powered armor would). 8' might be a bit excessive, but I could see PA being 6'6" rather easily without powerbockers - and that's going to add a good deal more than 2" for most users!

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by SuedodeuS

Thick underfoot armor would be good protection against the IED booby-traps powered troopers might encounter in the close-quarter environments they excel in.

From what I remember from one of those How do they make stuff shows, a fireman's turn-out boots have very thick soles. Quite possibly a full 2 inches.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

I've seen lots of debate on why mecha are daft and tanks would be the way to go. I like mecha, even if daft.

My problem is, in a setting where if you can see it, it's dead, why have AFVs?
Assuming you've got mobile infantry in battlesuits with chameleon stealth and PESA sensors carrying weapons that'll ignore armour, and the tanks/mecha are similarly equipped, and all have audio stealth too.

What kind of weapons?

[DemiBenson]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Platform boots regularly add more than that, so it's not beyond the realms of feasibility to add quite a bit more material between the ground and your foot without resorting to power bockers.

I know a couple of people with powerbocks. They're very impressive. If you can do something like that for a heavy battlesuit, then I imagine every heavy battlesuit would have them.
Even if they don't have the curved-spring form to them, mobility amplifiers (like those Russian piston-powered boots) would be extremely useful to anyone in a powered suit.

Plain old stilts increase walking/running speed to a surprising degree, and 2 feet is a pretty easy-to-learn height.