Crew and Passenger positions and suits/powered armor

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Eh, not really. Even ignoring other methods of keeping troops in line, people are willing to go up against high-caliber weapons without any armor to speak of. I mean, you had completely-unarmored irregulars going up against modern tanks in the middle east, and a hit even from one of the anti-personnel machine guns on one of those things would be a near-guaranteed fatal hit. They also went up against Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and the Bushmasters mounted to those are far more vicious than what you're describing (albeit with perhaps lower RoF).

For most soldiers in the 20th century their 'armour' was a steel helmet and a woollen (or cotton or linen) uniform and some leather boots. They faced weapons that are just about as dangerous to an unarmoured human - past about 6d it really doesn't much matter how much damage a gun does until it hits ~18d (auto-kill on torso hits) - a hit will be putting you down and into hospital or dead anyway. On top of that there was the major killer - artillery, and it did far more damage on a solid hit/near-miss.

Soldiers in the 20th century weren't known for mutinying for lack of effective body armour.