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Unfortunately, the article ends by pointing out that the Halo armour also has many glaring mistakes.

giantg2 2y ago
Can you point me to that? The only mention I see is that of the lower torso plate issue. And of course there was no mention of the other parts of the system that might cover that area (soft armor and the inception system).
mrguyorama 2y ago
Only because the author is utterly rejecting the source material. The very first thing "invented" in any "sci-fi" war setting is a magic fabric that acts like a rigid structure when hit with a weapon. The black "fabric" that the article points to at Master Chief's waist IS armor. Not only that, but it HAS evolved against it's threat profile: The primary damage type it needs to resist is thermal, not kinetic. The black fabric has a layer of ~magic~ nano goo that better dissipates the heat, and the setting's shields are more effective at mitigating a ball of plasma than a physical plate of material is. The large green portions of Master Chief's armor is primarily for housing equipment and systems. It has a nuclear reactor in it, computing facilities that rival starships, and enough motors or hydraulics or "space magic" actuators so that Mister chef can shot-put cars. It won't have mobility problems because it's power armor, the suit IS the mobility. The suit canonically survives reentry primarily by becoming entirely rigid and pretending the impact would not turn the occupant into goo. It's a suit of Iron Man armor. Halo meanwhile has both UNSC Marine "armor", which is basically a plate of steel hung over your chest and nothing else, and ODST trooper armor which would have likely been better for this post, as they are actual standard equipment, while there are only a few hundred sets of Mjollnir-IV armor. The Mass effect commentary suffers from the same problem: All the "flexible" stuff on an N7 suit are magic material that provide ample ballistic protection. They also massively overemphasize hand to hand combat for the Mass Effect universe. Sure you might take a rifle butt to the chest, but 99% of the threat in that universe is a microgram of metal fired at a significant fraction the speed of light. For the Dune armors, the complaints about "rigid" stuff bending are accurate, but the swordplay in Dune isn't really comparable to how we protected against middle ages swordplay, because the shields completely change everything up. Shields ARE effective against a sword, if it travels fast enough. You don't armor against an actual sword blow delivering 100J because that will be stopped by the shield. You don't land a brutal slice on your enemies, you slip inside their shield and gently slide a knife between their ribs. A stab proof vest in this universe should be entirely effective armor, but instead, no armor in Dune is ever shown to do anything. Dune 2 had MUCH more rigid and all-encompassing armor for people who expected to get shot, not that it stopped them from getting domed and stabbed.

Can you point me to that? The only mention I see is that of the lower torso plate issue. And of course there was no mention of the other parts of the system that might cover that area (soft armor and the inception system).

mrguyorama 2y ago

Only because the author is utterly rejecting the source material. The very first thing "invented" in any "sci-fi" war setting is a magic fabric that acts like a rigid structure when hit with a weapon. The black "fabric" that the article points to at Master Chief's waist IS armor. Not only that, but it HAS evolved against it's threat profile: The primary damage type it needs to resist is thermal, not kinetic. The black fabric has a layer of ~magic~ nano goo that better dissipates the heat, and the setting's shields are more effective at mitigating a ball of plasma than a physical plate of material is. The large green portions of Master Chief's armor is primarily for housing equipment and systems. It has a nuclear reactor in it, computing facilities that rival starships, and enough motors or hydraulics or "space magic" actuators so that Mister chef can shot-put cars. It won't have mobility problems because it's power armor, the suit IS the mobility. The suit canonically survives reentry primarily by becoming entirely rigid and pretending the impact would not turn the occupant into goo. It's a suit of Iron Man armor. Halo meanwhile has both UNSC Marine "armor", which is basically a plate of steel hung over your chest and nothing else, and ODST trooper armor which would have likely been better for this post, as they are actual standard equipment, while there are only a few hundred sets of Mjollnir-IV armor. The Mass effect commentary suffers from the same problem: All the "flexible" stuff on an N7 suit are magic material that provide ample ballistic protection. They also massively overemphasize hand to hand combat for the Mass Effect universe. Sure you might take a rifle butt to the chest, but 99% of the threat in that universe is a microgram of metal fired at a significant fraction the speed of light. For the Dune armors, the complaints about "rigid" stuff bending are accurate, but the swordplay in Dune isn't really comparable to how we protected against middle ages swordplay, because the shields completely change everything up. Shields ARE effective against a sword, if it travels fast enough. You don't armor against an actual sword blow delivering 100J because that will be stopped by the shield. You don't land a brutal slice on your enemies, you slip inside their shield and gently slide a knife between their ribs. A stab proof vest in this universe should be entirely effective armor, but instead, no armor in Dune is ever shown to do anything. Dune 2 had MUCH more rigid and all-encompassing armor for people who expected to get shot, not that it stopped them from getting domed and stabbed.