You're saying that as if the NPC armies can't have their own mercenaries, special ops, humanity values, or weird traditions that cause them to march up to the big black gates of the nearest UWM base they can spot and duke it out with the defenders. I try not to pigeonhole things into any specific role. I'd rather have a design that works for everyone, and then some dedicated units for special circumstances.
But
even then, a ducted fan jetpack suit is still inferior to a drone in all the areas where it matters. Also, trying to have a design that works everywhere all the time isn't very efficient. Is there merit in universality and adaptability? Sure, but within reasonable limits. It's the difference between a car that's sporty but also roomy, and a vehicle that's a car but also a submarine.
My design philosophy is: the right tool for each job. If that means some universality, then it will get that, but no more than strictly needed (and some margin for error of course). When building for an army, that often means more specialized units (again depending on situation. An infantryman must be adaptable. An artillery unit not really, it just need to shoot things good) as far as I'm aware.
Mostly, yet not entirely. See above. And don't forget that the Sword's division is not the only merc group in the ARM forces, even right now.
From various discussions with syv and pw on the topic, yeah, I do think the differences are substantial.
Perfect and recent example: would a simple heat seeker missile work as AA? It should, but it's expensive when using tokens, and due to the rtd d6 system still kinda wonky, when looking at our Sword team. But for npc's, going from our own sods to rebels we supply? They ought to work really well. It's a proven system! And yet, for player characters, it'd probably not really work, compared to alternatives.
That's mostly because people tend not to waste fuel, I'd say. PW abstracts away "minor usage", and only really limits things when things reach a certain scale - like getting to orbit, or flying a long distance in one go.
Though at this rate he'll abstract away even the ammo. Let's toss ammunition concerns out the window and give everybody rapid-fire rocket launchers!
... I do think he abstracts ammo often already. When ammo usage is updated on wiki, it's usually done by ourselves anyway (or more precisely, our amazing wiki gnome team). Still, remember we should have even better fuels now thanks to my research project, so Mk.III operational range should have increased.
Well then, you don't even need Anton to do anything. Just search the VR database for generator-driven VTOL turboprop dropships of ye olden times, and you're set.
I'm just trying to explain why I think a drone design would work better than what you have in mind. If I do ever need one, you can be sure I'll let ARESTEVE design one for me. Besides, that was as an answer to your 'they should exist already' in regards to how much time it would cost to design these (as a 'new project', as you said it).
I can be as naive and deluded about its usability as I want to be, but if it works, then it gets made and tested.
*Cue Simus swooping in and noping it all to hell and back again*
But really, aside from the engineering problems (which you have acknowledged, as far as I can see?) we're just trying to explain why we think an alternative design would work better. As I said, you are free to design electric poodles that shoot lasers out their eyes, but then if you ask for feedback (which you did, if I remember correctly?) you can expect people to point out that, no, obviously kinetic cats work better.
Worst that can happen is that it ends up being one of those rarely bought specialized suits in the armoury and that one battleship gets a crate of suits it will never use. Besides, this is a game and it's supposed to be fun. And that suit is definetly fun and plausible.
Plus, it's Sean's project, it's his character's choice to build it. That's his job. In the end his character is the one who has the final say in trying to build this.
He did ask for feedback, and he's getting our personal opinion on the matter.
As I've said before, in the end, I prefer whatever option works best. If Sean, despite my heavy a priori doubts, can make this work, then all the better! I love being proven wrong if it means we'll be better of because of it.
I still don't see what the problem is. Both suits are multipurpose and cover different areas.
For example, Sean's can easily be used underwater, a Mk3 boils everything around it. So it would be perfect for spec ops requiring you to go underwater and then escape quickly. The suit may not be able to go supersonic like the MK3 but it should be able to achieve the same speed.
Because a well designed drone can do these better still. Also, Milno used his Mk.III in the dam missions sans problems if I recall correctly. I guess you have a point for spec ops... But they already have these they could use: