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[TheBiggerFish]

I'll just post a flat 'What.' and figure out how to ignore...

[iceball3]

After a certain point, that armour is just a tank, isn't it? A lot of your idea reminds me of mass effect. They have mass-reducing tech which they use in weapons (to reduce recoil) in tanks (so they can have a heavily armoured hovertank, or a orbit-droppable APC).

Now how does that work? Wouldn't a reduced-mass incur even worse recoil issues, as it results in worse inertia of the firing platform?

[Amperzand]

That is actually quite noteworthy. Most of the largest advancements in military tech since WW2 were allowed by materials advancements, and it is hugely likely that the trend will continue. Master Chief is not wearing the same steel that we used in WW1 tanks.

After a certain point, that armour is just a tank, isn't it? A lot of your idea reminds me of mass effect. They have mass-reducing tech which they use in weapons (to reduce recoil) in tanks (so they can have a heavily armoured hovertank, or a orbit-droppable APC).

Now how does that work? Wouldn't a reduced-mass incur even worse recoil issues, as it results in worse inertia of the firing platform?

It would, yes.

[wierd]

No. It means the projectile has less energy when it leaves the mass reduction feild, because you are just playing with the inertial consequences. (takes less energy to accellerate while in the field, but once it leaves the feild, has insufficient energy to meet velocity, so it slows down. Abruptly.)

Mass effect series is space opera. Enjoy the singing. Dont ask too many questions. You will poke holes in the paper mache prop pieces.

[GiglameshDespair]

Again, though, we have tech for a full fledged combat-capable exo suit. We can probably assume the material technology is pretty good compared to modern day. Heck, it might even be a pretty light exo suit if the material is made out of, say, carbon instead of metal.

The whole point of that little discussion was Tack talking about how you could afford to make a very heavy armoured suit and reduce the weight until it was usable. As such, we can assume it is made out of heavy materials.

After a certain point, that armour is just a tank, isn't it? A lot of your idea reminds me of mass effect. They have mass-reducing tech which they use in weapons (to reduce recoil) in tanks (so they can have a heavily armoured hovertank, or a orbit-droppable APC).

Now how does that work? Wouldn't a reduced-mass incur even worse recoil issues, as it results in worse inertia of the firing platform?

As far as the game says it reduces the mass of the railgun projectile. Whether that would actually work in reducing recoil you can decide for yourself, but canonically they use reduced mass for that.
 

[Amperzand]

It would indeed reduce recoil. It would also require some interesting ballistic calculations to make work, since large, light slugs don't work well.

[iceball3]

How peculiar. Guess it's one thing not to look to closely at.

In terms of military tech, rather than only just looking forward, how about looking to the past due to possibilities rendered irrelevant due to treaties and global military strategy and the like? I mean, the rules of the war would be different if everyone's shooting rods from god, mini black holes, or whatever sci-fi tech at each other.
In this case, the Davy Crockett for infantry.



You know, just when you really, really need to take out that jerk in their collapsium battlesuit.

EDIT: To elaborate, yes, that is a nuclear warhead.

[GiglameshDespair]

That makes it more fun because THEN you can basically run around in tactical dreadnought armour. (I don't remember the name for those super heavy spess mahreens guys)

If it's heavy and there's a lot of materials advances, though, then the thing's gonna be pretty hard to crack. If you provide enough force TO crack the armour, then you'll probably kill the guy inside simply because their body can't take the force.

Terminators.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Again, though, we have tech for a full fledged combat-capable exo suit. We can probably assume the material technology is pretty good compared to modern day. Heck, it might even be a pretty light exo suit if the material is made out of, say, carbon instead of metal.

The whole point of that little discussion was Tack talking about how you could afford to make a very heavy armoured suit and reduce the weight until it was usable. As such, we can assume it is made out of heavy materials.

That makes it more fun because THEN you can basically run around in tactical dreadnought armour. (I don't remember the name for those super heavy spess mahreens guys)

Spoiler: Terminators? (click to show/hide)

[iceball3]

If it's heavy and there's a lot of materials advances, though, then the thing's gonna be pretty hard to crack. If you provide enough force TO crack the armour, then you'll probably kill the guy inside simply because their body can't take the force.

Though, you might possibly not need to crack the armor in the first place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-explosive_squash_head
Though, thinking about it, I wonder how the spalling effect will play out if the armor meets flesh instead of air?

Again, though, we have tech for a full fledged combat-capable exo suit. We can probably assume the material technology is pretty good compared to modern day. Heck, it might even be a pretty light exo suit if the material is made out of, say, carbon instead of metal.

The whole point of that little discussion was Tack talking about how you could afford to make a very heavy armoured suit and reduce the weight until it was usable. As such, we can assume it is made out of heavy materials.

That makes it more fun because THEN you can basically run around in tactical dreadnought armour. (I don't remember the name for those super heavy spess mahreens guys)

Spoiler: Terminators? (click to show/hide)

[Amperzand]

As I see it, ground troops are for occupying an area, or for special operations.

Which basically means your only infantry would be space-SEALS.

[Egan_BW]

• Use SPACE MAGIC to make bullet super light
• Make bullet go super fast because it's super light
• As bullet leaves the barrel, it returns to normal mass, creating MAGIC kinetic energy from NOTHING
• FUCK YOU PHYSICS
• Profit

[Amperzand]

• Use SPACE MAGIC to make bullet super light
• Make bullet go super fast because it's super light
• As bullet leaves the barrel, it returns to normal mass, creating MAGIC kinetic energy from NOTHING
• FUCK YOU PHYSICS
• Profit

Operative component: FUCK YOU PHYSICS!

[GiglameshDespair]

As I see it, ground troops are for occupying an area, or for special operations.

Which basically means your only infantry would be space-SEALS.

Unless an effective AA/anti-missile system is developed, such as laser defences. Suddenly air strikes are much, much less effective.

If you look at the gulf war, the syrian war, the current war in Crimea, all rely on ground forces to do the fighting. Air strikes don't win wars on their own. So I'm hesitant to believe that the only use for ground forces would be occupation.

[Amperzand]

Air strikes become, themselves, irrelevant in the face of orbital weapons. Any defense against said weapons must also be in orbit, since getting things from the surface to orbit requires far more energy than getting them down or launching things from orbit to orbit.

We obviously don't have effective orbital weapons, but in a world where K-rods and lasers in the sky have the infrastructure they need to proliferate and function, there's not a lot on-site weapons can do to defend themselves.

Should you then fill the orbit around your planet with defensive measures, they'll certainly require additional effort to counter, but it won't be from infantry, and it's still possible to simply throw the KKVs from further away. Planets are much, much easier targets than small, cold chunks of metal or the small, cold ships that throw them.