I think I love everything from the seminar but the Morats, especially the Bultrak. I can't unsee the similarities to the Grey Knight baby carrier, though the mantis blades are nice. The new Marut has me drooling like Homer Simpsons. Kitsune and the Tian Gou are great. The WinterFor stuff is nice. Haqq vs Steel Phalanx action pack? Yes, please!
Dunno... but it would go against being useful for combat where tanks are too big. If the pilot limbs go inside the TAG ones, it would make more sense to be smaler, more like big armour (see Shirow concepts) than huge robots. Fetal position is also an option. Bootleg one says they are more or less same scale (which in Infinity is rather flexible, and not just talking about the limbs).
are pretty suspect. That Oyoroi clearly doesn't fold back together to allow the pilot to actually fit. Scarface doesn't really look like he actually fits in that cockpit convincingly either. I think you're right that most pilots would have to be in fetal positions to fit, and even then I think the TAGs are too small for that to really be possible. I think most TAGs could b significantly larger (maybe even twice the size) and still fill their roll as an armored platform that is smaller than a tank. Keep in mind, that isn't just about size but mobility and access. A TAG, even a huge one, can go places and fight in places where a tank just can't.
If we go down the "realism" rabbit hole, then we also have to consider that bigger TAG equals weighter TAG. And a heavy TAG cannot do things like grabbing a balcony to climb a building without making the floor colapse. The solution to "that TAG is way too small to fit a pilot inside" problem is just to hire smaller pilots, or to provide them with a small top notch prostetic body as part of the contract. I read somewhere that soviet tankers were usually small guys so they could fit inside more confortable.
Eh. Neo-materials and stuff? I think there was something like that in the fluff. Can we finally get child solders for a grim sci-fi setting? *Looks at Nomads* Oh, wait....
given how anime inspired the game is I'm surprised we dont see more child soldiers, especially in mechs/TAGs.
Or the representations of S2 troopers are slightly larger than they should, for aesthetics, which is kinda another way of saying TAGs should be larger. Big "however", is that we tend to perceive scale wrong on games. Our buildings dont make sense scale-wise, and go outside and check one of those small electric cars for how tight a human can be fitted. I would argue that there IS probably enough space in the TAGs with some little liberty and squeezing. Even in fetal position...
Not just Soviet. There's still some quite large guys who do a career in 'em but generally you want to be shorter of stature. As a small aside, Swedish military are actively selecting for short stature for our ceremonial cavalry for a similar reason - it's a traditional reason, though, it's the parade uniforms being small. I actually think many of them are originals that's being kept in repair and people had less nutrition in their food back then so they were much shorter than they are now a days. Napoleon actually being somewhat on the tall side and all that. The sinking mega-tanks of the world wars also come to mind. Two feet means much smaller area of ground required to support the weight.
Realistically TAGs are bound to 3-4 meters height, after that the weight and the proportions needed for ground pressure go wild, plus they become too big of a target to be worth anything, keep in mind TAGs are light armoured vehicles and their usage and deployment is centered around ease of transportation, rapid deployment and close support of infantry elements, to this effect most TAGs manufacturers will try to minimize the pilots dimensions in order to minimize the TAGs size and weight, something not unheard of in modern tanks and aircraft. The only TAG operatives who do not care about pilots size is PanOceania who remotely control their TAGs and the command module is not part of the TAG and the "AI" TAGs of Aleph and the EI. It is also a nice excuse to have beautiful TAG pilot models.
It took me a bit, but I’ve come around on the Bultrak as the Morat idea of what a single-person combat ATV should look like, and it’s a TAG for game rule purposes rather than being any sort of similar thing in-universe. Given its posture, it might well be using a Gaki brain as its motor control processor and the Morat is literally just along to tell it when and where to go, and aim the gun. The posture and position of the head really make it seem like the pilot has very little to do with the Bultrak’s body language. I think riding on the back like a motorcycle might have made more sense to us, but we developed that sensibility from riding horses. God knows what sort of monstrosity Morats consider a riding animal and how they hung on back in their pre-spaceflight days.
Your idea is interesting, I like it. Although I don't think Morats have that technology level, that looks more like something the Tohaa or the EI would use. Still, the mayor problem remains: it cannot move without the risk of crushing the "pilot" between its tights.
Concept art from Roberto Zoreda's Artstation, the figure on the right is listed as a "Gran Maestre", the symbol on the (extremely fabulous) half cape also matches the new Grand Master fluff blurb in Raveneye, plus there was an art piece of this lady in the trailer video. I'm guessing she's an HVT, maybe for a Dire Foes box with updated Konstantinos and/or Bipandra, possibly with an ITS profile like the Morat Slaver.
Interesting bundles, I hadn't expected the Shas to get that or I would have held off on recent purchases for it - seems quite cost effective IF the prices stay the same as the Yu Jing one was. I would like to get an even closer look at the Morat Yaogats and Vanguard side by side now. The image provided is not flattering towards the Yaogat size, showing them as smaller with armour than the Vanguard without - yes, I know they are not equally sized in the image which is why I am curious and hopeful that it's not the case in hand. *edit: @Abrilete I get it, though I appreciate our reasons may differ. I think that whoever designed the armour for them was thinking about and fitting it to the form of a bulky human, the facial design to the Yaogat helmet doesn't really scream new-space-oni-face. Though, just as another thread suggests, the look for the armoured models may draw in people who don't like the idea of the space monkey/oni - so long as they can skip over the Vanguard.
Indeed, but a little bit of putty moulded into a wrist band / guard could do wonders for the look (yes, though you shouldn't have to).
