Well, i hope everyone noticed the enjoyable "ooomph" that is now in every step of the marine, the newest livestream was most enjoyable due to that. I really hope they keep it that way and polish it some more, it felt like each step was powerful and really replicated that walking tank feel.
Still has to do with the game though. Animations currently (for everything except sprinting) are pretty good. For sprinting I'll stick with what I've said, long powerful steps, launching themselves forwards in a mighty charge.
There are other threads you can discuss teamplay and social interactions. With some threads where the topic gets heated (like this one) people tend to want to keep it right to the point.
I too noticed the small bobbing. Although I think it needs to be slightly less, the cammera moves way too much for me.
Again what is your basis to assume that PA just negates its own weight? PA isn't just the plating but fibre-bundles that replicate the wearers movements, thus a second set of artificial muscles not bound to the wearer for supporting tension, encumbering itself with the weight and all related tensions generated by the suit, as well as augmenting an SM's strength. As said in 6th edition: "..., turning the suit into a second skin that moves with all the speed and precision of the battle-brother's own body" Not saying it negates the mass itself but the inertia generated by it, helping the bearer. Much of the tension would be absorbed by that second group of muscles and the general structure of an SM. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to move with all the speed and PRECISION of a battle-brother's own body. It would be stupid to make an SM feel lighter but still make him cope, with his own body, with all the associated stresses if the mass and the energy created from it is not balanced through the fibre-bundles. In effect inertia is not diminished in anyway, but it is countered effectively by the SM in tandem with his PA if he decides to change in any way his initial motion. He will have to apply force to counter that inertia effectively. My point being he knows how to do it, has the strength to do it and can sustain the tension. He breaks much quicker and more effectively than even an athlete. Sigh, if you know how to use your body you know how to dissipate and concentrate energy. It helps when you break a sprint. In contact sports when training we sprint at max speed for the longest time possible to train power and resilience. You manipulate your weight (by placing it where it is most needed) in aiding you to counter inertia and even redirect it for example. And in combat situations they don't run for extended periods of time at top speed, they don't do so in many situations at all. It's a rarity and charge speed is not top speed as you need to maintain control inside comfortable parameters to change or do stuff that is necessary in a charge , reason why in Deathwatch rpg's movement section a charge is 2/3 of a top speed run. So breaking times should not exceed a couple of seconds and not be like an SM taking three or four strides. Your comparisons to body travelling in a car just shows you don't take into consideration how enhanced an SM body is and how the fibrebundles in his PA help him pull the necessary strength to counter said inertia. My body isn't trained, made or aided in any way to counter the inertia generated by a car at high speeds. The comparison is not adequate. As is the rugby and football player, they are not trained for battle. But to cover the greatest space possible in the least amount of time, it's called explosive sprinting, but they only do it when they have free lanes. If they have the other team in front of them they need to adjust speed to be able to dodge and change direction. Which is still quite fast (Played rugby until i was 14). They don't charge enemies or go from cover to cover, they hold a ball and try to cross the line. They don't stop because they don't need to or want to. It's all about acceleration and top speed for those guys. Again they do break a run in similar ways as humans trained for similar situations would, but far more quickly and effectively than you think. It also depends on your reaction times. So in game an SM should never replicate top speeds as default, and if they do it doesn't take as much to counter inertia. If an SM would do the same as a rugby player on the battlefield, which is often broken ground, he would have to keep on going for quite a bit, rendering him very vulnerable. You are still thinking of how a human body would react and have no consideration as to how enhanced an SM is, or how he operates. I understand the scenario that you are trying to recreate, but honestly an SM would never do this for the above mentioned reasons and other obvious considerations. If he can't break his topspeed optimally for battlefield conditions, he won't do it. So either way i still think he should not have greater breaking distance/movent in game than an Ork or just slightly slower than an Eldar if at all. Either by not being the natural battlefield locomotion of an SM, or that he can pull these kinds of feats. Again if he needs to break he would do so in less time and, proportionately to his size, in less space. You don't just decide to stop i might add, you have to instinctively calculate and plan for it, as you need to prepare teh set of body movements that will counter this. Considering SM reaction times, they can do this far more quickly, they also respond quicker to stimulus (another factor to consider) so they react quicker than a human being to the presence of an enemy enabling them to initiate the break sooner than a human. So an SM will always make a calculated move, no matter what. They are conditioned and trained both mentally and physically to do so. There are so many factors involved that just taking one (inertia) as more relevant than others does not portray a logical scenario. There are more factors at play and should be assessed properly, if at all possible for a fictional being.
For power armour I am going off real life and the lore that GW has in place. Real Life, we are currently developing powered armour because the amount of equipment and armour the soldier of the future needs cannot currently be carried by a soldier. That is why modern defence research are developing PA, so a soldier can move more easily with what he needs to carry. Plus they are also developing strength enhancing features. Lore. In order to move like a second skin SM PA must not encumber the wearer, therefore it must negate its own weight and the weight of at least basic wargear (Devastators are slower on foot than Tactical SM because of their Heavy Weapons). But SM armour also amplifies strength. The original Thunder Armour only powered the chest and arms to increase the wearers strength in close combat. But Inertia affects Mass, as in every atom of your body. In order to completely negate inertia you would have to affect every atom, like with Inertial Dampening Fields from Star Trek (and even those aren't perfect). Power Armour does not have an IDF, it doesn't have any energy field based tech at all (that is reserved for Iron Halo and Chaplain Rosarius). Without an IDF all you can do is brace. Think of a Jet fighter pilot pulling high G turns, he braces in the positive ones to prevent blood rushing from the brain plus his suit helps. Also, he pulls lots of positive G ones but rarely pulls negative G because positive is far easier to brace against than negative. As you have repeatedly pointed out, SM are highly trained transhumans. They will take into account inertia, but they will move with it, use it to their benefit. They will not seek to deny it as that is futile, even in Power Armour. Now consider this. SM are super soldiers able to run marathons in a day. If they had to get some where quickly, like across a large battlefield, would they not run? Would they not charge into combat (which they do)? By saying SM wouldn't run extended distances during battle because modern soldiers don't, you are applying a human limit to a Transhuman Super Soldier who doesn't have the same limitations. As you have pointed out, SM are tanks. And tanks can go straight through building walls. The thing is, Al'chir, you seem to be going from human up to SM, upscaling from what you know. But I am going 'Inertia effects everything so must effect SM. Therefore SM are effected by Inertia.' 'SM have been enhanced to super-human levels, therefore their limits should be beyond human levels. Though not beyond Physics.' By the way, here's a link to the Index Astartes articles on line: http://redelf.narod.ru/w40k/ia/w40k_ia_sacredtomes.html
I think there is some miscommunication. I'm not saying an SM with PA does not suffer from inertia, only that he knows how to counter it, he will need to use his strength and move his body to counter it. Not just stop and make it feel like there is no inertia. Only more effectively than a human. So yes he will brace, that was my point, reason why i used counter instead of negate in the last posts (English isn't my first language and don't have to use it in my country). Basically he will have to move and apply strength to counter it that inertia, not as much as you think is what i meant. Also i don't know how what we are developing now might apply to something invented 28k years into the future. I suppose it depends on how far ahead their technology is compared to ours. Also the SM weighs more than the PA itself. As for the marathon part, depends. I was talking about whilst SM were engaged in a fight. Busy firing and such. However they would break their run before going into fighting distance and adopt a battle posture with weapons drawn. Not to mention that a charge is always at controllable speeds, which for an SM is quite a bit, and not over very large and open distances. You want to close a charge as quickly as possible in the least amount of terrain to limit the time the enemy might have to shatter you to pieces. Also they don't break a charge, they want to crash into the enemy and use that momentum in their favour to deliver powerful blows and break an enemy formation just with their bulks if necessary. How many times in the lore do we see Orks repulsed because they charge head on into a firing line? SM don't copy that tactic. They charge over shorter distances closing in quickly without exposing themselves. Reason why when an SM assaults a planet he tries to land on top of his enemy. You also don't charge over a long distance, you charge when relatively close to the target, like 200/300m. Reason why many assault troops use jump-packs to aid in speed and minimizing casualties. All i'm saying is that breaking distance should not excel a couple of strides and not take very long. Thanks for the link, very interesting.
Sorry, but I have been trying to make the point that although they can actively counter inertia, there are situations where they won't be able to react in time and situations where they cannot fully counter inertia without risking unnecessary injury. How about we turn this around and look at it from a different point of view. Imagine you're playing this game as an Eldar. You're in a quiet part of the battlefield, which is lucky as you've just run out of ammo. Suddenly you are spotted by an enemy Marine (SM or CSM), but luckily his pistol is also out of ammo. His Chainsword is still running though. You run for your lines, but if you run straight there you will receive a chainsword through the midriff. So you evade. But if the SM is as on his feet as you purport Alchy then the Eldar is most likely dead. Not very good gameplay that is it? And yet if he is as I suggest, the Eldar has a better than slim chance of evading long enough to make his lines. Seems like much better gameplay to me.
I'm pretty sure the power armor does not change the coefficient of static friction between the boots and the ground, nor the shear strength of whatever surface he happens to be standing on. Or the hardness for that matter. The fact of the matter is that if you accelerate a half ton anything to any appreciable speed, it ain't stopping (or turning) on a dime no matter how much its strength or reflexes may be boosted. If it tries, it'll probably just tear up a long row of dirt. Consider how a car cannot stop on a dime even if the brakes are entirely strong enough to lock the wheels at that speed (the fact that locking the wheels actually takes longer to stop than spinning them down gradually is a different topic, relating to which friction coefficient is doing the actual slowing). It probably won't be too much of an issue as long as they're not going very fast (inertia still exists even at low speeds, but there it'll be a matter of centimeters rather than meters). But if a situation arises where they do go fast, it's something to keep in mind. Also 300m isn't "close". That's three football fields. A meter is about 1.1 yards and some change. Edit: same thing applies to accelerating from rest. Try to accelerate faster than the surface you're on can handle, and no matter how enhanced your strength or reflexes are you're just going to kick up dirt just like a car that's spinning its tires out.
