Why is power armor so uncommon in NPC groups?

[biostem]

Maybe I'm missing something, but besides the PPD Power armor Corps and perhaps some Arachnos units, there doesn't seem to be many groups using powered armor.  Cybernetics and various mutagenic agents seem far more common.  Is there a particular reason for this in-universe, or is it more of a general design choice?

[Snarky]

shit costs money and isnt that effective.  just recruit more peeps and hand them sappers and machine guns, or rig up another exploding zombie

Edited August 3, 2023 by Snarky

[FupDup]

Crey is the big one, and Freakshow is debatable since their tank units are more or less permanently fused into their armor. Nemesis Warhulks sorta count (they're basically like WH40K Dreadnaughts for injured Nemesis troops). 

 

It's probably a design choice given that this is a fantasy/superhero setting with all sorts of different power origins colliding. I just wish we had some more costume piece variety for making our own power armored supers. 

Edited August 3, 2023 by FupDup

[biostem]

1 hour ago, FupDup said:

It's probably a design choice given that this is a fantasy/superhero setting with all sorts of different power origins colliding.

Granted, but then why, outside of that collection of "rogues" in CoV, do we have hardly any tights & capes groups?  Heck, besides the Outcasts, we don't even have any mutant-like groups...

[Techwright]

14 minutes ago, biostem said:

Granted, but then why, outside of that collection of "rogues" in CoV, do we have hardly any tights & capes groups?  Heck, besides the Outcasts, we don't even have any mutant-like groups...

You don't consider Trolls or Rikti to be mutant groups?  Okay to be fair, you may be using one viewpoint out there where "mutant" means "born with" and "mutate" means "given sometime after birth".  Wolverine is a mutant (born with healing powers and bone claws), Spider-man is a mutate (received his DNA-altering via spider venom). 

 

The other groups mostly reflect changing viewpoints in society.  Had history played out differently and we had computers and video games in the 1960s, many of these groups, maybe all of them would wear spandex and capes.  Instead, in our generation that's seen as a bit dorky, so we have leather body armor and military fatigues.  Longbow at least looks like they borrowed a page from S.H.I.E.L.D. attire 60 years ago.

 

[Chance Jackson]

As for Powered Armor types:

-Council Ascendents & Burkholder

-Crey Tanks

-Arachnos Crabs & maybe Tarantulas (though maybe tarantulas are more like cyborgs?)

-Praetorian infantry

-PPD Powered Armor division (though i guess they do disappear before late game)

-Rikti

 

Robots & Cyborgs also vie for the tech enemy space so that may be why you feel their isn't enough power armor npcs

 

As for groups that extensively employ mutants aren't those what Arachnos Telepaths are? I maybe 

misremembering the lore there though

 

Edit: Added Rikti

Edited August 3, 2023 by Chance Jackson

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Techwright said:

You don't consider Trolls or Rikti to be mutant groups?  Okay to be fair, you may be using one viewpoint out there where "mutant" means "born with" and "mutate" means "given sometime after birth".  Wolverine is a mutant (born with healing powers and bone claws), Spider-man is a mutate (received his DNA-altering via spider venom). 

I meant "mutants" in the sense of getting their powers through a mostly natural process, as opposed to something induced by an animal bite or exposure to some serum/ray/radiation...

[TheZag]

Power armor costs alot of money and all the enemy groups only have inf.

 

[FupDup]

7 hours ago, Techwright said:

You don't consider Trolls or Rikti to be mutant groups?  Okay to be fair, you may be using one viewpoint out there where "mutant" means "born with" and "mutate" means "given sometime after birth".  Wolverine is a mutant (born with healing powers and bone claws), Spider-man is a mutate (received his DNA-altering via spider venom). 

I would argue that the Trolls are science origin because their power comes from Superadine, which is a drug created in laboratories. Any normal person who takes the drug can gain their powers, and there's a storyline in King's Row about exactly that. 

[Player2]

20 minutes ago, FupDup said:

I would argue that the Trolls are science origin because their power comes from Superadine, which is a drug created in laboratories. Any normal person who takes the drug can gain their powers, and there's a storyline in King's Row about exactly that. 

Why don't we have mixed origins?

 

I want to see an Outcast (mutant) boss take Superadine (science) and be recruited by Crey to wear their power armor (tech)...

I want to see a Circle of Thorns (magic) that was a former Freakshow (tech)...

I want to see magically empowered Clockworks, martial arts BP zombies, and cyborged DE critters!

 

Let's take a blender to the enemy groups!

[High_Beam]

Crey Corporation doesn't have the problem Stark seems to have with regards to keeping control of their armor.

 

Manticore Task Force 2: Armor Wars

[Clave Dark 5]

Lots of classic comic book characters just have powers and don a skintight circus muscleman's outfit and are ready to go.  "Powered armor" wasn't a thing much for classic comics.  (makes me wonder who was the first, and how the numbers of them in comics might chart growing over time too)

[srmalloy]

I think Doctor Doom was the first comic book character to wear obvious armor, with his appearance in The Fantastic Four #5 in July of 1962. Whether his armor at the time qualified as 'powered armor' is up for debate, though.

[Scarlet Shocker]

Crey is an obvious candidate but you might argue that Freakshow and even Vazhilok use powered armour... although the latters' is organic (ie other people - a literal meat shield)

[biostem]

13 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

you might argue that Freakshow and even Vazhilok use powered armour

I'm pretty sure all the Freakshow are cyborgs, and cannot simply take off their armor.  As for Dr. V, can he take that flesh suit off, or is he sewn into it?

[honoroit]

19 minutes ago, biostem said:

I'm pretty sure all the Freakshow are cyborgs, and cannot simply take off their armor.  As for Dr. V, can he take that flesh suit off, or is he sewn into it?

 

if bad lady, clamor, is anything to go by, and she holds up her stockings with safety pins into her legs(!), those suits do not come off.

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by honoroit

[Snarky]

38 minutes ago, biostem said:

I'm pretty sure all the Freakshow are cyborgs, and cannot simply take off their armor.  As for Dr. V, can he take that flesh suit off, or is he sewn into it?

The Freakshow are grafted onto their parts, or their parts are grafted onto them, surgically.  They use Excelsior to overcome the pain and live in a constant high that would make a meth head seem like an upstanding philosophical genius.  

 

Dr V, and all his creations are grafted into their new selves as well.  But rather than kill the pain they pretty much are undead.  When you are dead, there really is a different relationship with the physical world.  

[High_Beam]

27 minutes ago, honoroit said:

 

if bad lady, clamor, is anything to go by, and she holds up her stockings with safety pins into her legs(!), those suits do not come off.

 

I do the Penelope Yin/Psyche Flashback Task Forces singularly for the purpose of punching Clamor in the face repeatedly for her wretched costume.

[Player2]

Real world concerns could also play into superhero world issues over mass production of power armor:

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/vikrammittal/2020/08/17/military-exoskeletons-science-fiction-or-science-reality/

 

They both are and are not very practical when you look at the big picture, with speed, range of motion, and power source being the three main issues.  The way I see it, individual heroes pull off their special power armor on a limited basis, using unique  tech (or sci fi or even magic) to overcome these challenges but they possess some quality that the owner either doesn't want to share or can't replicate on a large enough scale to make an army or even a large battalion feasible.  

[honoroit]

or cyberpunk maelstroms.

[Techwright]

7 hours ago, Player2 said:

I want to see a Circle of Thorns (magic) that was a former Freakshow (tech)...

I want to see magically empowered Clockworks,

 

The CoT idea could feasibly be a thing in the lore, since CoT capture people and replace their souls.  A captured Freak might get the "treatment", though I suspect the CoT have a certain disdain for Freak, Vahz, and maybe a few others due to what they've done to themselves.

 

I'm struggling to remember, but isn't there a portal mission (or one of the wards?) where a Clockwork group are magic or at least partially so?

[honoroit]

9 hours ago, Snarky said:

The Freakshow are grafted onto their parts, or their parts are grafted onto them, surgically.  They use Excelsior to overcome the pain and live in a constant high that would make a meth head seem like an upstanding philosophical genius.  

 

Dr V, and all his creations are grafted into their new selves as well.  But rather than kill the pain they pretty much are undead.  When you are dead, there really is a different relationship with the physical world.  

 

excelsior, huh? so theyre junked up all no pain. makes sense, crazy grins and that.

 

theres superdine for trolls....

 

there should be a street drugs of paragon (and rogue isles) page on the wiki. purely for academic purposes, of course.

 

what other ones are there i wonder.

Edited August 4, 2023 by honoroit

[biostem]

29 minutes ago, honoroit said:

excelsior, huh? so theyre junked up all no pain. makes sense, crazy grins and that.

It also allowed them to have the rather questionable cybernetics successfully grafted to their bodies in the first place.

 

From the WIKI:

"The drug in question was an experimental physical booster program developed for the military. The compound warped and expanded their bodies over the period of just a few hours, giving them superhuman physical attributes, incredible pain tolerance and a powerful narcotic buzz. It also allowed them to expand their own abilities beyond the physical boost the serum provides. Cybernetic enhancements are a relatively new and untested innovation, and few people's bodies can handle the experimental limb and organ replacements. The regenerative properties the super serum provides allow Freakshow members' bodies to handle the implants with relative ease."

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, honoroit said:

 

excelsior, huh? so theyre junked up all no pain. makes sense, crazy grins and that.

 

theres superdine for trolls....

 

there should be a street drugs of paragon (and rogue isles) page on the wiki. purely for academic purposes, of course.

 

what other ones are there i wonder.

I am sure Crey and the Ritki have any number of substances.  Then there js the multi year process to turn a volunteer into a council vampyr.  They are just super soldiers, not undead, not vampyrs but just really heavily modded.  Probably have a few things creeping in from Praetoria, Oranbega, and points unknown

[Scarlet Shocker]

18 hours ago, biostem said:

 As for Dr. V, can he take that flesh suit off, or is he sewn into it?

 

It seems to get replaced every decayed or so 🤣