Power Suit mechanics: what is and what is not possible

[Dryn]

ok.. so if it was lighter.. that could go with a new space age alloy.. the only issue i see is it being too weak to take on a hit from say.. some kind of missile.. or from.. well Ridley.

Lighter material does not necessarily mean weaker durability. Steel is better than iron. It weighs less, it doesn't corrode as easily (stainless steel), and it's more durable. I hear spider webs are stronger than steel. Hm. Still, the Power Suit is heavy. As you're heading to acquire the Boost Ball, the things you jump on to get there says that it cannot hold Samus' weight. Just scan it before you jump on it. Also, the Samus Unmasked trophy in Melee says that Samus is burdened with the Power Suit, but she moves gracefully like a butterfly, thus, indicating her suit is heavy, but she can move as if it weren't. Samus must be strong to wear something heavy.

Ah, it is biological- found on wikipedia.. cited sources as well.

I wish we knew what parts were organic, and what they actually mean by "organic components." Anyway, in the Super Metroid comic, Old Bird says to Armstrong Houston that the Chozo created Samus' Power Suit, and that they gave her a "special suit of armor that would be tough like the skin of a Chozo." That must be some tough skin. Does anyone else besides me think that Nintendo looked back on the old Super Metroid comic and got some ideas? I mean, it was the first place where K-2L was even mentioned, and now the whole organic stuff.

[rufioxiii]

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that specifically. Usually what comes to my mind when I think lighter is aluminum.. and that would just not work as a power suit. haha. I know titanium is lighter and can be made to have a memory, therefore deflecting hits a bit easier.

What I meant to imply is, what could the suit be made out of to be only 220kg? Thats a lot of metal, no matter how you slice it, to make up the suit. Aluminum could make it.. but it would be too weak. Steel thick enough could work, but that would be too heavy. Titanium could be used, but it tends to be more brittle than steel, and hard to work with. Tungsten is highly heat resistant, but incredibly heavy.

as far as being happy with something not being explained.. that doesn't work for me.

in fact i don't believe that she could go through a hunt with out receiving physical damage at all. concussive force could injure her, or even kill her with minimal damage to the suit. Inertial dampeners could work to prevent that, but only so much. Besides, if she is attached to that suit, in a way that allows her to feel her way through things, then I doubt the suit could be hit without her feeling some sort of feedback. If it is using some sort of nerve control, then her suit getting hit would almost be like her being hit.. just with a stronger shell. Pressure sensors in the suit wouldn't allow for a mental injury like that, but she would surely feel some sort of feedback.

Besides.. when the suit fails, she dies, she doesn't just get injured.

[Infinity's End]

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that specifically. Usually what comes to my mind when I think lighter is aluminum.. and that would just not work as a power suit. haha. I know titanium is lighter and can be made to have a memory, therefore deflecting hits a bit easier.

What I meant to imply is, what could the suit be made out of to be only 220kg? Thats a lot of metal, no matter how you slice it, to make up the suit. Aluminum could make it.. but it would be too weak. Steel thick enough could work, but that would be too heavy. Titanium could be used, but it tends to be more brittle than steel, and hard to work with. Tungsten is highly heat resistant, but incredibly heavy.

as far as being happy with something not being explained.. that doesn't work for me.

in fact i don't believe that she could go through a hunt with out receiving physical damage at all. concussive force could injure her, or even kill her with minimal damage to the suit. Inertial dampeners could work to prevent that, but only so much. Besides, if she is attached to that suit, in a way that allows her to feel her way through things, then I doubt the suit could be hit without her feeling some sort of feedback. If it is using some sort of nerve control, then her suit getting hit would almost be like her being hit.. just with a stronger shell. Pressure sensors in the suit wouldn't allow for a mental injury like that, but she would surely feel some sort of feedback.

Besides.. when the suit fails, she dies, she doesn't just get injured.

You're seriously still trying to explain how the suit works with conventional means? C'mon man, give it up. There's no possible way you can do it. The suit can seemingly come in and out of existence in an instant. Tell me ANYTHING in reality that does that. I'm telling you, Samus receives NO damage while in the suit. Think of that scene in Brawl when Ridley picks her up and grinds her up against the wall. You think that "hurt" her? NO! She just took it. Samus is way more powerful than you seem to believe. That's why something like "Samus vs. Master Chief" is ridiculous, since Samus's armor is near-indestructible.

You just gotta ditch that Western thinking, man! Throw that fanart mindset out. Samus doesn't need to buff and shine her suit because it's perpetually shiny. Take a look at ANY of the cutscenes in the Prime games. Does it ever show a single SCRATCH on her suit?

Let's think about the times Samus has ever been depicted as "hurt."

Fighting Mother Brain in Super Metroid
Being thrown against a wall in an explosion in Prime 1
The first encounter with Dark Samus in Prime 3
The introductory Omega battle in Fusion (though her new suit might not be as powerful as her old one)
The Death Sequences in all the games.

I'm not going to count Fusion's intro because the X actually infected her suit, which is biologically linked to Samus.

So from that list, if we discount all the death sequences, we know that huge powerful explosions of energy or huge physical blows to her body can put Samus out of commission (at least temporarily). But we have no idea that she is physically damaged on the inside. I'm thinking she's just "weakened," but not actually physically damaged. If the suit has sensors on it that allow her to "feel" pain, I'm sure it's a much different kind of pain that we're used to.

[Lazarius]

Thank you, Infinity's End, thank you.

This is precisely right in my opinion, it simply cannot be explained. When Samus takes damage, she is likely to feel something, but that 'something' would just be some sort of indicator that she is taking damage.

[Naner]

But Samus is probably so used to that that, if the impact isn't strong enough to throw her back, she just laughs and says "That's all you got?"

Hmm... It would be interesting if most shots didn't through her back in any way in a game, just caused damage. I would boost the Terminator/walking tank feeling to over 9000.

[rufioxiii]

Photons Glouns and Quarks. All phase in and out of our visible plane and can exist in multiple places at once. If we can find and understand this with our "western" thinking, then we can at least understand how some areas of the suit work. Besides, where was this way of thinking when the thread first started? asking what is and isn't feasible with the suit?? By your thinking, this whole thread is incorrect and shouldn't be discussed cause we can't figure things like this out cause we don't just take things for granted.

What the hell is the fun in that?

I want to have hypothetical and theoretical ideas on how the suit works.
I want to get so angry that I can't figure it out that I throw things.
I want to test my mind against the gaming physics.

Cause all of this, all of it, gets me closer to helping someone build an actual suit.. haha.. maybe not as sophisticated, or near as slick (how does she fit in there?)
but.. a suit or something like it nonetheless.

And I know her physiology is completely different from ours.. but she can still get injured.. hell the chozos died! So she isn't invulnerable to pain.
She might be able to shrug it off, but like I said - no matter how awesome the armor is, concussive blasts still translate through metal better than air. No matter how thick the armor is, she could still be hurt by bombs, by missiles or other explosives, even if her armor is not affected in any way.

She obviously gets knocked back, so i know the hits are concussive.


When mother brain hit her in SM, she was down for the count

I know it was a plot device, and I know that you think somehow she is the right hand of god, but she was down and if it weren't for that metroid she would have been burnt toast. she was a goner. dead. vaporized.

hurt

[Outlaw]

Samus is way more powerful than you seem to believe. That's why something like "Samus vs. Master Chief" is ridiculous, since Samus's armor is near-indestructible.

I f'ing love you.

[Dryn]

What I meant to imply is, what could the suit be made out of to be only 220kg?

Where did the weight of the Power Suit come from? I'm sure the weight is mentioned for Master Chief armor, but not Samus'.

Thats a lot of metal, no matter how you slice it, to make up the suit. Aluminum could make it.. but it would be too weak. Steel thick enough could work, but that would be too heavy. Titanium could be used, but it tends to be more brittle than steel, and hard to work with. Tungsten is highly heat resistant, but incredibly heavy.

I fail to see why such metals should be mentioned in the Metroid Universe. For example, in the Marvel Universe, Wolverine's skeleton is made out of adamantium, which is a fictional metal. The metal that Samus' Power Suit is made out of is probably fictional, kind of like another fictional mineral, Crystanium, with the toughness that is comparable to diamond. (It seems that Crystanium is now some kind of non-metallic mineral used in Metroid fanon, thanks to CapCom.)

in fact i don't believe that she could go through a hunt with out receiving physical damage at all. concussive force could injure her, or even kill her with minimal damage to the suit. Inertial dampeners could work to prevent that, but only so much. Besides, if she is attached to that suit, in a way that allows her to feel her way through things, then I doubt the suit could be hit without her feeling some sort of feedback. If it is using some sort of nerve control, then her suit getting hit would almost be like her being hit.. just with a stronger shell. Pressure sensors in the suit wouldn't allow for a mental injury like that, but she would surely feel some sort of feedback.

If you're wearing a suit of armor, and you get knocked back, you'll probably make a grunt, but only because of the force. It doesn't mean that you're injured. Samus' Power Suit has energy layers. If you take the time to look through the Metroid Prime image gallery, you'll see that when the Fusion Suit is shown, that there are layers, and you see some kind of mesh material with that armor. Furthermore, the Power Suit's defense system increases drastically when it's corrupted with Phazon, likely because Phazon is incredibly resilient and durable. You even see the energy manifesting more clearly around the armor when Samus enters her ship or exits it, or even before she fights Metroid Prime.

Besides.. when the suit fails, she dies, she doesn't just get injured.

The Power Suit could be connected to her, kind of like Tony Stark's powered armor, where, after injecting himself with a modified techno-organic virus called "Extremis," was able to store his suit within him, and was also able to bring it out. His healing ability increased. Of course, that's all speculative. We don't know how Samus removes her Power Suit or make it re-emerge.

[Redwing]

What I meant to imply is, what could the suit be made out of to be only 220kg?

Where did the weight of the Power Suit come from? I'm sure the weight is mentioned for Master Chief armor, but not Samus'.

Super Metroid manual I believe it was.

[Dryn]

Super Metroid manual I believe it was.

I still have the Super Metroid Instruction Booklet right next to me. The weight of the Power Suit is not mentioned. In Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, we are told how much Samus weighs, but that doesn't say anything about the Power Suit.

[Redwing]

Super Metroid manual I believe it was.

I still have the Super Metroid Instruction Booklet right next to me. The weight of the Power Suit is not mentioned. In Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, we are told how much Samus weighs, but that doesn't say anything about the Power Suit.

Ah, right it was Metroid II. Just how much exactly does it say she weighs? Because if it's 200 kg like I thought I remembered, that seems rather much for one woman... I think we have had this argument before on the board before you were here.

[Infinity's End]

By your thinking, this whole thread is incorrect and shouldn't be discussed cause we can't figure things like this out cause we don't just take things for granted.

Precisely.

It is worthless. NONE of Samus's suit is possible -- that's why it can only exist within a science FICTIONAL world like video game.
Giving her suit a real-world explanation only makes it weaker.


Have your fun. I'm not going to stop you.

[rufioxiii]

Halo isn't by any standard weak, and Master Chief isn't by any means any more stoppable because it has real world physics and ideals to build his suit off of. I mean obviously there are things that Samus's suit does that won't be explainable.. at all. But the general principles are entirely explainable. Servo technology is used today. Armor was used in the medieval ages. Beam weapons are currently being developed.

anyways.. if you aren't going to stop us from having our fun,

then why did you come in and tell us our thinking was incorrect and a lesson in futility?

anything can be explained.
anything can be rationalized.

everything has a reason.

[Infinity's End]

Halo isn't by any standard weak, and Master Chief isn't by any means any more stoppable because it has real world physics and ideals to build his suit off of. I mean obviously there are things that Samus's suit does that won't be explainable.. at all. But the general principles are entirely explainable. Servo technology is used today. Armor was used in the medieval ages. Beam weapons are currently being developed.

anyways.. if you aren't going to stop us from having our fun,

then why did you come in and tell us our thinking was incorrect and a lesson in futility?

anything can be explained.
anything can be rationalized.

everything has a reason.

Hmm, I dunno maybe because I help run this board and I can post and contribute in any fashion that I want?

Samus's suit, like many things in the Metroid universe, unfortunately, can NOT be explained or rationalized. (Kinda like how when you "freeze" stuff, it floats in mid-air and you can hop on top of it? Or that the freezing can later "wear off" and whatever was frozen underneath is still perfectly alive? Rationalize THAT.)

Considering anything you can come up with is all theory and conjecture anyway, it's mostly just going to end up sounding like Star Trek and not make any actual real-application sense. But you're still free to do so. Maybe I'm just trying to stop you from perpetuating something fan-artists have been trying to do for years -- which is create a fake mythology for something that has never been (and possibly never will be) explained to us and allow others to mistake it for truth.
Hell, I even created a thread about how the damn thing works.


So chill the fuck out, k?

[Outlaw]

Ok fella, lets just calm down.

Halo is more realistic, thus can be explained easier. However MC's armor being more realistic, also makes it weaker.

Samus' armor... can be explained in Sci-Fi - Terms. Meaning more than likely it won't make sense realistically. You can rationalize but if you do using realistic terms it does make the armor weaker than it is because this armor is WAY to far advanced to really understand fully about it.

We aren't saying you shouldn't try to rationalize the armor. But maybe you should make a theory take some time an look over it and when your done come here and post it. Instead of post after post.

Pretty much this has already been said before but I put it out there again.