OBT Forum
General BattleTech => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ice Hellion on September 08, 2013, 04:32:29 AM
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What would a "realistic" year/era for the introduction of the PA(L) be?
Not the state of the art SLDF ones but some upgrade/heavy upgrade of the Exoskeleton.
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Definitely sometime before 2720 (Intro date of the Nighthawk XXI). The dates they have for Exoskeletons on masterunitlist.info are post-Clan Invasion. I'm guessing that Exoskeltons have been around in BT since the 2200s, at least. I'm guessing prototype PA(L) came into being at least 20 years before the Nighthawk, so that would make it 2700 or possibly earlier.
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In Techreadout 3026 has about exoskeletons and should give the exact year. After the myomer was invented in 2350 the exoskeleton was upgraded. Prior to 2350 the exoskeletons were primitive and clumsy with hydraulics for motion.
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Honestly you would have to go off of the SLDF intro date for two reasons
1) even though they were in limited deployment, in SLDF terms limited deployment probably means there was still at least a Brigades worth of the suits spanning the entire SLDF
2) Comstars PALs, the Tornado and thier preserved or continued manufacture of Night Hawks in small numbers had to of pre dated the Clan Invasion.
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I didn't notice a date in either TR:3026 or MW1e; but the first WorkMech was developed in 2340, so I'd expect heavy-duty exoskeletons to have been in use by that time.
The Nighthawk should be the only pre-Clan suit capable of withstanding 'Mech weaponry, though.