What happens if the infantry fail to cover their ears while MS scale solid weaponry are being fired nearby? Permanent hearing loss, or something worse like the pressure fucking them up in some other way.Its a cool concept, and it makes me think that the universe either evolves so that infantry all get ear protection, or they're just so unimportant in the grand scheme of things that its ok if survivors are permanently debilitated after they serve their purpose.I guess its also an issue in settings like battletech where ultra large scale autocannons are the gold standard.
>>23673184Covering your ears is not ear protection even with modern small arms. I don't actually know but I assume earpro is standard issue in most professional armies. If they're not ear plugs only cost a few dollars for a box/jar of them. In general it seems to me that making infantry in a mech setting a focus is pointless because mecha - or at least a "real robot" mech like a MS is already just a scaled-up infantryman.
>>23673519Nobody in 0079 has earpro that's for sure, but that's also because UC is a setting designed in the 70's when hearing damage for soldiers was a given as opposed to an avoidable issue like it is now.
>>23673184>>23673519Plus if we're specifically talking Gundam, half the time they'll be in Normal Suits anyways.
>>23673519Earpro makes sense. They constantly revise mobile suits to account for modern day sensibilities (gto comes to mind), presumably, so does infantry kiy.>>23673648Normal suits are usually a space only thing with the exception of pilots who presumably wear it for protection. Regular ground troops still wear normal uniforms and helmets. But I bet that doesnt protect you from gm ground type and zaku machine gun shells.It must suck to be infantry, specially when suits have anti infantry gear like flechette launchers.
>>23673519Passive hearing protection covers your ears but has a microphone which plays sound back so you can still hear things without the DB destroying your eardrums, I got peltors on my NV helmet
>>23673535UC also has no catch mechanism for the guns' spent shells resulting in deadly lead rains inside colonies nay time the self-defense MS open fire, I don't think they care much about people on the ground
>>23673184If you think that's bad, imagine the secondary eye damage from multi-megawatt lasers being regularly used on the battlefield. At those power levels even random reflections could cause blindness from several miles away.
>>23674138If oyu're talking about Gundam, lasers aren't used in UC, aside form communication lasers. Beams are mega particles, essentially really angry super soakers
>>23674138Could be worse, in battletech the lasers are actually invisible and colorless, and the mech UI just fills it in for you and adds the light. For infantry, a mech swivels their way, and suddenly there's a line of melted concrete, light armor and atomized humans. If infantry sucks, it must suck even more for civvies.I think in hathaway they show a beam hitting a building and energized slag just rained down while people try to flee. Its no empty shell killing a fleeing mother type of graphic, but I bet those things killed a bunch of people.
>>23673184>Your hearing loss isn't service relatedThat's it. Since when has foresight or care ever been given to grunts? Special forces sure, but I imagine there would be no spec ops infantry in a world of mecha, they'd be promoted or would be clandestine like cyclops team.A billion artillery shells and guns were fired in the world wars and still are fired and guess what. Its still a bunch of dudes putting a giant stick in the breech and covering their ears when firing.Sound isn't the issue. Its the Shockwaves. Even if it doesn't cause concussions. Artillerymen and tankers develop CTE cause the Shockwaves from firing those massive things endlessly everyday completely fries the brain. No helmet or ear protection can prevent that. In fact there's good enough reason to argue that is why so many young men were violent and unhinged during the interwar years and ww2. As many veterans came back with more than likely cases of CTE from nonstop artillery barrage. Which develops irrational, violent, impulsive and highly emotional tendencies.
>>23674155The opening 079 narration mentions the OYW killed about half the human population in the solar system. I can guarantee you their militarizes were not that big (for comparison, all US military branches combined make up like 0.5% of the US population), so imagine what it was like for civilians. Granted, 50% of human population dying is a civilization-ending apocalypse scenario, but like always sci fi writers have no sense of scale