Posted under General
My first instinctual reaction is rejection. armor tends to connote a medieval or pseudo-medieval fantasy theme, while power armor tends to connote futuristic science-fiction themes.
I won't object much if this goes through, but I think the flavors of the two are different enough that I'd prefer them separate.
Armor just seemed to be vague enough that it could cover both, and there is full_armor which more accurately denotes the medieval type armor, at least in my opinion.
full armor is certainly a subset of armor, and if an implication is to be made in this thread, it should be full armor implying armor.
However, armor that does not cover roughly the whole body is fairly common as well; see, for example, Gourry Gabriev's armor (ex.: post #206077, right side). For this reason, making full armor the tag for all the various kinds of medieval armor just would not work.
(It is also worth noting that, in real life, full-body armor was actually quite uncommon on the field of battle, as it was expensive, cumbersome, and heavy.)
The problem is is that there is just more medieval type games than the are futuristic games, so to me the fact that most of the armor is medieval type points more to that. When you mentioned medieval, I thought of the full armor, since that's what I associate. Fantasy armor tends to mainly be a light-medium cuirass with some accessories.
for that matter
full_armor -> armor if it isn't already.
Regardless of issues regarding medieval vs. futuristic armor (which could be solved by making a medieval_armor tag and redirecting existing implications through that), I'm not sure that power_armor really belongs under armor. It seems to me that the primary purpose of power_armor is generally to enhance the user's strength rather than protect them, making 'armor' a bit of a misnomer. If anything counts as armor, I'd say it would be the sort of stuff mostly under power_suit; items that sit very close to the body and serve as anchor points for weapons, but don't look like they do much else. Samus's power suit would be the prime example here.
But regardless of how you may feel about that analysis, power_armor and power_suit need to be cleaned up, since neither their wikis nor the posts under them make it clear what the difference between them is.
In a lot futuristic settings, power armor isn't simply enhancing the user's strength it is also very much protection. The enhanced strength merely grants that the armor can be heavier and tougher than what would normally be carried with human strength alone, so calling it armor isn't a misnomer. This is in fact one of the goals of current research into exoskeletons and the like for military applications, so that greater protection can be put onto the solider without degrading their performance.
power armor, as defined by starship troopers which founded the idea, is specifically designed armor that allows the user to survive in a multitude of environments. It offers greatly improved protection, since it is full body armor, and by increasing the users strength, it allows for thicker armor and heavier weapons. In starship troopers, the armor was used also because it had integrated weapons, electronics that range from medical to communications, and jetpack technology.
A power suit is a stripped down power-armor and is more designed to give the user limited capabilities at lesser cost, weight, and bulkiness. Essentially, a bullet-proof vest compared to modern combat armor.
Both of these definitions go from the original definitions as I understand them.
