The Marine Shield

Well, in reality bayonets make your gun less accurate

 

do you mean at point blank or overall? because at point blank, accuracy doesnt matter too much.

 

overall, it makes the end of the barrel too heavy.

 

couldnt that be countered by extra weight on the back end?

 

yes but the idea is to have the gun as light as possible

 

It is true that we still use shields in modern combat, but there is a huge difference between general combat and war. A soldier would not be caught dead in a war running around with a giant metal shield. We use riot shields when we are maintaining a sector that we have general control over or trying to fend off minor attacks while still providing soldiers/police the ability to make less hostile decisions against people. In an actual war between highly armed factions a shield is of absolutely no use. In fact, a shield in close quarter combat within a war can become a liability. You would probably want a knife, small fire-arms, and mobility <-- one of the most important factors.

Yes, it is a useful ancient technology. I still have a survival knife and it can probably double for a weapon as well. However, a knife is only useful as a weapon against certain enemies. It just so happens that humans can be killed rather easily with a knife. Secondly, they are utilitarian, you can use a knife for a plethora of different tasks that could save your life.

Neither of these points apply in the starcraft universe. The marines don't need knives for utility, as a matter of fact they don't need utility period. Beyond the game play mechanics of infinite ammo, marines are essentially shock troops. They don't have a high life-expectancy and are easily replaced. They are there to shoot and die; well, except for maybe Raynor, but then again he is a hero. The next point would be that knives are useless against starcraft enemies. We still use knives as weapons because they can kill people, our primary enemy. A knife is completely and utterly useless against a Protoss Zealot; they are far too tough and have much more prowess at melee combat. Now, it is true that you could probably kill a single zergling with a knife if you get lucky. But what you have to remember is that they make up for their lack of strength in numbers; a knife against one zergling "may" be useful, but a knife against two or more zerglings if of no use.

 

Yea but isnt the marine combat suit a strenght augmenter aswell?

Anyway, you'd think that they have developed a lighter material, now a days cars are being made bullet proof with metal fibre which is as effective and weight less than one third its volume.

 

yes and they are developing nanotechnology metals that are even lighter and even more dense.

 

please pm me with that source, im really interested in these kind of things and youve been mentioning it alot lately.

 

Here is nano armor by IsraCast http://www.isracast.com/Articles/Article.aspx?ID=28
You can also read about it here http://www.answers.com/topic/apnano

 

YAY thanks =D

 

I always got the impression that things like standard knives would have no use against a zergling, even a single lone one all by itself.

I mean, with extremely thick hide, raw predatory instincts, mutant reflexes, is bred to kill and good at nothing else, and a voice in its head constantly saying "rip his head off," would you take a stab at it even if you had the slightest chance of inflicting mortal wound? Not only would I'd be too busy pissing my power suit, I think a Zergling would just continue to charge me and eat my face even if I stabbed it good. But anyway, a bayonet just look silly on a SC marine doesn't it?

The shield looks stupid as hell and totally medieval in design, but they put that in for gameplay reasons so I'm letting that one go. If it was a new Terran unit it would be stupid no matter what, but if it's because they found a way to spice up Terran basic infantry, then I for one would give Blizzard at least a chance on that one.

Someone mentioned marines shooting one hand with shields, but aren't the shields shoulder mounted?

 

Knives on guns fail.
Now a bullet in between the eyes...

 

yeah Remy, I was wondering about that as well

I mean, granted they have super suits, but the recoil from a gun that size would be too much even for one super-powered arm. Is it really logical to sacrifice basically all of your offensive abilities just to survive a few extra minutes? It defies the philosophy of marines; deploy, shoot, die

 

Nope, the shields are held in one hand like the medic's shield.

They probably added the shield to the marine because people were saying "wait why does the medic get a shield and the marine doesn't?"

 

Maybe they wanted to raise the life expectance from 6 t o12 seconds, that wa, if they have medics the life expectancy will to to 20.

That when they can: deploy, shoot, heal, shoot, heal, shoot, die.

 

well thats two shots more than they usually get.

 

That is really interesting stuff! I've always wondered what would happen if we took our most advanced metallurgy/materials technology and applied it to the classic full suit body armor. I wouldn't mind seeing a full suit of plate mail made out of that stuff. ^_^

 

I want to see a Marine in SC2 running through trenches and when a Zergling jumps down on him he just slams the living crap out if it with his shield.
That'd be a fun 30 second cinematic.

 

He'd be like: EAT SHIELD! *bang*