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I was looking at this artwork from the community website and I got puzzled at how the Tau physically fit inside the battlesuits.



I can phantom that for XV25 their legs might be placed inside the XV25 legs but things get complicated when we move to XV8. The body is as tall as XV25 so I can only guess that is following the same strategy as XV25. The problem is that the XV8 has a far wider hip, so it's not practicable following human physiology.

They sit in their crisis suits in the fetal position.

Lore says it's because they're mind linked to the suits and don't need controls. I'd like to think it's because they're cowards who know they're about to be in charge range.

Kya_Vess wrote:
They sit in their crisis suits in the fetal position.

This. Anything larger than a stealth suit they are just crammed in there purely commanding it mentally. though you'll notice they still have vision slits in the chest so the pilot can see outside with their own eyes if needed. A weakness that the Ultramarines learned to exploit IIRC in the Ultramarine Omnibus.

Stealthsuits are more like power armor, they actually have their legs and arms inside the arms and legs of the suit.

Obviously the bigger the suit, the more room the pilot has.

So that vision slit in a suits upper chest is where the pilot's eye level is at? Interesting

Yup, its sort of an emergency vision slit. Probably in case they lose the suit's "head" where the normal sensors are at.

I seem to remember a scene in the Ultramarine Omnibus where the space marine scouts were using their knives to pierce the slit and kill the pilots, or just aiming for it with their guns.

This guy did a reasonable job:



http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics10/img43b8fa11f1b49.jpg

It’s cheesecake, but i always though this drawing got the idea across nicely. As with all things scale based in 40k, the models may not entirely accurately portray crisis suits In a realistic size compared to the infantry

Tau are mind-linked to their suits? In the Farsight novels, the living pilots are all moving their eyeballs independently of each other in order to provide input based on where they focus, how they blink, etc. Which sounds much more strenuous and silly than some sort of mind link, but I didn't realize there was fluff contradicting the novels.

Wyldhunt wrote:
Tau are mind-linked to their suits? In the Farsight novels, the living pilots are all moving their eyeballs independently of each other in order to provide input based on where they focus, how they blink, etc. Which sounds much more strenuous and silly than some sort of mind link, but I didn't realize there was fluff contradicting the novels.

The Tau are clearly advanced enough to provide some sort of neuronic interlink between pilot and suit. The idea that they have to rely on biological/manual input seems...odd. I mean, the suit's "head" is clearly a camera/radar mechanism.

 Esmer wrote:

Wyldhunt wrote:
Tau are mind-linked to their suits? In the Farsight novels, the living pilots are all moving their eyeballs independently of each other in order to provide input based on where they focus, how they blink, etc. Which sounds much more strenuous and silly than some sort of mind link, but I didn't realize there was fluff contradicting the novels.

The Tau are clearly advanced enough to provide some sort of neuronic interlink between pilot and suit. The idea that they have to rely on biological/manual input seems...odd. I mean, the suit's "head" is clearly a camera/radar mechanism.

I totally agree, but the books definitely describe the suits cameras/antennae as being there to provide the pilot with a series of app windows inside the suit. They wiggle their eyes independently, blink at things to provide user input, and also have joysticks on either side of their cradle seat things. Voice commands also seem to be a thing.

Wiggly-eyed blinky faces sound very silly to me, but the novels go into a fair bit of detail about it.

They get a Krootox to jump up and down on them for an hour. They’re then scooped into a jam jar and installed.

True facts.

Kya_Vess wrote:
They sit in their crisis suits in the fetal position.

Lore says it's because they're mind linked to the suits and don't need controls. I'd like to think it's because they're cowards who know they're about to be in charge range.

I was under the impression that's not the case really? The Ghostkeel has a pilot who's sitting normally pushing buttons, the Stormsurge has its pilots sitting and using buttons (although it is a ballistic suit, not a battle suit), the dawn of war 2 Tau Battlesuit mentions flasing lights on control panels, even Longstrike with his XV02 - where the whole point is to let him interface with the hammerhead - has him still pressing stuff on the tanks interface.

Wyldhunt wrote:
Tau are mind-linked to their suits? In the Farsight novels, the living pilots are all moving their eyeballs independently of each other in order to provide input based on where they focus, how they blink, etc. Which sounds much more strenuous and silly than some sort of mind link, but I didn't realize there was fluff contradicting the novels.

Phil Kelly's terribad fanfiction is garbage and best left ignored. Besides what you pointed (forgetting mindlink and fetal pose and instead having pilots sit on chair and push buttons/pedals), Kelly thinks (all examples from his tau books) psyker inquisitors have no idea what demons are, combi bolter/plasma can be hidden in a pocket of skintight suit, space marines don't kill his mary sue battlesuit pilot "because he is about to die" instead of giving him a kick to make sure, space marine ancients try to melee battlesuits with pole of their banner having forgotten his weapons at home, riptides were invented before tau first contacted imperium, and tau apparently can operate space marine power armour better than actual space marines. What a waste of great character (Kelly literally made Farsight into ADHD teen playing counterstrike) and what could be interesting look at whole race...

 Irbis wrote:

Wyldhunt wrote:
Tau are mind-linked to their suits? In the Farsight novels, the living pilots are all moving their eyeballs independently of each other in order to provide input based on where they focus, how they blink, etc. Which sounds much more strenuous and silly than some sort of mind link, but I didn't realize there was fluff contradicting the novels.

Phil Kelly's terribad fanfiction is garbage and best left ignored. Besides what you pointed (forgetting mindlink and fetal pose and instead having pilots sit on chair and push buttons/pedals), Kelly thinks (all examples from his tau books) psyker inquisitors have no idea what demons are, combi bolter/plasma can be hidden in a pocket of skintight suit, space marines don't kill his mary sue battlesuit pilot "because he is about to die" instead of giving him a kick to make sure, space marine ancients try to melee battlesuits with pole of their banner having forgotten his weapons at home, riptides were invented before tau first contacted imperium, and tau apparently can operate space marine power armour better than actual space marines. What a waste of great character (Kelly literally made Farsight into ADHD teen playing counterstrike) and what could be interesting look at whole race...

I'd read about some of his terrible writing decisions for the Tau (like turning Ethereals into mind-controlling saturday morning cartoon level villains, for example) but I had no idea there was all that stuff too. That sounds far worse than I thought.

War of Secrets is pretty bad as both a Dark Angels AND a Tau novel, truth be told. It's made worse that he crammed 2 questionable plotlines into one book.

 Mentlegen324 wrote:

Kya_Vess wrote:
They sit in their crisis suits in the fetal position.

Lore says it's because they're mind linked to the suits and don't need controls. I'd like to think it's because they're cowards who know they're about to be in charge range.

I was under the impression that's not the case really? The Ghostkeel has a pilot who's sitting normally pushing buttons, the Stormsurge has its pilots sitting and using buttons (although it is a ballistic suit, not a battle suit), the dawn of war 2 Tau Battlesuit mentions flasing lights on control panels, even Longstrike with his XV02 - where the whole point is to let him interface with the hammerhead - has him still pressing stuff on the tanks interface.

Its possible to have both.

The neural link could simply project a HUD into the pilots brain showing the outside, while he simultaneously can see and interact with controls in the cockpit. He moves the arms and legs with his mind, but maybe he has to manually fire the weapons using his actual hands. The jump jets might also need to be controlled from the cockpit and not directly via the brain.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Mentlegen324 wrote:

Kya_Vess wrote:
They sit in their crisis suits in the fetal position.

Lore says it's because they're mind linked to the suits and don't need controls. I'd like to think it's because they're cowards who know they're about to be in charge range.

I was under the impression that's not the case really? The Ghostkeel has a pilot who's sitting normally pushing buttons, the Stormsurge has its pilots sitting and using buttons (although it is a ballistic suit, not a battle suit), the dawn of war 2 Tau Battlesuit mentions flasing lights on control panels, even Longstrike with his XV02 - where the whole point is to let him interface with the hammerhead - has him still pressing stuff on the tanks interface.

Its possible to have both.

The neural link could simply project a HUD into the pilots brain showing the outside, while he simultaneously can see and interact with controls in the cockpit. He moves the arms and legs with his mind, but maybe he has to manually fire the weapons using his actual hands. The jump jets might also need to be controlled from the cockpit and not directly via the brain.

Of course it's possible to have both, but without evidence to suggest it actually is both, when the models show them sitting normally and using buttons for controls, then that suggests that's the way they're officially meant to be.

 Esmer wrote:
This guy did a reasonable job:

Spoiler:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics10/img43b8fa11f1b49.jpg

 Flinty wrote:
It’s cheesecake, but i always though this drawing got the idea across nicely. As with all things scale based in 40k, the models may not entirely accurately portray crisis suits In a realistic size compared to the infantry

A yeah. That would make sense. For a human, though it would be really uncomfortable to sit like this the whole time I can imagine that for tau and its weird goat like legs might not be a big deal. Perhaps for them to crouch in this way is like for a human to sit in a chair.

 Irbis wrote:

Wyldhunt wrote:
Tau are mind-linked to their suits? In the Farsight novels, the living pilots are all moving their eyeballs independently of each other in order to provide input based on where they focus, how they blink, etc. Which sounds much more strenuous and silly than some sort of mind link, but I didn't realize there was fluff contradicting the novels.

Phil Kelly's terribad fanfiction is garbage and best left ignored. Besides what you pointed (forgetting mindlink and fetal pose and instead having pilots sit on chair and push buttons/pedals), Kelly thinks (all examples from his tau books) psyker inquisitors have no idea what demons are, combi bolter/plasma can be hidden in a pocket of skintight suit, space marines don't kill his mary sue battlesuit pilot "because he is about to die" instead of giving him a kick to make sure, space marine ancients try to melee battlesuits with pole of their banner having forgotten his weapons at home, riptides were invented before tau first contacted imperium, and tau apparently can operate space marine power armour better than actual space marines. What a waste of great character (Kelly literally made Farsight into ADHD teen playing counterstrike) and what could be interesting look at whole race...

Fair. I actually like some of his work, but he is a bit hit and miss.

As for pilots being scrunched up in their suits, I personally apply some of the same scale weirdness to suits that I do to vehicles. We all know that 10 marines aren't fitting inside a rhino if both units are to-scale. I like to pretend the suits are just a smidge bigger in-universe than they are on the table.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They get a Krootox to jump up and down on them for an hour. They’re then scooped into a jam jar and installed.

True facts.

Sounds like a very *sticky* issue for the poor *depressed* pilot.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Irbis wrote:

Wyldhunt wrote:
(Kelly literally made Farsight into ADHD teen playing counterstrike) and what could be interesting look at whole race...

Go on, you have my attention.

Speaking on a slightly related note and don't purge me for saying this but I have heard that cat girls are now *cannon* in WH 40k as Felinid(SP) abhumans?

Those are Irbis's words rather than mine, Kargan. ;D But no big deal.

Speaking on a slightly related note and don't purge me for saying this but I have heard that cat girls are now *cannon* in WH 40k as Felinid(SP) abhumans?

Well, felinids are canon, but the "catgirls" thing is mostly a meme. Basically it's canon that felinid abhumans exist, but we have no idea what they actually look like. Anime catgirls are campy and cartoony, and that aesthetic clashes with 40k's normally grimdark art and tone. Thus comedy, and thus memes.

saw this on my fb, someone made a 3rd party pilot case for the xv104 riptide, the ghostkeel/stormsurge have already modeled with pilots; the crisis model is smaller than the artwork imagery shown in the codex, so you'll have to do some modelling work comparably to making firstborn marine to irl size.

https://www.facebook.com/OnosIndustries

Its probable that thinking and seeing said buttons is just how the mind works to control said suit.
They are probably buttoned up like a Aztec mummy. Its just how the brain processes said actions into commanding the suit.
A bit like marines they describe as having a hud.
A huds pretty low tech, when youve got a suit that will react and amplify your movements.
But putting the helmet on and youve got mechandrites, invading your eye sockets, ear holes, Is a whole level above a simple hud. But the hud is pumped straight to the brain. The using its body, is how it interprets how it works.