The Stormtroopers wear laminate armour made of plastoid. It is an armour that costs 2500 credits, for a soak value of 2 and a encumbrance of 4 (1 when worn). It includes a comlink and a vision magnifier. Taking into account that for the standard stormtrooper there will be no customization of the armour (which will even make it more expensive) I skip the hard points.

On the other hand there is the Padded armour, it is 500 credits, its soak is 2, and its encumbrance 2 (zero when worn). A comlink for the helmet is 25 credits and a macrobinocular costs 75 credits. Then, to this outfit you can add a hockey mask (Friday the 13th style) for the fear effect, lets say 10 credits. Added up gives a total of 610 credits.

So 2500 credits versus 610 credits. This means, you can have the same effect but saving 1890 credits per soldier!!! What a genius suggested that the whole military branch of the empire has to wear laminate armour??? Really?

Cheers,

Yepes

Stormtrooper armor is just one type of laminate armor. Those 3 HP make a difference to people that want some customization in their armor. Something padded armor lacks unless HPs are added to it.

A genius in the military industrial complex who bribed imperial officials to give him contracts to sell the Empire overpriced inferior hardware and spends all their time on the pleasure planets of the Carribdus nebula enjoying the lifestyle the enormous wealth the corruption of the Empire has brought them.

You shouldn't skip the hard points completely. Stormtrooper armor is supposed to have greater environmental tolerances thanks to the black undersuit.

I agree with not ignoring the HP. Stormtroopers on Leia's ship looked different from those on Tatooine, probably because of the cooling attachment. They also looked different from the Snowtroopers. If you allow for a vaccum seal, you get Spacetroopers.

Given the numbers and theaters involved in the ST's missions, they can get their own armor attached/modded depending on the theater, and the Empire can afford the credit cost. Padded armor also can't be sealed against chemical weapons, which the Imps aren't shy of using.

That and while the ST's are rather iconic as the big bad minions in the movies, the corebook does stipulate that they are the Emperor's elite, private military. Most of the grunts in the Imperial Army do use padded armor.

That premium you are paying for is for the hard points. Its why armored clothing so so expensive as well, because it carries a HP. With that hard point, you can do all kinds of cool stuff to your armor.

Yes yes yes guys. I know that the price comes from the hard points and that for player characters that matters.

My point is that it does not make sense to equip thousands of soldiers with something so expensive when padded armour and a few extra gadgets does the same job for one forth of the price. You could equip everybody with padded armour instead, and leave the laminate armour (with some attachments) for some especial missions.

In the new movies (and tv serie), all the clone soldiers wear laminate armour, to me it seems too expensive outfit to go to a battle when padded armour offers exactly the same protection. In our world (the real one) that does make no sense.

But anyway, as ErikB picked it up, it was just for the fun of the situation. This is a game based on an invented universe, and we do not expect sense or reality on it, right?

But anyway, as ErikB picked it up, it was just for the fun of the situation. This is a game based on an invented universe, and we do not expect sense or reality on it, right?

I rather like this take on the subject, boldfacing by me:

You can cry, "But that's not Star Wars!" and my response will be, " Then Star Wars sucks ".

Thankfully the real-world already gives us a plausible explanation... contractor nepotism.

As for "exactly the same protection"... that seems more to do with FFG SWRPG's favoring of low, low numbers in general, and correspondingly the lack of "minute" differences between stuff, considering that earlier RPGs would have represented some of these things differently. It's one thing to try to make sense of a world based on what it has, it's another when you're trying to do so through the filter of a tabletop pen-and-paper RPG that was made with other design ideas.

You can cry, "But that's not Star Wars!" and my response will be, " Then Star Wars sucks ".

Then don't let the door hit you on the way out!

The price of stormtrooper armour is probably lessened by the fact that it is mass produced, one size fits all, and frankly the cost we see for laminate armour would be a retail cost, with a likely smaller production run.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Military Contracts.

The price of stormtrooper armour is probably lessened by the fact that it is mass produced, one size fits all, and frankly the cost we see for laminate armour would be a retail cost, with a likely smaller production run.

This is a huge factor. The 2500 credits for Laminate is a guideline for the sales price of a general product type, before adjusting for availability, demand, and variations of make/manufacture. The prices for Stormtrooper armor (cost to the Empire to botain, sales price on the black market, purchase price on the black market, etc) would all be drastically different.

A valid point, the Empire can get Laminate Armor for steep discounts compared to your average buyer. Bear in mind though that the Empire is also able to make customized stormtrooper armor sets for the various types of troopers, from Scout trooper, to snow troopers, to sand troopers. Each of them has a slightly different loadout based on the same principal armor design.

Uniformity means that that all the different armor types share the same or similar fixed costs, which drives brings economies of scale and makes each suit of armor less expensive to produce as the the fixed costs are distributed over more items.

The facility built into stormtrooper armor goes beyond just the three items listed

The vision enhancements are built in and do not require a hand to use, neither does the comlink. Stormtrooper armor comes with other additional 'compartments' that are not covered under its description. Apparently it can be sealed that you can even use it in a vacuum.

Vacuum sealed 1000 credits,

Enhanced optics suite 1750

And the ability to add 3 more hardpoints and you have significantly cheaper armor than padded which couldnt even fit any options. Even if it had 5 hard points it would cost 3250 credits minimum without a built in comlink. You could argue that , in fact stormtrooper armor is on the cheap side

The facility built into stormtrooper armor goes beyond just the three items listed

The vision enhancements are built in and do not require a hand to use, neither does the comlink. Stormtrooper armor comes with other additional 'compartments' that are not covered under its description. Apparently it can be sealed that you can even use it in a vacuum.

Vacuum sealed 1000 credits,

Enhanced optics suite 1750

And the ability to add 3 more hardpoints and you have significantly cheaper armor than padded which couldnt even fit any options. Even if it had 5 hard points it would cost 3250 credits minimum without a built in comlink. You could argue that , in fact stormtrooper armor is on the cheap side

Yeah, but I wonder what kind of charges you will get for impersonating a storm trooper if you ever ran into someone from the Empire. It would all but guarantee a fight.

gd galatic military industrial complex!!!

Stormtrooper armor is just one type of laminate armor. Those 3 HP make a difference to people that want some customization in their armor. Something padded armor lacks unless HPs are added to it.

For example (although with some user-created attachments):

I think the rebels got the idea clear. Equip your troops with padded armour and save the credits for proton torpedoes, you never know how many Death Stars you will find

gd galatic military industrial complex!!!

Pfffft yeah... at last check, the Empire's naval war machine is tied up in a whopping two super-companies, Sienar and Kuat Drive Yards and no small amount of the planetary hardware, even if they let some outside companies get a piece of the action... problem is, it'd be one thing if Sienar and KDY were catering to what the admirals and generals were requesting, but I strongly suspect that those 'requests' can be traced back to the headquarters of Sienar* and KDY...

You'd think they both had dirt on the His Imperial Majesty or something...

* Ironic, considering what happened when Sienar actually did try to do something different with the GAT-12 Skipray series...