Dioxine - Item weight 3 is a soft limit introduced by sane microprose people to prevent crazy throwing ranges.
Easy, if weight is less than 3 (including 0) treat it as if its 3.
Solarius - Correct. That's why, in my opinion, the armour's weight does not correspond directly to its mass, but is rather a function of how much it slows you down due to its mass.
In Dungeons & Dragons this is why they not only had armor weights for suits of armor, they also had them arranged in tiers of proficiency too. Not only did you have to be strong, you also had to be proficient with armor otherwise it did bad things to you.
Personal Armor is made out of rigid metal plates but its not done sloppy. Its similar to the D&D equivalent of any kind of Medium Armor made out of Mithril.
Oh gahd am I really making dungeons & dragons references here?
Nope, im just agreeing with you.
And here, my friend, our opinions differ.
I got the impression they were Spec Ops but because of Gameplay Balance they had to nerfed. Also how are you going to have Veterancy when they're already at peak of performance.
Maybe they were recruited from desk jobs after they've been pushing pencils too long and have generally lost their touch.
But go talk to Jesse Ventura and im pretty sure he will say that you dont lose much of that edge, no matter how long you've been complacent. Many dont know that Jesse Ventura, while also being an actor and one of the guys responsible for the "Big Man with a Minigun" trope, he was also bona fide Spec Ops before that. Every Marine ive talked to has said you really don't lose that touch, even if out of the service you've developed a beer gut.
I mean soldiers could be amped up to start with, but to equal their greater capabilities the aliens would have to get jacked out too with lightning fast reactions and an enormous number of TU.
I like the idea of game balance where "everybody is broken" but that often turns out to be a trainwreck too.