Phase 1 Stormtroopers and new Vader model image - Star Wars BattleFront Commander mod for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

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Most stormtrooper armor was integrated with standard personal ray-shield projectors (in direct contrast of clone troopers) in order to survive open blaster fire in case cover was nonexistent or limited. It also improved hand-to-hand combat, making standard troopers capable of surviving contact with vibroblades (although did not provide any protection towards lightsabers). Nevertheless, the power consumption of shield projectors was very high and they tended to overheat and fail under sustained blaster fire or under prolonged contact with a lightsaber and unless the trooper carried a power generator (which were very bulky) the shield projector could take several minutes until it could be reactivated once it failed. These factors made personal trooper shields very rarely seen on prolonged engagements and/or where terrain had a certain degree of surrounding cover. Also lack of experience from novice cadets towards blaster and lightsaber firepower made the shield projector an underestimated and underused piece of equipment.

Other features of the armor included:

- The gloves could be powered up during Hand-to-Hand combat to deliver stun shocks.[3]

- The stomach armor contained a Manual Suit Seal and environmental controls.[3]

- The thigh armor had a reinforced alloy plate ridge.

- The lower left leg segment, near the knee, contained the suit's axillary power cells.[3]

- The left upper side of the shin armor had a knee protector plate for comfort from a kneeling firing position.

- IFF circuitry was in the back of the suit for identification and command purposes for identifying each other.

- A resonator to open secure doors.

I'm aware of personal shield technology, I was directly referring to the more powerful shields used by the commanders in the force unleashed. And to be honest the shields didn't really help the storm troopers very much, by the time of the rebellion, they were using blaster rifles capable of easily cutting a fully armored storm trooper in half.

I know. I just wanted to point that out for those who didn't know.

As for the blaster's cutting troops in half. Source? I never read about that in the comics nor seen it in the games.

Those personal ray shields were effective at deflecting standard blaster fire for a short period of time. Which would have given the Stormtrooper enough time to find some more "permanent" cover.