This is a stupid question but it has been Bugging me. In the CBT Books they Call some armored infantry battle suit infantry, and some battle armor. is it the difference between Potato and Pototo? Or is their an actual difference?

I guess it's the same. But to keep things from becoming confusing, I vote for using Battle Armor as standard term for infantry piloting robotic, weapon-equipped armor.

I would guess the same also O_o though i think the Dif is that Battlesuits are not Fully Inclosed they just provide a little extra armor and weapons(THey called the Cavileir A battlesuit in one of the CBT books)

The Cavalier BA is supposed to be fully protecting the pilot's body, but I understand the confusion. The Cavaliers of the Dark Age set had skin color peeping out from the lower part of their helmet. This was simply a mistake which wasn't made when Cavaliers appeared again in a later expansion of which the name escapes me at the moment. All BA, including the Cavalier, is supposed to be able to function in vacuum conditions as well, so it's quite clear that BA has to be fully closed.

According to one of my MechWarrior RPG scenario books, there is also something like body armor, this includes equipment such as flak vests, helmets and shoulder/kneepads. Most non-BA infantry wears things like those as part of their combat uniform.

Nanhold: Aye, you can see this in the MWDA minis like Hoverbikes and Gun Emplacements.

There MUST be some definition for Battle Armor, though. Look at the Infiltrator Mk. I and its chicken legs...how do you get a regular human in there? Obviously, his legs aren't controlling the BA's legs...

Exactly, ThePlasticOne. The same goes for the Cavalier BA. That's why I call the infantrymen who operate Battle Armor pilots, since their body usually is within the torso part of the BA. The legs and arms of BA usually are automated, vat-born Elemental warriors need less mechanization of the BA they're piloting since they simply 'fill up' the BA more.

Battle Armour is diff from a Battle Suit.

Battle Armour fully encases the wearer in a protective casing and has inbuilt weapons and equipment (i.e lasers in the arms etc)

Battle Suit are just Armour without any advanced inbuilt weapons.

The Diffrence Between a 40k Space Marine Terminator (Battle Armour) and a regular Mk7 Space Marine (Battle Suit).

SV_Harlequin, when using Warhammer 40K as an example, I think it's even better to compare Battle Armor to the Dreadnoughts which can be found in the 40K universe.

In CBT there is no difference in meaning. An individual wears a battle armor suit, or a battle suit or battle armor for short.

Best thing i could think of without getting into the realms of Anime where it would get obscure.

So a battlesuit is just some kind of armor, Without incluided weapons? Neat. I would not consider A body armor wearing infantry a battlesuit. It would be A normal infantry.

The usage changed over the years. In the MechWarrior 2nd Ed. RPG (1991), the preferred term was "Battlesuit." (You had the Gunnery/Battlesuit skill, for example.) Meanwhile, in the CBT rulebooks of the time, the terminology was more confused, with "battlearmor" being used interchangeably.

It's important to note that early on there were only two types of battle armor: The classic Elemental BA, or "Toad" BA as briefly known in the Inner Sphere, and the Inner Sphere battle armor. With only two models it wasn't very important to keep the nomenclature straight. Shortly thereafter the GDL BA and Sloth BA appeared and "battlesuit" saw less use.

Once the Field Manuals came out in the late Nineties, the various Inner Sphere states started introducing their own battle armor. The Draconis Combine built the Kanazuchi, Kage, and Raiden armors (1996), followed shortly by the Free Worlds League introducing the Longinus and Achileus and the Clans' introduction of the Sylph, Undine (upon which the Hauberk is based), Salamander, and Gnome. The term "battlesuit" began to be entire superseded by "battlearmor" or "battle armor."

The BattleTech Master Rules (1998) seem to have solidified "battle armor" as the canon CBT usage. The CBT Companion (2003) uses this terminology and, since that's the book with the customization rules for battle amor, I'd say that's pretty official.