What does MT actually stand for?

[Enderspoons]

I don't recall seeing it mentioned anywhere, and now I'm curious.

Edit: Anywhere within AC6, I mean.

[Fenix]

Muscle Tracer, why... no idea.

[250 Kroot Hounds]

MT stands for Muscle Tracer, not really something thats brought up too often anymore tho. Its been around since the beginning

[[D3RP] Ate-By-Zombies]

EMPTY
MPTY
MPT
MT
_

[魔装機神 Psybuster]

Originally posted by Fenix:

Muscle Tracer, why... no idea.

Presumably being humanoid machines they were "tracing" how "muscles" move

[Call Sign: Raven]

Originally posted by Fenix:

Muscle Tracer, why... no idea.

That sounds like something that could simply be lost in translation. I'm curious what they are referred to in the game's native language.

[魔装機神 Psybuster]

Originally posted by Call Sign: Raven:

That sounds like something that could simply be lost in translation. I'm curious what they are referred to in the game's native language.

Muscle Tracer. Source Wikipedia: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/アーマード・コア_(架空の兵器)

各世界ごとに異なるが、基本的にはACの前段階としてマッスル・トレーサー（Muscle Tracer, MT）と呼ばれる組み替え不能の人型作業機械および兵器が存在する。これを用途に応じて部位ごとに組み替え可能としたものとしてCMT（Cored MT）が登場し、さらにそれを兵器として発展させたものがACとされている。
While it varies in each world (as in the settings of each AC universe), generally there are humanoid labor machines and weapons with set configurations called Muscle Tracers, or MTs, that serve as the prior step before ACs. It is the setting that a version where parts can be changed in response to various needs called CMT (Cored MT) appear, and ATs are these further developed as weapons.

[Bear Food]

Meat Tooth

[hoimingmissile]

Muscle Tracer. It's been the term for non-AC robots since the first game. They never really explain what the technology actually is which is par for the course for FromSoft. (They've been doing super vague storytelling long before Miyazaki came along and pitched Dark Souls.)

From the original game manual I have here:

As mankind moved underground, one pressing societal need was to improve the efficiency and performance of machines. A rapidly developing robot technology called Muscle Tracer (MT) technology permeated society. The MT technology advanced steadily until a breakthrough was achieved with the establishment of the standard CORE concept.
yadayada people began calling such heavily armed and modified MTs, Armored Cores (AC).

From what I gather, it means in the AC universe people pilot the robots by plugging in directly somehow rather than using joysticks and throttles. It's the handwaved excuse for why they use humanoid robot designs with hands and fingers so much.

EDIT for your edit: Yeah, it's not mentioned anywhere in game, it's just a legacy term at this point. This game isn't even set in the original universe.

[🎃MaximusBlastalot🎃]

Cant rember if theres an actual source or its just implied for it but I thought the mts were just running off muscle imputs (ie the brain either directly/indirectly) while acs used both manual controls and muscle inputs hence why they are harder to control (except ac 4 where you also need to be psychic because reasons).

Might have been stuff people just made up and posted back in the day.

[Moddeang]

It Muscle Tracer in Armored Core but if you seen MT in other mecha media, Most of the time its mean Machine type like A massive machine type.

As for AC, Muscle Tracer are a system first release as a way to control worker machine but then get mod into a war machine like those MT with seen in the game.

Still Muscle Tracer didn't mean you move your machine by your muscle alone tho... That are control stick and paddle to input most of the command. MT are just assist you to do some cool movement...

[Serikos]

I thought they explained what an MT was at some point

[REhorror]

Originally posted by D3RP Ate-By-Zombies:

EMPTY
MPTY
MPT
MT
_

I honestly think it's a pun to this.

[Kalameet]

Originally posted by Enderspoons:

I don't recall seeing it mentioned anywhere, and now I'm curious.

If you google for the PS1 manual of Armored Core (i did that recently) it tells you some terms.
I never played the first games

[Belmont]

Originally posted by Enderspoons:

I don't recall seeing it mentioned anywhere, and now I'm curious.

Originally posted by Fenix:

Muscle Tracer, why... no idea.

Muscle Tracer technology, based on contextual clues, it could be closer to what we have as exo skeletons[hips.hearstapps.com] that react and support our movements. Think of the mech from Ridley Scott's Alien, or the old ass show Exosuits, or even Ironman, or those mechs in the Animatrix (Second Renaissance)

I suppose ATs from Psybuster simply mean "Advanced Tracer" hinting at the improvisation of the technology, leading the way to Armored Cores, which are more like the anime mechs we know now. Assuming this is a build on Muscle Tracer tech, then the cockpits done by fan artists are off the mark. The people inside should be snuggly harnessed into the mech itself with, probably, a much more sophisticated interface to accommodate an eject system.

[魔装機神 Psybuster]

Originally posted by Belmont:

I suppose ATs from Psybuster simply mean "Advanced Tracer" hinting at the improvisation of the technology, leading the way to Armored Cores, which are more like the anime mechs we know now. Assuming this is a build on Muscle Tracer tech, then the cockpits done by fan artists are off the mark. The people inside should be snuggly harnessed into the mech itself with, probably, a much more sophisticated interface to accommodate an eject system.

I didn't mention any "AT" abbreviation here. MTs are Muscle Tracers, and by building up and adding armaments to them specifically for combat we arrive at the AC, or Armored Core, since the in-universe terminology for a more customized MT was a Cored MT, or CMT. Also, even normal MTs have an emergency escape, since Michigan was telling his troops to be ready to use it at any time during the fight.