armor issue/question

[tim_manley]

I don't understand why the armor model was chosen to be the way it was. It seems rather cartoon game-ish to have it remove dice and then reduce the number.

Why not just have an Armor Rating that reduces damage done by acting as a threshold? So for example an AR of 5 stops 5 pts of damage and the rest get through. A critical hit can still reduce this by 1 (I like that rule by the way).

The method you presented seems kludgey to me.

 

[apoc527]

It's quite clever really. If you assume that most weapons do once die of damage, then it acts like normal DR against most of them. However, since the autofire rules add dice, it basically makes you more able to take autofire attacks, and doesn't inflate their damage artifically. (otherwise, you'd be better off resolving each bullet of an autofire attack separately and subtracting DR from damage rolled). The T20 system is quite elegant, and I like the way it works. It makes armor less useful against laser weapons, as they do more damage than other weapons, and gauss weapons have a slightly better chance per shot to damage armor, and will do MUCH more damage on average than a normal gun with an autofire attack.

Hope that helps!

 

[hunter]

It also lets us scale combat between characters, vehicles, and starships more seamlessly. Of course you can't see that in the Lite rules.

Hunter

 

[tim_manley]

Originally posted by hunter:
It also lets us scale combat between characters, vehicles, and starships more seamlessly.....

This is the reason I thought it was structured that way. For purely 'man-to-man' combat it seems heavy; but if it's a process that can be extrapolated I can see how the process would work, and even how it can match vehicle against single target.

I am eager to get the copy of the rule-set I pre-ordered and see how it's all done.

 

[vegascat]

With the scale of combat expected, large differences in tech are expected in a conflict. The system should be able to handle a boulder from a ewok catapult hitting the airlock of your ship, or the guy standing in front of it wearing battle dress. Will the system be able to handle smart bullets? The jerk with an accelerator rifle loaded with seeking bullets that can find the armor gaps can make combat armor a death trap. Will a stilleto knife in the hands of a combat vet commando be able to kill a guard wearing mesh armor? Then, will a group of Vargr all wearing mesh need hair replacement treatments after meeting a guy using an FGMP-15?

Players love to keep the armor on, but as person who has worn IPE (Individual Protective Equipment) after a while, it wears a person down. It gets heavy, sweaty, smelly, soaked with persperation, soaked with whatever you are standing/laying in, and if not fitted properly, will bite the wearer between plates. Ask any military what is the first thing they do after all clear is sounded. The armor is removed.

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In the end, Murphy will rule

 

[vegascat]

Battle dress is an excellent way to suck up extra player funds. Maintenance intensive, lots of small parts. Expensive replacement parts. And everytime he sees combat and takes damage, just what is it going to cost him in time and cash to make it right again. Then the armor will have its own little quirks. Examples to make life interesting; the fingers curl and extend in perfect sign language when the hand is at rest sending wrong messages to the locals. The HUD will malfunction irregularly targeting friends with incorrect IFF info. The comm gear will pick up local radio broadcasts, of muzak or televangelist. The onboard AI will like Muzak. The onboard AI prefers the previous owner. The water filtration system tastes funny even after replcing the filters. The force feedback system will go aout of alignment easily causing strange movements. The force feedbck system will jolt instead of tingle. The force feedback system will tingle in the wrong place, make it interesting, due to irregular shorting.
How did they get the armor to begin with? Did they get it off a corpse, freshly killed, with a criminal record, and highly identifiable armor? Just try getting parts for Zhodani battle dress in the Spinward Marches. Try walking down a street in it. Life will get interesting.

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In the end, Murphy will rule