SSFSX17
05/31/04 06:45 PM
128.195.93.199
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Many mechs have been lost to "headcapping," which is the total destruction of the head by a single PPC or Gauss Rifle shot. Hardened Armor was too expensive and heavy. Therefore, the scientists got to work on an armor that could both withstand such "headcapping" weapons and not be too heavy at the same time. They designed an overly complicated system in which armor plates could safely "sink in" to the mech while the kinetic energy would be dissipated through overly complicated hydraulics and shock absorption. The problem with this overly complicated system is that if something goes wrong, the whole mech body part will collapse and fall right off.
Shock Armor weighs the same as regular armor but takes up 7 crits. It cuts the damage from physical attacks, ACs, GRs, PPCs, and Thunders down to one fourth original damage rounding down, although the damage of an AC/5 or an AC/2 can never be reduced below 1. Shock Armor generates an amount of heat equal to the to-hit roll (basically, from 2 to 12), but this heat is only generated if actually hit by such a weapon. A critical hit against Shock Armor will instantly destroy the location, however. When Shock Armor is hit by machine guns or infantry riflemen, the heat generated is twice as much as (potentially from 4 to 24), since the shots are hard enough to register an impact but there are too many of them for the system to handle properly.
Lousy good-for-nothing mortals. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.
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Cray
06/01/04 02:17 PM
147.160.1.5
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Flexible armor might help prolong the life of armor against low speed impacts, but high velocity threats like AC shells and GR projectiles will be hitting too fast for the flexing of the armor to make a difference. By the time the shock travels through the plate to get it really moving (a process occuring at about the speed of sound in the material), the impact will be over. The speed of light nature of PPC shots is even worse.
Further, if this armor protects against PPC surface explosions, it should also work against lasers, which should pump energy into armor fast enough to create surface explosions, too.
I'd recommend just using that "blazer" armor in MaxTech which, IIRC, protects against ballistic weapons pretty well.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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Silenced_Sonix
06/01/04 03:46 PM
168.209.97.34
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Or just good old ferro and avoid getting hit by those big weapons in the first place... Works for me.
Evolve or Die
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Greyslayer
06/01/04 04:27 PM
216.14.192.233
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I thought the speed of sound in an object like metal was about 2.2 kilometers per second compared to about 340 m/s in air? Still probably not quick enough give any benefit though.
Then again I could be struggling to remember yr 12 physics from about 1990.
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Cray
06/01/04 08:34 PM
68.200.108.55
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Quote:
I thought the speed of sound in an object like metal was about 2.2 kilometers per second compared to about 340 m/s in air? Still probably not quick enough give any benefit though.
Exactly.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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