[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by blacksmith

The best TL 10 concealable armor has a DR of 18/6 with the 18 only against pi and cut while the best tl8 concealable armor is 35/5 with the 5 being only against crushing attacks. So what gives?

Why does armor in the future suck so much, or at least be unable to be concealed?

If you want to know what soldiers wear, look at Tacsuits. They're strong enough to at least reduce most bullet damage and completely absorb all grenade fragmentation. They won't save you from a sniper, but modern armor won't do that either.

The armor you're looking at is civvy armor.

Also it seems that the electromagnetic version of guns is not better than the ECT version with APEP ammo. Maybe for a couple like the Gauss Shotgun and pistol shotgun, but say for the anti material rifles, the ECT version does better damage.

Listen to yourself. "With an APEP..." Do you know what those cost? Seriously? You think people just hand those out? You think players can afford to?

The Storm Carbine does 7d pi++ damage base. It also has an accuracy of 4, a weight 8, an RoF of 12, 50 shots, a bulk of -4 and Recoil of 3. If you make it an ETC weapon, it jumps up to 10d pi++. A normal Storm Carbine costs $1800, while an ETC Storm Carbine costs $3600

The Gauss Rifle does 6d+2(3) pi- damage base. It has an accuracy of 7+2 (much better), a weight of 8.5, an RoF of 12, 60 shots, same bulk, and a recoil of 2. This means its fires more often, is more likely to hit, and hits more often. The weapon costs $7,100

In fact, two characters with skill 10 firing in a white room using only their accuracy as a bonus, the Storm Carbine will hit an average of twice, while the Gauss Rifle will hit an average of 4 times. This is not inconsequential.

You referred to the APEP, I can assume, because you already grasped that the Gauss weapon has better penetration, and that's true: the ETC Storm Carbine penetrates an average of DR 35, whereas the Gauss Rifle penetrates an average of 66.

So, what about the APEP. Does it really even things out? Certainly seems to, as it applies an (3) armor divisor to the storm carbine (giving it over 100 points of armor penetration). It reduces the damage code, but this is meaningless when we acknowledge that the Gauss rifle deals pi-.

But lets look at ammo costs. A full clip of ETC Storm Carbine Ammo (disregarding the power cell cost) is $40. A full clip of APEP ammo is $400. Four hundred.

The Gauss Rifle costs $4. Four. Ok, technically, it costs $3.6. And even if you wanted to include the cell in the cost (might as well, as you use up a cell per clip), you spend a mere $14 total.

"The APEP makes the Storm Carbine better than the Gauss Rifle!" simply isn't so. Frankly, the APEP is a sniper round. Giving it to guys with machine guns is a waste of money.

Now, by the time you have ETC weapons, I don't think going to Gauss is a sure thing, and by the time you have ETK, frankly, you have such better weapons that most armor simply stops being effective (my solution? I don't use ETK in my games), but technological advancement isn't always a cause of newer is vastly better. Sometimes, it's "newer is a little better," or even "newer is different."

Originally Posted by blacksmith

The problem is that they are not cheap. You need to shoot a lot to overcome the cost difference fundamental to the weapon.

This is not a problem. The average soldier is probably going to be carrying a good 3-5 clips into every battle. Armies spend far more on bullets than on weapons. The savings with a gauss weapon are absurdly huge.