Quote:
Originally Posted by sir_pudding
Sure but what is it for? Why would I want to use it?
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I've used it, in combination with the High Tech and Ultra Tech equivalent, for an AtE campaign. The campaign premise involved a magical invasion getting nuked, and I needed rules for things like adamant inserts in kevlar armor and mutated spider-goat silk. I've also used it to build Low Tech style charts of modern reenactment armor for a Banestorm victim campaign centered on the SCA. I'd basically use it for anything too weird for Low Tech alone, or for schizo tech.
The biggest problem I ran into was that the Basic Set armors don't match up with Low Tech or the articles. Leg armor in particular tends to be lighter in the basic set than in the supplements. Mixing the two was a bad idea on my part.
On the original topic, I'd agree that looking just at the mechanics in that one article, Segmented Plate is generally worse than any other option. But so what? Bone armor is worse than Horn armor (being semi-ablative and otherwise identical) but I'm still going to make my tribal shaman's ceremonial armor be bone. Lead armor is completely crap, but that won't stop the barbarian chief from thinking (wrongly) that his lead helmet will protect him from sorcery. The Roman legion uses cheap/mass produced (40% cost) Segmented Plate, because they didn't have the tech to produce mail as cheaply or because they faced a lot of crushing weapons.
These rules are meant to allow players to make the most efficient possible armors; they're meant to provide reasonable stats for whatever armors the GM needs for the setting. If the GM needs titanian lorica segmenta, GURPS can deliver.