New shield type

[JHDude]

Hey guys, another question for you.

I'm trying to put an alien race that I've been developing in my head for a long time into GURPS. They're rather militaristic, so I'm trying to get their weapons and armor constructed first, and that's where I ran into a slight problem...

This race is a super-science race, carrying conversion beams mounted into their battle suits. In addition to that, their suits have a personal shield that absorbs incoming energy attacks, and uses part of the would-be damage to power the weapon (and other systems). The issue is, I'm not entirely sure how that shield is going to come out in GURPS...

I guess what I really need are some people willing to bounce ideas with me.

Thanks in advance.

[nanoboy]

If it's just technology, then just say that so much damage is so many shots and be done with it.

[aesir23]

If, for some reason, you want to build the shields as an advantage, I'd go with DR (Absorbtion (Energy Reserve Only)).

[DouglasCole]

In GURPS, damage represents energy. Beam weapons I think do damage as the third root of energy, kinetic weapons are square root of energy.

So, let's say you're doing all energy weapons.

Your suit-mounted gun does 6dx10. Cube that, and you get 216,000 dice-cubed.

So if your shield absorbs up to (say) 6dx5 (DR105), cubing THAT we get 27,000 inputs per hit. So every (216,000/27,000) hits = 8 hits you gain one shot of your gun.

(Note you could also just do x10/x5 cubed = 8)

[JHDude]

So I would have to modify the shield so that it could withstand more than 8 hits of 6dx10 damage (extra power doesn't work so good if you're toast)? Or am I not understanding this correctly?

The way I was intending was that the shield absorbs energy until it blows, and that diverting incoming energy to power the weapon was a way to increase shield regeneration...

[SuedodeuS]

Originally Posted by JHDude

So I would have to modify the shield so that it could withstand more than 8 hits of 6dx10 damage (extra power doesn't work so good if you're toast)? Or am I not understanding this correctly?

The way I was intending was that the shield absorbs energy until it blows, and that diverting incoming energy to power the weapon was a way to increase shield regeneration...

Well, he said it would be more like 8 hits of 6dx5, but it sounds like you're trying something else. In this case, is it that it absorbs a certain amount of energy (and if it goes above the cap, something bad happens), and that you can dump the built-up energy into a spare power cell? That's fairly complicated, and you'd end up needing to assign power values to various attacks (or just use damage, which while unrealistic would work).

As an example, let's say it's a DR 200 shield, and it can absorb up to 400 points of damage (after which point the generator destabilizes*). If you're using a 6dx10 weapon, then once the shield has absorbed a total of 210 damage (the average for your weapon) you can divert the damage into your power cell, giving you one extra shot. Of course, if the shield took those 210 points in one go, it would have actually only absorbed 200 (and the remaining 10 would have penetrated).

*what this means is up to you. The shield might shut down temporarily, short-circuit out, or even explode! Heck, maybe there's the potential for all 3 - have the shield make an HT roll, possibly penalized if it's absorbed more than 400 points. On a critical success, it dumps some (half?) of its absorbed energy and keeps functioning. On a success, it shuts down but you can boot it right back up once you've dumped the excess. On a failure, it shorts out and requires minor repairs before it can be used again. On a critical failure, it explodes, dealing the damage absorbed (or some fraction of it, if you want it to be possible to survive) as cr ex.

[JHDude]

So use the DR to determine what is absorbed? That could work, I'll just have to make sure it doesn't get too overpowered...

Instead of treating this shield like a force screen, could I treat it as an extra layer of armor that shuts down after taking too much penetrating energy damage (so DR represents successfully diverted energy, and shield HP determines when it shuts down)? If so, how overpowered would that be (I'd probably reduce the DR, I'm not sure what to put the HP at)?

[blacksmith]

Originally Posted by JHDude

So use the DR to determine what is absorbed? That could work, I'll just have to make sure it doesn't get too overpowered...

Instead of treating this shield like a force screen, could I treat it as an extra layer of armor that shuts down after taking too much penetrating energy damage (so DR represents successfully diverted energy, and shield HP determines when it shuts down)? If so, how overpowered would that be (I'd probably reduce the DR, I'm not sure what to put the HP at)?

If it is gear you can treat it how ever you want. Gear does not need to be statable. So unless this is a gadget or power you don't need to worry to much about how to attain the effect, rather just write it up.