Ablative, Flexible personal force fields for action games

[The Benj]

Yes, they'll be next to useless if you're significantly outnumbered, but for one-on-one fighting they'll kick a lot of arse.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

A bit of handwavium and you make the force field slippery -....

Hm... isn't there already a mod for that? (I.e. handwaving not required.)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by The Benj

Yes, they'll be next to useless if you're significantly outnumbered, but for one-on-one fighting they'll kick a lot of arse.

They could easily be illegal for duels, however. It seems to me that in such a setting they'd exist as specialized infantry weapons, carried by a class of expendable troop. Probably something like a pike formation combined with halberders or similar.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

Hm... isn't there already a mod for that? (I.e. handwaving not required.)

Haven't seen one, but it's no great matter to invent one. The main handwaving is in why it's so, but that seems pretty self-explanatory to me.

[Erik_Nielsen]

Originally Posted by Molokh

Anyway, does anyone have opinions and/or suggestions regarding such equipment?

Yes: remember that a TL9 Heavy Pistol does an average of 11 points on a single hit, rendering a DR 10 (Ablative) force field useless on one shot, and most PDWs and SMGs will do a lot worse (think: Swiss Cheese).

Rather than using Ablative, consider using Semi-Ablative; your fights will last much longer.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Erik_Nielsen

Yes: remember that a TL9 Heavy Pistol does an average of 11 points on a single hit, rendering a DR 10 (Ablative) force field useless on one shot, and most PDWs and SMGs will do a lot worse (think: Swiss Cheese).

Rather than using Ablative, consider using Semi-Ablative; your fights will last much longer.

I was figuring that Molokh was talking more in the range of the DR numbers that UT force screens boast, in the hundreds. Those are also only Semi-Ablative, but still.

[jacobmuller]

Infantry weaponry: forearm mounted semiauto firearms that discharge on impact - punch to shoot. A suitable PDW round will disable and you could make it an AP round for little loss,eg 3d(2)pi- , 4lbs/ 1/2lb, 20rnds, ST9. Accuracy would go down but it'd be irrelevant on a melee weapon. Possibly a punch triggered 3rnd burst.
Or go for big bore punch pistols, fewer shots but more wound potential, eg 50AE 3d(2)pi, 7shot...

Neither is as lethal as a shotgun (is it 4d+4 pi+?) and both make more sense than a one shot stick for battle.

edit: nasty body armour bypass: beanbags. How much damage would 4d pi+ come down too if it was a bean bag? And all the damage ratings should be higher if they are impact discharges. Any one know what the bonus is?

I assumed the forcefields would be DR100 or so.