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Old 04-25-2016, 10:42 AM   #1
onetrikpony
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Default Armor: materials, cost, weight, by TL

I've been looking into armor and armor systems in the different GURPS publications and I'm finding some discrepancies (and maybe some anachronisms)

? Does anyone know what the default material technology for armor is in TL9 and TL10?

I recently found out that you can't reverse engineer a TL9 combat walker from Ultratech using the rules from GURPS Mecha or Vehicles. The Combat walker weighs 800lbs. It seems that the lightest weight of 200/120 armor in any build system would be 600lbs. by itself.

I've read somewhere that 1" of armor steel (RHA?) is DR70, which equates roughly to 0.57lbs / 1DR over 1 square foot.
GURPS mecha has an armor called "Laminate" with a weight of 0.06lbs/DR*sf. That's about 10 times lighter (or 10 times stronger), than the RHA which seems to be pretty conservative even for a moderate level of technical progress. It was this 0.06lbs factor I was using to reverse engineer the Combat Walker.

So, It seems to me that some sources in GURPS support the idea of better armor materials. I just can't find them.
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Old 04-25-2016, 10:48 AM   #2
mlangsdorf
 
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Default Re: Armor: materials, cost, weight, by TL

You want "Cutting Edge Armor Design" from Pyramid v3.85. It has weights per square foot and costs per pound of a bunch of high-tech and ultratech armor materials.
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Old 04-25-2016, 10:51 AM   #3
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Armor: materials, cost, weight, by TL

Quote:
Originally Posted by onetrikpony View Post
I've been looking into armor and armor systems in the different GURPS publications and I'm finding some discrepancies (and maybe some anachronisms)

? Does anyone know what the default material technology for armor is in TL9 and TL10?

I recently found out that you can't reverse engineer a TL9 combat walker from Ultratech using the rules from GURPS Mecha or Vehicles.
Do note that Mecha and Vehicles are 3e books. while 1" (25mm) of RHA was and is still DR 70, TLs aren't necessarily the same between editions.

All materials for future tech armor are speculative but I will note that TL8 trauma plates are already using materials far, far stronger per unit of weight than steel. They are hard to reverse engineer too.

This partly offset by the ceramics in trauma paltes beign ablative in Gurps terms.

I'm sorry I can't be of much help but I can't really do much better than you can.
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Old 04-25-2016, 10:54 AM   #4
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Armor: materials, cost, weight, by TL

Quote:
Originally Posted by mlangsdorf View Post
You want "Cutting Edge Armor Design" from Pyramid v3.85. It has weights per square foot and costs per pound of a bunch of high-tech and ultratech armor materials.
eh, I didn't mention this because it doesn't go very far into TL9. don't believe it will help him reverse engineer a Combat Walker either. It, wouldn't let me reverse engineer a TL9 Combat Hardsuit.
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Old 04-25-2016, 11:29 AM   #5
onetrikpony
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Default Re: Armor: materials, cost, weight, by TL

Thanks for the advice guys.
I'll check out that pyramid article just to see which technologies they're betting on.

It seems to me that if you Halve the drivetrain, structure and armor weight in Mecha you can get close to the Combat Walker Stats.

This would make a material roughly 20x stronger, or lighter, than armor steel at TL9. Anyone have any estimates of how this might support or unbalance other Ultra-Tech technologies?

Myself, I figure that this level of toughness in a material would require something like bulk-fullerine or some exotic molecular precision-arranged alloy. Either of which would probably need dry nano-tech which shouldn't be available til TL10
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