Armor: materials, cost, weight, by TL

onetrikpony · 04-25-2016, 10:42 AM

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.

04-25-2016, 10:42 AM	#1
onetrikpony Join Date: Apr 2016	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.