[GURPS Spaceships] Question About Ablative DR

[AmesJainchill]

When you have a particle beam with armor divisor 5 and you have a force screen, do you take the removed DR off of the total dDR number before you apply the armor divisor or after you apply the armor divisor?

[Dinadon]

Per p.B47 it's based on the amount of basic damage rolled. An armor divisor reduces the total DR vs that attack. I would be inclined to say you divide by the armor divisor first before working out the ablative part. Since the attack penetrated easily its done less damage to the armor and more damage to what the armor was protecting.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by AmesJainchill

When you have a particle beam with armor divisor 5 and you have a force screen, do you take the removed DR off of the total dDR number before you apply the armor divisor or after you apply the armor divisor?

I asked something similar to this about a year and a half ago, I believe, only I was asking about semi-ablative DR.

The result was that the damage taken by the DR comes off the total DR. Armor divisors don't apply when determining the damage taken by ablative and semi-ablative DR.

[elustran]

You should deduct damage to DR after the attack is resolved, so armor divisor doesn't enter the equation. If I do 30(2) damage to 20DR (semi-ablative), 20 points of damage get through, and the armor is only worth 17DR on its next hit.

[Dinadon]

I must say I find that a little odd.

So if I have 100 DR (ablative) and was hit by an attack with armor divisor (10) for 100 points of piercing damage I would loose all my DR and receive 90 points of damage?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Dinadon

I must say I find that a little odd.

So if I have 100 DR (ablative) and was hit by an attack with armor divisor (10) for 100 points of piercing damage I would loose all my DR and receive 90 points of damage?

Essentially, yes.

Of course, if you're hit with something doing that much damage with that armor divisor, you're up in the "LAW Rocket" range of damage, and those tend to explode whatever they hit anyways.

[joelbf]

Originally Posted by Dinadon

I must say I find that a little odd.

So if I have 100 DR (ablative) and was hit by an attack with armor divisor (10) for 100 points of piercing damage I would loose all my DR and receive 90 points of damage?

While this is probably how RAW is intended, I don't like it either. An armor divisor effectively means that you don't interact with the armor. So I would house-rule it and say that you should divide the resulting damage by armor divisor for calculation of ablative effects.

Your example wold be 10 damage stopped by armor, 90 got through, 100/10 = 10 lost from dr.

[AmesJainchill]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

I asked something similar to this about a year and a half ago, I believe, only I was asking about semi-ablative DR.

The result was that the damage taken by the DR comes off the total DR. Armor divisors don't apply when determining the damage taken by ablative and semi-ablative DR.

Well, ****. That makes it much more complicated.

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by Boobis

While this is probably how RAW is intended, I don't like it either. An armor divisor effectively means that you don't interact with the armor. So I would house-rule it and say that you should divide the resulting damage by armor divisor for calculation of ablative effects.

Your example wold be 10 damage stopped by armor, 90 got through, 100/10 = 10 lost from dr.

This is not the case. Armor divisors don't necessarilly entail that you interact less with the armor, but that your penetration of armor is out of scale with the damaging component of the attack.

[elustran]

Originally Posted by Boobis

While this is probably how RAW is intended, I don't like it either. An armor divisor effectively means that you don't interact with the armor. So I would house-rule it and say that you should divide the resulting damage by armor divisor for calculation of ablative effects.

Your example wold be 10 damage stopped by armor, 90 got through, 100/10 = 10 lost from dr.

Y'know, that makes a lot more sense. I generally have only used semi-ablative DR, which already a divisor of 10 before you reduce DR, so I haven't noticed it as much. It seems a bit more realistic in some ways - a narrow AP attack should probably only destroy the armor it hits. In essence, an AP attack is transferring less energy to the armor, so less damage should be done to it.

I think I might houserule this.

It does, however make things more complicated. From my previous example against semi-ablative DR: 30(2) damage to 20 DR... 30/10 for semi-ablative leaves 3 points of reduction to DR, then divided by the divisor of (2) leaves 1.5 points of reduction, rounded up to 2. So, DR is reduced from 20 to 18 after that hit.