[UT] Plasma Torch vs. big metal door on a spaceship?

[GodBeastX]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

The stats are in weaponized format because when you encounter a Wall etc. in GURPS, you have its stats in the format of HP, DR, perhaps but not necessarily material, and size. When someone makes a Binding or buys a Spaceship, you usually don't know the precise thickness of the targeted thing - you know the HP and DR. And so the cutting-tool stats need to be in a format that allows some sort of cutting-time calculation based on those stats.

We have stats for either destroying an object, or going through an object to hit someone else, but we don't have stats for "What if I want to cut a section out of an object?"

What I mean is for time/HP:

Cutting Point < Cutting Section < Cutting til Door is "Not Present"

Lowering DR makes no sense of the equation because you are lowering DR per location on the object. What I mean is, you cut a foot long slice in the door. If someone shows up with an assault rifle and shoots at it, the bullets are still going to bounce off.

Yet without lowering DR you will never be able to damage HP with a plasma torch. The only way to really make it work is if you can somehow treat cutting through the door as a series of cutting attempts through smaller increments of material. Like say, an inch. You figure DR/HP for that inch of area cut and figure out how many seconds of damage you have to do to that length. Then you determine the perimeter of the material you want to cut and apply inch by inch cuts.

... Which I think Safischer's suggesting.