Spaceships hull armor…solid?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

They might for certain values of impactor size and velocity compared to equal masses of solid armor but not for all impactors. If the striking object is either too bg or too fast Whipple Shields would be ineffective. Also, they are ablative though against crater-making impacts (or ionizing radiation) all armor should be.

I mean, they'd still provide DR, not outright immunity. An object that was too large and/or too fast would simply do too much damage for the improved DR to make much difference. Maybe it would be more realistic for there to only be a certain range in which the multiplier (whatever it is) applies, but I feel it would be simpler to just set a speed limit beyond which the Whipple Shield gets a sizable DR multiplier, and let the fact this doesn't work effectively against really big and/or fast targets come about naturally (from such targets dealing enough damage they basically ignore the DR, multiplier or not). Or maybe make the multiplier all-or-nothing?

And, yeah, a lot of threats spaceships face should probably ablate most if not all armor materials, but for simplicity GURPS generally reserves that option for corrosive damage.