Spaceship DR and damage

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by pawsplay

I'm just picturing a guy in a DR 150 battlesuit stepping in front of a spaceworthy vessel and saying, "Don't worry, I'll save you!" In any case, it's clearly not a military vessel. What is the DR of something intended for combat? The Basic Rules offer no guidance on that, and Ultra-Tech gives up after tanks. With a DR 700 tank on one hand, and a DR 100 star freighter on the other, I was at a loss for extrapolating what a fighter or small cruiser looks like.

Well, a battlesuit has a (relatively speaking) small mass of high-thickness (and probably high-density) armor put around a really small (SM0) thingy. A spaceship has to cover its whole surface with the same thickness and it will cost more. A battlesuit is basically a very very light tank.

[pawsplay]

That helps, somewhat. I have two things I'm working on. First, I'm building a TL 11 robot that eats tanks for breakfast. Second, broad parameters for its ship, an automated cruiser full of weapons that could stop most battleships in their tracks. I was comparing my initial doodles to what's in Ultra-Tech and I noticed my first go was pretty vulnerable comparable to some of the weapons listed. I made a guess that if that were the case, his stuff would be way under-powered compared to published GURPS stuff.

I don't feel as fluent with this stuff compared to stuff that has changed less over editions, or things on a more personal scale. Comic book supers look pretty monstrous when statted up to smash tanks and take hits from AA missiles.

[jacobmuller]

Spaceships goes way beyond UT scales.
In UT terms, that cruiser, at SM+11, has some 1500ton particle beams dealing 6dx50(5) at 2,000/10,000 miles. But it could mount a 4500ton plasma cannon with 6dx200(2) at 10,000miles or a UV laser 6dx100(2) 50,000miles.

TL11 robot? What TL tank would it be facing? With Graviton beams it'd ignore their armour...

[Langy]

Well, a battlesuit has a (relatively speaking) small mass of high-thickness (and probably high-density) armor put around a really small (SM0) thingy. A spaceship has to cover its whole surface with the same thickness and it will cost more. A battlesuit is basically a very very light tank.

Battlesuits also use more expensive, but lighter armor than the default in Spaceships. I can't remember how much better Battlesuit armor is at the moment - something like one or two tech levels better than the default but around ten or more times as expensive.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

The exact DR will depend heavily on the purpose, size, shape, and tech level of the ship. The armor systems in Spaceships go from TL0 ice armor (DR 10 for a SM+8 ship) all the way to TL12 exotic laminate armor (DR 7000 for an unstreamlined SM+15 ship).

Per layer. I'll generally put two or three layers unless I'm going for total eggshell.

[TJA]

And then, add a heavy forcescreen to get some real DR :D

Beside that, i see no real problem in using Spaceships with any version of GURPS ...