Flexible Armor—Why?

[lugaid]

I can't find an answer in the rules and searching this forum hasn't helped much either: what is the point of giving armor under DR5 the attribute "flexible"? As far as I've been able to find, the only effect is to cause any crushing damage to "leak" 1 point of injury per 5 points of rolled damage stopped by DR, and several other types of damage to similarly get through 1 point of injury per 10 points of damage stopped by DR. If armor is rated at DR2*, then it will never stop more than 2 points and so never have any effect different than any other type of armor. What am I missing, if anything?

[MrFix]

Originally Posted by lugaid

I can't find an answer in the rules and searching this forum hasn't helped much either: what is the point of giving armor under DR5 the attribute "flexible"? As far as I've been able to find, the only effect is to cause any crushing damage to "leak" 1 point of injury per 5 points of rolled damage stopped by DR, and several other types of damage to similarly get through 1 point of injury per 10 points of damage stopped by DR. If armor is rated at DR2*, then it will never stop more than 2 points and so never have any effect different than any other type of armor. What am I missing, if anything?

Flexible is often a feature that allows armor layering and concealment. Plus, sanity-checked, the damage is supposed to stack to inflict blunt damage.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by lugaid

I can't find an answer in the rules and searching this forum hasn't helped much either: what is the point of giving armor under DR5 the attribute "flexible"? As far as I've been able to find, the only effect is to cause any crushing damage to "leak" 1 point of injury per 5 points of rolled damage stopped by DR, and several other types of damage to similarly get through 1 point of injury per 10 points of damage stopped by DR. If armor is rated at DR2*, then it will never stop more than 2 points and so never have any effect different than any other type of armor. What am I missing, if anything?

I think there may be a few cases where flexible armor is qualitatively worse than rigid (grappling and/or falls, maybe?), but can't quite recall and may be misremembering. Additionally, while unlikely, you could have a crushing attack with a really bad armor divisor (say, (0.3) - or x3 to DR, if you prefer), in which case the flexible quality could indeed come into play. There's also layering to potentially consider - a character with DR 3 (Flexible -20%) [12] and wearing DR 2* leather armor has a net DR 5*, which is susceptible to blunt trauma.

In general, however, below DR 5, natural armor being Flexible has no real impact, and worn armor being Flexible is actually advantageous (no armor chinks/gaps). This may be part of why most official templates (or options to get such DR) generally has it with Tough Skin rather than Flexible when below DR 5, as the former does have an effect. Arguably, in that case Tough Skin should only be worth -20% (and possibly be renamed to Subcutaneous), as the -20% from the built-in Flexible doesn't make much difference as such low DR. That's a bit complex, however, and it's not like essentially giving the character a few extra points is going to break the game.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by lugaid

I can't find an answer in the rules and searching this forum hasn't helped much either: what is the point of giving armor under DR5 the attribute "flexible"? As far as I've been able to find, the only effect is to cause any crushing damage to "leak" 1 point of injury per 5 points of rolled damage stopped by DR, and several other types of damage to similarly get through 1 point of injury per 10 points of damage stopped by DR. If armor is rated at DR2*, then it will never stop more than 2 points and so never have any effect different than any other type of armor. What am I missing, if anything?

Well, the point is accuracy. If the armor is flexible and you don't tag it as flexible, it means you're basically misstating its nature to the mechanics.

But what does that do? At least one or two things other than blunt trauma:
-Flexible armor doesn't protect against damage from joint locks and similar techniques.
-Rigid armor can injure people hitting it with their body (MA optional rules) and can provide a striking surface for your own blows.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by lugaid

I can't find an answer in the rules and searching this forum hasn't helped much either: what is the point of giving armor under DR5 the attribute "flexible"? As far as I've been able to find, the only effect is to cause any crushing damage to "leak" 1 point of injury per 5 points of rolled damage stopped by DR, and several other types of damage to similarly get through 1 point of injury per 10 points of damage stopped by DR. If armor is rated at DR2*, then it will never stop more than 2 points and so never have any effect different than any other type of armor. What am I missing, if anything?

Because the real armour is flexible and because of some optional rules in GURPS Low Tech (eg. "Chinks in Armor" Low Tech p 101).

As an alternative, you could say that for every (eg. ) 1 on the damage die, one point of crushing damage gets through if the armour would otherwise stop it. I think that was how it worked in GURPS 3e.

[Anthony]

The only mechanical effects of flexible armor below DR 5 is that it doesn't work against a few grappling maneuvers (e.g. Arm Lock, Neck Snap, Wrench Limb -- B403-404; it probably shouldn't apply against constriction attack but is not mentioned there) and attacks with armor divisors lower than 1.

Given how little it actually does, it really shouldn't be -20%, given that Limited Defense (Energy Attacks Only) is -20% and is completely ineffective against any attack that would be influenced by Flexible. This is probably a combination of Limited Defense being too small a limitation and flexible being too large.

[Fred Brackin]

Along with all the other points already mentioned armor can have its' DR increased by magic. superior materials and/or advanced construction techniques.

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Given how little it actually does, it really shouldn't be -20%, given that Limited Defense (Energy Attacks Only) is -20% and is completely ineffective against any attack that would be influenced by Flexible. This is probably a combination of Limited Defense being too small a limitation and flexible being too large.

Agree with this. Limited DR seems like a total rip-off to me and Flexible is a sweet deal especially sub-5 DR.

Debateably the cost reduction for Flexible could be reduced or ignored when total DR < 5 but that's clunky and not how these things are usually handled in GURPS (as far as a I know).

[lugaid]

These are all excellent points. As well, in a case of "you'll find what you're looking for after you give up", I found that "Damage to Armor" in Low-Tech Companion 2 treats flexible armor as Diffuse instead of Homogenous.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by mr beer

Agree with this. Limited DR seems like a total rip-off to me.

The problem is that the proper value frequency modifiers really depend on the type of power you're looking at. Specifically, it depends on how much choice you have about what you actually use it on. If you get to pick your targets, the fact that a given power only works on half of them is not a big deal. If it's random or under hostile control, it's a much bigger problem.