Upgrading Body Armour

[oscar1-1]

I was in a motorcycle clothing shop today, and they had a sale on CE armour which was of a better impact grade than a couple of years ago.

This set me to thinking, if a modern flak jacket you can add a steel plate, and modern helmets are two layer, where does this end?

In m/c clothing you can be protected by thick leather, 6mm or 12mm Hiprotec impact armour internally, and can add hard plastic externally. Add kevlar (but not at the joints), and a few steel/ceramic plates and you have a combination of impact armour and kit that's bullet resistant.

My stab at an upgradeable system would be, say $100/2wt per normal DP, $350/2wt per DP vs falls/collisions. Don't allow any piece of armour to be increased above 2DP extra

Thoughts please?

[Angrytubist]

This seems interesting, realistic, and very customizable. It is a bit complicated though, and I would give a maximum possible DP value to avoid it being game-breaking.

To a degree you can already upgrade armor in CW by wearing an ABV over BA. As I said in another thread, I also allow Improved body armor wearers to use an "Armored Battle-Vest" although I then call it a "Plate Carrier" and multiply the cost by 3x.

[oscar1-1]

Thanks for coming back, yup I'd noticed the other thread just after I posted...

The upgrades I was thinking of were:-

Flak jacket plate $100, +1DP, 2wt
Body Armour external/hard $100, +1DP, 2wt
Body Armour internal/impact $350, +1DP, 2wt (1/2 damage drom collisions/falls)
ABV plate $100, +1DP, 2wt (maybe this is what is in the BV already?)

Basically I'm thinking of transitional armour between BA and IBA, and making it a bit more impact resistant - IBA being the full kit

[Angrytubist]

The more I think about this, the more I like it. Though I'd probably change it to 5wt/pt. And say that no armor could have more that 3 DP worth of plates added, Armored Battle-Vests and Plate-Carriers may not be worn over modified armor.

Combine this with the body armor rules developed in the http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=91803 thread, and you have a truly customizable body armor system. Double the costs to modify IBA-class armor.

[oscar1-1]

I've finally gotten round to seeing the various posts (by yourself and Swordtart) in your link, and if nobody minds I'll post them here so people can find this topic a little easier:-

"If you don't mind I think I'll take your metal body armor idea and run with it.

There should be scope for metal body armor. Simple extrapolation would make it 1/3rd the cost and weight of BA multiplied by the metal modifiers. This gives $209 and 17lb. (this is a bit complicated to figure, so)

So the base cost for ablative body armor is $84-pt. and (call it 5 lbs a point for ease of calculation). This would put metal at $210, 13 lbs per point.

However Improved Body armor does not fit this rule. So in order to keep cost consistent with published material, lets say ablative body armor above 3-pts cost $416 a point and metal costs $1,040 but keep the weights the same.

You could price impact armor at $215 a point below 3 DP and $452 a point above and add a metal Impact armor option if you wish.

Body armor should have a maximum of 6 DP.

Following the same logic ablative riot shield armor would cost $108, 4 lbs a point. Putting a metal riot shield at $270, 10 lbs per point.

A riot shield should have a maximum of 7 DP.

I would allow repairs at 10% above listed cost.

I would treat the Armored Battle vest the same (though I'd allow a steel version if you paid the modifiers). I'd still allow the plate carrier at 3x the cost which can be worn over body armor with greater than 3 DP.

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Last edited by Angrytubist; 06-10-2012 at 11:30 PM. Reason: clarifications and additions. "

Sorry but I have no idea how to link these threads, or show them on a "quote box", 'cos I's a biker, like

[swordtart]

For further options you could also allow the extension of light weight materials rule (loosely based on CA frames).

Any component (including personal items like armour) can be made from lighter stonger materials (e.g. titanium mesh, metallic glass fiber, made-up-ium alloy). The component weighs half as much as usual but costs four times the price (or any fraction costing the inverse square of the fraction if you want even more variety).

Conversely cheap armour can be had from yesterdays technology by inverting the rule (double weight = quarter cost). Texas war surplus flak jackets go for $40 but they weigh 10lb.

For comparison of game balance, Blended armour (which is effectively 1/2 weight armour) as written is slightly off on the prices for 1/2 weight armour as calculated above (Blended BA is 3x cost of BA and Blended IBA is just over 3x). Figure the slight extra cost is because blended armour uses these materials, but they don't have helmets etc.

This option becomes self-limiting by cost. You could have a suit of BA that weighs only 1lb (memory metals?, force field? impluasiblium?) but it would cost 100 times the cost at $25,000. At this level a clone would be cheaper. You may wish to impose an arbitary limit.

You can use the inverse square rule as a guide to availability as well. Normal BA is available at Uncle Als and equivalents, Older heavier stuff might turn up in the classified or discount sports stores, the high tech stuff might only be available mail order, money in advance and involve some delay (and chance of non-delivery if the domestic mail goes through), money up front.

Obviously these costs multipliers would apply to repairs also.