Proposed - Battlesuits should be treated as Vehicles

[Joseph Paul]

..and so should self powered exosuits and walkers.

Often we have the vision of these as being Juggernauts of futuretech rage and the only way to stop them is to wound or kill the operator. Those machines pack a lot of systems under the armor any one of which could be disrupted enough to cause 'mission kills' of the unit with out harming the operator (too much...). How to simulate that in GURPS? I am thinking that a battlesuit specific vehicle hit chart gets used giving the chances of affecting the suit first and then the wearer. Setting assumptions affect how discrete major systems are vs how distributed and the redundancy and self-repair capability of the suit if any.

Here is a list of what I think the Major Systems are and the likely effects of disrupting/damaging them.

Power - Things shut down pretty quickly. OTOH you might want a power plant hit to give some minutes of power before it gives up the ghost.

Life Support - Hopefully for the shooter a life support hit will spill air or do something that will keep the trooper much more interested in fixing his machine than chasing her. Rapidly falling pressure may fog things I think. If not it can be racked up as more trouble that needs to be fixed. Breaiking fluid lines/reservoirs in the suit would be interesting especially in freefall.

Computer Functions - realistically this should be redundant or distributed at later tech levels. However UT only issues one so if you can hit it the loss should be disastrous to the suit and wearer. It could take out any of the other systems that rely on digital info to work.

Communication - Either can't send or receive or both. If it can't receive and mapping functions are provided by satellite then the trooper is going to have a hard time getting home. Better yet she can't call for help.

Frame - The actual structural elements of the suit. It could be a jointed stickman configuration or the armored elements double as frame members. Hurting a limb so badly that it can't function will mess up any mobile infantryman's day. Reduced move, reduced BL, reduced range of motion are all possibilities.

Joints - Losing joints will limit mobility or the ability to interact with weapons and terrain. Controls and power conduits for joints are probably wired separately so losing one probably won't cause a cascade failure. However being able to move the ankle but not the knee is little solace. This has a good chance for a mobility 'kill'. Leg'em and leave'em.

Powertrain - Air/hydraulic/electric - Lots of tubing/hose/wires to clip with a round just passing through. Myomer and other 'muscles' may get cut or have an attachment point destroyed. Reduced move and range of motion should result. If the motor for the leg is out the trooper inside probably is stuck.

Weapons - Yeah just breaking those exposed weapons would be good.

So going this route mandates having an equipment list for the suit that has all the HT and HP and DR for the components. Easy enough to do.

Setting the odds of damage to the suit causing the destruction or malfunction of systems needs to be set also.

Anything else?