Britva MK II

NAM-A/EP-01A Passive Vampire system
Passive Vampire tendrils are located all over the surface of the armor, with plenty on the chest, back, and legs, and are painted in the same fashion of the rest of the armor. The PV system functions by absorbing energy weapon discharges into a number of “tendrils” dispersed over the armor's surface. These take much of the energy discharge, and route it through the tendril network to a central capacitor unit. Tests show that the capicitor can hold energy equivalent to the collected discharges of 60 NSP regular shots. While the system does alleviate damage done to the armor, it does not stop it completely. Damage done will usually be around a quarter of what it normally does. Energy collection automatically ceases when the capacitor fills, however.

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I don't really like this.

Also, knives don't cause "heavy" damage to power armors.

I think that's actually pretty cool! A nifty idea! But how well does it handle the burst shots, and the grenade-type shots? Also, how does it protect against the scalar effect? Absorbing the energy itself doesn't remove the scalar waves.

1. The knife's already been approved on the MK I version of the Britva.

2. Thanks, Doshii. ^^

As for burst shots, it handles them the same as it would regular rounds, unless they have some other mechanic I'm unaware of. I based the capacitor amount off of the NSP because it's the most widely-used energy small arm on setting. Grenade rounds would be similarly absorbed if they hit, although there'd still be plenty of damage splashed all over the armor, and a nearby-explosion would get most of the same effects, although any debris or shrapnel whipped up by it wouldn't.

3. The scalar wouldn't be affected by the system at all, and would instead be handled by the anti-grav plating.

Oh, so there's anti-grav plating. Gotcha.

So... what do I need to do with this to get it approved?

By the way, is there any limitation to the capacitor's discharge ability? I mean, theoretically one could drain a full capacitor by simply touching a tendril to anything conductible (which would create a plasma explosion by vaporizing the target), or project it using an ion stream (lightning bolts), or simply jettison the full capacitor (plasma vaporization bomb) and replace it with an empty one. So in addition to giving one additional firepower, you would also get an infinitely reusable dampening forcefield until the suit was worn out.

You may want to specify what sort of limitations on the system there are, if any, so we can more clearly see its true power level. Some potential ideas for balancing might be to mention that discharging the energy all at once might fry out the system, or that the tendrils can only absorb a single capacitor recharge worth of energy before they burn out, or maybe something about overheating. Or maybe it's a purely defensive mechanism that doesn't have high-capacity discharge circuits so as to make the suit light as possible.

Addressed some of your concerns in the article. And yes, other than the palm weapons, it is a fully defensive system, but it is integral to the armor, so you can't really pull it out and replace it for making big plasma bombs.

Fleshed out the PV system even more at Wes' request.

Yes, triple post, I know, but BUMP.

Foreword: I may have ended up being too nitpicky over tech, so if any tech admins feel like it may be demanding too much from the writer, feel free to veto my concerns. I'm going to critique this from a practical engineering point of view.

Firstly, I'm not sure that the whole "up to a heavy blast exceeding many anti-tank weapons in destructive output" thing is entirely appropriate for something as small as a palm weapon. Not unlike a LASR rifle your weapon would need all the conducting cables, cooling systems, fuses, power transformers, and all that other jazz. This is so you can concentrate and fire all that energy in such a way it won't totally melt the arm off the guy who uses it, while also making sure it won't burn out the entire suit's power grid. I'm not sure exactly how advanced SARP's technology level is precisely, but given I haven't seen very many PA running around with DR 6 palm/eye/finger lasers I would have to assume that such a level of miniaturization doesn't really exist -- either that, or that people find packing so much firepower into such a tiny mechanism to be considered overpowered.

As such I would suggest decreasing the power to anti-personnel (DR 2), or placing the module somewhere with a lot more room for equipment (shoulder or forearm mounted) and bulking it up considerably. In the latter case that might simply make it deadweight if a soldier carries a DR 6 rifle anyways -- but unnecessary bulk is an inherent problem for a dedicated weapon system that can only be fired once every few minutes. It really might be more practical to have a disposable capacitor system.

Secondly, you should specify what sort of energy the armor absorbs. Things like electrical discharges, plasma attacks, photons (lasers) greatly differ from one another in how they damage things, and would each require different methods to convert said attacks into usable energy. I can see many potential bad guys trying to exploit damage types the field can't absorb, in future roleplay, so I think it deserves at least a brief touching upon in the description.

Thirdly, have you gone over the potential overloading issues of the suit? Anything that absorbs and converts energy can, theoretically, simply have energy pumped into it until there is too much for the converted to handle -- at which point it will burn out or melt. You may want add a small note on how much firepower it can take at any given moment before overheating; this is yet another thing that may be pivotal in battles against this suit, so also deserves noting for future GMs.

Did away with Passive Vampire system.