• If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 July 2024 is YE 46.5 in the RP.

Approved Submission Freespacer Extravaganza (Bracebelt)

Dumont

Dumont

Inactive Member
Submission Type: Material.
Submission URL: Here

Faction: Freespacers
FM Approved Yet? No. Paging @Primitive Polygon
Faction requires art? No.

For Reviewers:
Contains Unapproved Sub-Articles? No.
Contains New art? No.
Previously Submitted? No.

Notes:
Stuff you can make solar panel pants out of. Can maybe disperse a laser shot.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This suggestion has been implemented. Votes are no longer accepted.
Given that spacers normally do not have a relatively cheap form of body armor, and typical kevlar would be a waste of mass, I could see this being helpful to a select few well equipped types. Anyone based on a mothership or factory asteroid, yes. Freelancers, nomads and pirates, probably not.

With the proviso that about only about 60-70% of known spacer elements would have access to this, I'm willing to approve it.
 
Can we get a sentence in the opening paragraph about what the stuff actually is? "A material that absorbs radiation and translates it into power." Or something like that.

I don't have any problem with the material; though we don't like new materials much on SARP, this is for a faction known for its unique inventions. It's a fine invention that I feel like only a Freespacer could really use!

The introduction of potential weapon-stopping properties opens it up to needing a Damage Rating. You'll have to calculate how it rates as a protective material.
 
Since I don't want to clog editing logs with too many edits as I try and work out the whole DR system...

I only really intended it to add 2 SP maximum to other armor it's applied to, but that SP only applies against energy weapons as a sort of ablative layer type of thing in lieu of shielding technology which Freespacers don't have.

Would that be acceptable?
 
An addition of 2 SP to any other armor (or material) to which it's applied, but only carries that bonus against energy weapons. Hmmmmmm.

That is technically outside of the DR system as it stands. If we go with your suggestion, we'll have to propose a new addition to the DR system — a temporary armor material, one that does not apply under Armor Modifiers and is added to a vessel's SP outside of its other qualities only in certain situations.

I don't have a problem with it, but we've seen where that gets me. Thus, I can't approve of it without the modification to the DR system.
 
It's possible, but I didn't want to suggest it outright because I'm not sure if it also requires a change.

Instead of an armor modifier, you'll need a shield threshold. One that applies only for energy-based attacks, which I suppose you're not breaking the DR by seeking.

However:
  • The material does not regenerate with time, so it can't stop damage more than once in any place that it's hit.
  • The threshold practically must be Level 1 if your initial idea was to make it a 2 SP bonus.
  • You'll have to apply it to each unit based on its class.
On a person, it's a PDR1 energy-only defense; on an armor, ADR1; starship, SDR1.

I hesitate only because it suggests a precedent, which means eventually a change in the DR. "A material that can be applied across classes, provides a specific and temporary bonus to defense and acts under shield rules instead of armor rules." By falling under shield rules, speed and SP modifiers no longer apply. It sounds like a sticky slope.
 
This stuff is basically latex paint that works like a solar panel, with a one shot beam dispersive coating. I don't think it'd be working as anything like a shipbuilding material, sure you could probably have a cool solar panel on your hull, but it's not really going to protect against a big ol' laser...

Still. There's no precedent for ablative armor in this entire site's decade or so history? That's a surprise.

I'm just going to remove whatever protective value it was meant to have for now. Then maybe if I get around to proposing something more protective, I'll update it with a second generation production model which is more armor-y.
 
Dumont said:
Still. There's no precedent for ablative armor in this entire site's decade or so history? That's a surprise.
Click to expand...
We've got great examples of ablative armor, but they function as an armor material, which means modifiers. (Yamataium is the most handy example.)

We haven't had what amounts to an ablative coating or paint that offers penalty-free protection within the DR system. Ablative functions usually factor into how an armor material partially works.
 
I meant more along the lines of stuff like beam dispersion coatings, or that voodoo where you strap explosives to tanks to make them explode to prevent explosions from exploding your tank. Which would strike me as something quite common in the spacefuture.

Eh.

I'll be doing all these edits for the Freespacer Extravaganza when I have the time, but I have a term paper due tomorrow night, and an exam the day after that. Not exactly got the free time for all this until monday
 
No sweat; take your time.

And yes, we do have those things ... But they have in the past amounted to fluff. They aren't something that directly applied to DR, and they aren't materials like yours is.
 
No objections from me as long as it doesn't include some sort of weird exception to our simplistic and clunky DR system.
 
I'm still half working on this, and some other stuff. If I'm going to include DR on it I'll just slap it with a regular DR stuff and explain that it's just laminating other stuff with the internal mesh.
 
Alright, so I've made mention that this stuff alone has no specific defensive value, but added a note that it's theoretically possible to laminate other materials with it to make it into armor.
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top