@raz I think it goes without saying that the DR value for the pack doesn't protect you from anything unless you happen to get shot in the back. There's a shield value for the shield protecting the user, and a DR value for just the pack itself. If that's not clear I can try and finagle the wording so that it is more explicit.
@Navian Just like how Tank means a certain something today, Power Armor means something fairly specific for SARP. There are a certain amount of features that you can expect to see, flight, limited space travel, shields, armor, enhanced strength, communications, sensors, onboard computing, ect. This is explicitly meant to fill the role of a SARP-level power armor, but with features that are normally distributed around the body all moved to the pack.
As time goes on, you should also expect this submission to start looking more power armor like. As my submissions for sensors and other gear get approved they'll get added into this submission (as a new submission). The reason it is being done this way is because it is way easier from an OOC standpoint to get the basic model of stuff approved so things like 'personal-level shields' can get ironed out before the heavy work is done to make the rest of the submission. It also means that I can have my full featured power armor, then just apply some species-specific suit later on when needed. Ultimately I think it'll look a lot better than the MACS in terms of readability.
Later versions of the armor:
View attachment 6912
If you're concerned about nekos with personal-level shields, I'd start by saying that isn't really related to this. There isn't anything stopping Wes from making power-armor grade nekos and we did have that for a time, but I think the consensus was that wasn't all that fun. There seems to be a good balance of powers and features that make for good RP (and that is explained ICly by balancing efficiency... since if you make a neko with shields, that neko has to maintain that shield generator their entire life!).
Ontop of that personal-grade shield devices have been used before in RP. I've also had my characters standing in and around active shields with no ill effects... so really if you want shields to be dangerous you probably should write that down somewhere and get that approved so everyone is on the same page.
And lastly, I would love to be able to trade out shields for more armor, or have a high-shield ship with low armor. Or trade both of that for weapons... but we've tried a point-buy system in the past and while I loved it, I think I may have been the only one that loved it. As much as everyone says they want more rules complexity to play with, I think we're fine where we are at.
@CadetNewb Wes said personal-scale shields are fine earlier in this thread
Zack said:
Wes said:
I don't think personnel-scale items should be emitting armor-scale shields. But a 5 SP (personnel) shield is fine.