Movement modifiers in combat - Fast battle-dress problems

[CosmicGamer]

The advantage of being in a car is that you get to have about 1m to 2m of car between you and the impact point, so the impacting object gets decelerated over a 100-200 cm distance during the course of the collision. If you're in Battle Dress that's say from about 10-20cm thick, the 'crumple zone' is one tenth as thick as that, so the G force of the impact will be ten times as high.

Certainly, but with a car we're dealing with a crumple zone made of plastic, metal, and mostly a whole lot of air. Of course some of that air space utilizes air bags. But how about that foam from that movie with sylvester stalone and wesley snipes? I know F33D, not a combat effective solution, but there is no reason some future material couldn't be easily dispensed with or even recycled for reuse one round later. A typical car on the road will not have a roll cage and other possible structural features. A typical car has a seat belt and not a harness. My point is that a typical car, unlike battledress, is designed to be safe but only goes so far. It is also designed to be economical, convenient, and comfortable. Some of the design considerations might not be given the same importance in the design of battledress.

The car of today could be made of more expensive material that absorbed/distributed the damage much more efficiently but like you said, there is a big crumple zone to work with so other cheaper ways to provided a limited amount of protection were designed. Battledress could use thin layers of material that can absorb and distribute damage then "bounce back" and not be permanently deformed. A liquid, foam, gel or other substance between layers. A design that directs the energy via the "roll cage" framework in the body, down the legs to the ground. And so on...

 

[Nerhesi]

If you understand the effects of acceleration on the human body you don't NEED to know how tough TL 15 body armor is. If one doesn't then they might be lead to think that it is relevant...

I'll give you an easier example. A truck going 50 mph hits a person in Battle Dress. The armor may not even have a scratch. But, take off the helmet and you could pour out the human inside. Not really but I think you can extrapolate from there...

Irrelevant. Your logic is completely flawed as your preposition assumes that using today's TL7/8 protective qualities of armor, it will remain the same under TL 15.

Your example takes a truck moving at 50 mph. Your example is strictly using momentum, as the reasoning for liquifying the person inside. By RAW, there exists large shells (ammunition) that are moving hundreds of times faster than the truck, at a weight that is hundreds of times of lower. This however means they have the same momentum as your car.

Both the truck, and the shell, with equivalent momentum bounce off the armor and cause no damage to the person inside.

If you understand how transitivity works, you will understand why the above is by RAW.

 

[Nerhesi]

As for the other arguments, I happen to know that the impact-dispersion technology of a TL12+ battle dress will dissipate all non-penetrating hits regardless of momentum with only 1 mm of material. :roll: :roll: :roll:

Lets try not to turn this into how effective "realistically" the battle dress is folks, as it is friggin battle dress approximately 2000 years from now. If the rules state that armor mitigates something, then it mitigates it.

Otherwise every game starts suffering from scenarios of inferior weapons knocking things over or killing people inside. I can only imagine how a 1 ton (weight) shell traveling at tens of times the speed of sound will affect a battletech mech that it barely scratches for example... That thing should be put into orbit...

 

[simonh]

If you understand the effects of acceleration on the human body you don't NEED to know how tough TL 15 body armor is. If one doesn't then they might be lead to think that it is relevant...

I'll give you an easier example. A truck going 50 mph hits a person in Battle Dress. The armor may not even have a scratch. But, take off the helmet and you could pour out the human inside. Not really but I think you can extrapolate from there...

Irrelevant. Your logic is completely flawed as your preposition assumes that using today's TL7/8 protective qualities of armor, it will remain the same under TL 15. ...

F33D Vs Nerhesi

Wow. I think I'll stay out of this one. Anyone got popcorn?

Simon Hibbs