Creature Handler Archive

This is from the Complete Guide to Armour on the Armoursmith Forum Board. I believe it is appropriate.

Part III - Armor Attributes

There are six different sets of attributes that make up a given piece of armor: Condition, Armor Rating, Effectiveness, Special Protection, Vulnerability, and Encumbrance. Let's go through each of these using freshly crafted bone gloves as an example.

Condition:
Condition is a measure of how much damage the armor can absorb before becoming useless. It is expressed as two numbers, the current value and the maximum value. The amount of damage taken is equal to the damage that penetrates its defenses divided by a factor particular to the armor type. Therefore, if the armor absorbs 30 points from a 100-point shot, it takes 70 points of damage multiplied by a particular factor depending on the type of armor. For example, a mk.1 PSG has a factor of roughly .10. If 70 points of damage were to get past it, it would lose 7 condition. Once at 0 condition, the armor no longer provides protection and cannot be repaired. An armor repair tool can be used to restore condition at the cost of lowering the armor's maximum as long as condition is not below a certain minimum.

Armor Rating:
Armor Ratings have four possible values: None, Light, Medium, and Heavy. Personal armor always falls into the Light category with None being reserved for those with no armor and the other two values being reserved for armored vehicles and especially nasty critters.

Armor Rating expresses the minimum Armor Piercing value of a weapon needed for the weapon to do its full damage. If the armor's Armor Rating is equal to the weapon's Armor Piercing, there is no effect. If the Armor Rating is higher, however, there is a 50% reduction for each level difference. Therefore for the bone gloves against this CDEF Pistol's Armor Rating of None, damage is reduced by 50% off of the top. But in the case of the Power Hammer, its Armor Piercing is higher than the Armor Rating. It therefore does 25% more damage. Note that the 50% reduction or 25% increase occurs for each level. So if that CDEF were to be used against an AT-ST whose Armor Rating is Heavy, there would be a three level difference. So damage would be reduced by 50%, then another 50%, and another 50% for merely 12.5% of the initial damage.

Effectiveness:
Effectiveness measures the percent damage the armor absorbs against any damage type in which it does not have a Vulnerability or Special Protection (we'll get to those attributes in a bit). In this case, our Effectiveness is 15%. Don't be confused by the listing of multiple damage types under this section in the examination UI. All values here reflect the current Effectiveness value. They are listed verbosely to make it clear that Effectiveness protects against all damage types not listed as Vulnerabilities or Special Protections.
The damage reduced by Effectiveness occurs after adjustments are made due to Armor Rating.

Special Protection:
Special Protections are values that override the Effectiveness. In our case, the armor has a Special Protection of 27% against Energy. This means that whenever the armor is hit by Energy damage, it uses the 27% value instead of the Effectiveness of 15%. Although Special Protections are usually higher than the armor's Effectiveness, they can potentially be lower. In that case, the armor would actually be weaker against that Damage Type.

Vulnerability:
Vulnerability denotes Damage Types in which the armor offers no
protection whatsoever. Our bone armor has quite a few of these: Kinetic, Blast, Stun, Heat, Cold, and Acid. Whenever the armor is hit by one of these Damage Types, all of the damage goes through. The target wearing this armor would also have an Armor Rating of None against any of these Vulnerabilities.

Dang Double post.

Message Edited by Sabatian_FarStrider on 03-28-2004 06:35 PM