Jul 12 15:13 1998

To: Froccer
To: Jerm
To: Jert

From: Dan

Subject: re:Hit Loc. and Dodge

>In message "Hit Loc. and Dodge", Jerm writes:
>
>> Dan and I were talking and 5% of the hits would not be lethal due to the
>> amount of M.D. in the helmet. As Dan said the head would be the most
>> vunerable spot therefore the most protected. If we came up with
>> percentages for the various parts I believe it would work.
>>
>> Crusader
>>
>> Main body - 70?
>> Head - 125% of main body
>> legs arms and lower torso would be dependent upon the mobility of the
>> armour. Crusader for example has a zero prowl penalty, therefore lower
>> MD for the extremeties.
>>
>
>I highly disagree with this mode of thinking. There is nowhere near the amount
>of material in the head of the body armor that would cause it to have more MDC
>than the main body of the armor. Such a situation would be very awkward to
>maneuveur in: the head would be much larger and heavier, making the guy look
>like those cheezy cartoon character with the disproportioned head and would
>keep the person inside in a continual state of imbalance (remember his HEAD
>weighs more than his body).
>
>> Arms - 30%
>> Legs - 40%
>> Abdomen - 60%
>>
>> An armour with a higher prowl penalty would have these percentages
>> bumped up.
>> Since Crusader has no prowl penalty it would be the base and as the
>> prowl penalty went up the MD directly does also
>> ie. -10% prowl arms 40% legs 50% abdomen 70% etc.
>>
>> As for Joe Blow the soldier all the shots he shoots will hit the
>> structure and will inflict the full damage 30 round clip X 3d6 = 540MD
>> The big difference compared to a rail gun is that these shots are
>> dispersed over an area of a building while a glitter boy's 360 MD is to
>> one point which will damage the structure considerably more. This way a
>> soldier will not do damage to a building which would be equivalent to a
>> small tactical nuke.
>
>Actually, the glitterboy's rail gun does 3d6 x 10 MDC making it a total of
>180 MD compared with the Joe Blow's 540 MDC. Also, what is the difference
>between doing damage to a wider area versus doing it to one point? Will the
>MDC of the structure not be destroyed when its MDC is reduced to zero? This
>also points to the frailty of conventional railguns (like the one on the
>Coalition Spider Walker that is longer than a couple of school buses and weighs
>over a ton each). These railguns only do up to 60 MDC. I don't know about you,
>but the next time I design a robot vehicle, I'm going to mount an infantry
>weapon on the top of it, and hook it up to my nuclear generator.

>
>Sean
>
>

Dan's Comments

The kevlar helmet today is equivalent to the kelvar material of the vest
providing the same protection. Now I agree that is today and not rifts time
but the logic is there. You can afford to lose an arm or a leg, they are
replacable but you can't loose your head. Something to think about. Jert
even found some body armor that is broken down and the head was in our
initial thinking abnormally high. I'm not sure which book and they aren't
home right now.

I disagree with Jeremy's idea of using prowl to determine armor in
extremities, I think a standard % should be used. The prowl dictates the
type of material used in the armor.

Dan