FT-Improved armour

The comment about the hulls in "the moat around murchinsons eye", with the
superconducting matterial added, has given me a thought.

INTERWEAVED SUPERCONDUCTING ARMOUR

This armour would consist of standard armour composits, interwoven with
superconducting materials. This would have the effect of spreading the
heat/electron dammage from weapons that use these effects for dammage
over the entire hull, thus reducing the dammage potential of these weapons*.
This armour would actually be weaker than normal armour due to introducing
flaws/weaknesses into the armour composit in the shape of the
superconducting material. *Think of a laser, that gets it`s effects from
focusing it`s energy into a very small area. The power of lasers per cm2 isn`t
that large, but they focus into a VERY small area. If you radiated this energy
over a large area, the effect would be smaller, or even harmless. After all, a
egg can support a lot of weight, but a needle can peirce a egg shell with
little effort (stupid analogy, but a laser is like a pin in the egg shell. The
egg can support a couple of kg`s distributed over it`s intact surface, but
less
effort/force is required to force a pint through the shell).

Game stats-
Mass=1 pt armour per 2 mass Cost=mass x2?
Symbol+Same as normal armour symbol, but connected by a line between
armour
box`s (0-0-0)
Effects=Same as normal armour for kinetic/explosive weapons (smls,
k-guns,
etc). For heat/energy weapons, has special effects (see below)
Special effects=When attacked by certain weapons that use heat/energy
effects to dammage a ship (eg-HET lasers, Beam batts, P.torps. Probably
some others, wait until others sugest which), the superconducting layer
radiates the effect over the entire hull, reducing the efectiveness of these
weapons substantially. These weapons must exceed the total armour rating of
the superconducting armour in a turn, to apply dammage to the hull. This
represents the limits of the armour/superconducting laminates to absorb
and redirect the energy. The superconducting armour would lose a armour point
for every turn it`s attacked (even only 1 DP would reduce it by 1), and
attacks that exceed the total armour rating (burn through) would reduce the
armour by 1+the dammage applied to hull as well. All reroll dammage for
these weapons is also taken on the armour, not passing streight through to the
hull beneath. In effect, these weapons cannot harm the hull until they either
exceed the armour rating of the SCA, or wear it down through attrition.

EG-A ship with SCA (super conducting armour) of 6 DP, is attacked by 10
cl.3 batts at close range. The cl.3 bats score only 3 DP with their rolls,
causing no dammage to the ship, and the ships SCA drops to 5. The next turn,
the 10 cl.3 batts cause 8 DP (!), and the ship takes 3 DP to hull, but the SCA
drops to 1!.

Someone going to point out the flaws in my argument?, or problems in the
mass/DP absorb ratio?<G>

> INTERWEAVED SUPERCONDUCTING ARMOUR

[snip]

> Effects=Same as normal armour for kinetic/explosive weapons (smls,

Reminds me of "metal" armor from Car Wars.

Upon first read I noticed the following difficulties:

If you only have 1 point of this armor, how do you connect the symbol(s) with
a line?

Costing needs reworking. The armor is more effective as you get more
of it, and should be priced accordingly (similar to beam systems - 1
point costs 2, 2 points cost 4, 3 points cost 8, 4 points cost 16,
etc.)

> Reminds me of "metal" armor from Car Wars.

Is this good or bad, only played carwars 3 or 4 times (was a freinds game),
but this was a long time ago (god, must be 14 years, when I was at school).
Cannot remember much about it. Actually, the idea came from the armour used in
the original mecton book (well, the only takes dammage if the dammage
inflicted exceeded the armour rating bit anyway).

> Upon first read I noticed the following difficulties:

If you only have 1 point of armour, whats the point of using more expensive
armour in the first place, that has twice the mass cost for the same
protection. The SCA would only stop 1 DP of energy weapon (as listed) fire,
for one turn, and then it`s gone. You would get the same effect with standard
armour (acctually, standard would be better, you`d get 2 armour standard for 1
armour point SCA).

> Costing needs reworking. The armor is more effective as you get more

Hmm, I though giving it 2 mass=1 dp ratio was enough of a disadvantage, but
the costs are flexible (meaning I haven`t decided yet<G>).

> > Reminds me of "metal" armor from Car Wars.

Neither good nor bad. A game mechanic is a mechanic is a mechanic...

> If you only have 1 point of armour, whats the point of using more

I was thinking for a nation/race that used this armor exclusively or
as a design convention.