Okay.. my last thoughts on this.. well maybe as I'm taking off tomorow for
a few days and don't think I'll be able to post any more :)

On Sun, 20 Jul 1997, Jeanne Hedge wrote:

<various snippages below>

Hardsuit enough power for potentially 50 hours of continous use"
                                pg 72.                              

I would actually say far less than that if using the suit to optimum
use...fighting a computer-virus hyperboomer or a group of BUC's.
I would also think that total life support dependance would be a drain
(heating/cooling) as well. 

I agree that the more strain put on a suit, the quicker the battery would
run dry. I wonder if that 50 hours is at full-load or minimum-load?

Somehow I see some sort of "stand-by" system which hooks the suits up to
another power system after they have been "warmed-up" so that the Sabers
are possibly plugged into the Sky Carrier or other mode of transport.
 I'm also guessing that they don't go on tanked air untill the mission
starts for real either...
 (which would mean gass 'em before they are ready or foul the main rather
than the suits' supply fellow ficcrs)
 As for air as well I would guess you could work in a re-reather system
which was mainly powered by the wearer's own breathing (with a trickle of
power of course.....)
 This would be sort-of like the stilsuits of Dune (ut not as efficient of
course.

Also the book says this:

"A hardsuit's ceramic and alloy armor is invulnerable to small arms fire,
is resistant to heat and pressure changes, and even absorbs momentum based
attacks" 
                           Pg 72 of the BGC gamebook.

Although massive electrical discharges. pulse-cannons and crushing blows
take their toll as well as blades and other penitration devices in the
hard/soft joint interfaces....
  for instance...Anri SLOOOWWWWWLLLYYY shoving a knife in.

Amazing how she ran across the room and found that seam so easily.  Of
course, *Priss* shoved that knife in pretty slowly herself.

after seeing all that shattering flying armor in various epps
 the "nigh invunnerable" seems a little doubious. Most of the damage is
simply avoided by the dexterity of the user. If it simply boils down to
(and this is a phrase from our Robotech campaign....it means "you're an
idiot or at this time the Goddes Relief office is not taking any calls")
"taking it like a man." and hopeing that the suits spinal support will
save you from dying or life in a chair when that oomer throws you into a
wall.
 

Use would also weaken the suits....look at all the heat Nene's suit

"bleed's off" in Scoop Chase.....what if she couldn't do that? where would
all that operational heat go???

I'd suggest that without some sort of heatsink, the operator would cook
inside the suit.  Or perhaps there's a method for the heat to be recycled
and reused *by* the suit, and Nene's suit was so overloaded it generated
heat faster than could be recycled? Hence the heat bleed-off? (never seen
before, never seen again)

I didn't want to think of this particulair immage when I gave this
example....
 After all... We are talking about Nene here.....

the softsuit. Of course you would still want to get out of there pretty
bloody fast as you wold eventually be effected by the cold... as well some
components might react poorly (explode) due to the change.

Here I'm actually thinking about things like the knuckle bombers and other 
delicate explosives.

as a for instance:
 What the heck hppens when ou hit quick-frozen c4 with a ball-peen hammer?

 Has the freezing made it at least temporaily inert or will things be even
worse?
 

"Ceramic and alloy armor is resistant to heat and pressure changes."  The
key is *resistant*, not 'proof'.  IMO, that means that they'll stand up for
a while, but eventually give in. Flash freeze something, hit it, and it'll
shatter.

The REAL weak spot in this bit about the armor being resistant is that the
hardsuits are not entirely covered with armor.  Take another look...  the
backs of the knee joints and the inside of the elbow joints, and the necks
appear to be exposed softsuit or some similar material. And on some of the
suits, at least one hand is a glove, not a manipulator arm (in Crash, IIRC,
ALL suits are gloved).  I can see that these still apply sealing for the
suit (NBC, etc), but how are they for weapons fire, momentum based attacks,
heat/pressure changes, etc. Not as invulnerable as the armor, I'd bet.


I'm sure someone's getting fic ideas out of this discussion.  I know I am  :)


Jeanne Hedge

I hope so... but somehow they are all such nasty ideas.....
but then there is always underwater combat WHEEEEEEE!!!
actually in our ADP campaign we supposedly have small underwater salvage
pods (a la 2001) for object retrieval/investigation but we've never had
need of them and they don't have guns :(


                                   Neil


 ___________________________________________________________________________
     Nene   Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene   
                    I met a Lady in the Meads,
                    Full beautiful, a faery's child,
                    Her hair was long, her foot was light
                    And her eyes were wild.
                                            J.Keats
  ________________________________________________________________________    
           Agent Of Chaos. Robyn, Duke of Amber. Unicorn Knight
 ****************************************************************************