Yes. Helmets and Shields, page 3127, SR4. This ruling should be extrapolated to incorporate other armor pieces, such as FFBA and PPP, although it is not expressly stated in the rules.

It is easier, however, to buy the Evo HEL suit and upgrade all the systems to 6. You'll have 2 slots left over, IIRC.

EVO HEL suit??? what book is that from?

But if you're using the PPP system, and add gel packs to the leg protectors and groin protectors, I don't think the intended interpretation of the rules is that you should get +2 armor, instead just the +1 that the gel packs give. The RAW may not specify, but I believe the intent of the developers is to give a maximum of +1 armor from the addition of gel packs.

It also seems to me that the same should apply to armor bonuses from reinforce spells, but I'm not well versed enough in the magic rules to make the argument.

1) I only used 1 gel pack.

2) The spell adds armor to the item, and you gain the armor of the item. Each item in question only has 1 case of Reinforcement, although it is within the realm of possiblity to have one piece with 20 instances of the Reinforce, as spells do not have limitations like that.

Arsenal. It's in the Gear section that immediately follows armor, and is in the Space Gear subsection. It is designed for orbital citizens to use, and has a self-attaching facemask with 5 minutes of air, in the event that you find yourself in the Great Deep. Theorhetically, that 5 minute air supply gives us effectively a full chemical seal for 5 minutes. With 1 of the 2 (IIRC) slots left, we can add 1 hour of air.

yeah, found it..But look at Bunker Gear At Arsenal p. 49 ( 6 point of Fire Resistance And 4 points of Chemical Protection already
on it..) add FFBA (full Body) and enchant it to max.. nuts!!

Armor Spell f6 = 6
Total (without shield spirits): 204(210)/191(199)
Total (with shield spirits): 276(282)/263(271)

These are our numbers thus far, unless anyone wants to debate it. Exempting additional castings on the same item (ie: Reinforec 4 times on the forearm guards), can anyone add to it?

The difference is that the HEL suit is sleeker and more asthetically pleasing, whereas the Bunker Gear is literally exactly what firemen wear. And, with just the HEL suit, you can get all special protections to 6, and have a little room to spare. Also, the HEL suit has (debatable, but it should) a full chemical seal. With its lower armor, the HEL suit is also available to characters of lower Body as well, and can still benefit from PPP and FFBA.

Who cares how much armor you can stack? The French knights' armors did not save them in Azincourt. As armor becomes heavier, the best counter moves from damage to immobilization. It's the same against vehicles: why try to blow it up at once when you can just jam the wheels/tracks/legs and watch it crawl helplessly? A bola launcher (or troll) is enough to bring down the heavy horseman of death. Then you can take your time to weld your way in, or just run away, depending on your goal.

First off, this thread was for the express purpose of getting high armor. Second off, this thread was for the express purpose of getting high armor, not making it feasible. Third off, the vehicle being used was a motorcycle with walker mode, with roughly the same size and stats of a troll, not a horseman. Fourthly, we can just go with an armor vest (f6 reinforced) and FFBA (f6 reinforced) for something like 30-ish armor, and barely any encumberance. And lastly, the French were french, which is why they lost. We're not french, which is why we win.

EDIT: That is not to say the French haven't given us good things, and it is not to say I don't like the French. It's just that when it comes to warfare, the French seem to always glitch. Always. And sometimes, they crit glitch. I can't find it right now, but there exists a video of the French special forces doing a training exercise, and every last one of them end up jumping into quicksand, one after another. they all get out, but it's hilarious to watch.

Were do you get this notion that reinforced armor value doesn't count for encubrance.

Where do you get the notion that it does? Honestly, I mainly extrapolate it from the Armor spell. And Mystic Armor. If that doesn't count for encumberance, why should Reinforce?

Becouse it actually raises the armor rating of the armor your wearing same as gel packs.

In that case, why doesn't Mystic Armor or the Armor spell? Those raise armor as well.

Doesn't it follow logic that since 2 instances of magical armor (from the core book) don't add to encumberance, a different spell effect (from a different book) shouldn't either?

And in any event, this has no bearing on the maximized above example of the full-VR user.

This? This is why GMs exist. To mitigate as much madness as possible.

The armor spell creates an forcefield around you, thats completdly different from making you worn 6/6 armor into 12/12 armor, i see reinfore working like gel pack i.e. you use the new armor rating to calculate encuprance. But i don't think that reinfocre is actually meant to be used to worn armor.

Madness? THIS...IS...SHADOWRUN!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif)

I see what your saying, but typically in Shadowrun any sort of magical upgrade never counts towards that purpose (same for Cyberware upgrades). It may have been furthur clarified in a FAQ or somewhere else in the book. Its been awhile since I last looked but considering the spell is simply making the fabic/plates/gel "harder" rather than actually adding bulk to the object worn its perfectly reasonable that it doesn't effect encumbrance. I myself have never thought to use Reinforce on armor worn, but I'll take a look at it later to see if the terminology forbids such a use.

Either way, even if you take out reinforce you can simply replace it with a equal number of armor spells. Or just run without it, I am sure somewhere in the neighborhood of 100+ armor will keep you safe and sound throughout the majority of your Shadowrun stint..

I was under the impression that armor that is layered was halved? By this I mean you have armored clothing at full but the armored jacket over the top only grants half value. Or am I using out of date books again? Also, were did the rule for 2xbody for armor come from?

2xBody is from the very first version of SR4 i think O.o
Of course you can wear MORE, but if you do, you get penalties.
And yes, Armor that is layered still gets halved at some point or other.

While we're at it: Did SR4,5 specify wether or not Implanted Armor and Mystical/Spell-Armor adds to encumberance/get's halved when layered/combined with worn/other Armor?

This is SR3, isn't it? In SR4, armor can't be layered, except special cases, but is not halved.

That is correct, the previous poster might be referring to the fact a few items actually add their bonus to the total amount. Such as a Helmet which can add +1/+2, this number increases your armor independent from the normal "stacking armor" rules.

Thus if you increase that bonus (via a Gel Pack for example) that addition is added to your total. If you have multiple items that add to a number (such as PPP items) and are able to modify those (again such as Gel Packs) then it will all end up stacking.

Example :

Body Armor 6/4
Body Armor with Gel pack 7/5
+ Helmet (+1/+2)
= 8/7

Body Armor 6/4
+ Helmet w/ Gel Pack (+2/+3)
= 8/7

Body Armor 6/4
Body Armor with Gel pack 7/5
+ Helmet w/ Gel Pack (+2/+3)
= 9/8

Each pack takes up [1] Capacity in the item, but since it is adding its bonus together with items that stack you reap the benefits. Interestingly enough nothing in SR4 states you can only take up Capacity once with any particular item, so if you have armor that has 10 slots, you can put 10 Gel Packs into these slots, getting +1/+1 each time. The bonus from a Gel Pack is simply a modification to the total armor value gained from a particular item, meaning it will continue to stack ad infinitum. Not everyone likes this since they feel its a cheap and risk free way to gain "free" armor, they however conveniently forget the fact that as soon you get shot/cut you WILL fall down since each Pack increases the "attacks" effective strength by +1 for knockdown purposes.

Thus no gain is without its risks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

Crap, you're right, for some reason smart armour can't be reflective. You could still install radiation shielding 10 into it (as per Arsenal's "Special Armour Modification" rules) which would add 5 dice to your roll. So, 10 smart armour (halved to five) and 10 radiation shielding (halved to 5) means the Ares Heavy MP laser would pierce armour with 2 or more net hits... if your GM was feeling generous, he could interpret the smart armour rules so that it activates in that situation (after all, the blast would be over 10 DV) and let you roll the smart armour dice, adding to the laser's AP. Otherwise, you'd have to accept that as a vulnerability.

I'm using SR4 arsenal but couldn't one start with Military Armor medium -> 18F Heavy -> 20F
Medium is 14/12
Heavy is 16/14
and then add helmet for +2/+2

probably get bone lacing/ body replacement, or use an armor spell to stack on top.

As for encumbrance rules state since its custom made its 3x body. You can also add servos to reduce the effect since it has a massive number of slots used for capacity.

Pieces of PPP-system are considered as Helmet and Shield, (and considered as 1 armor), and every thing
you put at them stacks with enchantment of armor and helmet.
Armor,Helmet and 4 Pieces of PPP-system: Fire Resistance 6,Chemical Protection 6, Nonconductivity 6, Insulation 6