More Tech ideas, what if Options

[rozark69]

Ok those of us that played Halo Im sure we all enjoyed the forcfield, can it be possible in Shadowrun? the thing I liked about it was that it didnt make your character immune to bullets or energy weapons but it allowed you to take few hits before having to duck, now one would think with todays technologycal advancement and with Mages errecting bullet bariers and so on that some wiz kid some brain or some tech spec freak would study all forums of the idea and come up with a way to build a system to duplicaite the effect, I guess my question is two fold
1. What would it be like if Shadow run had one
2. Im going to make one anyway so can I get a few ideas as how to go about it.

3. If we could come up with this sort of thing could we not apply the technology to vehicles.

was thinking electromagnetic fields of some sort, your thoughts please

[Ol' Scratch]

Sustaining/Reusable Anchoring Focus + Armor/Physical Barrier. Making it an actual piece of "tech" in Shadowrun is highly implausible and would pretty much shatter suspension of disbelief regarding most of the other technology in the game.

[rozark69]

So Doctor with all dew respect you are saying if I have a forcfield that it will make monowire/cybertechnology/drones/polyrythimer tech/lazer guns/cyber zombies/ less believable? that right?

[Ol' Scratch]

Yup. But it's your game, do as you like.

[Critias]

Christ, here I go, having to agree with Doc again.

"One thing = hard to beleive" does not necessarily mean "all things must = hard to beleive." In other words, any argument that ever starts with "the setting is already really unrealistic" is not an argument that should be getting off the ground.

[rozark69]

Fair enough on both your points thanks.
ps was not arguing.

[hermit]

Force field is possible with magic, but not with tech means.

[Critias]

We call them "buildings."

[Austere Emancipa...]

Or perhaps "Ballistic Shields" (sr3.284).

[SpasticTeapot]

Forcefields are technically possible; however, you'd better be prepared to bring along a fusion plant about the size of the Renrakru Arcology with you to power it.

[Thomas]

And then you get the electromagnetic forcefield that stops the copper jackets but the lead core just keeps on going. :|

[Kagetenshi]

Just use the giant field of force surround the Earth. Gravity'll stop a bullet just fine if you give it enough time (and if the bullet's moving fast enough that it won't, well, you've got other problems).

~J

[Edward]

No theory today allows for practical energy shields on a person.

This has not changed in 2060 or 2070 but you can be shore somebody is trying to find a way however it’s all theoretical.

That is cannon and that is how I would leave it, but it’s your game

If you did create them then you need to decide several things, how easily available art hay, who uses them as standard and how do they work with the mechanics. I suspect that you’re going to loos a significant amount of balance unless these things are ether incredibly rare (focus of a single run has one and if they take it the PCs won’t be able to recharge it) quite week (is functionally identical to security armour) very common (almost every runner has one as do most cops when on duty and anybody with security armour or better) this last option is going to greatly reduce death right.

Edward

[Crimson Jack]

...or Mil Spec Armor.

[Kiedo]

I heard from a relyable source that the US Navy is currently working on Forcefield technology. From what I've seen they've got a working prototype for a stationary model but it only stops small arms rounds and more than 10 drops the shield completely.

The Navy is trying to design a functioning mobile model for defense on Destroyers and Air Craft Carriers, and the power consumtion for the prototype is unbelievable, to run it for ten minutes it takes as much power as New York state requires in a week.

Now what I want to know is why there are no rail guns. MIT has a table sized one that projects a 2 ounce object at ~10,000 fps, so why couldn't they have a portable model in sixty years...

[Ol' Scratch]

They do. See Rigger 3.

[Westiex]

[Kiedo]

Son of a... so they do. My next vehicle will have on too. The Ares Vaporizer, as cheaply named as it is, looks like a good choice. I might have to make a rigger to take full advantage of that too.

I was looking at rail guns on the internet, I'd go down to a store if there was one believe me, and there are some mighty scary sounding ones out there. A rail gun was used to create the fastest moving object ever initiated by man, so they are fairly impressive to say the least.

According to a Space.com article, force fields would be effective mainly against microwave based weapons, and potentially lasers, but it mentions nothing about a good ol' fashion metal slug. Now a high electromagnetic field might be able to reproduce this, but it would require so much energy that it would be impossible for it to function as a mobile unit, especially one that could be worn by a person. Like somebody earlier said you'd have to have a portable fusion plant the size of a small city to power the thing, and even then you'd still have problems with irregular voltage. If it were possible to have a plasma shield that was dense enough, however you might be able to slow a bullet so much that it bounced off you but this again goes back to the problem with the energy consumtion. Unless they invent a way to produce extremely large amounts of energy in the next sixty year, that is small and compact I don't see force fields ever getting off the ground, unless your opponent has a microwave based weapon, but all that will really do to you is make you sterile.

[hobgoblin]

and that is why torpedoes work so much better then lasers in star trek :P

[hermit]

The Plasma "field" the linked article speaks about wouldn't be quite useful under atmospheric conditions; it's more of a space 'shield'. It basically generates a bubble of energy-soaking gas around the object it is to protect (let's say, a sattelite), so noone can fry it by shooting a laser or microwave weapon at it. Under atmospheric conditions, the gas would rapidly react with the atmospheric gases and dissipade because of wind and because the gas mixes with the atmosphere.

The 'ablative plasma armour' the article speaks about could work under atmospheric conditions, though, since it generates the plasma cloud 'in situ'.

Anyway, those aren't force fields, those are clouds of gas that soak energy weapons. And it seems matter won't be affected by that, at least not too much. Certainly not enough to vanish in a flash of light, as it should in a real scifi force field. :)

And as for the US navy developing a star trek force field ... yeah right. They took it ut of the Roswell UFO, I guess?

[SpasticTeapot]

One invention, which is currently in testing by the British military, utilizes a giant capacitor and two conductive plates covering the exterior of the vehicle, spaced about an inch apart. When shrapnel pierces the first plate, it hits the second as well, allowing current to flow between them. Due to the large size of the capacitor, the shrapnel is vaporized instantly. The big advantage of this weapon is that it can be run off a small generator akin to those found at Home Depot.

[hermit]

Okay, that's a clever device, no doupt. But it's not a force field.

Both would be cool to convert to be used by SR vehicle rules.

[Austere Emancipa...]

You could say Ablative Armor and Smart Armor System cover that, rules-wise, along with any other unconventional vehicle armor types we're seeing right now.

[hermit]

Ablative has no effect on lasers, to my knowledge ... this ablative plasma armour would.

[Austere Emancipa...]

In SR3, Ablative Armor simply adds to the Armor Rating of the vehicle it's added on to, thus it has the exact same effect rules-wise on laser weaponry as it does on kinetic or chemical energy weapons. You'll just have to ignore most of the fluff text -- which is true for trying to justify the existence of a very large part of combat-related equipment in SR3.