While I can find several posts in SR4 forums mentioning Dikote (clearly people still use it), I cant find anything in BBB that references it, nor any threads here on SR4 stats/mechanics.


Considering I just got a Dikoted Tanto trying to help my game master out.


Now in truth considering that my blades skill is Zero I doubt I will be using it any time soon. (not far that matter would I use a gift save dire emergency).

Still was wondering what if any others had used for the mechanics for Dikote™ in SR4.

Peace

For Weapons:
+0/-3

For Armour:
+1/+1

Serbitar so a Dikote Tanto:

reach -
damage (str/2+1)P
AP: -4


no increase to actual 'damage' just increase in armor penetration?


Peace

+1/+1 for armor, huh?

Seems like Dikote got a pretty big downgrade in protective efficiency over 10 years. I think a +2/+2 would still come up short to the former awesomeness of reducing your BodySoak TN by 1.

I personally do not like "super upgrades".

I was asked for my stats, so I gave them.

I would probably do it like this:

Dikote™ on blades: DV - AP -1
Dikote™ on armor: no effect

Bye
Thanee

But are this rules official or homemade ones?

And another question: how much it cost and what availability should have?

There are no official rules for Dikote ATM.

Boron carbide is already harder than the tungsten carbide penetrators of small arms armor piercing bullets, but apparently M993 AP rounds still go through without shattering. Would have to wait on Cray74 or someone else to confirm that, but I figure a few extra fractions of Mohs in an extremely thin layer wouldn't make those penetrators much more likely to shatter.

Dikote could work on the plates that are optional on some armors.

After searching for some absolute hardness figures for these materials, my conclusion is that they are all Really Fucking Hard on the AE-HFH-scale.

The "Austere Emancipator - Hard Fucking Hardness" scale?

Almost. It's Austere Emancipator's How Fucking Hard (Is This Shit) scale. It is approximately equal to Lots on the Vickers hardness scale and I Don't Know, Plenty? on the Rockwell A-scale.

By 2070, wouldn't Dikote already be fairly ubiquitous in materials in which hardness is a factor? Kinda like teflon today.

While I dislike Dikote and all it represents as much as the next GM, this idea of "surface hardening to counteract penetrators" is interesting.

What if Dikote on armour provided "AP resistance"? Basically, on weapons it increases your AP by two, on armour it *decreases* the AP of any incoming attacks by two.

Given the outrageous cost and the fact that it can only be added to "rigid" armours (always a fun argument, that one, players like Dikoting anything which has the word "plate" in the description), that seems balanced.

Whether it's realistic enough for the gun nuts around about the place is another question.

If you ignore the actual description/physics of Dikote, it's not that bad of a thing, gameplaywise. An incredibly expensive treatment that makes weapons and armor somewhat more effective? Uh, okay.

look i need Dikote for my Ally spirit....SO i can make it into a ares... gun and um...

It would have been nice if someone who'd seen a gun had walked past the equipment list while it was being written.

I started on a firearms rewrite, but I thought I'd wait until after Arsenal.

I surely hope they wont implement any rules for engines in Arsenal... it so depressing to see SR limp behind actual developments. (Hybrid cars? Ethanol? Combined? uh...)

Thanks a lot - those look like serious material.

Though those look indeed more specialized, they might come handy - thanks.

I reckon dikoted materials are not mentioned mainly because the SOTA is now such that diamond is a less desireable material to coat blades with then what they come with naturally.

And, frankly, a thin layer of diamond on armor that is even slightly flexible will shatter as soon as anything hits it anyway.

So here's a question. Could you (in theory) dikote bullets (Just the tips, before propellants are added, obviously), and what would that do for you in game terms? Granted, you'd probably have to use special material to withstand the process, but would it be worthwhile?

And what would the interaction be between Dikote Bullets vs Dikote Armor?

Also, cost was mentioned earlier in this thread. Since so many other previously high costs have come way down (cyberarms, for example), it seems likely to me that Dikote could come down too, becoming a cost effective purchase?

If you Dikote cheap, scratchy brown toilet paper, does it still burn your ass? Is it in fact too smooth to pick up any, ah, "material" at all? If it was stuck to the bottom of your shoe, would you slip? If not, what would happen if you stepped on a contact explosion land mine?

I use a form of the old Hardened Armor rules with a twist or two. You could use this to represent the Dikote armor.

Hardening
Some armors have a hardening rating representing hard plates. This has the following effects:
· If the DV is less then or equal to the Hardening then the attack just bounces off. There is no stun roll made.
· It reduces the AP of any attack up to the rating.
· It adds it’s rating to both the ballistic and impact ratings (reduced by how much it is counteracting the AP)

Hardening is noted after the Ballistic and Impact in parenthesis. Cyberlimbs can have a point or two of hardening if they have armor. Hardening is not available in civilian armors. Security armor can have up to a 4 with a security license. Military armor goes up to a 6. After that they use Hard Suits or vehicles instead.

Ex: Full Body Armor becomes 6/4(4)
An attack with a heavy pistol 5p -1ap looses the AP on the hardening and leaves 6/4(3) so add the ballistic plus left over hardening (9) to body test.
That heavy pistol with APDS would become 5p -5ap so the armor becomes 5/4(0) as the -5 removes the hardening and one point of armor.
But a light pistol doing 4p 0ap bounces right off the hardening. A knife doing 4p would also skip right off.