I'm a little confused about the rules here. It says that monowhips halve impact armor when attacking, but double barrier ratings. When attacking a vehicle (which has armor that functions like a barrier rating, but does not actually have a barrier rating) does the monowhip halve the armor, or double it? Note this is SR3.

Is the structural nature of a car closer to that of a person or that of a door?
Which of the two makes sense?

If you said the latter, gratz.

In SR3 it is definitely double it. In SR4 they dropped the language that says a vehicles armor is like a barrier rating so i do not know there.

On a side note when I Gmed Sr1-3 I played it a bit by ear. Walls doubled it most vehicles doubled it, a lamp post halved it, a motorcycle halved it. My basic way of looking at it was a whip hitting a big flat surface can't really use its monofillament lihthsaber cut anything in half action. A lamp post the whip is hitting it just like it would hit a person and it can actually cut it in half same with a motorcycle. So basically if the whip could extend long enough that the tip went past the object so it could slash it I halved it, if the tip either couldn't or would have a hard time so it really couldn't get a good slash on it I doubled it.

It never says vehicle armor is like barrier rating, it's just that the rules for vehicle armor and barrier rating are similar enough that I was unsure. And no, I don't think either one makes much more sense than the other. Whether vehicle armor is closer to Impact Armor or Barrier Rating is highly debatable. For example, if you think double makes more sense, then what happens when a vehicle has the upgrade that gives it armor that's treated like personal armor? And what about when you attack tires, which also have personal armor style armor? And yet, why should hitting a truck be so different than hitting a wall made of the same material?

JaronK

The whole point of a monofiliment is that it slices through polymer chains. As such, it will rip through the proteins which make up flesh or the carbon polymers which make up ballistic fabrics. Therefore only Impact armor can resist it, and, then, only partially because of how armor acts on a person with the lack of hit locations and all. Even a ceramic plate vest isn't going to have ceramics on limbs, including the neck.

But, basically, because structural materials (those generally used for barriers, e.g. stone, metal,) have a crystalline matrix molecular configuration instead of a chain structure, they can not be sliced through so easily on the molecular level.

Except it still halves stuff like Milispec armor, Security armor, Dikoted Riot Shields, and so on. If you consider the fact that it doubles the barrier rating of wood but halves the barrier rating of Milispec armor... well quite frankly I don't really see any way this is all going to actually make sense. Hence my question on what the rules actually were, since I found them confusing.

JaronK

Always gone by if the whip can feasibly surround the target. Try taking apart a wall with super sharp dental floss. If its a flat wall facing perpendicular to you, you have nowhere for the tip to go.

Destroy a drone, sure why not. Destroy a carrier or sub? not so likely.

Hmm, that actually makes more sense than most interpretations. So basically, if the whip could conceivably be used against a target by swinging it so that the whip was straight and the whip part itself was cutting (impossible against a large flat surface, much more likely against a smaller drone) then the rating is halved, otherwise it's doubled?

JaronK

Hmm, that actually makes more sense than most interpretations. So basically, if the whip could conceivably be used against a target by swinging it so that the whip was straight and the whip part itself was cutting (impossible against a large flat surface, much more likely against a smaller drone) then the rating is halved, otherwise it's doubled?

JaronK

Well, the joints around the head, torso and limbs of milspec armor are presumably not solid metal, so the whip would slide into one of these grooves and slice through. As for riot shields, that's just a an abstract fight thing. Unless the shield covers him like a sphere, then there's still an opening for the whip to hit a guy.

I suppose the same thing can be said about small drones as well as milspec armor. There's bound to be some weak spot in their construction.

So the "if it wraps, it kills" interpretation still holds well enough.