err, about a similar topic:

did there every come a official explanation if one can mix and match parts from diffrent armor/fashion lines in CC?

You're allowed to, but it counts as layering. Always has.

err, ok. thanks for reminding me

Theres no hard limit to armor via any specific game rule, only what you can fit onto a character or car.

As for personal armor, no ones had it quite right yet. Theres 2 penalties for armor exceeding quickness.

The first is reduced combat pool. This is determined by adding up the total ballistic ratings and subtracting the quickness, then the same with impact, and then adding the differences. For every 2 points leftover, you lose 1 combat pool. So with quickness 6, wearing an armor jacket (5/3) and a long coat (4/3) youd lose 1 combat pool (4+5-6=3, 3+3-6=0, 3+0=3, 3/2=1.5, lose 1 point).

The second is reduced movment / quickness TN penalties. This is determined by adding up the total ballistic ratings of all your armor. For each point over your quickness you lose 1 move and get +1 tn to quickness linked tests. So with quickness 6, wearing an armor jacket (5/3) and a long coat (4/3) youd lose 3 move and suffer +3 tn to quickness tests (4+5=9, 9-6=3, you get 3 pt penalty).

Form Fitting Body Armor comes in a max rating of 4/1. It also counts towards neither of the above as per the most current errate on the offical SR webpage.

Thus the most min/max you could get with armor is to have all your worn ballistic armor to add to your quickness, and your worn impact armor to add to 1 over your quickness; and then add form fitting. So something like Long Coat (4/2), Rapid Transit Jumpsuit (2/4), Form Fitting (4/1) gives you effective ratings of (7/5) plus whatever 'ware you have.

No, you missed the fact that stictly by the wording of toe book you can only stack 2 layers of armor, not three or more.

Technically, you can stack as many as you want. However, only the two best in each category (Ballistic/Impact) affect your armor rating.

Yes, that's true, but they ALL count against your penalties for quickness and combat pool though,

A pity they didn't include rules for making armors in Cannon Comp. I would think, theoretically, you could come up with more combat oriented component based armor. The fuss in layering armor comes from trying to layer stuff that wasn't meant to be layered. It shouldn't be too hard to come up with component armor that gives a decent 6/5 or 7/6 and still has a decent conceal rating.

Sure it should be a problem. SR makes it kinda clear that once you get into 6/5 or 7/6 territory, you're talking security and heavy armors. That suggests that armor technology isn't compact/advanced enough to make concealable armors with ratings that high.

Im not going into the stacking thing. You read it how you want to read it. But its obviously open to interpretation based on your impression of the grammar involved and the surrounding context. Until I see a FAQ clarifying the subject one way or the other I refuse to accept either interpretation as more legit than the other. Thus I left it out entirly as those are the rules for determining penalties, not for how much you can wear in total ever.

I can agree with that.

OMG a single sentence post about agreement... someone take photos!

The big thing to remember about both layered armor and the armored spell is that they are not hardened armor. In other words, they may only need to roll a 2 against anything ranging from a holdout pistol to a heavy pistol, but they still need 8 of them to stage down a Deadly wound.

Yeah, well hardened armor and gel packs aren't for starting characters anyway. In fact gel packs kinda suck; very few things have a Power of less than 5-6, which is about as high as non-hardened armor gets.