From v03.n882 Fri Oct  3 11:43:10 1997
From: Anthony Jackson <ajackson@iii.com>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 16:45:58 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: Using Vehicles for Custom Armour

Hm...for actually designing body armor (and similar) as vehicles, a few rules
ideas:
a)  Frameless vehicles (TL 1+)
    A vehicle may be constructed _without_ a frame if it is designed to be
carried.  A frame _must_ be included if the vehicle has a drivetrain; if any
other subsystems (e.g. arms) are capable of self-powered movement a frame must
be included.  The maximum ST of an arm is equal to arm hit points * 10.  Any
subassembly with a volume greater than 150% of the volume of the limb inside
must have a frame (if you wish to add 'pods', give them frames also).  Bulky
suits will be clumsy; for every 20% (or fraction) increase in armor volume
reduce DX with the applicable limb by 1.
b)  Human-augmentation armor (TL 8+)
    Any battlesuit with total volume no greater than (pilot weight/25) cf can
be designed so that rather than the motors moving everything, the motors merely
match the wearer's movements; the result is a suit of armor which seems to be
weightless.  The advantage of this is that the pilot weight is not counted into
the loaded weight of the armor (!).  The disadvantage of this is that the
battlesuit's speed cannot exceed the running speed of the pilot, who is treated
as being at _light_ (not no) encumbrance -- this is because any such suit is
necessarily somewhat clumsy.  Optionally, TL 11+ suits might be treated as 'no'
encumbrance.  In addition, any human augmentation system has at least -1 DX.
c)  'Cybersuit' armor (TL 10+)
    A 'cybersuit' is nothing more than a suit of reflex armor turned inside out
- -- rather than the sensors responding to incoming attacks, they respond to the
movement of the person inside.  Obviously, the armor of such a suit must be
bought as reflex armor, though it is not treated as reflex armor (at TL 11+ it
may be reflex as well, for double cost).  A cybersuit is treated as a frameless
vehicle, _except_:
1)  The suit adds (DR * area/200) to the wearer's ST
2)  _any_ subsystems with volume must be located outside of the armor (though
they may be armored normally) and will count as encumbrance.
3)  The suit will negate its own weight to a maximum of (DR*area)/20 lb, but
will only negate the weight of armor and surface features.
4)  The suit has power requirements of 0.01 kW * ST bonus.  The ST bonus may be
reduced, to a minimum of compensated weight/10, to reduce power requirements.
Note that only DR from reflex armor applies to #1 and #3, though you may add
additional armor if desired. 

Comments?