Name: Personal Hardlight Shield, Faux-Ceramic Hardlight Plates Description: The Personal Hardlight Shield itself is a sturdy box that projects the shield. The shield takes the form as a thin, glowing film over the user. Abilities: - Faux-Ceramic: Personal Hardlight Shields cover the user’s body, protecting them from potential damage. They can withstand a moderate amount of kinetic damage, or a good deal of plasma damage before shattering. Lasers are the exception, as they go straight through the shield without causing any damage to it. Conditional Abilities: - Kit Agnostic: Personal Hardlight Shields can be attached to other armor to provide an additional layer of protection, and does not stop the user from utilizing firearms. Limitations: - Reformation: Once shattered, the user can activate the projector again to redeploy the shield. Reforming takes three turns. Non-laser damage taken during the reformation process will prematurely shatter the thin shield before it redeploy. Conditional Limitations: - EMP Susceptible: EMPing a Personal Hardlight Shield will cause it to instantly shatter and be unusable for two turns. - Visible: Personal Hardlight Shields are visible as a thin, luminescent film around the user. This causes them to emit a dim glow. How does it work: Personal Hardlight Shields utilize a small array of sensors to track the user’s movements and maintain its projected hardlight, sometimes aided by additional tracking devices worn on the wrists and ankles of the user. Flavor text: A staple of Terran video games, it was only a matter of time before hardlight was put to use in personal protection. Referenced Technologies: Photonic Hardlight Attainability: Open Tags: [Civilian] Category: Wearable
Pending. If this is a sturdy box, it raises questions about what weapons can be used from within it. Kit-agnostic says it doesn't prevent firing out. This is antithetical to the previous rulings regarding energy shields. If the user can 'fire out', then it shouldn't cover their entire body - 'faux ceramic' implies it clings close. There should be gaps, then, and that should be clarified (as compared to Dune 1984 shields, which are boxes.) I would also like to see some sort of clarification on power sources (doesn't need to be crazy, but batteries are a classic weak-spot on shields) and melee weapons (does the slow blade pierce the shield? Is getting hit by a gravity hammer going to paste you through your shield because the vibrations travel through?). I'm personally biased towards the shields shattering easily under most weapons, but melting under gravity weapons - but you could argue it differently.
'Sturdy box' is referring to the device itself, not the shield! Personal Hardlight Shields cling close to the body, and come either in distinct 'plates' which allow stronger protection of vital areas (Image 1) or a skin-tight 'seal' which protects less but covers the entire body. (Image 2, notably Personal Hardlight Shields do not encapsulate your weaponry despite what this image shows.) On melee weapons, slicing or stabbing implements would probably leave very little impact while blunt force instruments like hammers or mauls would probably deliver enough impact to shatter- assuming the user has good strength. A gravity weapon would likely immediately shatter the shield and keep going through to hit the bastard underneath. As for power, I could easily mark down some weakness about how destroying the device's battery stops it from reforming altogether.
