Originally posted by Xan Name: Electromagnetic Reactive Armor Description: Visually, and part of the intention is that 'ERA' does not appear any different from standard armors, apart from requiring some form of power source and a consistent conductive connection between all part of the armor, if exposed. Abilities: When powered, ER armor causes a metal to offer a significant increase in durability, offering extremely similar protection to an energy shield. However, the power cost is significantly less as the majority of the work is done by the structural composition of the metal alloy. The 'shield' is also much more internal than external, providing strong explosive resistance. This allows it to be employed on lighter setups in terms of personal, vehicle, and ship based applications that normally cannot afford the additional weight or size of traditional shielding. ER based metal is EMP resistant, and it's far more practical to utilize such weaponry directly on the power supply to shut down the shielding features. Average Damage Thresholds: [*] Personal Armor (Light): A singular powered set of light armor will only shield the user for a minimal amount of fire, usually a half a dozen rounds or less, with the exception of smaller ammunition types. Since it's not a full coverage suit, explosives damage may be reduced around protected regions, but the sudden shock will immediately kill the battery if close to the AOE. Specialized blades using heat elements or vibration will disable the shielding in two turns at the most. On the other hand, it's actually something affordable in most cases due to the amount of metal required. Any suit with replaceable batteries takes two turns to reload, and both turns must leave the wearer exposed. [*] Personal Armor (Power Armor+): A bit more grey in terms of application as the options increase, larger personal sets vary. Most will provide partial relief and survival from explosives (excluding brute damage), but it's not unheard of larger suits potentially surviving two or even three undirected explosives before being disabled. Smaller arms are a bit more resisted, much like plasma shielding you can expect to survive a dozen or more rounds (half that if it's large caliber, such as heavy handguns and marksman/sniper rifles). Very large suits, if they can handle the power costs can suck up a magazine or two before reverting to typical durability, however these are usually only available and employed in warfare due to cost. Specialized blade resistance starts at about two turns of direct contact, and only extends to about three to four on larger sets if consistently held, making it a popularized way of dealing with them. These suits also take two turns on replaceable batteries, but a second set of hands is required or the user must spend time leaving the suit. [*] Light Vehicles (Land-Based, In-Atmosphere Aerial): Typically receive the same treatment as the upper tiers of personal armor on lighter vehicles such as hover bikes and speeders, two popular uses for emergency protection. For in-atmos ships and vehicles that are typically unaffected by small arms fire unless in extreme amounts, they still share similar resistance described above except instead for larger caliber, often vehicle-mounted weapons. While this is certainly a benefit, the use of ERA is preferred more due to the explosive resistance and stiffer response to brute damage against enemies that prefer to use ramming or dense kinetic weapons. No vehicles can have the power source realistically replaced in combat, but large enough vehicles to have a personal generator must entirely cease movement and use of equipment for a turn before recharge can occur for two to five turns. [*] Interstellar Vehicles (Light): Valued especially for emergency use, and also some combat application, they can usually give a ship just enough time to accelerate to 'FTL' speeds. Large scale primary ship cannons like mass accelerators, and heavy explosives typically will immediately cripple a ER field, but transform a multi-hole hull breach into an impressive dent. As for other actual threats, bulkheads and anti-ship turrets, its a wide variety based on size and energy type but is estimated to last about 10-25% of the hull's normal damage retention before fading. Under consistent fire, it's extremely rare to be able to effectively recharge said shields under attack, and is entirely based on generator capability. If it's able to duck out of combat, a full shield charge takes somewhere between two to five minutes. [*] Interstellar Vehicles (Medium+): Here is where things push the realm of application, and shift to ships exclusively designed for the task. Essentially stations and ships that are a giant energy generator paired with ERA. It's unrealistic for anything but a large faction with dedicated materials and production to build something like this. Specially designed for the task, however, results in massive turtle ships and stations that are more practically sieged by boarding rather than direct combat. There's a trade off though, as a station or ship would sacrifice all mobility and effective weapons systems to simply run internals and the shield for extended periods of time. Possibly effective for colony ships or aerial living environments. Conditional Abilities: Any primary material utilized with a flexibility rating of 3/6 or higher will reduce brute force damage on the user, but only in limited amounts. Limitations: [*] Due to the recent nature of the technology, ERA has not been standardized into factory production and is thus extremely expensive. [*] Covered below, only a limited selection of metals are capable of the structural modifications to create ERA, and thus it supports a more limited cast of armor types compared to traditional shielding. Generally any plating used for ERA is thinner, meaning compared to a standard set of armor without a shield, once the ERA is expired the unshielded armor will be weaker than its generic variants without ERA. [*] While ERA offers temporary sanctuary from stabbing and slashing weapons, blunt and brute damage forms are only prevented to an extremely limited or non-existent extent, the metal not shifting or denting but instead transmitting the force to any directly attached components or flesh. [*] The battery use while idle is minimal, allowing the shield to be left on at most times even on personal armor (although not recommended), taking damage will result in a much quicker drain of the battery life. These shields do not 'recharge' once they're taken down unless connected to some form of power generator (only realistic on large mechs and anything larger such as ships), leaving the metal at its typical resistance. It is plausible to have a suit that allows you to replace the batteries as they burn out, but there is a roughly ten second/four turn 'warm up time' before the new battery would be able to engage. Weapons that do consistent damage or are meant to cut when pressed against metal will drain power excessively. [*] Heat based weaponry as well as acidic weapons that can melt or corrode the specific metal of the armor will cause the structure in that region to break. While the rest of the armor will operate as normal, the damaged zone will return to its typical durability. [*] The energy cost of ERA is extremely minimal in light armor applications, but increases exponentially on heavier armored uses, resulting in ERA almost entirely being used for non-combat, civilian and light armor situations, although it is not unrealistic for medium armored vehicles, mechs and ships to dedicate themselves to ERA. Any use in heavy armored craft or vehicles is likely primarily as a turtle tactic, as it will require the majority of the space and resources to accomplish. [*] This is not identical to traditional energy shielding. ERA only significantly increases the durability of the metal. While it's much less likely to rend while active, that does not mean that the plating can not be damaged while shielded. The metal still takes the force of the blow, and should still reflect damage based on the impact of the strength of the incoming assault, even if minor compared to what would occur without ERA. This will not result in regional failure of the shield unless it's one of the damage types that breaks the composition as stated above, or the armor loses its connection to the power source. [*] While the metal itself is not susceptible to EMPs, the power source is vulnerable like any other electronic device. When disabled, the shielding is disabled. [*] Heavy Power Armor and larger personal suits do not support ERA, as an effective form of power management with the sheer amount of metal plating required has not been deducted. How does it work?: Electromagnetic Reactive metal is forged using a singular primary metal of any conductivity between one and three on the scale of max six, with trace amounts of strong conductors such as gold or impervium in a carefully crafted atomic structure during the production process. When the metal receives a current on a properly produced sheet, the metal should 'tighten' on the atomic level, the reluctance of breaking the current causing improvements in durability. Impacts result in a small 'surge' that results in improved resistance but also the quicker expulsion of power. Flavor Text: Electromagnetic reactive metals are a relatively recent and curious technology that has been 'sneak peaked' for a while now. Not entirely understood and likely not efficiently used as of yet, they're expected to soon reach factory production as facilities are converted for the unique foundry process required. Pitched by Atlas Technological Enterprises, there's maybe enough functional prototypes to create a single plate carrier if any, shown in several holovids of an un-shielded piece of metal impacted by a bullet that crushes itself on impact, the metal suffering barely a scratch. Promising for non-combat ships such as cruise liners, it would make an excellent alternative to shielding that would offer just enough protection to run from ambushes. Of course, not that it's gone unnoticed by militaries for the potential to offer better protection to lightly armored infantry and vehicles. Attainability: Open . While modestly available, take note that the fresher nature of the product means its current market availability is limited. Specialized facilities are required to produce the metal itself, although anyone can hook up a battery and use it (although for efficiency a specially designed power unit is recommended). Licenses and forging details are scarcely offered to companies willing to produce the material, but it is extremely expensive to purchase. Ship-scale production would require a dedicated production center. Tags: Military . Category: Materials.
