Quote:
Originally Posted by tshouryuu
Hi guys sorry to interrupt, but a group of us (me, Lowegear, AdmiralTigerclaw, WildGoose, Jimmy_C, LimitedEternal, ghazghkull) were discussing about barrier jackets. We came up with something like this and would like for you guys you see if what we think can be correct.
Barrier Jackets - A theory - BJ defends from kinetic impact
- BJ does so via bleeding the energy into the atmosphere, dispersing the energy (incidentally producing those cool clothing flapping scenes when mages block shots)
- BJ primary defense against Kinetic Impacts is the default Field which is set to anti-kinetic
- Thus, as BJ is set to protect against hi-energy kinetic impacts, beams travel slower so as to not have to deal with the kinetic protection
- Kinetic protection is kept on the BJs due to risk of falling/being thrown really freakin' fast
- Similarly, BJs protect against bullet penetration by bleeding all that kinetic energy into the atmosphere, thus leaving no penetration (The impact will still be painful though)
- This explains also why melee works against mages. And it may be the reason why the ban on conventional weapons is successful.
In summary, the faster the attack, the more the BJ protects and the slower the attack, the less the BJ protects.
What do you guys think? |
I can buy the idea that they protect against bullet penetration, but is somewhat marginal since as far as can be seen, BJs are pretty darn soft (clothing like) things that even the wind can sometimes ripple.
If they are made of a material with high tensile strength despite the apparent softness, then they can prevent outright penetration, but a soft material cannot provide enough deceleration in the short distance to stop the bullet ("bleed" all KE), so the bullet still touches skin along with the clothing and may even penetrate part way until the clothing can finally apply enough deceleration. Worse, the softness of the BJ favors the bullet - it does not deform (taking the KE with it as strain energy) as it will against a hard surface - the clothing and skin does all the deforming.
Overall, it is more believable to mumble that they use Panzergeist to defend against bullets. That, at least, is hard, and even Signum freezes when using it.
As for the idea that the BJ will somehow be
more protective against a high velocity attack, well, that is pretty hard to buy. Whatever the mechanism, sheer velocity, all other factors being equal, will force the dispersing system (with no clear mechanism mentioned) to disperse more KE and give it a shorter period of time to do it in.