More Power, More Armor!

Power Armor, Powered Up! is hands down my popular post on this blog. You guys love it and have given me some awesome feed back for it!

So hey, if you guys love you some powered armor I guess I might as well give you some more options to play with.




Pyramid 3/96 Tech and Toys IV recently dropped giving us Ultra-Tech heads some more goodies to play with from how to make your own sci-fi headquarters to how make bows and arrows rock at TL9-11to how to make sure your cyber punk hacker can back up his most important files,  his very own mind.... just be sure to check up on that back up... it might just think it can do the job better then you can...

Now of all these goodies, the one that I sank my teeth into the most in was David Pulver's Ultra-Tech Armor Design system that topped off the detailed armor designed system he started with Low-Tech Armor Design back in Pyramid 3/52 Low-Tech II  and continued with Cutting Edge Armor Design from Pyramid 3/85 Cutting Edge. In it not only did he give us more armor materials to play but more importantly, he also gave us a cornucopia of  different accessories to equip your armor with; most of which answered several questions I couldn't find solutions to while working on my Exoskeleton and Power Armor Design System that can be found in my post Power Armor, Powered-Up! such as how to handle life support and EM armor (of course that also killed a couple of my future blog posts, I was just about to do a write on EM armor of my own when it came out, but c'est la vie).

So that got me thinking about some of the ideas that got cut from the post do to length or that I came up with afterwards and I figure it was tie for a a follow up post. Here you'll find some errata for some of the goofs I made, how to how to design "power gloves" and lower body exoskeletons, how to design TL8  exoskeletons and power armor and lastly some new options on how to power your power armor.

Errata

Suit's Basic Lift
The formulas I used for this doesn't line up as well with higher TL's as I thought it did at first and that is because I found using Suit Basic Lift as (ST Bonus+10)²/5-20 wasn't as good of an idea I first thought it was. For this errata treat as instants of variable BL in the systems formula to mean simple the product of (ST Bonus+10)².

Only use ((ST Bonus+10)²-20 if you want to use the more detailed way of determining how the suit affects your ST. 

Ignore the above, I have no idea why I thought that ((ST Bonus+10)²/5)-5 didn't work. ((ST Bonus+10)²/5)-20 is the correct way of doing this.

This alteration of course means that several of the formula need changing as well:

For Frame Weight the correct formulas is  (0.56×BL)/TL.

For Power, the formula now is (18×(80/BL))×TL for power cells.

A battlesuit should have a DR of at lest around (50×square root of (BL/80))×TL.

Battlesuits and cybersuits should have a DR no higher then TL×square root of (BL/80)

For the armors weight, use ((DR/TL)×1.68×((BL/80)/TL)^(2/3)) for the simple system. See below for the changes to the advanced system.

The amount of innate DR a Exoskeleton gets is TL×square root of (BL/80).

TL is 15 for TL9, 20 for TL10, 30 for TL11 and 40 for TL12.

Civilian Exoskeletons tend to use less advanced armor,  for them use a TL of 10 for TL9 , 15 for TL10, 20 for TL11 and 30 for TL12.

For figuring a suits height use a suits Height is 6×cube root of((BL/80)/TL). Not that I dropped the 0.5 from the constant 6.5.

TL is 1 at TL9, 1.5 at TL10, 2 at TL11 and 3 at TL12.

To figure how many levels of Super Jump your suit gives, log2((BL×JB)/SW)+1, round off. If BL×JB is less less then SW then suit cannot jump.

BL is the suits Frame Basic Lift.
JB is 1.15 for Battlesuits, Exoskeletons and Cybersuits and 1 for Combat Walkers.
SW is the total loaded weight of the suit and helmet plus 150lbs to stand in for the average pilot divided by 5.

The rules and suggestions for Environmental Control,  EM armor, figuring PF and the suit's pressure tolerance are super seceded by the ones found in Pyramid 3/96 Tech and Toy IV, Ultra-Tech Armor Design.

Advanced System Armor Weight
The formula for determining the shits surface area didn't take into account that at higher TL's  a suit is going to be much smaller for a given Basic Lift then a lower TL one and it forgot to mention that there should be a minimum surface area no matter how light the suit is. I also over estimated how much extra surface area that the suit would add to its operator.

The correct formula for figuring the surface are modifier is (1.06×((BL/TL)/80)^(2/3))

BL is the suits Basic Lift.
TL is 1 at TL9, 1.5 at TL10, 2 at TL11 and 3 at TL12.

Now matter how low the suits Basic Lift is, the minimum surface after modifier is 18.9ft for normal humans.

Generators
I've revised the numbers I used to figure the weight for generators and have added the option for TL9 radiothermal generators. I've added a way to figure how much your Generator stand out on infrared.

At TL9 and TL10 the generators are Radiothermal. They last for 14years before losing 90% of their output. Like most power plants they generate heat while providing power which can make it easier to spot on infrared sensors though no so much that they can not be hidden through infrared cloaking. Radiothermal Generators can be used at TL11 and TL12 but do to the fact that the radioisotope used to power it places a hard limit on how light it can be per kW (~4lbs/kW) they do not get any lighter. Instead half their price at TL12 and quarter it at TL12.

The modifier to spot a Radiothermal Generator can be figured as Log₁₀(Generators Weight/TL).

TL is 150 at TL9 and 75 at TL10+.

At TL11 and TL12 Fusion Reactors can be used. They last up to 10 years but generator so much heat that any infrared cloaking is impossible! If you need stealth consider either just taking a Radiothermal Generator or adding enough power cells to run the suit for short periods. It takes an hour to cool down the reactor.

The modifier to spot a Fusion Reactor can be figured as Log₁₀(Generators Weight/TL).

TL is 5 if TL11 or 2.5 if TL12.

At TL12 Anti-matter Reactors are available. The have enough deuterium and anti-deuterium to run the suit for 5 years but like Fusions Reactors run to hot to hide! If stealth is needed then either get a Radiothermal Generator or get enough power cells to run the suit for short periods of time. It takes an hour to cool down the reactor. Note that even in the event of containment failure, the amount of anti-matter carried (at lest at the scale of a battlesuit!) isn't enough to cause a catastrophic explosion but it will completely blow out and ruin the reactor housing.

The modifier to spot a Anti-Matter Reactor can be figured as Log₁₀(Generators Weight/0.1).

 The weight of an Generators is TL×(((Suits Basic Lift)-20)/80).

TL is 90 if TL9 Radiothermal Generator, 45 if TL10+ Radiothermal Generator, 30 if TL11 Fusion Reactor, 15 if TL12 Fusion Reactor and 6 if TL12 Anti-Matter Reactor.

A Generators cost is Generator Weight×Cf.

Cf  is $1,000 if Radiothermal Generator, $2,000 if  Fusion Reactor or Anti-Matter.

You might also want to think about adding a little extra weight to an reactor to let it provide extra power for other systems even when running at peak power.

In order to generate enough extra power to run a device that a TL9 C cell can power for 1hr takes an extra 3.75lbs if a TL9 Radiothermal Generator, 1.86lbs if a TL10+ Radiothermal Generator, 1.25lbs if a TL11 Fusion Reactor, 0.63lbs if a TL12 Fusion Reactor and 0.25lbs if a TL12 Anti-Matter Reactor.

For devices with more or less endurance divide the Generators weight by its duration in hours. For example if the device only runs for half and hour you need twice the Generators weight but if it runs for 12hrs, you only needs 1/12th as much.

This is of course how much extra reactor you need for a TL9 C cell., higher TL C cells hold much more energy! Multiply the amount of extra reactor needed by 4 at TL10, 8 at TL11 and 16 at TL12. A TL8 C cell only needs 1/4th the weight.

I'll go into more detail on how you can use reactors (and engines) to do things like recharge batteries and power cells and power energy weapons in a future post.


Note that some time soon (effectively when I get the free time to do so heh) I am going to go back and revise the system and make it its own thing separate from the first part of the post that covered how to tweak the suits from Ultra-Tech to make it more convenient to look up.

Power Armor by Piece
Now what if you want build a Lower body Exoskeleton or or just want to design an extra arm or maybe a Power Sleeve?

Well the legs of an exoskeleton (which includes the frames "spine") makes about 60 % of the frames weight and each arm is 20% of the frames weight.

A Power Sleeve would only effect one's hand ST and would only make up about 0.05% a frames weight.

So with that:

The weight of a Lower Body Exoskeleton is (0.336×BL)/TL

Figuring the power needed is that same as a full suit.

Treat the suits BL as its Payload.

If you want to armor it, the formula becomes ((DR/TL)×0.62×((BL/80)/TL)^(2/3)) under the simple system or its surface area modifier can be figured with (1.06×((BL/TL)/80)^(2/3))×7 under the advanced one.

For an Exoskeleton arm it's weight can be figured as (0.112×BL)/TL

A arm will last 7.5× as long for a given power cell as a full body suit and a generator will only weight 14% as much.

If you want to armor it, the formula becomes ((DR/TL)×0.16×((BL/80)/TL)^(2/3)) under the simple system or its surface area modifier can be figured with (1.06×((BL/TL)/80)^(2/3))×1.75 under the advanced one.

For an Power Sleeve it's weight can be figured as (0.03×BL)/TL

A Power Sleeve will last 15× as long for a given power cell as a full body suit and a generator will only weight 7% as much.

If you want to armor it, use the same guidelines as with an arm.

TL8 Suits 
While still a few years off at the earliest, Exoskeletons and Battlesuits are coming sooner rather then later. So if you want some High-Tech Power Armor this is for you!

At TL8 the Exoskeleton, Battlesuit and Combat Walker options are available. 

For the frames weight decide if its an TL8 prototype (like the Sacrcos/Raytheon XOS) or an late TL8 deployment model, If a prototype TL is 0.3, if a deployment model its TL is 0.5.

For the armor, TL is 0.5 for the prototype and 0.7 for the deployment model under the simple system. For the advanced system TL is 0.3 if a prototype and 0.5 if a deployment model. 

For Power Cell endurance TL is 0.25 in either case. This of course means that a TL8 suit isn't going to have much endurance using power cells, see Alternate Power Systems below for some options better suited for a TL8 suit. 

When figuring a TL8 suits Super Jump Level, JB is 1 for all suit types. TL8 suits lack the advanced jump boosting system of later suits. 

Alternate Power Systems
The below options add not only more choices to power your suits with but also more flavor then  just power cells or reactors. Keep in mind they also adds more complications as well. 

Batteries
The main advantage of Ultra-Tech power cells isn't their energy storage, a TL9 C cell only holds 90kJ. Instead, what makes them useful if the fact they can discharge their energy instantly making high power systems like energy weapons practical. 

Batteries on the other hand are just the opposite, the Lithium-Ion battery pack like the one powering your laptop can store up to around 350-500kJ! Their down side they can only discharge it at a rate of around 0.125kW or so. 

So in short they hold more energy then power cells but they have much, much less power. This is of course an extra complication that most players aren't going to want to deal with so it makes sense that Ultra-Tech decided to stick with just power cells. 

Now if you are willing to deal with this extra complication using batteries, they can give your suits a longer life span and even add a little extra flavor them.

Another down sides to batteries, baring super science or yet to be discovered principles batteries peak at TL10. 

There are two steps for designing a battery to use for a suit.

First find the minimum weight of batteries needed to generate enough wattage to power it. When figuring the suits endurance the final weight of batteries used can not below this amount.

This can be figured as (BL-20)×TL pounds.

BL is the suits Basic Lift (see my errata above for the fixed way of figuring BL).
TL is 0.04 at TL8, 0.01 at TL9 and 0.0025 at TL10+.

For endurance a Large Battery (High-Tech pg. 13) will power a suit for (198×(80/BL)×TL hours.

BL is the suits Basic Lift (see my errata above for the fixed way of figuring BL).
TL is 1 at TL8, 5 at TL9 and 20 at TL10+.

Remember that the total weight of the batteries that power the suit much at lest equal the minimum weight or there will not be enough power to operate the suit at peak performance. 

A Very Large Battery will power the suit for 5× as long, a Medium battery will power it for 0.2× as long, s Small Battery will power it for 0.033× as long, a Extra-Small battery will power it for 0.01× as long and a Tiny battery will power it for 0.002× as long.  

Batteries are also much slower to recharge then power cells (which can be recharged instantly if hooked up to a powerful enough power source). No matter how powerful of a power source a battery is hooked up to it takes a minimum of 4,000 seconds to recharge a TL8 battery or 10,000 seconds if TL9 or TL10+. This of course the assumes the power source delivers a wattage at lest equal to the batteries discharge rate, if the wattage is lower multiply the recharge by the difference, half the wattage takes twice as long, 1/10th the wattage takes 10 times as long and so on.


Combustion Engine
At TL8-10, regular old gas burners are still viable power sources since they have a lower weight per kW then reactors do. This does come with the down side of them being hungry beasts that need lots of fuel to keep running. They are also nosier then reactors which are nearly silent.

At TL8 and TL9 advanced super charged Ceramic Engines are available. They do not work underwater or in thing or dense atmospheres limiting their operation to Earth-like environments. They normally run off of diesel but can also run off of normal gasoline, jet fuel and even alcohol in a pinch!

The modifier to spot a Ceramic Engine on infrared can be figured as Log₁₀(Generators Weight/TL).

TL is 4 at TL8 and 3 if TL9.

To figure the base range you can hear a Ceramic Engine in, first figure its output in decibels as 20*Log₁₀((Engines Weight*TL)/1).

TL is 250 at TL8 and 333 at TL9.

Compare the engines output in decibels to a base of 60. Round the decibels to the nearest factor of 10 and if the output is 60 decibels then it has a base hearing range of  1 yard, for every 10 decibels louder double the range, for every 10 decibels quieter half the range. 

At TL 9 and TL10 high powered Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbines can be used. They are heavier then Ceramic Engines of the same output and somewhat louder, but their fuel weighs less. Like Ceramic Engines they also need an Earth-Like environment to operate normally in but with a small amount of liquid oxygen added they can operate in any environment making them more useful for suits that meant to be used off world. Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbines run off of hydrogen.

The modifier to spot a Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine on infrared can be figured as Log₁₀(Generators Weight/TL).

TL is 6 at TL9 and 4 if TL10.

To figure the base range you can hear a Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine, first figure its output in decibels as 20*Log₁₀((Engines Weight*TL)/1).

TL is 167 at TL9 and 250 at TL10.

Compare the engines output in decibels to a base of 60. Round the decibels to the nearest factor of 10 and if the output is 60 decibels then it has a base hearing range of  1 yard, for every 10 decibels louder double the range, for every 10 decibels quieter half the range.  


The weight of an Combustion Engine is TL×(((Suits Basic Lift)-20)/80).

TL is 2.4 if a TL9 Ceramic Engine, 1.8 s if a TL9 Ceramic Engine, 3.6 if a TL9 Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine and 0.2.4 if a TL10 Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine.

The cost of a Combustion engine is Engines weight×TL.

TL is $40 if  Ceramic Engine and $60 if Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine.

Next we need to figure how many gallons of fuel you need. This figured as Hours of endurance×((Engines Weight)/TL)×F

TL is 4 if a TL9 Ceramic Engine, 3 if a TL9 Ceramic Engine, 6 if a TL9 Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine and  4 if a TL10 Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine.
F is 0.09 if if a TL9 Ceramic Engine, 0.08 s if a TL9 Ceramic Engine, 0.3 if a TL9 Magneto-Hydrodynamic
Turbine and 0.27 if a TL10 Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine.

For Ceramic Engines, the listed gallons is for when it is running off of  gasoline, diesel or jet fuel. If running off of alcohol then it needs 1.2× as many gallons.

To power Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbines in non-Earth environments then add  an amount liquid oxygen equal to half its gallons of hydrogen.

The weight of fuel carried is Gallons of Fuel×F

F is 6 if gasoline or diesel, 6.5 if jet fuel, 5.8 if alcohol, 0.58 if hydrogen and 9.6 if liquid oxygen.

Cost of Fuel is gallons of fuel×F

F is $2.40 if diesel, $3 if gasoline, $6 if jet fuel, $0.5 if alcohol, $1 if hydrogen or liquid oxygen.

Fuel Tanks
Fuel tanks are available as either light or heavy. They both are self sealing.

Weight is T×Gallons of fuel.

T is 0.5 if light and 1 if heavy.

Cost is $5 per pound of tanks weight.

Light tanks have DR 4 at TL8 and TL9, 6 at TL10, 8 at TL11 and 12 at TL12.

Heavy tanks have DR 8 at TL8 and TL9, 12 at TL10 16 at TL11 and 24 at TL12.

You might also want to think about adding a little extra weight to an Combustion Engine to let it provide extra power for other systems even when running at peak power.

In order to generate enough extra power to run a device that a TL9 C cell can power for 1hr takes an extra 0.1lbs if a TL9 Ceramic Engine, 0.075lbs if a TL9 Ceramic Engine, 0.15lbs if a TL9 Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine and 0.1lbs if a TL10 Magneto-Hydrodynamic Turbine.

For devices with more or less endurance divide the engines weight by its duration in hours. For example if the device only runs for half and hour you need twice the Generators weight but if it runs for 12hrs, you only needs 1/12th as much.

This is of course how much extra reactor you need for a TL9 C cell., higher TL C cells hold much more energy! Multiply the amount of extra reactor needed by 4 at TL10, 8 at TL11 and 16 at TL12. A TL8 C cell only needs 1/4th the weight.

Well guys, hope you have fun with this stuff. Also sorry about the lack of pictures for last couple of posts, my net has been crap lately and I'm having a hard time just having enough of a connection to just these posts uploaded.

And... holy crap? Did the frickin' Cubs just win the pendent? Hooooolllyyyy coooooooooowwww!!!!!