Electromagnetic Armor (Shield)

[Kagimizu]

• Electromagnetic Armor
  Tier: 5
  Location: Arm
  Handling: Integrated
  Quantity: Singular
  Weight: 2
  Durability: 175
  Redirection Modifier: +4
  Shield Type: Energy
  Damage Resistance: Beam, Heat
  Damage Weakness: Piercing
  Handling Compatibility: Free
  Melee Penalty: N/A
  Uses before Recharge: 2/2
  Recharge Time: 2 turns
  Note: Electromagnetic Armor returns to full durability after recharging. Electromagnetic Armor cannot be permanently destroyed except by a successful crippling blow on the equipped limb.
  Price: 2,000 credits
  

[Ransac]

Fixing this mistake:

• Electromagnetic Armor
  Tier: 6 or 6.5 (minimum)
  Location: Arm
  Handling: Integrated
  Quantity: Singular
  Weight: 2
  Maximum Yield: 175 Damage
  Redirection Modifier: +2
  Shield Type: Energy
  Damage Resistance: Beam
  Damage Weakness: Physical
  Handling Compatibility: Free
  Melee Penalty: N/A
  Uses before Recharge: 2/2
  Recharge Time: 2 turns
  
  Price: 2,000 credits

---

Source: Electromagnetic Armor

Changes:

• Tier: The Baqto isn't even available yet. Don't throw in tech that predates the suit designed to test it in the first place. If you want to talk about the Barbatos' weapons, remember what's in the basement of the Vault. And if you bring up the GM's equipment, remember that it has existed in every tier because we couldn't figure out where exactly to put it for months.
• Redirection: It requires precise timing to deploy the system effectively. The same applies for the Defense Rod, so they should match.
• "Maximum Yield: It can only stop up to a certain level of firepower. This reflects that. Anything else powers through.
• Damage Weakness: It's designed specifically as a counter to beam weapons. Those tend to be less than useful against good ol' fashioned physical weaponry.

[Kagimizu]

See? This kind of discussion I'm vastly more receptive to. In order:

• Tier: I'm fairly certain that there are several other instances of introducing equipment, weapons, and upgrade options before the suit that first used it.
• Redirection: I can buy that. However the EA is a concentrated shield, while the defense rod is a rapidly spinning rotor. Taking it down to +3 I could agree with.
• Maximum Yield: I think this is a subject worth bringing up for shields overall, but for now for consistency's sake leaving it at durability seems prudent. "For now" being the key phrase, leaving it open to discussing energy shields later on.
• Weaknesses: "Tend to be" and "established within canon as" are two different things. I-Fields and GN Fields were both explicitly shown to be weak to physical weaponry. The EA by contrast has been shown to work mainly in short bursts and only within a certain threshold. Limiting strengths is one thing- such as Nanolaminate and Phase Shift- but adding weaknesses not proven to exist is another.

Now, I want to get to the reason I introduced this shield option in the first place. With the advent of beam weapons, anti-beam coating is very likely to become a must-have for shields up until it becomes built in. Instead, I wanted to give our players something different. A new option that requires a new way of thinking. Currently shields are basically just extra HP cushions, used and then thrown away when they break. The EA instead has much lower HP and can only be used for short periods of time, but recharges and restores itself continuously. You have to pick and choose when to use the EA, lest you leave yourself utterly open to high-powered attacks. "If I block those three rounds of automatic fire, my shield will break and they can use that beam rifle instead", or "I can block that bazooka round no problem, but after that my shield will need to recharge for two turns". Decision-making, strategy, and tactics that both players need to be aware of; that is why I introduced the EA.

In fact the EA actually had a potential abuse case right before it was approved; I had the recharge period for it at just 1 turn. Doesn't seem like a big problem with such low durability, right? But oh wait, if you install two EAs then you could alternate between which ones you block with while the other one recharged, meaning potentially constant protection. So I nerfed it to having a two-turn recharge, even though it has probably the lowest shield durability throughout the forum.

Why? Because believe it or not I did not introduce this for it to be abused, or for me to abuse it. I drafted it so people could have another option for their defensive measures, so as to make equipping and arming ones mobile suit a more interesting, more dynamic experience. Because I am of the opinion that having the EA available would make things more interesting and fun, and that it's a really cool option to have. That's all.

[Ransac]

1. I have stated the specific circumstances for something entering the armory before its "traditional" wielder. This is a system being introduced long before the mobile suit designed to test it even shows up. This is the AGE equivalent of an I-Field in compact form. When we're just now bringing in purchasable beam weapons. It took the Big Zam to accomplish that same technology when beam weapons had been used by the Federation for a significant period of time.
   
   And yes, I am using UC for the standard because for the most part it's straightforward (ignoring TITANS), whereas other series tend to veer when writers get bad ideas (Looking at you SEED and AGE!).
2. Again, anti-beam defenses are traditionally (Read: 90% of the time) ineffective against non-beam weapons. The Electromagnetic Armor was created specifically to counterattack the new beam weapons coming from the AGE Builder and being mass produced/distributed. So nobody will ever use this thing to stop anything that isn't a beam because that is not what it was designed for.
3. See the above? You have a game breaker if you make it useful against things it wasn't intended to defend against and never demonstrated to work against. Show me evidence it works on non-beams and you'll have an argument. Otherwise you're guessing. And even worse, you're preempting.
4. Intentions mean very little when something is easily abuse-able. You may not intend to abuse something, but others can and will.
5. Beam Resistant Coating was already planned for Tier 5. It's clearly present in the upgrade options for shields and has been for months! That's why we got the Laminated Coating for Tier 4.5!

[Kagimizu]

Show me evidence the EA doesn't work against kinetic weaponry, otherwise your own argument is nigh-entirely baseless hypotheticals. AGE is not the same as UC. The Genoace beam spray gun has the same impact prowess as a tank shell. The AGE-1 Gundam uses electromagnetic rotation to increase the power of its beams. Late into the series, there were actual remote weapons made of pure energy. None of which UC invokes or has any variations of. Assuming the same rules apply to entirely different technologies is a very, very questionable argument.

[Kagimizu]

Following up on the points added later:
1) How is a 175 durability shield- with no means of upgrading its durability mind you- that takes two turns to recharge abusable? Keep note that it also has a charge system, meaning that even if it isn't destroyed, two uses of the shield put it on its two-turn recharge anyways. I went out of my way to make it not abusable and ensure it was balanced.
2) The laminated coating can and does still serve its purpose. The Gouf gatling shield (the most expensive shield w/o innate beam resistance) costs 1000 credits. The upgrade, for a T5 shield, costs 575 credits. That's 1575 credits; cheaper than the EA's own 2000 credit cost and able to absorb more than 175 damage without bleed through damage, and able to install other upgrades. The same could be said for the Defense Rod, too.

[Ransac]

After some consideration, I have decided that the Electromagnetic Armor (System) is more appropriate as a Special System. This is the same category you would find a Psycommu Control System or I-Field Barrier. Perhaps as a "Secondary Special". And because the Baqto, the first suit to actually use this system, is Tier 5 (according to the revised AGE Map), this system shouldn't be "mass produced" until Tier 5.5 at a minimum. Because this is now a System, I have combined the "individual" components to create a more singular system. The "Full Body Electromagnetic Armor" will be a different system from a later tier or restricted to specific mobile suits.

• Electromagnetic Armor
  The Electromagnetic Armor is a type of Vagan armor. The Electromagnetic Armor emits an energy barrier capable of blocking most beam weapons. However, the Electromagnetic Armor is useless against more powerful beam attacks. Another drawback is that it could only be activated for a brief amount of time; meaning the timing and placement must be precise to nullify an attack and that it can be overwhelmed by concentrated fire.
  
  Special System Type: Defense
  Weight: 0
  Maximum Yield: 175 Damage (35 x MS tier)
  Redirection Modifier: +4
  Shield Type: Energy
  Damage Resistance: Beam
  Damage Weakness: Physical (Cannot block)
  Handling Compatibility: Free
  Melee Penalty: N/A
  Uses before Recharge: 6
  Recharge Time: 2 turns

[Wingstrike]

Oct 28, 2019 4:26:54 GMT Kagimizu said:

Show me evidence the EA doesn't work against kinetic weaponry, otherwise your own argument is nigh-entirely baseless hypotheticals.

Kagimizu I believe burden of proof is on you here. Especially given it is outright stated to be an anti-beam defence. Also, assuming it will block kinetics is a flawed argument for several reasons:

• Plasma/beams have astronomically less mass than solid slug and are composed of charged ions, so they are naturally vulnerable to magnetic fields already. The same amount of energy required to diffuse plasma is trivial compared to moving larger physical objects.
• Are said kinetics actually fired via electromagnetic means or listed as being made from materials vulnerable to magnetic fields?
• You need to show proof to claim the positive, else the normal rule is assume the simpler scenario. Doing the reverse is effectively asking someone to prove a negative.

[spiceracksargent01]

Following up on Wing's post here as some of my own input on Electromagnetic Armor, about the only projectile weaponry I could maybe see the Vagan's invisible energy shield (and UC's I-Fields by association of similar mechanisms and functions) working against are Linear, Coil, and Rail weapons.  Given that said weapons operate via electromagnetic acceleration as opposed to more conventional ballistics, their ammunition has to be conductive to magnetic fields as a matter of function.  On the other side of the argument, the problem with Electromagnetic Armor's viability against such munitions would, once again, boil down to the difference of mass between bullets/rockets and particle beams.

A physical projectile has a lot more mass to throw behind its impact than a stream of charged ions.  While the stream of charged ions is, indeed, more damaging, a solid-shell round, even if it doesn't have the strength to damage the target, will still rattle the target a lot more effectively, due to striking with more kinetic force, thanks to Newton's 3rd law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  That's also why an energy weapon generally has a lot less recoil than a projectile weapon of comparable caliber: a beam has next to no sustainable mass, meaning a firing action from such a weapon would barely even make the arm of a Mobile Suit twitch, whereas Mobile Suits, just like people, need to brace a bullet-firing rifle against something, typically the shoulder, in order to fire with anything approaching combat-effective accuracy.  And before you point out that Virtue and Wing Zero have some pretty clear and evident recoil to their primary beam weapons, especially the latter since firing the Twin Buster Rifle at full power consecutively outright destroyed Wing Zero at the end of the movie, the scale at which weapons such as the GN Bazooka's Burst Mode and the Twin Buster Rifle operate on is bigger than your everyday Beam Rifle by an order of magnitude, making them the exception; not the rule.