Has anyone ever actually worn Ablat?

[Old_Dr_Skull]

I was putting a few things together for my CT/Striker hybrid, and I started to think about Ablat armor.

The only time I could see wearing Ablat armor would be if you knew for a fact that your enemy was using laser weapons, and nothing but laser weapons, with not a gun in sight anywhere. I suppose that might happens sometime.

But, then I started to search my memory. In 30 years, I can't remember a player character ever wearing Ablat in any version of Trav I've ever played. I can't even remember giving Ablat to NPC's while I was refereeing. I can't even remeber seeing an NPC in a published adventure wearing ablat. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I really do wonder whether it did.

Has anyone ever actually worn Ablat?

 

[BytePro]

Yep - (well not personally ) I had settings and worlds where energy weps were the only ones prevalent. Of course, 'ablat only' was typically the domain of NPCs ... players liked more, er, protection...

In the OTU it probably wouldn't make sense (overall).

 

[aramis]

I've had a few PC's do so in games I've run.

 

[Burocrate]

Long ago, in CT my very poor PCs or very poor NPCs had to make due with Ablat and hope to live long enough to beg/borrow/steal better armor (and Combat Armor was nearly as impossible to acquire as Battle Dress). I remember my friends deciding to pull out of a firefight because thier armor was de-graded by two hits and they didn't want to risk losing thier characters. These guys learned the hard way that Traveller combat is deadly.

Lessons Learned from CT:
Rule Number One: Strike with surprise and wait for reactions before breaking from cover.
Rule Number Two: Always out number the enemy slink away/around if possible.
Rule Number Three: Always have an Exit Plan.
Rule Numer Four: Area Effects weapons are your friend, unless they are aimed at you.
Rule Number Five: Run Away if you see robots.

 

[Broggly]

Right now I'm running a game where the military is covering an ATV in ablat armour, since it's lighter than improving its actual armour and cheaper and quicker than coating it in reflec.

 

[Timerover51]

Right now I'm running a game where the military is covering an ATV in ablat armour, since it's lighter than improving its actual armour and cheaper and quicker than coating it in reflec.

Considering that Ablat should be a fiber-reinforced ceramic coating if you are putting it on an ATV, you should boost the armor rating as well. In World War 2, the British developed what they called "plastic armor" for use on landing craft and other ships to compensate for a shortage of steel plate. Against projectiles of up to 20mm, it was as effective at preventing penetration as an equivalent weight of steel armor plate.

As it will add to the vehicle's mass, you might need something like floatation pods if it has amphibious capability. If you decide on doing that, have the Ablat on the outside of the flotation pods, so as to give a spaced-armor effect, which can really boost the resistance to armor-piercing projectiles, and then fill the flotation pods with something like styrofoam or balsa wood to maintain flotation in case of penetration.

 

[Carlobrand]

Lessons Learned from CT:
Rule Number One: Strike with surprise and wait for reactions before breaking from cover.
Rule Number Two: Always out number the enemy slink away/around if possible.
Rule Number Three: Always have an Exit Plan.
Rule Numer Four: Area Effects weapons are your friend, unless they are aimed at you.
Rule Number Five: Run Away if you see robots.

My rule #1 was Teddy's old line: speak softly and carry a big stick.

My rule #2 was: if you're not sure, you probably shouldn't.

 

[selunatic2397]

Bought yes...Worn no.

Realized how much better a cloth with reflec under was...gave it to a hireling...who died in combat later that night's session.

 

[Timerover51]

Bought yes...Worn no.

Realized how much better a cloth with reflec under was...gave it to a hireling...who died in combat later that night's session.

You are wearing cloth, over reflec, which is over your civilian clothing presumably. I assume that the areas you are operating in approximate the coastal areas of Alaska or the northern Midwest in the winter? Or are you also carrying portable air conditioning units funneling into the space between the reflec and your civilian clothing?

Reflec has a plastic base, which is going to trap body heat. Putting the cloth over it further entraps body heat.

 

[far-trader]

Reflec has a plastic base, which is going to trap body heat. Putting the cloth over it further entraps body heat.

I'm not aware of a description of just what the material is but the bit about a plastic base is... difficult to swallow. Glass would be more believable. From the performance and TL though it is obviously MagicWeave(tm)* and there are no issues with heat, moisture, etc. etc. etc.

The stuff bounces weapon power lethal lasers with no noted heat effects transferred to the person wearing it after all.

Heck even today we have pretty advanced thermal and moisture handling fabrics. The minor issue of solving the trapping of body heat and moisture is nothing compared to the armour value effects of the stuff

Likewise solving the old (even for here and now) issues with regular body armour are easily dealt with through moderately advanced tech. And again they aren't really noted in CT so may be presumed negligible. I think we even have underarmour suits today that handle heat and moisture issues quite well.

* any sufficiently advanced tech is magic etc.

 

[far-trader]

To the original question, I recall filling out a few character sheets with it and presume it was used if there were any hazardous encounters we had time to prepare for. Mostly though I recall it as the poor-man's armour for the character with few credits on mustering out, upgraded at the earliest opportunity.

 

[Carlobrand]

You are wearing cloth, over reflec, which is over your civilian clothing presumably. I assume that the areas you are operating in approximate the coastal areas of Alaska or the northern Midwest in the winter? Or are you also carrying portable air conditioning units funneling into the space between the reflec and your civilian clothing?

Reflec has a plastic base, which is going to trap body heat. Putting the cloth over it further entraps body heat.

"Reflective material on a plastic base can be tailored into a body suit ... Unlike other forms of armor, reflec is worn under other clothing."

NASA uses Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garments (LCVGs), a form-fitting long-johns-like affair designed to keep the astronaut cool in the enclosed environment of a space suit by running water from an external source through tiny tubes in the garment. There are also passive cooling vests based on gel-packs to help multiple sclerosis sufferers deal with heat (the condition is aggravated by high temperatures), though fine-tuning that effect while keeping it comfortable to wear is a bit tricky.

Given that the heat-retaining properties of a plasticized Reflec undersuit would be well-known to the manufacturer, that this suit of silvery plastic is TL 10, that Reflec is pretty costly, and that nothing in canon mentions it causing people to pass out from heat exhaustion, it can be safely assumed that Reflec already incorporates measures to compensate for that heat-trapping effect - measures that are better than anything we can manage today, the suit being at least two tech levels above present technology.

 

[Timerover51]

"Reflective material on a plastic base can be tailored into a body suit ... Unlike other forms of armor, reflec is worn under other clothing."

NASA uses Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garments (LCVGs), a form-fitting long-johns-like affair designed to keep the astronaut cool in the enclosed environment of a space suit by running water from an external source through tiny tubes in the garment. There are also passive cooling vests based on gel-packs to help multiple sclerosis sufferers deal with heat (the condition is aggravated by high temperatures), though fine-tuning that effect while keeping it comfortable to wear is a bit tricky.

Given that the heat-retaining properties of a plasticized Reflec undersuit would be well-known to the manufacturer, that this suit of silvery plastic is TL 10, that Reflec is pretty costly, and that nothing in canon mentions it causing people to pass out from heat exhaustion, it can be safely assumed that Reflec already incorporates measures to compensate for that heat-trapping effect - measures that are better than anything we can manage today, the suit being at least two tech levels above present technology.

I know about the NASA set up as I have looked at what it would cost to get one for myself, as I have a very heat sensitive medical condition. It is not MS.

The fact that nothing in the canon mentions people passing out may also simply mean that no one has ever considered possibility or did and decided that it messed up the equipment list. You still have the problem of the cloth armor, and that is basically available now. It is heavy and it does trap heat.

 

[Icosahedron]

TL 6 and 7 cloth armour is heavy and traps heat. TL10+ perhaps not.

IMTU I use a form of Magic Weave that has the weight and consistency of open-cell sponge. Under normal movement it bends and flexes like you would expect for foam, BUT...

It is actually constructed of a network of nano-engineered shock-absorber pistons. When it is hit hard and fast by a bullet impact, the network inertia serves to make it appear solid and the force is transferred across the whole garment.

The garment is made of a carbon fibre that has heat transmission properties similar to diamond and also has a wicking effect. It resembles a wet suit.

The term 'plastic' for Reflec could simply be a verb...

 

[mike wightman]

Well considering to a chemist/materials scientist plastic is a property and the correct word is polymer that's probably the explanation...

As others have already said the armours being mentioned are a couple of TLs higher than we can make now - it is a bit silly to criticise them based on current technology.

Next you'll get someone saying that vehicle sized fusion power plants can't possibly work, or laser rifles, or fusion guns...

 

[far-trader]

Well considering to a chemist/materials scientist plastic is a property and the correct word is polymer that's probably the explanation...

Well considering the common usage of "plastic" is a material I'm going to guess that's what the writers meant, and that most players took it as such as well

...but I do like the spin that they meant it had plastic properties ( nicked )

 

[SanDragon]

Elastic!!!

 

[Khan Trav]

Ablat is largely forgotten in my campaign. This might be a good armor to equip enemy NPCs with...


Also I see a lot of talk about cooling armor. I have known people to utilize this low tech device when mounted.

http://www.coolcop.com/cc01.html

 

[mike wightman]

Just build in some sort of heat to electricity magic material (cooling you in the process) and you can power all your equipment and maybe a laser carbine too

 

[Carlobrand]

...The fact that nothing in the canon mentions people passing out may also simply mean that no one has ever considered possibility or did and decided that it messed up the equipment list.

Wouldn't be the first time we crafted a technically acceptable reason to account for what amounted to an oversight by the game designers.

...You still have the problem of the cloth armor, and that is basically available now. It is heavy and it does trap heat.

I know, I've worn it. Well, the police-issue stuff, no ceramic plates - long and silly story, since I'm not and have never been a cop. (Worked with them, never was one.) That was quite a few years ago, I don't know what kind of improvements they've made since, but the stuff I see officers using now is a lot smaller and better-fitting than the stuff they showed me way back then.