Re: FT Armor

Gerald McVicker writes:

@:) Armor seems kind of silly in a space combat game.  I mean, a
@:) freaking paint chip hit the quartz window of the space shuttle and
@:) cracked it.  At the velocities you could project any material in
@:) space, what kind of armor could protect you from them?  This, of
@:) course, assumes we use the knowledge of materials we have today.
@:) I'm just curious what explination is given for the use of armor?

  Since no explanation is given for anything else, it wouldn't be
fitting to provide an explanation for armor.

  In near-future terms, I guess you would have two potential threats:
radiation and solid objects.  Against solid objects you would want to
deploy other solid objects; armor would consist of metal plates or
maybe foam, water or sand which would compact on impact and distribute
the force of the object across the hull.  Reactive armor is also a
possibility.  Against radiation (and particle beams) you want
something that stops the stuff, again water is a good idea, lead
obviously has benefits here, maybe just mirrors would be effective
against some types of weapons.	Who knows?  The nice thing about FT is
that we don't have to worry about this stuff (unless we choose to but
as far as I can tell doing so just leads to a boring game).

-joachim