candidate88766 wrote...
I thought kinetic barriers provided far more protection than the actual armour; isn't that why lots of the characters walk around hostile environments in bare skin?
Poor Codex writers. Nobody seems to want to read the thing:
"The shielding afforded by kinetic barriers does not protect against extremes of temperature, toxins, or radiation."
And yes, they are the main form of protection, but they
only protect against high velocity objects (which is why the biotic barriers of ME2 don't make any sense as anything other than a gameplay element, as no one is mentally quick enough to block, or even capable of detecting, things moving at the velocities produced by mass accelerator weaponry. This is likely the reason why the lore doesn't acknowledge their existence) :
"The outer layer consists of automatically-generated kinetic barriers. Objects traveling above a certain speed will trigger the barrier's reflex system and be deflected, provided there is enough energy left in the shield's power cell."
The reason armor is used is because kinetic barriers aren't perfect. They don't block stuff under the velocity threshhold, and even then stuff still slips through at times. In either case, despite moving much slower than a typical projectile, such an object can still be plenty lethal:
"If a bullet or other incoming object gets past the barrier, it contends with the more traditional body armor. A sealed suit of non-porous ballistic cloth provides kinetic and environmental protection, reinforced by lightweight composite ceramic plates in areas that either don't need to flex or require additional coverage, such as the chest and head. When the armor is hit by directed energy weapons, the plates boil away or ablate rather than burning the wearer."
Ignore gameplay though, because it has its own rules that don't follow the lore. Shields/Barriers are damaged by everything, no matter how slow moving (melee attacks, varren bites, that drug on Samara's loyalty mission), and must be stripped before health (or armor) can be affected.
Modifié par didymos1120, 27 avril 2011 - 12:25 .
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