8,347
edits
Bulletproof Vest: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
(quote cleanup) |
No edit summary |
||
Line 10:
In fiction, a bullet proof vest is capable of stopping anything up to (and sometimes even including) armour-piercing bullets. The shot might knock you down and leave you with a hole in your shirt, but you'll get up just fine. In games, vests almost universally either stop all damage or just reduce damage taken, and then are destroyed when they take enough damage(Actually ceramic plate armor protects against high caliber bullets by ablation, breaking apart to diffuse the kinetic energy. Needless to say its useless after a few rounds). Video game injuries are a matter of mathematical equation, whereas in real life there is a great deal of randomness involved and the usefulness of such armor lies in reducing injuries rather than eliminating them entirely.
In real life, however, low-level vests like those issued to police officers are only rated to stop small-caliber handgun rounds. Higher-caliber munitions require hard ceramic plates which are often shattered upon impact. Even if the vest stops the bullets from penetrating your body, you might sustain broken ribs and some nasty bruises, and knocked down. After all, a bullet
A bulletproof vest may also stop knives and other dangerous weapons in film; however, in real life, bulletproof vests are ineffective against stabbing unless they are specially reinforced to protect from being penetrated by knives. This is because the point of a knife can slip between the weave of the fabric and cut it open.
Line 205:
== Tabletop Games ==
* The Imperial Guard of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' come standard with flak jackets or higher-quality "carapace" armor. These work decently against lasweapons or autoguns, but are practically useless against a good bolter (.75 Caliber AP-HE rockets), let alone the more exotic weapons employed by alien species. However, it's important to note that this flak armour isn't some wussy vest and helmet... ''the whole uniform blocks bullets.''
** In the RPG ([[Dark Heresy]]), guardsman flak is actually one of the best armours that can be obtained regularly. Mesh armour is a little worse, but weighs around 2 kg for a full-body suit (and is ridiculously hard to get without the right connections), carapace armour is heavier and a little stronger (and about equally hard to get) and [[Powered Armour]] finally means pretty much nothing short anti-vehicle rounds can touch you - if you can get your hands on a set and are not too distraught about the civilian capacitors only lasting for between one and five hours of operation... Still, against normal weapons (autoguns and lasguns), flak armour works pretty well.▼
** Players prefer to call them [[Fan Nickname|'T-shirts']], to match the lasgun's 'Flashlight'. That's Warhammer 40k for ya: stuff the Spetznaz would die for is considered bottom-rung...
**
▲***
* Body armour in ''[[Shadowrun]]'' just gives you a better chance of shrugging off injury, rather than actually preventing damage per se. Unless one has a ridiculously high Body attribute (easily gained by, say, being a Troll), just one layer of ballistic armour won't cut it against anything above light pistol fire. But that's civilian- and security-grade armour. Military-grade armour makes one totally immune to anything of too low a penetrating power, but still does not save one against being shot with an Assault Cannon set to full-auto.
** Very little protects you against Assault Cannons. Be happy that only one model has a semi auto or full auto mode, and you have to beat a ''very'' skilled military unit to get one without '''lots''' of nuyen.
Line 224 ⟶ 223:
** Not an issue, as ''Army Men'' is about the little green plastic kind of army men (Who shoot the little tan, red, and blue plastic kind of army men) and never pretends to be any more accurate about details than a toy would be.
* The game ''Postal 2'' has Kevlar and Ceramic Armor, which reduce damage until destroyed.
* The ''[[Jagged Alliance]]'' games come with a range of body armour, helmets and, in Jagged Alliance 2, armoured trousers, as well as handy chemicals with which to reinforce them. These range from the common or garden flak jacket and steel helmet, which is about as effective as putting on an extra T-shirt, to full-body [[wikipedia:Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene|Spectra]], which will let you survive a point-blank burst from an M16 with only multiple flesh wounds (and sudden severe exhaustion on account of having the wind knocked out of you). There's also a kevlar-reinforced leather biker jacket, which is the only body armour upgrade one character will agree to wear.
** Jagged Alliance 2 also allows various attachments to armour like knee protectors and armour plate inserts. Full SWAT gear with inserts and no damage gives an insane amount of damage resistance that can make non-armour-piercing rounds do 0 damage if they hit. You don't even want to ''know'' how much damage the EOD Suits can resist. Really.
* All the ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games have body armor that act as a second health bar. Depending on the game, it won't protect you from drowning, hunger, car explosions (while inside them) and high falls.
Line 230 ⟶ 229:
* Just like in real life, kevlar armors in ''[[Counter-Strike]]'' do little more than increasing your firefight life expectancy from 2 seconds to 3 seconds. Kevlar helmets, meanwhile, are only effective against pistols and ''maybe'' against 5.56 mm rifles.
** See [http://www.schuzak.jp/other/dmgchart.html this list] for all weapons stats.
* In the ''[[X-COM]]'' games unarmoured soldiers will [[Redshirt Army|die with disgusting ease]]. Personal Armour and even Power Armour is available but by the time it's in use, most aliens are packing weapons which will still inflict lethal damage no matter how heavy the armour, and mobile nightmare objects the [[Demonic Spiders|Chryssalids]] ignore armour anyway.
** Primarily because the RNG is horrible/evil, and your soldiers can take up to ''200%'' of the listed damage shown in the UFOpaedia. On the other hand, they can also take ''0%'' of the listed damage, depending on what the RNG rolls. So your troopers can literally survive a point blank headshot without taking a single point of damage. Sometimes, the RNG only ever rolls 200s or 0s. This can lead to interesting situations where a soldier survives half a dozen heavy plasma shots only to get pinged to death by a plasma pistol shot the next turn.
** ''Apocalypse'', the third game in the series, breaks from the mold of the previous two by giving your characters armor at the beginning of the game, rather than forcing you to send your troops into battle wearing cloth jumpsuits. However, the armor ''still isn't very effective'': the aliens will start the game firing Brainsuckers at your troops, which are completely unfazed by armor, and spitting acid, which the armor isn't effective against. In addition, the armor either slows soldiers down (standard Marsec armor), or is prohibitively expensive while being barely more protective (flying armor).
* ''[[Syphon Filter]]'' plays this fairly realistically. The player always comes equipped with a flak jacket which will completely protect you from bullets until destroyed, with headshots being the only exception. Armored enemies, on the other hand, can be damaged by shots to the extremities, and can be taken down with headshots. This is usually how you want to kill them, since you can take their flak jackets to restore your armor.
** The final boss of the second game is equipped with [[Nigh Invulnerable]] full body armor that is apparently impervious to even grenade blasts and doesn't seem to slow him down (impossible).
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid
* A good number of ''[[Mega Man X]]'' games feature body armor that gives 50% damage reduction, but not invincibility. It started in the ''X'' series, and in some games gave a new weapon, but later spread out into the other series.
* The Rainbow Six franchise plays the bullet proof vest trope fairly realistically, even in the more action oriented games, such as Vegas. Light body armor will not save a player from most types of gunfire, and armor that can reliably stop bullets is bulky and slows the wearer down.
Line 242 ⟶ 241:
** Which also includes steel masks to protect the face.
* Nobody in [[Yo-Jin-Bo]] wears armor, except for {{spoiler|Mon-Mon}}, who wears chain mail under his clothes. {{spoiler|He uses it to survive [[Taking the Bullet|several kunai in the back]].}}
* ''[[Resident Evil
* ''7.62 High Calibre'' has several types of armor and helmets available. The first one available, the M200 Concealable Vest, is stated as being suitable for stopping small caliber ammunition. Unfortunately, 50% of the bandits you're likely to run across are carrying sawed-off Mosin Nagants, which fire a (admittedly slower velocity) 7.62mm rifle round, meaning the vest is almost worthless. Later vests are slightly better at stopping higher caliber ammunition, and can include ceramic or titanium inserts for better protection (ceramic is stronger, but breaks after a few shots, while titanium is weaker, but more durable). There's also a game setting that can be toggled on so that vests actually provide full body protection. Otherwise, in addition to considering how heavy and protective a vest is, you also have to take into account just how much of your body that vest actually covers.
* In ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'', bulletproof vests are generic sources of [[Hit Point]]s, which also block knives and fists and explosions. You can also convince {{spoiler|Ronald Sung}} to wear a bulletproof vest if you uncover a plan to assassinate him. Doing so {{spoiler|will save him from being killed by a sniper with a high-powered rifle, which makes one wonder just how much kevlar was in that vest.}}
Line 252 ⟶ 251:
* Riff from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' wears one during the "Dangerous Days" arc. Since he took the blast from a ''shotgun'', however, it [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=020706 still hurts like hell].
** Later on there's a [http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=061108 bit of discussion] about the difference between "bullet proof" and "knife proof" vests.
* Nearly all the soldiers, mercenaries, and guards in ''[[Cry Havoc]]'' wear body armor, most of it military grade plate armor. It also becomes a plot point when Freyja develops a 'formula' for armor that adapts to changes in its wearers physiology (an important issue for werewolves).
Line 291 ⟶ 290:
* During America's colonial expansion in the Phillipines, natives would wrap thick ropes around themselves as armor against the the standard .38 revolver bullet the Army had at the time. This led the Army to temporarily bring the Single Action Army back into service, and led to the development of the 1911, with more powerful .45 caliber ammo. The ropes actually didn't provide much protection against bullets, but they did restrict circulation, making it take longer to bleed to death from bullet wounds.
* During the 1920s/30s, a typical bulletproof vest worn by a bank robber or bootlegger was just a vest with thick layers of cotton padding and cloth.
** These vests, up to 20 layers of cotton, with a few thin steel plates, were still quite effective against the standard issue .38 revolvers used by most police officers at the time. One rather well known hitman, ([[Irony|if anybody remembers his name please place it here]]), was killed while wearing one by a officer using a
* Scientists from China, the US, and Switzerland developed a body armor made from ''[http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2010/March/16031001.asp cotton t-shirts]''. The process involves soaking the shirts in a boron/nickel catalyst, then heating them to over 2,000 degrees Farenheit, which turns the fibers into boron carbide, the third-strongest material on Earth. [[Futurama|Nobody Doesn't Like Molten Boron?]]
** NOW we know where the Imperial Guard gets its armour from...
* The Dragon Skin vest, a scale armor developed by Pinnacle Armor, is designed with overlaying 2-inch circular discs, which are said to provide better protection and more mobility than standard-issue body armor. The vest was tested in an episode of ''[[Future Weapons]]'' and was able to withstand numerous hits from an AK-47, an
** The problem with the Dragon Skin, according to testing done by the US military, was that while it was very effective when it worked, it often ''didn't'' work due to poor quality control in construction. In addition, it was more likely not to work in very hot climates. Taking into consideration where American troops often deploy nowadays, and it becomes easy to see why they were less than thrilled with the test results.
** In 2006, the US Army banned the use of privately purchased armor (making any deaths while wearing non-approved armor not eligible for certain death benefits), specifically the Dragon Skin, although some elite troops are known to hold on to their Dragon Skin after the ban, prefering it over the standard-issue Interceptor Body Armor.
| |||