I am making this post in response to the misinformed cries of players who seem to think either that body armor is ineffective and can only protect against pistols, or that it is too powerful because anyone who wears it is nearly invincible. Others have even said that body armor causes the wearer to move like a sloth, and one guy said that it isnt actually used at all in real life. Heres the real story.
The first modern body armor was the steel helmets that came into use in World War 1. Since WW1 was a trench war, most deaths were caused by bullets inn the head. The furt protective vest was used by allied bomber pilots in World War 2. It consisted of a leather jacket, with thin, overlapping steel plates in between the 2 layers of leather. This protected pilots from the fragments thrown around by antiaircraft guns. Steel plates are not generally used by infantry, because they are heavy and encumbering.
Kevlar came into use in the later parts of the Vietnam War. The vests were called Flak Jackets, and provided minimal protection against bullets, but were mainly used to protect against fragmentation. This was important because the Viet Cong liked to use mortars, and the mortar shells would burt up in the trees instead of on the ground, giving them a greater blast radius. The flak jackets worked quite well at protecting GIs from mortar fragments.
Nowadays, kevlar armor is used by police officers to protect from pistols and shotguns. It was worn by allied soldier during the Gulf War. Newer vests are made of kevlar, but with plates inside like the WW2 bomber jackets. However, these plates are made not of steel, but of hardened ceramics, which are somewhat weaker, but a lot lighter, than steel. These plates block the bullets, and are rarely penetrated. Even if a bullet doesnt penetrate however, it can still wound. Its kinetic energy still hits the target, but is spread out over the entire area of the plates. Instead of being penetrated by a 1 square cm bullet, the wearer is rammed by a 2 square foot vest. This causes bruises and often broken ribs.
Lighter kevlar shirts and pants are now available, offering light protection. Officers often wear a titanium strip around the collar to protect from snipers, who generally shoot the leaders first. Steel helmets have added kevlar covering for extra protection, and low and slow flying planes, helicopters, and ships can have kevlar jackets draped accross them to protect from small arms fire.
In modern times, different kinds of ammunition have been invented for different purposes. Flechete amunition fragments on impact to rip apart flesh, but is bad at penetratin armor because it fragments upon hitting the armor, before reaching the flesh. Explosive amunition filled with liquid explosives explode (d'uh0. These also explode on hitting the armor, but this is made up for by the sheer force of the explosion. Hollowpoints, used by the military, expand upon entering a human body, causing agravated wounds. These penetrate like normal bullets. Tracers leave short-lived fiery trails to show a shooter how far off he is, and incendiary tracers use tracer chemicals which can set clothing on fire. Finally, armor piercing and armor piercing discarded sabot rounds have been invented to take out armored targets. They penetrate armor very well, and hurt about as much as a normal round.
As far as weapons go, shotguns are bad at penetrating armor, but rip apart unarmored people. Pistols and SMGs are somewhat better, but their amunition is kind of blunt, except for the Five-Seven and P50, which use armor piercing ammo as standard issue and are great against armor. Rifles are pretty good against armor, and often use tracer ammo, as the M16 is Infiltration does. Sniper rifles and heavy machine guns are great against armor, and often use armor piercing ammo as standard issue. The Robar uses explosive incendiary armor piercing ammo, which is murderous but very expensive. Finaly, fragmenting explosives such as grenades are okay at piercing kevlar (depends on how the fibers are woven) but gets stopped cold by ceramic plates.
Finaly, my position on armor in INF. I'm for it, but think it should be optional, and bought from the loadout. I am thinking there should be 4 pieces of armor, and any combination of the 4 could be worn. A kevlar-covered steel helmet, a light kevlar shirt, light kevlar pants, and a kevlar vest with ceramic plates, with no sleeves. The shirt and vest could be worn together, and their defenses would be cumulative over the chest and back areas. These would have fairly high bluk ratings (especcially the vest, which would also cost quite a bit), so expect to be slowed down by them. I think this would be good because the 2 weapons which people keep saying are overpowered, the shotgun and grenade launcher, have pretty bad armor penetration, so armor would balance them out well. The five-seven and P50, with their AP ammo, would have great armor penetration, as would the Robar. Anyone using another weapon could aim for unarmored body parts to increase damage. Armor should add armor skins to player models so people can see which body parts are armored and know where to shoot. Armor should also slow players down considerably, and make their footsteps louder. The ability to buy different kinds of amunition for your guns (flechete, AP, hollowpoint, etc) would be neat, but might be hard for the team to do, or make the game too complex, so maybe its not such a great idea. Anyway, just wanted to tell people what armor is really like.
The first modern body armor was the steel helmets that came into use in World War 1. Since WW1 was a trench war, most deaths were caused by bullets inn the head. The furt protective vest was used by allied bomber pilots in World War 2. It consisted of a leather jacket, with thin, overlapping steel plates in between the 2 layers of leather. This protected pilots from the fragments thrown around by antiaircraft guns. Steel plates are not generally used by infantry, because they are heavy and encumbering.
Kevlar came into use in the later parts of the Vietnam War. The vests were called Flak Jackets, and provided minimal protection against bullets, but were mainly used to protect against fragmentation. This was important because the Viet Cong liked to use mortars, and the mortar shells would burt up in the trees instead of on the ground, giving them a greater blast radius. The flak jackets worked quite well at protecting GIs from mortar fragments.
Nowadays, kevlar armor is used by police officers to protect from pistols and shotguns. It was worn by allied soldier during the Gulf War. Newer vests are made of kevlar, but with plates inside like the WW2 bomber jackets. However, these plates are made not of steel, but of hardened ceramics, which are somewhat weaker, but a lot lighter, than steel. These plates block the bullets, and are rarely penetrated. Even if a bullet doesnt penetrate however, it can still wound. Its kinetic energy still hits the target, but is spread out over the entire area of the plates. Instead of being penetrated by a 1 square cm bullet, the wearer is rammed by a 2 square foot vest. This causes bruises and often broken ribs.
Lighter kevlar shirts and pants are now available, offering light protection. Officers often wear a titanium strip around the collar to protect from snipers, who generally shoot the leaders first. Steel helmets have added kevlar covering for extra protection, and low and slow flying planes, helicopters, and ships can have kevlar jackets draped accross them to protect from small arms fire.
In modern times, different kinds of ammunition have been invented for different purposes. Flechete amunition fragments on impact to rip apart flesh, but is bad at penetratin armor because it fragments upon hitting the armor, before reaching the flesh. Explosive amunition filled with liquid explosives explode (d'uh0. These also explode on hitting the armor, but this is made up for by the sheer force of the explosion. Hollowpoints, used by the military, expand upon entering a human body, causing agravated wounds. These penetrate like normal bullets. Tracers leave short-lived fiery trails to show a shooter how far off he is, and incendiary tracers use tracer chemicals which can set clothing on fire. Finally, armor piercing and armor piercing discarded sabot rounds have been invented to take out armored targets. They penetrate armor very well, and hurt about as much as a normal round.
As far as weapons go, shotguns are bad at penetrating armor, but rip apart unarmored people. Pistols and SMGs are somewhat better, but their amunition is kind of blunt, except for the Five-Seven and P50, which use armor piercing ammo as standard issue and are great against armor. Rifles are pretty good against armor, and often use tracer ammo, as the M16 is Infiltration does. Sniper rifles and heavy machine guns are great against armor, and often use armor piercing ammo as standard issue. The Robar uses explosive incendiary armor piercing ammo, which is murderous but very expensive. Finaly, fragmenting explosives such as grenades are okay at piercing kevlar (depends on how the fibers are woven) but gets stopped cold by ceramic plates.
Finaly, my position on armor in INF. I'm for it, but think it should be optional, and bought from the loadout. I am thinking there should be 4 pieces of armor, and any combination of the 4 could be worn. A kevlar-covered steel helmet, a light kevlar shirt, light kevlar pants, and a kevlar vest with ceramic plates, with no sleeves. The shirt and vest could be worn together, and their defenses would be cumulative over the chest and back areas. These would have fairly high bluk ratings (especcially the vest, which would also cost quite a bit), so expect to be slowed down by them. I think this would be good because the 2 weapons which people keep saying are overpowered, the shotgun and grenade launcher, have pretty bad armor penetration, so armor would balance them out well. The five-seven and P50, with their AP ammo, would have great armor penetration, as would the Robar. Anyone using another weapon could aim for unarmored body parts to increase damage. Armor should add armor skins to player models so people can see which body parts are armored and know where to shoot. Armor should also slow players down considerably, and make their footsteps louder. The ability to buy different kinds of amunition for your guns (flechete, AP, hollowpoint, etc) would be neat, but might be hard for the team to do, or make the game too complex, so maybe its not such a great idea. Anyway, just wanted to tell people what armor is really like.
