ArmTech MOCM

[Nirvana]

(Template courtesy of Bee!)​

Technical Name:: ArmTech MOCM Manufacturer: ArmTech Model: Metamaterial Optical Camouflage Mantle Affiliation: N/A Ownership: Gabriel Intent: Personal use. Composition: Armourweave and Di-chrome Type: Mantle Power Supply: Two small powercells integrated in the collar. Weight: 11lb (5kg) Rating: Capable of dissipating two or three blaster bolts at ranges above ten meters, minor dissipation capabilities at less then five meters. Minor shrapnel resistance. Description: The Metamaterial Optical Camouflage Mantle was developed by ArmTech to grant their troops stealth capablities during missions, using armourweave and di-chrome to achive this. The surface of the mantle is laced with a crystalline holographic conductot and tiny pinhole cameras enabling the mantle to project an image of its background on itself to generate the illusion of invisibility. The illusion is near-perfect while the wearer is stationary, and includes spectrums ranging from radio through to ultraviolet waves - the modern battlefield, after all, includes not only fantastic technology but also creatures whose natural senses range beyond humanity's. While the wearer moves, the image distorts slightly - while not enough to give him away to an unwary opponent, a keen-eyed and forewarned observer could pick him out.

 

[Livgardist]

This is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. Ever. Kudos, dude.

 

[Nirvana]

Thanks man, not sure if it will become approved or not though. But hey, we will see if it does or not.

 

[Ral]

You will probably need to include a time limit on how long it can be active.

 

[Tristar]

This is from general experience: Stealth generators/armor is not so kosher with Jiang, and I only know of one suit that's been approved for a stealth generator. (mostly for timeline purposes since all the stygium mines (or whatever mines they were) were mined out.). Talk to Bee; she's the one that made said suit.

 

[Gaja]

SAO II, liked it. :D

 

[Ashiruni]

Alright, since you have so many detractors, let's discuss how the rules say stealth tech works and combine it with a bit of IRL physics, eh?

First off, be thankful you're not in space. T.A.N.S.I.S. [link] applies to everything not using a cloaking device, and cloaking devices are actively banned here.

But, onto a more relevant discussion, hmm? The problem you're going to have with the system as you've designed it is simple: emissions. No matter what, you *must* have an emissions source or you're going to cook yourself alive in a matter of seconds (thirty to sixty, depending on your effectiveness and rate of activity). This tends to go against common sense, because most people assume that light is radiating purely away from them, and isn't generated by their physical activity. In fact, any kind of heat generates an emission in the EM spectrum, which happens in the IR/thermal range. Left alone, in a perfectly dark room, with no external interference at all (save a room temperature atmosphere), your body will still emit IR at a rate consistent with your physical activity level.

The most common complaint (I can't, in good conscious, call it an argument or reasoned reply anymore) to this I get when I bring this up is a "thermal capacitor" type idea, where you store the heat being generated. Not only does this localize and amplify the problem (it's harder to hide a small object radiating at a couple hundred degrees than a larger object radiating at thirty seven), you then have to contend with an object on your person that is rapidly heating up at an utterly exponential rate. Secondly, you have to deal with refrigeration units to transfer and transmit that heat into your thermal storage device, which also generates heat, and also requires the use of a power source, which spikes your EM emissions in a completely different sense. If you were to implement this kind of system, your duration is also highly limited as your thermal storage device itself would be exceedingly difficult to radiate heat from, which means you'd be very, very lucky to be able to use this system twice in a four hour period. Adding a radiator alleviates this problem, but obviously negates and kind of stealth you might have in the IR spectrum.

Another common complaint is radiating heat from the feet or into the sky, neither of which work. If you radiated your body heat solely from your feet (ignoring, for the moment, the refrigeration equipment necessary for this) you would leave a blatantly obvious trail, as well as give away your current position since you haven't walked forward yet. If you try to use any of those clever retracing your steps tricks, or many of the tricks that are used to avoid detection by scent, you'll quickly find that the physics of thermal emissions work very, very different from scent and you will be immediately discovered since you're still emitting and your most recent footsteps are emitting more powerfully than your less recent ones. Into the sky creates a blatantly obvious IR emission to any kind of satellite coverage, aerial surveillance, or even a number of ground-based sensors, depending on how focused your emission is.

The last complaint I get usually runs along the lines of "what if I turn my heat into electricity?". In theory, this works fine, except for two small problems. Once again, there is a significant spike in your EM radiation (specifically the magnetic sense) due to your use of electricity. Secondly such devices are, historically, not all that efficient. It works for a short duration, namely to buy yourself a bit of time in a 'thermal capacitor' type situation, but even that is fairly ineffectual as roughly 1/5th (gross) of the heat you put into the thing actually gets turned into electricity.

In terms of hiding yourself in the UV spectrum, well.... let's just say good luck. UV doesn't work like anything you're remotely familiar with. I'll admit that the science of seeing the world in ultraviolet is largely beyond my understanding of physics, but the easiest way to describe it from what little I do know, is that UV just stops whenever it encounters a solid object, distorts when it encounters a soft fleshy object, and is generally really, really odd in how the light interacts with things.

Now, with that out of the way, here's what you can do. Keep in mind, this complies (completely) with site rules, but will still be up to Jiang's whimsy and sense of balance. First up, you can keep your fancy invisibility cloak, but it's going to light you up like a christmas tree to any sensors nearby. To partially counter that, and further enable your invisibility, give yourself a layer of reflec [link]. This stuff absorbs and warps both light and sensors, which makes your suit much more difficult to detect. You'll still get picked up by milspec sensors, but you might make it past civilian grade equipment. Additionally, instead of armorweave, I'd suggest shadowsilk [link] which also absorbs light and sound. Combined with your di-chrome, the reflec and shadowsilk will make your passive emissions more difficult to detect. Once again, milspec sensors will probably detect you if you get too close (depends on the sensor, but within a hundred meters or so would be typical of a military base sensor array), but you'll be really hard to detect on a civilian grade sensor array. Finally, implement a thermal capacitor type system, add in a heat-to-electricity converter wired into your cloth everywhere to absorb as much of the heat as possible before it's sent to the capacitor, load up a decently sized battery, and go to town. Your heat will still build up (I suggest putting the capacitor in the small of your back, as it can handle a bit more heat than elsewhere) and within two or three minutes you're going to be taking third degree burns from the thing, but with your sensor-absorptive materials you'll be reasonably difficult to spot for a short duration. With the reflec and shadowsilk, your passive sensor profile ought to be practically nil as well, so you'll be largely invisible to almost everything but the naked eye until you turn on your invisibility.

The trade off to this particular suit, however, is that the second you get shot (with damned near anything) your active camouflage is busted and you're not going to hide from anything. You could keep your armorweave, which might let you take a shot or two from a low-caliber pistol or a blaster pistol/light carbine before your stealth dies, but your sensor profile will increase proportionally. Your call on this one.

Also, nice job on researching the star wars materials. Far, far too many people just use whatever idea comes to mind when it comes to materials (usually those materials are found IRL and are thus highly ineffective at stopping blaster bolt-levels of destruction), so I congratulate you on your use of lore-appropriate materials.

Finally, the usual disclaimer still applies on this one: all this gobbldy ****, while reasonably accurate IRL, might not apply to the game world. I am not a tech moderator, and therefore have no real say in whether or not this will get approved/denied (though I do have enough experience to gauge/balance stuff so I usually don't have to make significant changes to the stuff I make); this is mostly my opinion/experience talking, so it doesn't really carry much weight. In addition, as per usual, you are more than welcome to completely ignore my commentary if you wish, but my initial reaction is that this will not make it past Jiang as it stands.

Good luck on the application!