If Power Armor is made of plasteel, why does it BURN ???

[b0rsuk]

Power Armor burns like crazy. It has flammability 100%. But plasteel is inherently fireproof, it's used to construct spaceship engine and so on.

Most items made of plasteel have 0-20% flammability. Okay, it makes sense that a plasteel turret is not completely fireproof, because for some elements you still need steel and others. So it gets 10%. A plasteel longsword is 20%.

You will probably say 'balance'. But within the context of the game, 100% flammable power armor is idiotic and misleading as long as you make it out of plasteel. A player checks the stats of raw plasteel: 0% flammable. Checks a few plasteel items: very low flammability. Suddenly power armor - 100%. This must go. Tynan, don't break your own rules.

If power armor is supposed to burn for balance reasons, then it must require much less plasteel and more other resources... and the only possible resource left is steel, maybe uranium. But there IS a precedent - minigun is a weapon from the top of the research tree and it only uses steel and components, no plasteel.

[skullywag]

well, simply put the power armor ingame isnt "made" of plasteel (in terms of how stats are manipulated) as it isnt a stuffed thing, if it was a stuffed thing the flammability would be effected (uranium power armour would be fireproof) as its a fixed cost thing it needs someone to change the xml value manually, he either forgot or...

[admiralKew]

From a story perspective, it could be the interior liner that's burning, all those non-plasteel potentially flammable parts that could catch fire under the right conditions.

[b0rsuk]

From a story perspective, it could be the interior liner that's burning, all those non-plasteel potentially flammable parts that could catch fire under the right conditions.

If you manage to design a full body armour suit out of completely fireproof material in such a way that it's highly flammable... you should be fired. The outer layer is fireproof, right ? It's supposed to protect the inside layer, right ? And if you do it the opposite way - plasteel inside - why are you putting the softest bits outside ?

[admiralKew]

The expectation is that the fire would be coming from outside the armor, and not from the inside. Therefore the armor is designed to protect the wearer from external sources. If the outer layers are somehow breached, then the game's off.

Why is the inner layer flammable, then? We don't know. Maybe it's a material consideration since anything that could breach the armor to set fire to the inner layer it would kill the wearer anyway. Perhaps the wearer is now acting as a fuel source for the fire. Perhaps the armor is badly maintained, or is in't being worn with the right underlayers.

[stefanstr]

Maybe it is supposed to model the armor heating up to the point of burning the colonist?

[b0rsuk]

Maybe it is supposed to model the armor heating up to the point of burning the colonist?

Then it should be the colonist taking damage, not armor. You could better model that by making Power Armor NOT flammable but reducing its Armor: Heat value. Currently it protects from heat well but takes damage.

[Klitri]

Plasteel is 20% flammable AFAIK

[Bairne]

10% actually, and in that case, shouldn't the armor be at least something less than 100% flammable to reflect its materials? The metal bits and bobs can melt (particularly the circuitry and such mentioned in the components description), but the plasteel should give it some protection.