This is neither the place nor the time, Soldier.

SIR YES SIR!!
:20 pushups: :bowdown:

Sorry I'm late for the class Sergeant, not my fault, I had to crush a few raider skulls on my way in! I'm your teaching aid here sir!

Lighter rounds will lose energy quickly past a certain range 5.56 in particular. Using cover to absorb incoming fire is good, but you must make the distinction between what will merely obscure your silhouette and what will stop a bullet.

Well, they moved it. The Gunny's pretty upset, so he's gonna go do a 26mile hump in full gear to burn off some steam. He asked me to ask if you all want to keep this up in this forum or just go back to the plain questions in the guns thread. What do you all say? Do we make lemons into lemonade?

Nothing wrong with keeping this active here... It's kinda like a mini-RP thread.

So besides our thick skulls, things that determine the damage dealt to us are distance traveled by the bullet, material of the bullet, mass, and velocity, plus how thick your armor is. anything else?

Well, you know what they say: When life gives you lemon, find someone who got potatoes and make vodka and lemonade.

The Gunny's not back from his little hike in the woods yet, but he did tell me where he wanted to go with this. If damage resistance represents the reduction of bullet velocity caused by pentrating armor, is this the same as shooting through the thickened skull of, say, a super mutant? Should the reduction in damage from the super mutant's skull be effected by the same mechanic as damage reduction done by armor?

PS. The Gunny is well provisioned. He accurately approximated the weight of a fully loaded combat pack with a case of Beck's Dark, a box of Brazilian cigars, four cans of spam and a tin of kippered herring. He might be gone for a while. We'll see.

The reduction in damage from the super mutants skull wouldnt be the same as the reduction in damage from a similary thick piece of armor, because they are , hopefully, made of two different materials. If a super mutant's skull is thicker than a humans it should resist more damage than a humans, yes, but it shouldn't resist more than a similarly thick piece of metal because metal is tougher than bone. It might resist more than a thinner piece of metal but not a similar one. You might also have to take into account the fact that metal bends before it breaks whereas bone doesnt bend.

I think that's debatable. It of course depends on the metal your using, assuming your using some kind of medium grade steel, than the bone might actually be stronger than steel. I know that the femur is stronger than metal, at least in compressive strength. So with the increase thickness in a Super Mutants skull it might very well have a higher resistance to damage reduction. Of course there's always a number of factors involved.

I know suprisingly little about my own body. like i didnt know that ^^ >.< but yea there would be a number of factors. what kind of metal is it, how thick is it, is there any energy field/power armor adding extra resistance and im sure someone could think of more

Through the rotting wooden doors of the makeshift classroom burst yet another private, nearly breaking the already decaying hinges off the wall. He was very out of breath and stood for a while in the doorway, collecting his breath, and then himself, before he finally stood at attention and introduced himself.

"My name is Jenkins, ran from my house to here, sorry for interrupting."

He then went to an empty desk, then found none empty, after which time he awkwardly leaned against the wall towards the back. He hoped he wouldn't have to do push-ups.

Well, I heard from the Gunny. He was just getting on a C-17 with a dog-eared copy of Pashtu in 5 Easy Steps in his back pocket and a .45 tucked into his waistband. He said he'll write if he can, but he suggested we take this discussion back over to the New Vegas thread and carry on without him. Come on over it you want, I'll post the questions he sends me in one of my threads over there. (but in such a fashion that they won't get moved :facepalm: )

Wind,
Rain,
Humidity,
Elevation,
Charge of the round,
Ambient temperature,
Combustion template within the barrel, which also decides range..., sir!

and obstacles.

Walks into class late......and heard this question all the way from across the hallway:

It depends is it african or european armor?

I would think the damage threshold would work, sir. Any hit on the armor ought to whittle down its effectiveness so the wearer is pretty much vulnerable.

Umm, what are we talking about here?

...Sir.

One other thing that will effect the velocity of the incoming bullets is gravity (i.e. bullet drop). If the enemy is a mile away taking potshots at you with a badly aligned scope, he might aim for your head, and hit your foot instead. (alright, that's supposition, I never bothered to do the math, but it sounds about right <_<).

Also, the material of the armor effects it. A Power Helmet will take a lot more damage before letting in the ammo than a Combat Helmet. It's thicker and made to resist a lot more punishment.

Plus, what type of bullet is it? If it's a soft little lead ball, if it hits anything in between you and the target, it'll go 'splat!' all over it.. and won't get anywhere near you. However, if it's a .50 cal round, its possible it could go through a soft wall, a fence, and through some guys arm before hitting your face and ruining your weekend.

Also, one thing that no one else mentioned: Movement and angles.
If you're turning around, and wearing, say, Power Armor, with those nice shoulder pieces, and you're turning, it's likely that the angle of the shoulder piece would deflect the bullet up, or to the side (up if it hit about the center, to the left or right if it hits the edge). Unless the bullet hit it right on (meaning at, say, a .45 degree angle form above), it most likely will not penetrate (unless it's one ungodly motherblammer and has a lot more powder than a .50 cal sniper round).

Most likely though, if it hits your armor at a angle, it would ricochet off, most likely just giving you a bit of a bruise, or at worse, grazing you as it zings by. Sir.