On Sun, 20 Jul 1997, David Johnston wrote:

Jussi Nikander wrote:

What are the suits made of, does anyone have that reference?  If it gets
cold enough, does it get brittle?

Doesn't really matter. The people inside would be dead from the cold anyway.

Not in a Batman: TAS episode.  And not if they were lead characters
in BGC.  Look at what Largo did to Priss.  She would have bled to death
in that spiffy new suit of hers without script immunity.

Well, I have not read the BGC RPG, and only watched the original Japanese
BGC, so I have no idea why people keep forgeting (or not using on purpose)
the oldest trick: *combat drugs*. Granted, we do not have THAT powerful
ones yet to stabilize major internal bleedings, enter stasis (sp?) state
(to avoid death by extreme cold) or accelerate one's metabolism so much as
to avoid freezing (can you say "unpleasant side effects" ?), but then we
do not have OLS, Boomers or (worse) whatever power unit they stacked into
those hardsuits either. And the military and the corporations in BGC do
not look like they would be above developing, and using such drugs. Nor
would be Sylia from using _some_ of them IMHO. Quite the kind of thing I'd
expect Priss' suit to dump in her bloodstream as soon as it detected her
state when she entered the new suit in the Largo episode. 

Also, I do not know if the technology level of BGC is high enough for
that, but the suits could include a thermal superconducting layer in the
composite armor. I *think* Hitomi Ichinohei(sp?) added such a layer to the
designs she once posted here, but I do not have that post at hand to
verify it. 

Such a layer would work well against overheating, would screw up IIR
(imaging infra-red), and reduce the damage taken from extreme heat attacks
(lasers, possibly even shaped-charge ammunition). The suits should also
have at least some sort of IR protection layer, which would not leak too
much heat at nominal operation (i.e.: During most combat operations), or
else the boomers would never lose them on their IR sensors. 

A IR protection layer might work as a very good thermal isolant against
Mr. Freeze's gun, and the thermal superconducting layer would decrease the
freezing speed a LOT (no instantaneous localized freezings anymore). Of
course it would mean the entire suit would freeze at once. And major armor
cracks would screw up both protection systems a lot...

All IMHO, of course. 

---
  Henrique Holschuh <henriqmh@dca.fee.Unicamp.br>