Design Contest!

[Jasper]

Imagine, for a moment, a space station with artificial gravity.  It is large.  It contains two "tribes", each with their own ideologies, cultural habits, and beliefs.  Their beliefs are irreconcilable by diplomatic means, but for safety purposes no powerful weapons of war are available to the tribes.  They have only simple melee weapons.  However, they have access to very effective simple armor made with modern materials and methods.

ITT we design that armor. 

This is awesome because:

1) SCA heavy combat is awesome, but I feel that it could be more awesome without technological/period restrictions

2) If someone designs armor that I could feasibly construct, I will give it a go.

3) It's fun to design armor.

[Remington]

[Jasper]

Not exactly.  The goal is to have modern armor without any electronics or projectile weaponry.

For example, what I've got so far:

[Salty]

God dammit sig, I like the way you think.

How advanced is the technology here? Nanotechnology? Cuz I've been reading a Christ-ton of Alastair Reynolds and I am PRIMED for that shit.

My first thought is a retractable mace/morning star. It would fold itself into form upon release and then the filament would feed out of the exit point built into the armor.
Possibly some kind of limited projectile capability.

[Bu🤠ns]

Something tells me Fred needs to get in on this.

[Fredfredly ⊂(◉‿◉)つ]

FRED IS BUSY

[Salty]

-What kind of space-station? What specific kind of environment are we talking about here? I can imagine quite a few different kinds.
-What are the physical boundaries between the two tribes?
-How is the social hierarchy structured? Different for each tribe?
-What resources are available to each tribe?
-Is it an oxygen-rich environment?
-How easy would depressurization be?

[Jasper]

More on the background:

The station is essentially a ring station with living area roughly 80 mi^2.  It is an interstellar ship, and capable of withstanding or avoiding the space debris it is likely to encounter.  For radiation shielding, it uses an electromagnetic field generator to deflect the radiation.

There is artificial gravity from the spin of the ring, and the living area is essentially a biodome with a fully sustainable ecosystem of flora and fauna, but tier one predators are rare, humans aside.

The tribes are descended from humans, but the return to tribalism has forced comparatively rapid evolution.  In these conditions, where the gravity is weaker and there are few natural predators, and intertribal warfare is common, the humans have evolved into a taller, somewhat  more physically powerful subspecies. 

These tribes are unaware that they are on this space station, and their language has mutated beyond recognition, although etymologically similar.  From hundreds of years ago, when some could still read, come families with names culled from labels on certain things in the ship.  For example, the house of Warnung Eskap-Hach is especially noteworthy.

The tribes are very spiritual.  One tribe worships a being known as the Watcher, whom some have even met.  In truth, he is one of the forerunners of the interstellar ring station project, who periodically downloads himself into a freshly cloned body to observe the tribes.  Repeated mind transfers, and thousands of years of bit rot have driven him slightly mad, and he's begun manipulating the tribes for his amusement. 

This is where they got the armor.  The Watcher was able to track down a few suits of armor, of advanced materials and technologies.  These armor were meant to last more or less forever, and were made without electronics or parts that may have expired.  However, they are of immense durability and afford the wearer a high degree of protection from nearly any blow.  Most weapons are tribal level pot-metal weapons, or hammers, but the Watcher may also have supplied a few useful zealots with shock batons, telescoping morning stars, or what have you. 

The only real restriction here is "nothing that could endanger the station's structural integrity, or destabilize the ecosystem.  Meaning, nothing that causes fires, poisons the earth, puts big holes in things, or explodes.

[Jasper]

-What kind of space-station? What specific kind of environment are we talking about here? I can imagine quite a few different kinds.
-What are the physical boundaries between the two tribes?
-How is the social hierarchy structured? Different for each tribe?
-What resources are available to each tribe?
-Is it an oxygen-rich environment?
-How easy would depressurization be?

1) A ring-station
2) Some forest, a goodly fifteen miles of wilderness, and a few artificial lakes and streams.
3) Neither have advanced political systems, but the hierarchy is fairly flat except for the figureheads in charge.
4) Living supplies, stoneworking, leatherworking, basic metallurgy, little in the way of medicine.
5) No, the oxygen levels are kept at earth levels by the vast robotic maintenance systems under the living area.
6) Not easy with what the tribes have, but not hard with a thermal lance or a poorly placed shape-charge.

[Jasper]

yeah. do we need to build in oxy tanks and pressure seals?

Nope, the tribes work on the poor assumption that they live on a proper world with normal atmosphere, and the armor they are given is designed for on-station security, not spacewalks.

[Nast]

I like the idea of contests and challenges in Bring and Brag. It would motivate me to get off my shapely ass and art something once and awhile. I unfortunately don't know the first thing about armor, so I'll have to pass on this one. The idea is great though!

[NotPublished]

I also suck at robots or anything remotely resembling drawing.
But I am for anything to further the scientific community.

So I present my entry, the Geek-Bot


Lacking on the creativity

[BabylonHoruv]

I think the sort of outfit police use in riot situations, complete with the lightweight shields, would be pretty kickass in this sort of situation.

[Richter]

Just saw this.  I'll dream something up at work.

[Doktor Howl]

Sig,  the real secret here isn't going to be design, but materials. 

Any restrictions?