Armour Up!

  In my continuing quest to determine the most deadly weapons in the game, it seems necessary to look at armour.  Here are my nominees for the "Best of..." armours.

Legal

Most Available

Leather Jacket

Best Value

Paper Armour
Urban Explorer Jumpsuit (with helmet)
Ballistic Mask

Best Impact

Bike Racing Armour (with helmet)
Urban Explorer Jumpsuit (with helmet)

Best Ballistic

Armour Jacket
Camouflage Suit

Best Accessories

Form Fitting Body Armour
Ballistic Mask
SecureTech PPP System (all)

Best Concealable

Vashon Island Steampunk Line
Armour Vest

Best All Around

Armour Jacket
Camouflage Suit

Restricted

  SWAT Armour, with helmet and a ballistic shield (or taser or riot shield if appropriate) gives an astounding (20/16) protection, or (21/17) with gel packs.  Substitute Full Body Armour if you don't have access to SWAT Armour.

  For those wishing to supplement legal armour (with a restricted accessory), a shield can't be beat.

Forbidden

  It almost goes without saying, but Heavy Military Grade Armour with helmet, shield and gel packs tips the scales at (25/21).

Statistics

  A simple average of all armours in the game gives (4.4/3.5).

Summary

  Maximal legal armour protection is achieved by Armour Jacket (or Camouflage Suit), Form Fitting Body Armour (Full Suit), and SecureTech PPP System, for a total of (16/14), or (18/13) by substituting in a Ballistic Mask.

  The does raise issues with encumbrance however, and wearing it would require a Body of 8.  YNT Softweave mitigates some of the problem; a strength and body of 5 each is probably optimal.  Since it is fairly modular, simply use as many pieces as your attributes allow.

  The above armour combination surpasses the protection of most of the armour suits, while not requiring a license and remaining obtainable, affordable, fairly concealable, and much more socially acceptable.

  The most common armours should be Leather Jacket, Urban Explorer Jumpsuit or Armour Jacket (indiviually, not in combination) due to their availability, value, and protection (respectively).

  It is noteworthy that ballistic armour consistently exceeds impact armour, most often by 2 points.  On the average ballistic is greater by 0.9.  For this reason, I think that ammunition that targets impact armour should be considered to have a virtual armour piercing of at least 1.