[Hobbes]

It's like other Mil-tech stuff.  PCs can't get a licence for it.  But it's only illegal if you get caught  : )

The blurb on it only mentions it is EVO corp owned, nothing about being military. It does mention how rare it is right now, so the high availability, sure. But illegal? There is no mention of what it is actually made of, but considering it is a modification that can apply to any other armor, the prospect of it being some sort of obvious or cumbersome or heavily armored add-on is illogical to me.

Yeah, it's not actually described which is not cool.  Three paragraphs or so of Corp this and eVo ThAt. 

Was all of the DV reduction Armor/Armor Mods (I)llegal?  I can't recall if Gelweave was (I)llegal or not...  I thought I saw a lot of (I) on the Availability column for the DV Reduction stuff.  Could be heavy handed game balance meta stuff that didn't trickle down to the writer of the fluff. 

[xthorgoldx]

Was all of the DV reduction Armor/Armor Mods (I)llegal?  I can't recall if Gelweave was (I)llegal or not...  I thought I saw a lot of (I) on the Availability column for the DV Reduction stuff.  Could be heavy handed game balance meta stuff that didn't trickle down to the writer of the fluff.

At first I thought "No," but it's literally as illegal as MilSpec. Reactive Armor (absorb damage and break) are 9(I), Gelweave is 6(I).

But, get this - Security Armor is 7(L)egal, has the same -1DV bonus, and the downside is that it inflicts -2m/-4m move/sprint penalties. It's also only $12,500.

[Lormyr]

The legality is clearly a meta issue that translates poorly in game.

[Michael Chandra]

Its movement penalties exceed Medium Milspec but it only has Light Milspec benefits, and still suffers from drawing way too much attention. So yeah, like in SR5 it's easier to get and actually possible to get a license for, but it's still a red flag that draws attention.

[xthorgoldx]

"It's a red flag that draws attention"

For the runs that I want my heavy-duty armor on, the armor is not going to be the thing that gets the HTRs called. The book seems to imply that runners wearing heavy armor is an escalation of force that will be met in kind, while ignoring that the converse is equally true - if I know that the target and/or other parties are going to be bringing heavy firepower, I need to be prepared.

[Hobbes]

Yeah, I thought all the DV reduction stuff was Niche or Situational use.  Nothing jumped out as a "Everyone should take this" thing.

Security Armor with some Gelweave for a Mage with Levitate and a Movement power?  Sure, whatever, just call me "T-Pose".

Most Runners won't bother unless they've got a lot of cash to burn.  To damn fiddly.