Armor-An Alternative to shields

[WaffulMann]

I'm just going to put this out there, hulls are useless. As of now.

So here's a simple idea: to have an alternate to shields, armor. The amount of armor in a part of a ship depends on how many hull blocks you have on that part of the ship. The damage is absorbed in the same way a shield absorbs damage, but armor recharges much slower, making it near impossible to sustain itself in a large-scale battle. This way small fighters can save a lot of shield space that can otherwise be used to put more thrust or weapons, and getting your shields taken down won't mean the end of the world like does now.



Thanks :D

 

[GROOV3ST3R]

Armor would never recharge itself anyway since it\'s .... well, armor. By definition it\'s just a solid plate designed to withstand mechanical impact. It\'s ability to defend itself depends on it\'s thickness but it doesn\'t have any special properties. It\'s not nano-armor, just armor for now ^^



I think that StarMade should increase the amount of \'\'armor\'\' or structural rigidity according to the thickness of the hull blocks for each block i.e. 100% for 1 block, 110% for 2, 120% for 3 and so on. for hardened hulls, this bonus would be double so 200% then 220%, then 240% etc.



If you didn\'t quite catch it, here\'s a TL:DR:

If you have 1 regular hull block, it has 100% armor. If you put another one behind it. they both have 110%. If you stack another one, all 3 become 120%. Maybe they could increase the bonus value, so for 3 blocks you could get 125% for each block. But that\'s just a speculation.

Hardened hulls have a base value of 200, so 2 blocks would have 220 each. 3 blocks would have 240 each.



It\'s just a quick idea, but that would at least bring the current hulls closer to how they work in real life.

 

[jzimmerman4]

I think you have a good idea here especially if you combine it with this one: http://star-made.org/content/hull-armor-absorption

 

[NeonSturm]

My suggestion - Conclusion:

• (maybe) Add local pre-shield Impact-shield-blocks which let incoming missiles explode a bit away from you (you can still take splash if it is too close or the missiles too strong)
• The shield
  
  blocks more dmg the higher the charge% (charge level)
• reloads faster while out-of-combat and for low charge levels.

[*]Heavy armor synergizes more, received damage is about 40% to 70% with standard block-pack, helpers receive about 15% to 35%


My suggestion - Details:

• Shields block damage only partially and recharge is dependent on CHARGE_LEVEL.
  
  blocked = min( CHARGE_VALUE, DAMAGE) * max( CHARGE_LEVEL *1.1, CHARGE_LEVEL)
• if CHARGE_LEVEL = 0.0, the charge gain is 100%
• if CHARGE_LEVEL = 1.0, the charge gain should be something like: \"sqrt(shield count) while in combat mode, 1/3 while out of combat\".
• Reasons:
  
  shields will be more interesting (passing raw damage values at different charge levels)
• not avoiding all damage most of the time (makes hull more important)
• smothly

[*]Armor blocks supports each-other, but not globally like shields

• 
  Basic armor distributes over 2 blocks. The second (potential) target is the block which would were hit if the actually hit block wasn\'t there
  
  (maybe give blocks for this reason an increased hit-volume to let neighbours participate more).

[*]Armor-Synergy value: None 0 < Basic 1 < Glass 2 < Hardened 4 < Carbon or super-hardened 8, (imaginary) ultra-block 16 each double (potential) targets compared to the previous.

• 
  At each (potential) target, the number following targets is cut by the target\'s restriction, meaning 1 ultra-block followed by 1 basic will only get you 3 targets.

1. the damage is distributed among the (potential) targets by their index
   • 
     weights: 1st 1/2 > 2nd 1/3 > 3th 1/4 > 4th 1/5 > ... // 1st 1 means 48% damage with just 4 blocks.
   • cut the above list to your blocks armor synergy value
2. Calculate
   • 
     1/2 + 1/3 means: 1st gets 64%, 2nd, 33%
   • 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 means: divide each through 1/(1+17/60) or multiply with 78% => 1st 39%, 2nd 26%, 3th 20%, 4th 15%

• The greater the synergy, the more a small fixed absorption can handle