Armor Tanking: Using the new Shield 'bubble'

[TungstenWall]

I am currently messing around with creative mode in the Dev build, and wanted to get some opinions on an armor tank design I have been thinking of. I have been away from the game for a long time, and am working off of what I know from reading the recent Dev blog.

What I have in the works now is a mushroom shape, with the 'cap' sticking outside of the shield bubble. My goal is to increase durability by double dipping my armor protection, and increasing my effective shield tank at the same time. Below is a rough drawing of what the end product should be. (This ship would be the equivalent of maybe a Coastal Patrol Vessel.) (Edit: Sorry, image was being a pain)

A projectile would hit Armor I, reduced damage by x% => Hit shields after having damage reduced greatly.
If/when shields drop, Armor II (+whatever is left of Armor I) would act as a final defense.
I would like to get some opinions on if this concept could possibly work, PvE or PvP? Is a mushroom an appropriate shape to use for it? What kind of weapon(s)/turrets should I use?
Guesses for what defensive chambers (Armor or Shield) and armor thickness would be helpful.

Slightly off topic:
Even though the 'cap' should act as spaced armor, would it be viable to make protrusions to make it more resilient against explosions? Maybe spikes?

Thanks for any help

 

[JinM]

I am not even sure, if the bubbles will be in the game, like we perceive them to work right now.

Do I think this is a good concept? I am not sure about game mechanics here: Does your ship loose weight, if blocks get destroyed, or only loose weight if they get removed via buildmode? If it's the first case, then having dedicated armor that can "fall off" and improve maneurability when a fight goes on, your idea could have this one upside.

It sound pretty effective to me anyway. I think it's a good idea.

Right now I wouldn't use this ship type for pvp, as I think that my enemy would just use missiles that often hit from the side. Even if I had a fight, where I would know that the enemy would only attack from the front, I wouldn't use this kind of setup. But this is more a emotional thing, I like having shields depleted first.

For PvE ...Do you mean vanilla pve? Right now the only pve enemies are stations. I mean when I fight pve I preffer ships that have enough shield regen to tank all attacks.

If we had pve where I would have to limit my size of the ship, I would try your concept. The idea sounds cool.

 

[Dire Venom]

The idea/concept is certiantly solid, it's simply a continuation of the docked armour/sheidling setup from before.
The main issue arises from the location of the shield bubble, a decent sized shield can be pretty big imo. You would certiantly want it at the back of your craft for thie design.

One idea for getting around this is to use rails/logic/joints to push a moveable armour block out infront of the main shields, and retract it back in for general flying. It would only work if you were always facing the opponent however.

 

[Zoolimar]

One idea for getting around this is to use rails/logic/joints to push a moveable armour block out infront of the main shields, and retract it back in for general flying. It would only work if you were always facing the opponent however.

What about mounting it on a turret made to shoot at your target ? Won't it try to follow the enemy ship and thus always place the armor part between you and them.

 

[Dire Venom]

What about mounting it on a turret made to shoot at your target ? Won't it try to follow the enemy ship and thus always place the armor part between you and them.

Correct, You've hit the nail on the head :D!
It certiantly does work, and very well.

Personaly I've found the best way to mount it is to have a large ball turret in the middle of your ship (Thus you can easily build around it, it moving doesn't hit anything cause ball yo :P), and have the armour (Built floating some distance away) be Forcefields or Doors/Plexi that you can turn on or off.

It was far more powerful using the previous system, as it could have it's own shielding system, allowing the main shield to regen while the backup and armour kiced in.
Still a very fun, cool and effective defensive measure if you can get it right!!