Balancing Starmade [Systems]

[JinM]

So basic armour is almost always better to soak up missile damage instead of advanced armour? And standard armour is better in comparission to basic armour when it comes to soaking up cannon damage?

 

[Tsnonak]

So basic armour is almost always better to soak up missile damage instead of advanced armour? And standard armour is better in comparission to basic armour when it comes to soaking up cannon damage?

correct...
this post will confirm: balancing-starmade-systems.31430/page-4#post-379405... basic armor is best against missiles.
this post will confirm: balancing-starmade-systems.31430/page-4#post-379427... standard is better against cannons than basic,(small hole at bottom*). Basic armor has no armor rating resulting in cannons penetrating directly through (as profile-pics further down display).

Everything is: "working as intended".

Judging from your questionmarks, i am inclined to believe you are wondering: what does all this mean...

current v0.202.86 stand...

comparing reload times for cannon against missile: missiles do substantially more damage for less, and in less time...

Following test armor has been upped : 20 layers advanced + 12 standard (32 = code-max-rating possible) + 15 basic, for a grand total of 47!
Cannon+beam:

5 shots from the cannon were needed, although the profile is a nice display of shots 1-5, the amount of time required makes it subpar.

More damage is possible with just three (3) missiles as seen below...


... or just burn straight through it with beam+cannon, (also in less time).


The likelyhood of placing multiple cannon shots in the same location with moving ships is too small to mention.
Missiles cannot be shot down from AI with the new QF missile-speed: 30
Missiles burn through advanced / standard like butter.
Beams burn through all like butter.

If the intention was to make cannons subpar, success!
Expect to use in excess of 47 layers of armor to properly fit your ships! (against missiles*)

Test ship / size-class: centurian-class-sniper-dreadnaught 260k mass*
Expect to add another 200-300k armor to make it viable against itself, current 8 layers of advanced are nothing...
5 shots to drop shields, 3 shots to armor after shields were dropped:

the shot to the right burnt clear through, better off no shields and just stack armor... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Seems this phenomenon is not only effecting small ships...

Good news: I believe the current limits on stacking armor will be raised!

 

[Tsnonak]

Continuing on... same topic: armor...
Copied directly from QF-Notes:

• A thin layer of basic armor on the external hull to help mitigate the explosion of missiles
• A few layers of standard armor to soak up the first damage dealt by cannons and beams
• A LOT of layers of advanced armor behind the outer plating to stack up that armor rating baby.

What does this mean in-game and is it "working as intended"...

Test performed to the aforedescribed META, + control tests.

Weapons used:
30 block cannon
30 block cannon w/ 100% beam support
30 block beam w/ 100% missile support
30 block cannon w/ 100% effect tertiary

Tests reveal:

Cannon is better than damage beam against armor (minimal 2-block thick layer required for "armor.rating" effect).
Advanced armor is best defense, (direkt shots to advanced provide more protection than standard on top of advanced).
Further testing w/ beams not needed for this test.

25 layers advanced armor is better than 10 layers standard armor (outer layer) + 15 layers advanced armor (inner layer) against cannon.

• 1 shot destroys 1 standard armor (with 15 layers advanced behind it).
• 11-13 shots destroys 1 advanced armor

With 10 shots advanced armor is reached, ca. 165 shots are needed to penetrate the remaining advanced.
To penetrate 25 layers of advanced will require ca. 250+ shots .

The only reason to use standard armor (behind basic and before advanced), is to soak up more missile damage, (standard is better than advanced against missile).
This results in basic + advanced being META against beam, cannon and missile... more basic should be used to guard against missile.
edited: standard out, misinterpretation: standard armor is subpar.

Bonus Info: small ships / fighters / drones
5 block-cannon-systems have no affect on 2 layers advanced armor, at the very least a secondary or effect is required.
Against 5 layers of advanced a minimal of +- 10 block cannon-systems with secondary are required, effects are not enough.
Against 32 armor layers; plan for fighters to need approximately 20+ block weapons-systems + 100% secondary for minimal damage.

Disclaimer:
The likelyhood of landing successive shots to the same area on a moving target were not taken into account, this would raise values even higher.
CC were not tested, the resulting damage would be mitigated by the armor rating.

Refer to this: page-4#post-379405 for the beginning of Infos on tests peformed with v0.202.86 QF.Config Update!

 

[InfernoSuperNova]

hey, its my ship :D