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- Sep 14, 2017
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So the new armor system feels like it achieves the inverse of we were promised. The supposed idea behind it was that layering armor could make armor viable on bigger ships, but instead, new penetration models make building cannons that can put a giant hole through 20 layers of adv armor even easier than before.
One big reason that new armor does not work with new weapons is that weapon damage becomes more concentrated as a ship becomes bigger, but armor mass becomes more spread out. It is also unbalanced because armor is effectively only useful against dps weapons making dps pretty pointless now for anything other than holding down shield regen and point deffense.
So, I got to thinking:
In the old system, you could use obleteratives to soak stages of damage, but we don't get that option any more because people were using it instead of armor and decoratives don't block stages when hit. However, obliterative style armor scales with weapon potency because big guns do more damage per stage than smaller guns making it the ideal balancing mechanic for new weapons. So my idea is to have heavier armors act like obliterates used to. What this means is that if a weapon does not overcome the hp of an armor block, it will be stopped like normal, but if you break an armor block, you lose a number of stages of penetration equal to its armor value. This means that a few layers of advanced armor could block a large alpha weapon, but that a barrage of dps could wear it down more easily than it could get through a much thicker block of same mass basic armor.
Pivotal to making this balanced would be removing the mechanic where "blocked" shots don't do acid. Acid with this system would mean that if you hit a 5 layer adv armor surface with a big gun, you can strip a wide surface off of the armor without going through, but weakening it for subsequent shots to go through more easily.
Below are some suggested values. While they could be balanced based on what players come up with, the key is that more advanced armor should soak more stages of damage for its weight than lighter armors, but that lighter armors should offer more total hp for soaking dps. This would create a natural balance between DPS and alpha allowing players to design armors to counter specific enemy tactics.
One big reason that new armor does not work with new weapons is that weapon damage becomes more concentrated as a ship becomes bigger, but armor mass becomes more spread out. It is also unbalanced because armor is effectively only useful against dps weapons making dps pretty pointless now for anything other than holding down shield regen and point deffense.
So, I got to thinking:
In the old system, you could use obleteratives to soak stages of damage, but we don't get that option any more because people were using it instead of armor and decoratives don't block stages when hit. However, obliterative style armor scales with weapon potency because big guns do more damage per stage than smaller guns making it the ideal balancing mechanic for new weapons. So my idea is to have heavier armors act like obliterates used to. What this means is that if a weapon does not overcome the hp of an armor block, it will be stopped like normal, but if you break an armor block, you lose a number of stages of penetration equal to its armor value. This means that a few layers of advanced armor could block a large alpha weapon, but that a barrage of dps could wear it down more easily than it could get through a much thicker block of same mass basic armor.
Pivotal to making this balanced would be removing the mechanic where "blocked" shots don't do acid. Acid with this system would mean that if you hit a 5 layer adv armor surface with a big gun, you can strip a wide surface off of the armor without going through, but weakening it for subsequent shots to go through more easily.
Below are some suggested values. While they could be balanced based on what players come up with, the key is that more advanced armor should soak more stages of damage for its weight than lighter armors, but that lighter armors should offer more total hp for soaking dps. This would create a natural balance between DPS and alpha allowing players to design armors to counter specific enemy tactics.
Basic Armor: Light and cheap. Balanced for blocking light dps weapons from hitting more valuable systems.
200hp | standard 1 stage mitigation | .5 mass
Standard Armor: Balanced for blocking medium weapons fire.
400hp | mitigates 5 stages | .15 mass
Advanced Armor: Expensive, balanced for blocking alpha weapons fire.
600hp | mitigates 10 stages | .25 mass
[EDIT] Further experimentation reveals that acid weapons don't do punchthrough at all in the traditional sense. Rather, they radiate outwards until all of their damage is spent, but weapon width/length seems to affect the shape it tries to use when radiating. So this idea is not 100% compatible with the new damage model anyway.200hp | standard 1 stage mitigation | .5 mass
Standard Armor: Balanced for blocking medium weapons fire.
400hp | mitigates 5 stages | .15 mass
Advanced Armor: Expensive, balanced for blocking alpha weapons fire.
600hp | mitigates 10 stages | .25 mass
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