So, it's been apparent for a while that when compared to shields, armors of any ilk just don't measure up. Armor is meaningless against missiles that can vaporize half your ship in a single shot, and it's even more expensive than shield generators and rechargers, making deploying it in useful quantities difficult. This, however, is not an unsolvable situation. I have three suggestions for slight mechanical changes that could give armor new purpose. One of them involves the ship HP system, one involves armor groups, and one changes how missiles behave when striking armor.
The first idea is that the armor removes a percentage of the ship's HP from the missile's base damage, causing smaller explosions when armor blocks are struck. This means that missiles that are too small will be completely incapable of damaging heavier ships, and gives heavy ships the ability to weather massive ordinance. Similarly, the HP of a ship could be what determines armor's damage reduction, with 100% HP resulting in something like a 90% damage reduction value that falls as more damage is taken. It would probably be good for the damage reduction value of the armor that is impacted to scale the missile's total damage, instead of damage applied singularly to the block.
The second is that armor be computed in the same way power reactors and capacitors are. The larger a group of armor along with its dimensions will adjust both HP of the blocks contained within and the percent reduction. Indeed, scaling the total damage with the armor's reduction value is probably necessary.
The last option requires no new block group computations, but instead relies on changing how the missile detonates. The idea is that when a missile impacts an armor block, the blast's center is offset from the surface along the normal of the face that is impacted. The distance the explosion is translated away from the surface would be the armor's reduction value times the radius of the missile +25%. This would minimize the exposure of blocks behind the armor to the blast, and still let the missile do damage to the ship. The next time a missile strikes the same spot and hits a subsystem, all hell will break loose.
The first idea is that the armor removes a percentage of the ship's HP from the missile's base damage, causing smaller explosions when armor blocks are struck. This means that missiles that are too small will be completely incapable of damaging heavier ships, and gives heavy ships the ability to weather massive ordinance. Similarly, the HP of a ship could be what determines armor's damage reduction, with 100% HP resulting in something like a 90% damage reduction value that falls as more damage is taken. It would probably be good for the damage reduction value of the armor that is impacted to scale the missile's total damage, instead of damage applied singularly to the block.
The second is that armor be computed in the same way power reactors and capacitors are. The larger a group of armor along with its dimensions will adjust both HP of the blocks contained within and the percent reduction. Indeed, scaling the total damage with the armor's reduction value is probably necessary.
The last option requires no new block group computations, but instead relies on changing how the missile detonates. The idea is that when a missile impacts an armor block, the blast's center is offset from the surface along the normal of the face that is impacted. The distance the explosion is translated away from the surface would be the armor's reduction value times the radius of the missile +25%. This would minimize the exposure of blocks behind the armor to the blast, and still let the missile do damage to the ship. The next time a missile strikes the same spot and hits a subsystem, all hell will break loose.
