Re: Ablative Armor
 

Okay - Thanx guys. I'll take a peek at those and see how things work.

Thanx for all the help and advice http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Ablative Armor
 

The lines...
Tonnage Space Taken := 1
Tonnage Structure := 15
mean that one ton gives 15 hit points.

Standard armor III has
Tonnage Space Taken := 10
Tonnage Structure := 40
One ton gives 4 (40/10) hit points of protection.

Shield PhasedV
Tonnage Space Taken := 40
Tonnage Structure := 40
Ability 1 Val 1 := 375
gives 375 points of protection, then a "leaky armor" effect of 40, but takes 40 spaces.

With the caveat that this is my incomplete understanding.

Re: Ablative Armor
 

Yes and no, ablative armor on, for example, a main battle tank, is not going to be destroyed by everything that hits it, if that were the case small-arms fire would be the bane of every armored tank.

Strictly speaking ablative armor as we know it, is not possible in SE4. The purpose of ablative armor is that it basicly destroys itself in order to prevent or reduce damage from an incoming projectile.

To me it seems that emissive is the closest thing SE4 really has to offer, and considering that early ablative armor used rubber (either as a filler between two armor plates, or as a backing) to reduce damage, it seems appropriate. In any case, since this is a game, we're allowed to stretch/alter/change traditional meanings.

Re: Ablative Armor
 

Ablative armor is the most directly implementable form of armor in SE4... You burn off the outer layer to prevent the ship from taking any real damage. Ablative armor is directly represented by raw hit points. Making it come in tiny chunks makes it burn off all the faster, as well as making it harder to repair than big pieces of "regular" armor.

Emissive armor is exactly not what ablative armor is; emissive is a magic, limitless reduction effect, which negates damage without any commensurate reduction in strength. Think of a mirror reflecting a laser beam.

Re: Ablative Armor
 

So - here's the question - How would YOU work up Ablative Armor?

Re: Ablative Armor
 

1kt size, 12-20 hp/kt, without armor ability.
Or,
1kt size, 6-10 hp/kt, with armor ability.

I would probably add a 3kt option, with 75% of the hp/kt of the above. Research would go through standard armor, then the 3kt stuff, and finally the really ablative 1kt stuff.


In fact, I even made a mod for the SE4 classic demo which added such armor.

Re: Ablative Armor
 

Not quite, as I said, ablative armor *destroys itself* to reduce or prevent damage to it's vehicle. That is not the same as a regular armor plate that takes damage until it is destroyed. It is not possible to model true ablative armor in SE4. Also, and this is just my opinion, I do not see emissive armor as a magic armor that negates damage. It is simply an advanced armor that requires a lot of damage to overcome, in the same manner that it's nearly impossible to damage a main battle tank with small-arms. However we don't consider tank armor to be magic armor that shrugs off damage even though, with weak weapons, that's exactly what it does.

Re: Ablative Armor
 

Lots of 1kT components would make it take a really long time to repair.

Sounds like it should probably be easy to repair, so you could use a Proportions-style scale mount on it so it could be a single component per ship. Or you could just make it a larger component. Multiply SJ's well-balanced numbers by 10 to 100 times for big easy-repair components.

Re: Ablative Armor
 

Only if by "destroys itself" you mean "is destroyed by the enemy weapon".

You might be thinking of reactive armor, where you have an explosive charge in your armor plate to counter penetrating rounds.
Reactive armor is generally simulated by giving the armor a range-1 point defense weapon, with a reload time of 30.

Ablative armor absorbs a lot of energy by allowing its surface layers to be vaporized, leaving the inner layers unscathed.
This is simulated in SE4 by having very small components with good HP; each hit destroys at least one armor plate, but you have lots behind it.

In stock-like games, the repair time is usually irrelevant, since ships are very rarely left alive but damaged in combat, and repair rates are quite high.

Re: Ablative Armor
 

Which is a good thing, as it can create tradeoffs between armor and shields. With armor, you get more raw hit points but it takes a bit to repair. With shields, you get all the defense points back each combat. Turning armor into insta-repair with 100kt components makes things far less interesting IMO.