Re: Suicide Junkie: pls read, about b5 armor syste
 

In any game, you will only see 13-15 levels of the basic armor. (Light/mid/heavy combined)

The advanced armors see up to 10 minor-upgrade levels in each major ability level.

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Your opponents may see a different set of 13-15 levels than you, if they research in a different order, but each player only researches 13-15 levels.

There are hundreds of components, yes. Almost all of them will never be seen due to the order of research.
That's how grid techs work.

Re: Suicide Junkie: pls read, about b5 armor syste
 

Perhaps if your going to go with your 1kt armor.

A solution to keep armor working properly would be to create a mount system where you can mount on different armor sizes and their respective kt at that cost and size.

This way you will have your cheap armor and the ability to have the armor that the bab5 system was based around.

Just tie in the different mounts with armor research and ship sizes.

Re: Suicide Junkie: pls read, about b5 armor syste
 

I thought about mounts as well and already played it. The only problem is that mounts can only change the size, cost and damage resistance of a certain component. Since the B5 armor system is mostly about damage reduction (thats my opinion), you cant really scale it. I would like to create a system where an escort armor reduces damage by 10% while a cruiser armor reduces damage by 25%, but unfortunally thats not possibly at all.
I for one still like the idea of 1kT armor components which can be scaled to anything from 1kT to 10kT and which only absorb damage, and one additional layer of armor representing the current primary, damage-reducing armor. Anyway, more opinions are welcome !

Re: Suicide Junkie: pls read, about b5 armor syste
 

That kind of thing would make small ships even more useless, though.
The point of the primary armor is to give every ship a half-decent amount of ability points.
Big ships can add a few more ability points, and get more heavy armor too.

A ship's value in combat is on the order of (Weapon power) x (expected hitpoints)

IMO, its not about damage reduction ability. Its about Keeping your ship operational as long as possible:
- For individual ships, that means using lots of the heaviest armor available, along with a strategically decided amount of advanced armor (the smaller the enemy weapons, the more you want)
- In big fleets, you want the other allied ships to have light armor, so they draw more fire away from your important ships ... at their own expense of course http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

That's assuming the enemy targets the high-hitpoint ships first.
If they're targetting the low-hitpoint ships first, then you've got to adjust your strategy... Lots of smaller ships with light armor, and your bigger important ships with medium armor so they have decent protection for the end of the battle and enough hitpoints to not be targetted first.

Now, if you're attacking in overwhelming force, you might decide to just go with heavy armor all around. That way you lose a few ships, but the survivors aren't crippled, and are quickly repaired.

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The advanced armor is just icing on that cake to multiply the effect of having lots of heavy armor.

Re: Suicide Junkie: pls read, about b5 armor syste
 

Yeah indeed, repairations are the point as well. Comparing 1kT, 3kT and 7kT components to each other, it should take 7 times or 3 times the time to repair them compared to 7kT component. This is a major point imho, especially considering the unconventional repair-system of the B5 mod (special hulls with component repair ability).

Re: Suicide Junkie: pls read, about b5 armor syste
 

This is a major feature of the armor system... Tradeoffs between raw hit points, penetration rates, and repair times are crucial to the well being of the armor system. More strategic design decisions are a good thing, no? The system is quite simple as it is, once you understand it. All that is needed is better documentation.