The
Pirates & Nomads was the source for the ablative armor, as well as HMSGs, which combine armor and shielding pretty effectively.
Shields output 8Hp/KT max, and standard armor only game you 4HP/KT. Ablative gives 14Hp/KT, but comes in 1kt segments, so a Repair Bay 3 will only repair 112 hitpoints per turn of ablative armor
A pretty good trade off, IMO.
I believe Devnull is also using my standard shield mods, where Standard shields provide more hitpoints than Phased. (since the phased shields block more weapons) And the research gives you alternating Normal/phased, so the tech race Lasts longer.