[Alneyan]

20 Crystalline Armours would give you 300 points of shielding; the problem being to have enough shields to hold all these points (not a matter if you have Shields X), and a ship big enough to carry all of these, plus the essentials, and weaponry. I did forget to mention that, which was the obvious advantage of having more than 10 Crystalline Armour.

The actual workings of the armour have been explained by an user,whose name I have forgotten (oops) back in 2001, and is available in the Dubious guide. I have posted the full quote in the Tips and Tricks thread, minus a section about the CA, no longer accurate since Gold. The specifics, or why it works in this manner, are unknown to me.