[Strategia_In_Ultima]

You cannot alter ANY of the things you select at game startup while the game is underway. You could, however, save your empire and start a new game, load it and choose a designnames file, then save it again.

(Stock) Armor is mainly useful IMO because it is smaller and cheaper than shields, max level phased shield generator generates an effective 375 extra HP on 40kT of space, 40kT of armor means (IIRC) 4x30=120 HP, which is vastly inferior to a max-lev phased shield. Armor IS useful in the beginning, when you do not have phased shields yet and the enemy can also use PPBs, but when you get Phased Shields armor IMO becomes generally useless except if you have 10kT extra to fill up, or as a backup if they field lots of shield depleters on their ships.

Now, if you're talking about MODDED armor, it gets entirely different - Proportions' (I believe) Buckytube Gel Armor provides good resistance, has Armor ability AND is 0kT..... so if your economy is top-notch you can cram your ships with huge numbers of Buckytube Gel Plating and field LCs and even DDs which can take out a DN without BTG plating.....