pvk:
first, about the "los/targeting" issues:
sometimes they are in a better position than you, and they can shoot you, but you can't shoot them. this will not change.
now, about the armor:
I can not explain the repairs. It's hard to say what happens in a game with so many variables and actions (like, did you choose "do everything" in the lobby, which also repairs the hull, or did the artifact repair the hull? I don't know)
did you ever buy a new ship from the shipyard? they start with higher hull points...
hull points work like this:
1. your ship has base "hull points" per type
2. your armor adds to your hull points
3. armor is damaged first, and if you can install a new armor component, then you don't need to 'repair' that.
4. armor components do retain their damage, so uninstall and reinstall will leave you with the same damaged armor (it doesn't auto-fix it).
I hope that helps.
I have never experienced mysterious repairs (without a clear explanation) so I can't say why that happened, at least without a much more detailed analysis. So I say, enjoy it
