Installing "Found" Armor

[Ed Kolis]

I was thinking again about making a mod for Starfury based on MOO2 when I started looking at the armor components and realized, "How come you can just refit your armor at a spacedock with any piece of armor you find lying around in space, even if it was designed for a completely differently shaped ship???" I mean, refitting a ship with a new shield generator is one thing (you can rip the old one out and wire the new one in) but armor is specifically fitted to the hull of the ship and unless Space Empires races have some REALLY advanced materials technology, I don't think taking a piece of Crystalline Armor and trying to bend it or melt it down and re-forge it would be a very good idea!

So, does anyone think making "found" (not purchased) armor components non-installable on player ships would be a good idea? The player ships are already duplicates of the AI ships, so I imagine all it would take is duplicating the armor components into purchaseable and AI Versions, much like SJ did in P&N for the weapons so that light weapons could be fitted into heavy weapons slots, and then giving player ships a special slot type that takes purchaseable armor only while keeping the AI armor slots the same... right?

[mottlee]

I am not a modder, but I think you could set it up with a "Type" or armor with out to much trouble, not installing "Found" armor would defenatly put a cramp in most games

[Suicide Junkie]

If the armor comes in small enough segments, you can just glue them on wherever you need them, and the curvature of the ship will be negligible compared to the segment size.

Or, perhaps the armor can be melted down, collected, and sprayed back on.
Weapon hits would tend to vaporize the armor and leave it in space.