Ablative Armor

[Black_Knyght]

I'm trying to add Ablative Armor as a component to the Mod I'm working on, but I'm not real sure where to go with it. below is what I have so far, and I'd welcome any ( constructive ) thoughts or ideas...

ABLATIVE ARMOR

Name := Ablative Armor I
Description := Armor which absorbs energy by vaporizing its surface layer.
Pic Num := 30
Tonnage Space Taken := 1
Tonnage Structure := 10
Cost Minerals := 50
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 20
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Armor
Family := 45
Roman Numeral := 1
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Armor
Tech Level Req 1 := 4
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Armor
Ability 1 Descr := Is damaged before any other components on a ship.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Emissive Armor
Ability 2 Descr := Negates any damage of 5 or less.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 5
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None

Name := Ablative Armor II
Description := Armor which absorbs energy by vaporizing its surface layer.
Pic Num := 30
Tonnage Space Taken := 1
Tonnage Structure := 12
Cost Minerals := 50
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 20
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Armor
Family := 45
Roman Numeral := 2
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Armor
Tech Level Req 1 := 5
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Armor
Ability 1 Descr := Is damaged before any other components on a ship.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Emissive Armor
Ability 2 Descr := Negates any damage of 10 or less.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 10
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None

Name := Ablative Armor III
Description := Armor which absorbs energy by vaporizing its surface layer.
Pic Num := 30
Tonnage Space Taken := 1
Tonnage Structure := 15
Cost Minerals := 50
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 20
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Armor
Family := 45
Roman Numeral := 3
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Armor
Tech Level Req 1 := 6
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Armor
Ability 1 Descr := Is damaged before any other components on a ship.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Emissive Armor
Ability 2 Descr := Negates any damage of 15 or less.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 15
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None

[Suicide Junkie]

As mentioned on se.net, the emissive bit is very likely not to do what you want, and the HP is more than enough to make it Überarmor.

The next step after ablative armor is leaky armor; simply remove the armor ability, and you'll find that it is still better than standard armor... but it has more interesting combat effects

[Black_Knyght]

Damn.

Not looking for "Überarmor" here. Just something better than Armored Hull Plating but less advance than Emissive or Stealth armors

[Suicide Junkie]

Consider the math:
Standard armor gives 3-4 hp/kt
Shields give up to 8 hp/kt
Your armor gives 15 hp/kt

Basically, shields start looking as useless by comparison as standard armor used to.

PS:
What makes you think stealth and scattering armor are better than standard armor? All you need is one component of them to get all the ability benefits, and the rest of your defenses can be the slightly better HP/kt standard armor, or the superhigh hp shields.

I reccommend that you either:
- reduce your new armor hp to max out at 11 or 12, and maybe add some intermediate armor which is size 3 and gives 6-8 hp/kt.
- remove the armor ability and make it leaky armor. As leaky armor, you'll have the option of increasing the hitpoints to 10-25 without making shields irrelevant.

[capnq]

Suicide Junkie said:
Standard armor gives 3-4 hp/kt
Shields give up to 8 hp/kt
Your armor gives 15 hp/kt

For further comparison:

Emissive Armor 1.5-2.5 hp/kt (plus damage reduction)
Scattering Armor 3 hp/kt (plus defense bonus)
Stealth Armor 3.33 hp/kt (plus defense bonus)
Organic Armor 3.33-5 hp/kt (plus armor regeneration)
Crystalline Armor 3.33-5 hp/kt (plus shield generation)

[StarShadow]

Strictly speaking, the stock emissive armor is ablative armor.

[Parasite]

The lines...
Tonnage Space Taken := 1
Tonnage Structure := 15
mean that one ton gives 15 hit points.

Standard armor III has
Tonnage Space Taken := 10
Tonnage Structure := 40
One ton gives 4 (40/10) hit points of protection.

Shield PhasedV
Tonnage Space Taken := 40
Tonnage Structure := 40
Ability 1 Val 1 := 375
gives 375 points of protection, then a "leaky armor" effect of 40, but takes 40 spaces.

With the caveat that this is my incomplete understanding.

[PvK]

Lots of 1kT components would make it take a really long time to repair.

Sounds like it should probably be easy to repair, so you could use a Proportions-style scale mount on it so it could be a single component per ship. Or you could just make it a larger component. Multiply SJ's well-balanced numbers by 10 to 100 times for big easy-repair components.

[PvK]

I see your points, SJ and Fryon. The balance issue is interesting on balance grounds - repair time is an interesting trade-off, though 100kT components aren't as insta-repair as shields are. The "ships are usually wiped out in stock" idea is something I'd generally want to mod away anyway, personally. On a sense-making basis, if it's supposed to be a disposable external armor substance, I'd do it the way I suggested. If I wanted something balanced as SJ suggested, I'd describe it differently so it made sense to me, but that's just my personal taste, of course.

PvK