Armor & Shields On Units...

[Unco]

Hello,

I think this question has been answered before but I can't find anything in thr FAQ about. Maybe I'm just not seeing the answer.

Do shields and armor behave on units as they do on ships? Will armor or shield skipping weapons skip armor and shields on units?

Another player has told me that he believes that armor and shields are just "normal hit points" on units and that no skipping can occur.

Is this true? If so isn't this a pretty serious bug?

Thanks,

Unco

[Randallw]

I believe it is different for different units. Weapon platforms and satelites most probably do benefit from armour or phased shields, however fighters are simplified. Placing armour and shields on fighters grants no special benefits, and as you said they are just extra hit points.

[Suicide Junkie]

Units do not take partial damage, so armor most definitely does act as simple hitpoints.

Shield depleters do work well against in-space units, though I haven't looked closely at shield skipping weapons lately.

For planet-based units shields act as simple hitpoints

[Fyron]

Is this true? If so isn't this a pretty serious bug?

No, not really. It is an artifact of units not being able to have damaged components. Armor skipping does technically skip the armor, but since the unit is fully functional until it takes 100% damage, it is meaningless... Shield skipping is a different issue, but I think it works fine for use against space units, as SJ said. Troop combat is absurdly simplified. No special damage or armor abilities function in troop combat.

Certainly, this isn't a very logical way to handle units, and they should be able to lose components before being completely annihiliated, but it isn't really a bug (other than shield skipping (aka phased polaron beams) still having to get past normal shields against non-troops)... With the amount of units you can have, Malfador probably figured that the memory requirements would be too high, especially when you start having 1000s of fighters and such...

[Arkcon]

One things for sure, phased polaron beams completely ignore the hitpoints generated by normal shields on a satelite stack. I tested it out a while back, but can't find the results I posted.

I didn't really test all other damage types, but I have seen some bizzare things: example, shield depleters won't file during strategic combat, but can be fired during tactical. A recent patch made them do noting against a unit stack, but before, they would blow up a unit stack.

[Unco]

Hmm. So I still am confused and will ask more specific questions. Thank you in advance for your patience and wisdom.

FIGHTERS
1. Are Small Shields on Fighters skipped by Phased Polaron Beams?
2. Are Armor and/or Small Shields on Fighters skipped by Null-Space Weapons?

WEAPONS PLATFORMS
1. Are Shields on Weapons Platforms skipped by Phased Polaron Beams?
2. Are Armor and/or Shields on Weapons Platforms skipped by Null-Space Weapons?
3. If Weapons Platforms have 100% functionality when damaged and if a Weapons Platform has Armor and/or Shields can it ever be fully destroyed by Null-Space Weapons or Phased Polaron Beams?

SATELLITES
1. Arkcon, did Phased Polaron Beams skip and then destroy a stack of Satellites with Shields?
2. Do Shield Regenerators work on Satellites?

[Will]

AFAIK:

Fighters
1. Yes, they damage all the "physical" hitpoints of the fighter until it is destroyed.
2. Null-space will skip shields, but since armour is just physical hitpoints, and units retain all functionality until 100% damage is reached, armour is effectively not skipped.

eg. Fighter has cockpit, engines, weapons adding up to 9 hit points, armour adds 4, shields add 4 plus 20 shield points. PPB hits will take out the 9+4+4=17 hit points, and not touch the shields. Once the 17 is gone, the fighter is destroyed. Null-space will take out the 9+4=13 from the regular components, then the 4 from the armour, making it 17 hitpoints again to destroy. So there isn't really a difference between the two weapons when it comes to fighters.

Weapon Platforms
1. No, shield points act as regular hit points (someone please correct if I'm wrong, haven't played in a while )
2. No, see above. All hit points are pooled together.
3. Yes, once all the hit points are depleted, the platform is destroyed and the next unit in the queue is targeted.

Satellites
1. Arkcon?
2. IIRC, they do. Again, I haven't played in a while, so don't hold me to that.

Basically, units are just extremely simplified in the game, with the space-based ones having slightly more detail. On planets, shields are just regular hit points, while in space, they act like shields. Damage is dealt in a queue, so basically everyone lines up single file, and you stand in front and shoot until either you're dead, they're dead, or the combat turn limit has elapsed.

[Q]

Using the combat simulator PPB and shard cannon against fighters, it seems that neither shields nor armor are skipped. Both weapons have to make the full damage including armor and shield points before the fighter is destroyed. However shield depleters seem to function on fighters.

[Raging Deadstar]

Q said:
Using the combat simulator PPB and shard cannon against fighters, it seems that neither shields nor armor are skipped. Both weapons have to make the full damage including armor and shield points before the fighter is destroyed. However shield depleters seem to function on fighters.

From my Expirience in game:

Shield Depleters Work on Fighters, Drones and Satellites
Shield Depleters Don't Seem to work on Weapons Platforms and Troops.

Though i rarely use Shield Depleters on troops, Usually i pile them high with Ground Cannons or DUC. Less Protected yes, but the return volley the enemy finds impressive, for the brief few moments it survives.

[Mephisto]

Some correction on the "queue thing" AFAIR. Damage is always check against the unit with the least hitpoints first. Either this unit is destroyed (in this case the procedure starts anew with the remaining damage) or no unit is destroyed and the damage stored for the next hit. I.e. there is no use to build a shield WP to protect other unshielded units. It won't protect WPs with lesser hitpoints, it will just be the WP destroyed Last.