emissive armor

[oleg]

OK. This is my observations with new EA.

Some tests included Proportions EA - which is not armor, but some sort of component with high damage resistance, EA ability, but not _armor_ ability. I will refer to it as EAP.

1st, EA works once per shot even if no damage has been applied to EA component itself.
Example: I made proportions ship with EAP and few armor components. In the test, EAP reduction has been applied to the very first shot that was absorbed by armor - nothing destroyed but accumalated damage is exact to [weapon - EA]. Thus, EA ability assigned to any internal component will transfer its ability to all armor pieces !!

2nd, Crystal armor and EA works together. Before anybody start to complain about how weak is EA, consider a ship with 6 CA III and current Version of EA. The ship is INVULNERABLE to "normal" weapons with damage less than 150 per shot !!.

3th. EA ability is taylored to "armor". EAP is not armor and works as advertised against normal weapons. But Shard Cannons and Null-space projectors ignores EA ability, either assigned to armor or internal components, completely.
Crystalline tech in Prportions looks very attractive now !

4th EA ability works on damage to armor and internal components but has no effect on shields whatsoever (it was expected but still needed tests)

My conclusions: fixed EA works basically OK in normal SE4 game. Any changes may require some serious tweeks to weapons. But Proportions, P&N and Devnull may need some serious adjustments, IMHO.

[ August 15, 2002, 23:13: Message edited by: oleg ]