Armor, Shields and Damage (FAQ)

dumbluck · #1 December 14th, 2001, 01:55 PM

quote:
Originally posted by LGM:

I thought someone determined that the regenerative processes of Organic occurred as soon as the battle starts. That it would add damage capacity to the armor before it even gets hit. Thus, Organic armor gets stronger even if it is not hit and that Organic ships are harder to destroy if you do not start at point blank.

However, now that I think about it, others have suggested that because components are never partially damaged, that there is a carry over factor (ship wide) for damage that does not exceed the Last component hit that gets added to the next hit.

Can anyone explain how Organic Armor really works? Does it accommulate points for a few rounds and then suddenly reappears when enough points for a whole piece have been saved up? Or does it appear imediately and put the differential in the carry over damage (if so it would be nasty if the next hit came from a Null Space weapon)? Does its regeneration apply to the carry over damage from the Last hit?

Read the first post in this thread (way back at the bottom of page 5). The answers are all there. Everything you wanted to know about damage calculations, and some things you didn't really want to know!

LGM · #2 December 14th, 2001, 07:07 PM

It has been so long since I first read the original post on this thread, that I forgot all that information was in there. The original post fits my experiences fighting Organic Armor. It is much easier to defeat at a warp-point battle. Null Space work great, but they are costly.

LGM · #3 December 14th, 2001, 07:17 PM

Getting back to the discussion of Organic Armor on units being useless. It will be useless for the regeneration aspect. However, there is another advantage to Organic Armor that many overlook: it takes no metal resources. Almost everything a non Organic player builds is limited time wise based on Metal, not Radioactives or Organics. If using Organic Armor can even out the cost ratio of your unit design, you may be able to build some extra ones every turn at your planet or shipyard.

dumbluck · #4 December 15th, 2001, 12:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by LGM:
Getting back to the discussion of Organic Armor on units being useless. It will be useless for the regeneration aspect. However, there is another advantage to Organic Armor that many overlook: it takes no metal resources. . . . If using Organic Armor can even out the cost ratio of your unit design, you may be able to build some extra ones every turn at your planet or shipyard.

An excellent point. I think that benefit was intentionally designed in, although I think that organics should be useful to everyone, not just Organics races. One way to do that is to mod things like life support, crew quarters, the various supply components (well some of them wouldn't fit very well, description wise), and Colony components to greatly increase their organics cost. But in doing so, one must be careful not to take away the organics benefit of more balanced construction costs. (Unless you think Organics is too powerful, anyway...)

Ok, sorry for the OT response there. It's late and I'm babbling.....

dumbluck · #5 December 15th, 2001, 01:34 PM

quote:
Originally posted by [K126]Mephisto:
Methinks that no special armor abilities are working.

Um, does that include Scattering and Stealth armor? I'm pretty sure that the cloaking isn't working (At least, it shouldn't, anyway...), but what about the tohit bonuses? What about ECM? I'm pretty sure that combat sensors, Events predictors, etc. work (at least, they should...)

Baron Munchausen · #6 December 15th, 2001, 05:50 PM

quote:
Originally posted by LGM:
Getting back to the discussion of Organic Armor on units being useless. It will be useless for the regeneration aspect. However, there is another advantage to Organic Armor that many overlook: it takes no metal resources. Almost everything a non Organic player builds is limited time wise based on Metal, not Radioactives or Organics. If using Organic Armor can even out the cost ratio of your unit design, you may be able to build some extra ones every turn at your planet or shipyard.

The first advantage of Organic armor is that it's tougher than standard armor. Don't forget the total damage rating. Since units don't track internal components, this is actually more effective for units than for ships and bases. It increases the total damage needed to destroy the unit. In a stack of satellites this can really add up.

[ 15 December 2001: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Suicide Junkie · #7 December 15th, 2001, 08:13 PM

quote:
The first advantage of Organic armor is that it's tougher than standard armor.

25% stronger at max tech...
The problem is that shields aren't tracked separately from the hull in unit stacks anymore, so a shield generator will blow away any armor in terms of defense. (2x the strength of standard armor!)
Unit shields are not even affected by shield depleters!

Unless your enemies are packing null-space cannons, you'd be better off with shields.