Organic Armor - Whats the deal?

[dmm]

Regarding organic rammers: can you say "juggernaut?" Which is why ramming should be changed to take ship size into account. One answer to massive organic rammers should be hordes of small ships like escorts or fighters that are very difficult to ram. It would be very simple for MM to put this in, and make it modable, too. Just give ramming a "to hit" probability like everything else, based upon the relative sizes of the rammer and rammee. So BCs would usually succeed at ramming other BCs, but would have a hard time ramming an escort. The "to hit" parameter could be modable. A person who thinks all ramming is unrealistic could set it low, while another person who thinks ramming should stay as it is now could simply set this parameter to max. So everyone's happy!

[LGM]

Organic Armor is still worthwhile even in quantities of 1 because it takes no metal to build. Organic races build ships faster because they can balance production between Organic and Metal. Other races are limited on Shipyard Metal capacity as the other stuff really does not matter. Organic races can build two or three weapon platforms at a 2000 limit planet whereas other players can build only one unless they go with really cheap weapons (no missles). Likewise Organic players with Shipyard 1 can build a Frigate with armor and weapons easily in one turn.

In my opinion, Organic races are favored because the their ability to balance production loads away from Metal. Every other race is limited primarily by Metal, even Crystalline.

(Metal is Minerals above)

[ 12 March 2002: Message edited by: LGM ]

[jimbob]

Alright,

so having now read every single post in those links, here are my questions...

1) Was emissive armor ever changed? Is the Gold edition emissive armor useful? Can damage still be piggybacked? (if so, then it isn't even useful for modding. if piggybacking has been removed, then yeah, it's atleast moddable)

2) Is there still the problem of pseudo repair of Organic Armor? (pseudo repair = repaired outside of combat, and as a result the OA loses ability to repair damage in combat)

Thx
jimbob

[ 12 March 2002: Message edited by: jimbob ]

[Zarix]

Bad news, emissive armor is still takes all damage or nothing.

[Suicide Junkie]

1) What do you mean by piggybacking?
I currently simulate real Emissive by using a one-per-ship component with the crystalline ability.

2) I've never heard of that problem, but OA has been improved in the latest patch, such that only the loss of all OA components on the entire ship prevents regeneration.

[dumbluck]

I assume it is the "I did 25 units of damage to your 80 kt armor. Next I did 5 units of armor skipping damage, and my leftover 25 units piggybacked past your armor into your internals".

[QuarianRex]

Actually OA (Organic Armor) works like a dream, if you give it a chance. Each regenerating component adds to a "pool" of points that is later used to repair destroyed OA (and any other regenerating component).

For example, say you have a ship with 5 OA III's, each at 150 structure and regenerating at a rate of 30 each (IIRC). If you spend 6 combat turns closing with the enemy you will have built up a pool of 900 regeneration 'points' (30 points x 5 OA x 6 Turns = 900). If you then get hit with 750 damage (enough to wipe out all five OA components)then 750 points will be deducted from the pool to repair the OA, leaving 150 in the pool. This may seem powerful, and it is, but it is mitigated by the fact that destroyed components don't contribute to the pool (until they're repaired). So if you get hit by the Fist of God for another 750 damage on the following turn your freshly repaired armor will once again be destroyed and only a single OA will be repaired with the remaining 150 in the pool (only 150 in pool because all contributing components Last turn were destroyed).

This explains OA's somewhat erratic performance in combat, where sometimes it seems capable of coming back from nearly anything, and others where it crumples under seemingly normal fire. It all depends on how much time it has to charge up.

[Fyron]

Actually, if all five OA are destroyed at once, the "pool" disappears. OA can't regenerate if there are not any functioning OA components.

[QuarianRex]

Yeah, I forgot that (brain fart). Most of my combats were in a mod with multiple regenerating components (mainly control components) which would be left intact after destruction of the armor, thereby maintaining the pool.