basic questions on armors

[JLS]

Originally posted by Pocus:
sorry, I was speaking of emissive armor, not scattering. I made a test bed, it seems that the amount of damages they ignore is not cumulated, e.g a troop transport with 14 EA dont negate the first 140 damages points received.

Can somebody clarify the rule for me?

thanks in advances,
Pocus.

Emissive Armor will be hit first, but it offers higher emissive ability than any of the plating types. Therefore, it is best when combined with either Ablative Armor, or Crystal or Organic armor. Generally you only want to buy one Emissive Armor component, although two would let the emissive ability Last longer. It may also be worthwhile to buy both one Armor Plating, AND one Emissive armor, and some Ablative and Structure, in order to get the best emissive ability while it Lasts, but still fall back to the plating ability after that. Of course, the more armor, the less tonnage for other components.

When the Last armor plating component is destroyed, the emissive ability is lost. The plating component is not a "hit first" type, so it may Last a long time, but the expected lifetime can be greatly increased by adding armored structure. Essentially, on average, the amount of armored structure multiplies the total effect of the armored plating.

Also, armored plating remains a very cheap and effective way to pile on structure points to absorb damage. Without it, ships become quite fragile. Basically, the amount and the quality of armored structure used in a warship provides tradeoffs between ability, durability, and cost. A ship with no armored structure will be expensive and powerful, but will be quickly destroyed when hit. A ship with a lot of cheap armored structure will be less powerful, but a lot cheaper and much more durable, and may actually tend to defeat the previous type, depending on specifics. A ship with a expensive armored structure will tend to be expensive and durable, and maybe quite powerful too, depending on specifics.

Ships with a lot of armored structure may also take a long time to repair after getting smashed in combat, though.

I hope this helps. My teacher is PvK, the local Armor Expert and Proportions designer. Which I strongly recommend you Play, Pocus.

Proportions Page

John

[ April 27, 2003, 17:37: Message edited by: JLS ]