The Guts of Armor in SE4

[Suicide Junkie]

I got all my info from the tests I did in the SE4 simulator.

Basically, SE4 picks a component to hurt. If the weapon type skips armor, internals will be hit before armor. Otherwise, if there are undamaged armor components on the ship, the internals cannot be picked. If the component has fewer hitpoints (kT of structure) than the damage inflicted, the component is destroyed. Any excess damage not required to destroy the component gets carried over to the next randomly chosen component.
If the component has sufficient hitpoints to survive the damage, then it is unaffected. The damage taken by the component is saved as "extra damage" which will be added to the next hit taken
For internals, there is a pointer to the component that was hit Last, so every subsequent hit will damage that component until it is destroyed.
For armor, the next component to be hit is chosen randomly each time.
If shields regenerate between hits, they can possibly absorb not only the weapon damage but the extra damage as well, effectively healing "partially damaged" internals at the expense of shield strength. When shields absorb a hit they will likely reset the internal damage pointer to a randomly chosen component.

SE4 has an odd method for choosing which armor component to hit. It is apparently inversely proportional to the hitpoints of the armor component. SE4 will choose weaker armor components more often, but not exclusively. Sometimes a tough armor will be chosen over a weaker armor.
This effect is amplified by the fact that strong armor pieces can usually survive the first damage, and SE4 chooses a new armor for the second hit. The new damage plus the "extra damage" can then destroy one or two weak armor components, leaving the tough armor untouched.

Any questions?

[Deathstalker]

Not a question, but a wish. What I wish is for a damage system that records diff resist values for all componants. In other words, every componant is labelled 'x out of x resist' in the display window. That way you can tell when you right click on your ship that your crystal armour has '25 hits out of 150' and your shard cannon has '13 hits out of 40' or something like that. This could also let you know how effective certain weapons are (wpn destroyers, shield gen destroyers and engine destroyers). It shouldn't be to hard to code, the damage is kept track of 'invisibly' so just make it 'visible'.

Just my 2cents worth.......

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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It shouldn't be to hard to code, the damage is kept track of 'invisibly' so just make it 'visible'.

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Actually, it isn't. There is only one counter that keeps track of partial damage, and that partial damage is added to the strength of the next attack on your ship.

quote:

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If the component has sufficient hitpoints to survive the damage, then it is unaffected. The damage taken by the component is saved as "extra damage" which will be added to the next hit taken
For internals, there is a pointer to the component that was hit Last, so every subsequent hit will damage that component until it is destroyed.
For armor, the next component to be hit is chosen randomly each time.

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[Nitram Draw]

That damage mehod makes sense for shields and armor but is strange for internal comopnents, seems like it pulls the old switcheroo on the internals!

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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For internals, there is a pointer to the component that was hit Last, so every subsequent hit will damage that component until it is destroyed.

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If the shot has to go through the shields again, it may change which component you are hurting, but normally, you hit the same internal component each time until it dies.