Ablative Armor

[StarShadow]

Yes, I was thinking of reactive armor, my mistake.

[PvK]

I see your points, SJ and Fryon. The balance issue is interesting on balance grounds - repair time is an interesting trade-off, though 100kT components aren't as insta-repair as shields are. The "ships are usually wiped out in stock" idea is something I'd generally want to mod away anyway, personally. On a sense-making basis, if it's supposed to be a disposable external armor substance, I'd do it the way I suggested. If I wanted something balanced as SJ suggested, I'd describe it differently so it made sense to me, but that's just my personal taste, of course.

PvK

[Black_Knyght]

Suicide Junkie said:
1kt size, 12-20 hp/kt, without armor ability.
Or,
1kt size, 6-10 hp/kt, with armor ability.

I would probably add a 3kt option, with 75% of the hp/kt of the above. Research would go through standard armor, then the 3kt stuff, and finally the really ablative 1kt stuff.


In fact, I even made a mod for the SE4 classic demo which added such armor.

This sounds dead-on, but try as I might I can't seem to figure out how to write it up, or get it researched

[douglas]

Black_Knyght said:
This sounds dead-on, but try as I might I can't seem to figure out how to write it up, or get it researched

For just adding it to stock as high-end armor and ignoring the 3 kT stuff, do the following:

1) In TechArea.txt, increase the maximum level of Armor to 9.
2) In Components.txt, copy a basic armor component.
3) Change the Tonnage Space Taken of your new component to 1.
4) Change the Tonnage Structure to 6.
5) Change the Tech Level Req for Armor to 7.
6) Change the Family number to something that is not used by anything else.
7) Set the costs and name of this new component to whatever you like. Keep in mind that cost is per component, and you need lots of this component to do anything. You now have level 1 of your new ablative armor.
8) For the other 2 levels, copy your new component, change the Tech Level Req to 8 and 9, change Tonnage Structure to 8 and 10, and change the name and cost as appropriate.
9) For the leaky versions, just copy the three components you just created, remove the armor ability, double the Tonnage Structure, and change the family number to something unique.

You might want to change the description too.

[Nocturnal]

An example of Ablative Armor based on Suicide Junkie's:

ABLATIVE ARMOR

Name := Ablative Armor I
Description := Armor which absorbs energy by vaporizing its surface layer.
Pic Num := 30
Tonnage Space Taken := 1
Tonnage Structure := 6
Cost Minerals := 5
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 2
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Armor
Family := 45
Roman Numeral := 1
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Armor
Tech Level Req 1 := 4
Number of Abilities := 1
Ability 1 Type := Armor
Ability 1 Descr := Is damaged before any other components on a ship.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None

Per 10kT, this armor will cost 50 minerals and 20 radioactives, and provide 60kT of protection. Therefore compared to normal armor it will provide better protection, but will cost slightly more (radioactives) and take ten times as long to repair.

Edit: whoops, didn't notice this thread was a month dead.

[Black_Knyght]

Nocturnal said:Edit: whoops, didn't notice this thread was a month dead.

Not dead, just napping.

Thanx, btw, to both you and Douglas for the break-down and detailing. It helps me get a better visual understanding of what I need to do