Shields & Armour --- what's the point?

[Jon Brave]

I have a couple of questions about shields & armour that have bothered me for a long time. I have read "Zanthis"' "Armor, Shields and Damage (FAQ)" dating back to 5 Feb 2001 and, while very interesting, it does not answer these basic questions.

The questions concern upgrades to shields & armour. I sit with my Designer on "Only Show Latest" components and, 99% of the time, I'm quite happy to only pick the latest (most advanced) type of a component. But I don't understand the following:

1. Shields. When I research beyond "normal" shields V, they get replaced by phased shields I. That gives me (something like) 75 *phased* shield points in place of 400 *normal* shield points. Now, I understand that if I'm combatting phased (or is it non-phased) weapons this may be well and good. But most of my opponents aren't using these. I then find (in simulations) that I'm much worse off against normal weapons. I could understand if 75 phased shields counted as 400 normal shields *as well*, but they do not seem to.

2. Armour. Similar-ish. When I research beyond normal armour III I get, say, emissive armour I. Normal III is size=10kT, damage=40kT, whereas emissive I is size=20kT, damage=30kT. That's a *much* worse ratio of size/damage. The same basic principle is true for the scattering & stealth armour Is you get at the same time. I understand the other armours offer other sundry features, but in the simplest case (I think) I'm only interested in the size/damage ratio. And I'm paying upwards of 10 times the build cost for this...

In case 1 (Shields), it's particularly galling because phased shields *replace* normal ones completely. I don't want them, so I can no longer use the "Upgrade" button for redesign, which otherwise works fine, nor can I design a ship from scratch, wanting normal shields, without switching the "Only Show Latest" off. Also, I can never use shield regenerators. In case 2 (Armour), I notice they only *add* emissive etc. to the list, so I can still just find and use normal armour.

Given that everything else seems so logical, am I missing something in either of these two cases? I simply think these upgrades are *worse* than the original (or, in the armour case, just pointless as an alternative). For an upgrade to be "useful" it needs to offer original features + some extras; all other upgrades do. I know I can never research these things, but that's not it --- I want to want to use them!

As a kind of aside, but doubtless related, armour seems pretty pointless once weapons reach a reasonable damage-causing level, which happens fairly early in the game, seems to me it's puny, whereas at least shields are worth a bit?