Posted this
here originally, sloanjh let me know this thread is the correct place for suggestions!
Missile - Armor and HTKOne of the things that bothers me about Aurora (or maybe I'm just playing wrong), but it seems like the mechanics heavily favor small missiles, or for longer ranges a large missile with small sub-munitions. For example, a size 20 missile only takes 1 damage to kill, while 20 size 1 missiles will *each* take 1 damage to kill. Also, adding 1 armor point requires +1 to the missile size, and never really seems to be worth it. Size 1 missiles become less-effective size 2 missiles, and while this impact is lesser on larger missiles, the increased size means you're penalized in the form of amount of ordinance carried as well as firing rate.
Here were the suggestions I was thinking of:
1.) Missile Armor gained per 1 MSP scales with your Armor technology. Rather than always being 1 MSP for 1 Armor, Armor MSP usage scales, like how "Reactor Power per MSP" scales with your Reactor technology. Since (I believe) armor points need to stay as integers for use in the damage mechanics, when a user is designing a new missile they would specify the amount of armor they want, instead of the amount of MSP to use for armor. For example, with the most basic armor adding 1 armor point to the missile would take 1 MSP, but at higher tech level 1 armor point may only add 0.5 or .75 MSP.
2.) Missiles use a weaker version of the HTK system based on size. Similarly to how larger ships take more damage to kill if for no other reason than that they have more components to destroy, and gain armor columns based on size, missiles should also have a defensive benefit based on size beyond being more powerful. Rather than adding straight armor, I thought something like the HTK system for components would work well. As I understand HTK, when a component receives damage it has a (damage / HTK ) * 100% chance to be destroyed, and a (1 - (damage / HTK)) * 100% chance to take zero damage. I thought this would work well for missiles, with the only change being that if a missile is not destroyed after receiving damage, that missile loses the amount of damage dealt from it's HTK.
For Example:
Let's say at missile size 10+ a missile has 2 HTK. A size 10 missile with no other armor gets hit by a Gauss Turret for 1 damage. This 1 damage has a ( 1 / 2 ) * 100% = 50% chance to destroy the missile outright. In this case, the damage is superficial and the missile survives. However, the missile's HTK is lowered by 1, and now only has 1 HTK. The next 1 damage+ hit will destroy it.
In another example, let's say at size 30+ a missile has 4 HTK. A size 30 missile with 1 armor gets hit by a 10cm Laser turret for 3 damage. The armor takes 1 damage from the hit and his destroyed, with 2 damage continuing through to the missile itself. The 2 damage has a ( 2 / 4) * 100% = 50% chance to destroy the missile outright. Again, the damage hits non-critical parts of the missile and the missile survives. The missile's HTK is lowered by 2, and now only has 2 HTK and no armor. A 1 damage hit would now have a 50% chance to destroy the missile, or another 2+ damage would have a 100% chance.
