How does I armor?

[Girlinhat (OP)]

So I've been poking armor a bit... and been confused by it in general.  Particularly, with armor upgrades.  I'm assuming that it lowers the cost/weight of armor, by upgrading from one armor tech to the next.  If a warhead 9 missile penetrates 3 layers at all tech levels, then it must have to do with weight, right?  It doesn't make armor thicker, but it allows you to pack more on for the same space.

With that in mind, how much armor do people put on their ships?  In a low-tech battle, my flagship/sensor post had 10 layers of armor and was soaking up missile fire.  I saw someone else say that 35 armor was extremely thick.  So is there a certain percentage of hull space that people like to dedicate, or some other determining factor?  I understand that a larger ship with the same armor becomes somewhat more hardened, because chances are an attack will fall on an undamaged section instead and thus "spread the damage" over a wider area.  So in a way, armor already scales with ship size.  But, I'm a huge fan of big ships.  If left to myself, I'll develop 50 thick armor behemoths and casually trundle up to an enemy base under intense fire.

[Dutchling]

I usually go with three to five layers of armor. Although my ships have never actually seen combat.

[blue emu]

I usually go with three to five layers of armor. Although my ships have never actually seen combat.

This... typically two to six, for me.

Except for my Q-Ships, commercial (non-military) designs which carry perhaps twenty-five layers of Armor, a size-1 active sensor (that's the largest that can be fitted to a commercial design) and of course no weapons except perhaps CIWS. These Q-Ships are simply intended to draw fire.

[Girlinhat (OP)]

My sensor platforms are basically big Q-ships.  A lot of armor, some fuel, and big sensors.  They draw fire like a magnet, and if you flip on active sensors then you suddenly have everything in the system chasing you.  It's a glorious display of attention-gaining and deciding where they enemy is going to fight.

[blue emu]

The benefit of the Armor-plus-1-HS-sensor design is that it can be built in a commercial yard (whereas your design can't), so it doesn't compete for slipways with real warships, and I can make a really BIG one much earlier in the game.

The sensor is just to get attention. 

[Thiosk]

Early game, 4 is standard for my light-duty combat, and i'll take 6 if I expect impacts.  Armor is heavy early on.  As you develop new armor tech, the weight comes way down.  This is a good thing, because low tech missiles don't do much damage, but you might need much more armor to stand up to missiles with 12 or more warhead units.  Missiles like that make daddy's low-tech cruisers cry.

[Dutchling]

I prefer to fight to enemy in a fair battle.
If I actually play long enough to get an enemy to battle

[Hawkeye]

Personally, I look at WW2 warships.

Tincans (i.e. FF/DDs) get 3 (because I don´t build warships with less than 3 armor)
Cruisers get 3 to 8
Battleships get up to 18
Carriers 3 to 5 (yes, there were some strongly armored carriers, but they were BC/BB conversions)

There are some special cases:
Assault-Dropships and Fleet Scouts get heavy armor for their size, as I expect them to get shot at - a lot!

Within a class, missile combatants get less armor than beam combatants

 

[Ashery]

Except for my Q-Ships, commercial (non-military) designs which carry perhaps twenty-five layers of Armor, a size-1 active sensor (that's the largest that can be fitted to a commercial design) and of course no weapons except perhaps CIWS. These Q-Ships are simply intended to draw fire.

That always comes off as heavily exploiting the AI in this game...

Aiming for a 6-8 equivalence on my 10k escorts and 20k carries and 16-24 for my 20k flagship (So my flagship may end up with 8 armor and a ton of shields).

[metalax]

I'll usually run with 10% of the mass of the ship as armor for most ships, so the exact armour levels depends on what armor tech I have researched. Ships that I expect to get hit more frequently(mainly drop ships and heavy beam ships) tend to run at 20% armor.

[HaliRyan]

I usually run my ships at 5-10% armor by mass, but I like to use shields so I only put on 4-5 layers of armor... just enough to prevent any bleeding through on the first couple of shots.

I used to run pure armor setups, but for the past couple games I've come to love shields. You get a bit less defense with them, but there's no risk of lucky shots causing internal damage and you don't have to run back to repair after every fight. It's great!

[Dutchling]

My Corvette has 20% hull space dedicated to armor, and my Frigates 16%.
The Corvette is beam armed though, so it needs the extra armor.

[Father Tim]

10-12 on my light stuff, 20-25 on my cruisers, 28-35 on my true line-of-battle ships

[Din182]

10-12 on my light stuff, 20-25 on my cruisers, 28-35 on my true line-of-battle ships

That's only late game. I make it 3-5 for light, 6-8 for medium and 10 or so for heavy.

[Yonder]

My general strategy is to make a bunch of ships that are faster than their opponents and have longer range, meaning that they generally don't get hit. As you can tell I don't invade hostile territory until I have researched and built ships specifically to fight them, it's a very methodical progression.

My combat ships usually have 4 levels of armor, in the early game that is pretty heavy, but I am less likely to have a speed advantage so investing more in armor is still necessary. As the game progresses it becomes less and less likely that I'll ever get hit, but having a few layers of armor isn't very expensive because the ships are bigger (less surface area compared to volume) and the armor is lighter.

The only reason to have armor at this point is nebulaes (if you have any), and to be prepared if a combat group runs into a new race that is faster than you have prepared for. That generally doesn't happen though. Usually it's the grav survey ships that die terrible terrible deaths, and it's a year and a half later before my next class of warships enters the system.

Of course in this next game I'm playing I've decided that (following a devastating WW3) developing missile technology is illegal/politically untenable. A navy of beam armed warships is going to need A LOT of armor.