Posted by: 381654729
« on: April 20, 2014, 08:06:27 PM »
After failing (see post: AMM doesn't need warhead) to suggest an acceptable idea to balance overpowered small missiles, I now have another idea.
Instead of each armor box being the exact same density as every other armor box, which I think is not as realistic as it could be, let the player adjust the "density" of each armor layer. An armor box with a density of 2, for example, would weigh as much as 2 layers with a density of 1. How does this make a difference?
I suggest that missile damage done on the armor box is divided by the box's density. This also involves changing how beam weapons work (as I will eventually explain), so this idea may not end up being acceptable, either. But I'm not suggesting a solution, only an idea.
The downside to having higher density armor is that the armor is thinner. If you have 2 layers of armor compacted into 1 layer, it could only protect 1 layer. Against weapons that only damage 1 layer of armor, your armor will be more effective. Against a weapon that damages more than 1 layer, your ship could suffer internal damage with a substantial amount of armor still left on the hull. I will illustrate my point using the following example:
Suppose there are two ships, one with two layers of density-1 armor, one with one layer of density-2 armor.
SHIP 1 SHIP 2
1 |1 |1 |1 |1 2 |2 |2 |2 |2
1 |1 |1 |1 |1
Now I let each of them suffer 4 hits from WH1 missiles. For convenience, I will assume the missiles hit in a 1-2-1 pattern, in other words, causing the same damage profile as a single WH4 missile.
SHIP 1 SHIP 2
1 |0 |0 |0 |1 2 |1.5 |0.83|1.5 |2
1 |1 |0 |1 |1
Ship 1 suffered the same damage as one would expect. On ship 2, the damage done was a bit different. The first hit on each box resulted in 0. 5 damage each:
1(damage in that square)/2(density of armor in that square)=0.5
And the second hit on the middle box resulted in 0. 67 damage:
1(damage in that square)/1.5(density of armor in that square)=0.67 (to two decimal places)
Clearly, the double-density-half-thickness armor is superior. But now I let the ships get hit by a single WH-4 missile in the same spot:
SHIP 1 SHIP 2
1 |0 |0 |0 |1 2 |1.5 |1.5 |1.5 |2
1 |1 |0 |1 |1 1 pt internal damage
The regular armor did not allow internal damage, but the thinner armor, though tougher, did, because it is too thin to protect the ship from the two-layer-deep missile blast.
This raises the question of what happens when damage hits armor with lower density than the amount of damage. I think the extra damage should simply "fall through" to the next available layer. So if 1 damage hits the plate of 0. 83 density armor in the above example, it would do 1/0.83=1.2
damage, destroying the square of armor, and have 1.2-0.83=0.37
damage continue working to the next layer. If the next layer is the ship's internals, then it represents a 37% chance to inflict 1 internal damage.
Without providing additional examples, I think the conclusion is that denser armor performs better against "sandblasting" tactics but worse against one big hit. I pictured in my head 1 layer of density 8 armor vs 8 layers of density 1, against 49 WH1 missiles vs 1 WH49 missile as an example, but this is too tedious to type here. This balance change represents what I want to see (though I have not done any math to determine the best numbers).
Beam weapons, however, should work differently. It would not make sense, for example, for a laser to penetrate armor when there is still armor in the layers above, because the armor is not transparent. Therefore I suggest that beam weapon damage is not divided by armor density, and this:
OLD 6-PT LASER DAMAGE NEW 6-PT LASER DAMAGE
XXX 1 4 1
X
X
X
The 1 4 1 means 1, 4, and 1 damage on adjacent columns. If the 4 hits a density-3 armor piece, it will destroy it entirely (damage not divided by density for beams) and 1 point of the next layer.
With all these changes I suggest, which I realize requires major effort to implement, I suggest one more thing: make armor a player-designed system.
It will be possible to research "maximum armor density", and the player will design the armor:
Layer 1:
Material: High-Density Duranium (tons per 1-density square: (no idea what))
Density: 2
Thickness: 2
Layer 2:
Material: x
Density: y
Thickness: z
Layer 3:
none
...
Research cost: XYZ
Armor Cost Per Square: ABC
Now I must stop myself, before I suggest even more radical changes that can't be implemented. . . comments?