I admit I'm totally unclear on which type of armor is best. I would assume steel > wood in almost any circumstance, and yet when I took the HMS Satan, replaced steel with wood, and pitted it against the original Satan a couple times, the Satan-W won repeatedly.
So... what's the advantage of steel? Rifles seem to utterly pulverize it, and it's significantly heavier.
Now, I Think, Generally speaking, Brick Wall beats Steel Wall, that beats wood wall. Trading off with heavier weight as they get more resilient.
I also believe that, keeping with the example of the cheapest, and therefore the weakest of each 'Type'. That each has a few pro's (and so con's in respective).
Brick, is the strongest, but also the heaviest and least resistant.
Wood, is the lightest, but also has no (or little) anti-penetrative capability's
Steel, has the best anti-penetrative capability, but is heavier, and has less hp's
Now, I would like to check that, but cant be stuffed atm (cant say im not honest eh?)
BUT! I think with steel wall, its quite pointless, as it cant stop projectiles, and has stuff all hp... annnddd seams very flammable... (at least when I try it, looks better than wood wall thou')
I tend to use Steel Armor on my Coal, Suspendium Chambers and on my armaments, and it does feel like it has an effect... to me at least, haven't had one burn up!
Fundamentally, the game has two types of damage: penetration and blast. Rifles, gatling guns and cannons do penetration damage, while grenades, rockets and flamethrowers do blast damage.
Armour does two things: it acts as a buffer of hit points in front of modules, and while intact, it also reduces damage.
Wooden armour is the cheapest and lightest option. It has some resistance to penetration damage, but very little to blast damage.
Steel armour is heavier and expensive, and has lots of resistance to blast damage, and some to penetration.
Finally, stone armour is incredibly heavy but not as expensive as steel, doesn't have that much resistance, but has large amounts of hit points.
As with all things, tuning these things is an ongoing process - I agree that steel walls are currently sort of worthless. But here's a basic key of what armour is strong against what weapon:
Rifles, Gatling guns - Medium and heavy wooden armour
Cannons - Heavy wooden armour
Heavy cannons, Suspendium cannons - Nothing
Grenades - Medium and heavy steel armour
Flamethrowers - Any medium or especially heavy armour
Zark, maybe have a really expensive light-weight armor that is like Steel, but crazy light and expensive (10-20 per square)
EDIT: I forgot about the suggestions forum!
I was just thinking about this after reading the Lore about Suspendium. If you took a plate and coated it with a Suspendium dust mixture, much the same way we make mirrors IRL, you could have plates that hover slightly. Take these and make ballistic plating and you'd get a decent weight dampening effect on armor that was better at dealing with blast damage but otherwise fairly standard armor.
Maybe it's particularly attractive to lightning or something too.
This also leads me to want ti try to build ships around some of these chunks of floating rocks littering my battlefields.
Cabin Boy
I admit I'm totally unclear on which type of armor is best. I would assume steel > wood in almost any circumstance, and yet when I took the HMS Satan, replaced steel with wood, and pitted it against the original Satan a couple times, the Satan-W won repeatedly.
So... what's the advantage of steel? Rifles seem to utterly pulverize it, and it's significantly heavier.
Commander, Engineering Corps
Ok, I think this is how it works:
Wood Wall Wood Armor Reinforced Wood Armor
Steel Wall Steel Armor Heavy Steel Armor
Brick Wall Stone Wall Massive Stone Wall
Now, I Think, Generally speaking, Brick Wall beats Steel Wall, that beats wood wall. Trading off with heavier weight as they get more resilient.
I also believe that, keeping with the example of the cheapest, and therefore the weakest of each 'Type'. That each has a few pro's (and so con's in respective).
Brick, is the strongest, but also the heaviest and least resistant. Wood, is the lightest, but also has no (or little) anti-penetrative capability's Steel, has the best anti-penetrative capability, but is heavier, and has less hp's
Now, I would like to check that, but cant be stuffed atm (cant say im not honest eh?)
BUT! I think with steel wall, its quite pointless, as it cant stop projectiles, and has stuff all hp... annnddd seams very flammable... (at least when I try it, looks better than wood wall thou')
I tend to use Steel Armor on my Coal, Suspendium Chambers and on my armaments, and it does feel like it has an effect... to me at least, haven't had one burn up!
Aerial Emperor
Right, I can give you guidance on this one. :)
Fundamentally, the game has two types of damage: penetration and blast. Rifles, gatling guns and cannons do penetration damage, while grenades, rockets and flamethrowers do blast damage.
Armour does two things: it acts as a buffer of hit points in front of modules, and while intact, it also reduces damage.
Wooden armour is the cheapest and lightest option. It has some resistance to penetration damage, but very little to blast damage.
Steel armour is heavier and expensive, and has lots of resistance to blast damage, and some to penetration.
Finally, stone armour is incredibly heavy but not as expensive as steel, doesn't have that much resistance, but has large amounts of hit points.
As with all things, tuning these things is an ongoing process - I agree that steel walls are currently sort of worthless. But here's a basic key of what armour is strong against what weapon:
Aerial Emperor
Spurred on by this I've been doing some spreadsheet analysis and planning of revised armour and weapon values for the next version.
Commodore
Thanks for the chart. Maybe you should put it in the game under a "help" button or something?
Captain, Engineering Corps
Zark, maybe have a really expensive light-weight armor that is like Steel, but crazy light and expensive (10-20 per square) EDIT: I forgot about the suggestions forum!
Warrant Officer
I was just thinking about this after reading the Lore about Suspendium. If you took a plate and coated it with a Suspendium dust mixture, much the same way we make mirrors IRL, you could have plates that hover slightly. Take these and make ballistic plating and you'd get a decent weight dampening effect on armor that was better at dealing with blast damage but otherwise fairly standard armor.
Maybe it's particularly attractive to lightning or something too.
This also leads me to want ti try to build ships around some of these chunks of floating rocks littering my battlefields.