Prototech Armour
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Hello! At present, Prototech Panels are the only prototech component that isn't destroyed when grinding down prototech blocks, which leaves them as something of an outlier. It's possible to end up with a lot of these and no other components.
So I'm suggesting a third tier of armour that uses them! A straight upgrade to heavy armour would be boring and push too many designs towards it, so maybe it should have some trade-offs. Here's a few options:
- The boring option - durability and weight somewhere between the light and heavy armours we have now. The exact numbers are up for debate.
- Innate resistance to penetration, soaking up the damage pool of things like artillery shells and railgun sabots. This may require additional work to the game's damage modelling, and may fit nicely into a third warfare update.
- Resistance to explosive weapons instead, as above.
- Impact resistance and reduced (or no) deformation.
Of course, its weight and durability (resistances to damage types notwithstanding) can be balanced accordingly. It'd be nice to have more general use for prototech components in general, and having more situational types of armour lends itself well to a game about engineering.
I like this feedback
Another potential, more interesting use case for prototech armour - being able to add an optional block that, if connected to the armour, can temporarily harden it when fed power. This would not be shields - smaller calibre munitions (such as rifle and maybe gatling rounds) could be absorbed wholesale, but it would only mitigate larger munitions, such as shells and sabots.
If this optional block's capacitor runs dry, it shuts off until fully charged, else it recharges whilst in operation if enough power is available. Its capacitor drains faster when connected armour is struck.
This deals with many of the shortcomings of an energy shielding system - namely that shields typically just provide a health pool on top of the ship. This powered armour approach still requires forethought and serious consideration as to where it's placed on a ship, and only offers limited protection.
Another potential, more interesting use case for prototech armour - being able to add an optional block that, if connected to the armour, can temporarily harden it when fed power. This would not be shields - smaller calibre munitions (such as rifle and maybe gatling rounds) could be absorbed wholesale, but it would only mitigate larger munitions, such as shells and sabots.
If this optional block's capacitor runs dry, it shuts off until fully charged, else it recharges whilst in operation if enough power is available. Its capacitor drains faster when connected armour is struck.
This deals with many of the shortcomings of an energy shielding system - namely that shields typically just provide a health pool on top of the ship. This powered armour approach still requires forethought and serious consideration as to where it's placed on a ship, and only offers limited protection.
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