This idea will probably be pretty difficult to implement, but it came to me today while playing Warcraft. How about each weapon have a "damage type" and each ship have an "armor type."
For example, a Tachyon, phased blaster, charged cannon, basic gat or ion blaster would deal "light energy damage" which would do extra damage to ships with light armor (fighter craft like the centurion, vulture, or Valkyrie), normal damage to ships with medium armor (like the Atlas, Marauder, or Hornet) and reduced damage to heavy armored craft (like the wraith, Ragnarok, and Prometheus.)

Meanwhile, a Gauss, graviton, or Plasma blaster, and advanced gat would deal "Heavy energy damage" which does extra damage to Medium armored craft, normal damage to light craft, and reduced damage to heavy craft.

Missiles and rockets like the mines, sunflares, jackhammers, yellowjackets, geminis, or stingrays do heavy projectile/shrapnel damage, which does extra damage to heavy craft, normal damage to medium, and reduced damage to light armor.

There could also be weapons that do multiple types of damage that would make them very useful. Weapons like the screamer could do heavy energy damage and projectile damage to take out a variety of ships.


I don't intend this to work like a rock, paper, scissors model to combat. They do extra damage, but the differences shouldn't be enough to drastically sway a fight, just enough to help balance out the ships. For example, rocket ramming could be dealt with since sunflares do extra damage to light armored craft so the valkyries that launch them would have to deal with extra damage to their hull and reduced or normal damage to their opponent's (unless they ram another fighter). Careful tweaking of these values could add a new dimention of strategy to weapon choice since while you're roaming you might want to be prepared for all sorts of different threats.

Right with you big guy. I agree all the way around, though my implementation is different.

"46) Reflective Armor: Damage from laser and blaster fire is reduced by 20%. Incompatible with ablative or disapating armor.
....
97) Ablative Armor: Damage from rail guns, gauss cannons, and Gatling cannons is reduced by 20%. Incompatible with dissipating or reflective armor.
98) Force Dissipating Armor: Damage from explosions, plasma cannons, and charged cannons is reduced by 20%. Incompatible with ablative or reflective armor."

I was thinking of calling the three damage types: piercing, explosive, and energy, but I'm amendable to any similar set of conventions. Obviously, the above three gizmos are meant to be the simplest case. A more complex model might have the various types of armor plates (#29) or shields (#26) provide varying degrees of protection depending on the type of weapon making the attack. Also some hulls could have built in resistance to particular damage types, and of course you can very the number of armor plates mountable on a given hull (there is an armor thread around here somewhere).

I'll take whatever weapon has chaos damage and whatever ship has divine armor.

I have got to stop playing wc3.

I have got to stop playing wc3.
-I beat the Frozen Throne yesterday and I have concluded that I hate Arthas.

But back to the point: Yay! Celebrim likes my idea.

me tabs pavan on the finger and says:

Celebrim doesnt like YOUR idea, he likes a prehistoric age version of his idea :D

cheers

I think it's a good idea, turns fighters into gnats when against the frigate, small, annoying, and a general pain in the ass.

(i can't voice my opinions about arthas, the post might get deleted)

No, I do like his idea.

I just like MINE better. ;)

Seriously though, the two ideas aren't completely incompatable. I did agree that some hulls could have built in resistance to various damage types, something that I hadn't considered before. So, at the very least, his idea has got me thinking about my idea in new ways.

Looking back on my first post I decided it needed a bit of revision,
I'm still breaking the ships up with respect to agility: so light armor=Very high to high agility, medium armor=medium agility, heavy armor=low agility. (Although Celebrim's naming conventions sound a bit better.)

And the weapons are still being broken up into their characteristics.
So the rapid fire weapons like Tachs and Gravs would be the just "energy."
The powerful slow weapons like the Gauss and Railgun would be "piercing."
And the explosive ones like flares and geminis would be "explosive."

So the new breakdown:
-Light armor:
Extra damage from energy.
Normal damage from piercing.
Reduced damage from explosive.

-Medium armor:
Extra damage from piercing.
Normal damage from explosive.
Reduced damage from energy.

-Heavy armor:
Extra damage from explosive.
Normal damage from energy.
Reduced damage from piercing.


I decided that the agile ships are hard to hit with energy weapons so they are given a bit of a boost against them. The piercing weapons are fine the way they are against fighters, so no reason to mess with that. (the gauss may need a reduction of auto-aim though) But missiles and rockets can kill fighters with absurd ease, so a bit of a reduction is in order.

The medium ships meanwhile are easier to hit with energy than their agile counterparts, so the damage from them is a bit reduced. The piercing weapons need to be fired on them for a while compared to fighters to take them down, so they are given a bit of a boost. Meanwhile, rockets are the same. This could be the medium craft's weakness, but medium ships (like the hornet and marauder) are generally well armed, so they will be able to respond in kind.

The Heavy ships meanwhile are easy to take down with piercing weapons due to their low maneuverability and large profile, so they will do reduced damage while energy weapons do low damage anyway so that can be left untouched. Meanwhile, rockets and mines will takes these things down easily to discourage ramming from heavy ships that get in too close and also give their tough armored hides something to worry about.



My only concern here is that the Valk will become an even better rocket ramming ship than it is now, but all the other ships are fine. So the Valk would either need to take another major drop in hull points, a cut in agility, or it could just be an unarmored craft. Takes extra damage from all damage types.

not to throw another rabbit into the stew, but I still think that "reflective" armor should actually reflect shots. The reflected shots should hold the 20% damage that was "reflected" by the armor, and anyone (even the attacker) who is caught in the path of a ricochet should feel it.

Physics: Difficult.

Coolness factor: Worth it.

If it did that it should be a toy. Unless armor was bought and added like the weapons and engines currently are. But that would be painfully difficult to balance. It's hard enough balancing the weapons.

*Bumped because it came up again*

Did I bump this for no reason?

Yes, I mean, no, I mean... crap.