The third option which is under evaluation is to simply make smaller weapons ineffective against larger ships. The recent announcement about weapon sizes vs the Javelin shows that CIG is still working this problem:
Size 5 full damage.
Size 4 reduced damage.
Size 3 and down, no damage.
This is where armor comes in, and where the whole "punch above its weight class" thing CIG has been doing causes problems because they have not had a full fledged plan in place. In essence, they have been winging it too long.
For example, here is a way that they COULD have done it:
Ships also have weapon size capabilities that are generally followed, with a few exceptions:
- Vehicles and XS ships (snubs) generally carry S1 and S2 weapons. (yes, I know the Nova has a S5)
- Small ships generally carry S2 and S3 weapons and under
- Medium ships generally carry S3 and S4 weapons and under
- Large ships generally carry S4 and S5 weapons and under
- Capital ships carry S5 and up for anti capital and S4 and under for anti smaller ship.
Armor thickness is size dependent. Larger ships can carry heavier armors and larger ships are built stronger meaning they are innately armored to an extent and grants them immunity to smaller weapons.
Each class of armor reduces damage to certain sized weapons at the following rate. Light, medium, heavy.
This gives the following
ground/Snub armor
Small ship armor
Medium armor
Large Armor
Capital Armor (also includes new armor classes very heavy and extra heavy armor)
Armor can be damaged, so armor needs a health pool. For smaller ships, the armor is a single pool of health.
For large and above ships, armor has 6 faces (top, bottom, each side, front, and rear) (NOTE - if they want, you can have different armor values on different faces)
NOTE: some ships may also "defend" above their weight class. So a Perseus might have capital grade armor
Medium armor for a ship class reduces damage of the smaller size weapon by 50 percent
For every size of weapon above that, the damage is increased by 25 percent up to full damage
For every size of weapon below that, the damage is reduced by 25 percent
Examples:
So for a ground item with Vehicle heavy armor, a S4 and above does full damage, a S3 does 75 percent damage, a S2 does 50 percent damage, a S1 does 25 percent damage, and (most) handheld weapons do no damage)
A vehicle with vehicle medium armor, a S3 does full damage, S2 does 75 percent, S1 50 percent, and S1 25 percent.
A vehicle with light armor and S2 and above does full damage, S1 does 75 percent damage, and handheld weapons do 50 percent
a vehicle with no armor a S1 does full damage, handheld weapons do 75 percent damage.
For a medium ship (freelancer sized)
S6 and above does full damage against heavy armor (and reductions for lower sizes)
S5 and above does full damage against medium armor
S4 and above does full damage against light armor
S3 and above does full damage against no armor
So a medium armored medium ship attacked by a S3 weapon will take 50 percent of the damage from that S3 weapon. (say, from a sabre)..while a hurricane using S4 guns will do 75 percent damage with its size 4
Capital ships with heavy armor S8 and above do full damage
Very heavy needs a S9 to do full damage
Extra Heavy needs a S10 weapon to do full damage and anything S6 or under (including S6 torps) do no damage except to the paint job
A ship like the retribution has superheavy which requires a S11 weapon to do full damage.
A capital ship with no armor still has immunity to S4 and below weapons on it's main health pool
Now, as talked about, armor has a health pool
the damage does is done to armor first. So armor that is taking 50 percent damage and has a 5k health pool will need 10k of damage done to it (10k, at 50 percent is 5k), after which, that armor is damaged beyond effectiveness. After the armor is destroyed, and only the innate ship size will reduce damage, meaning if a vehicle's armor health pool is destroyed, it's treated as if that face (or the entire ship) is unarmored.
Smaller ship armor has smaller health pools, so an Ursa might have ...2k? of an armor health pool, while a capital ship like the the Bengal Carrier might have hundreds of thousands or even a millions of health in it's armor pools (each face having 500k armor health so 3 for its armor pool), while the Kraken might have no armor at all, but would still retain its size bonus for damage reduction.
Some exposed items like turrets, shield generators, sensors, thrusters, engines, etc might have their own armor rating with their own health pool and size class. So a S4 turret might be treated as a medium vehicle, even if it's installed on a capital ship, while a massive double S7 firing turret might have capital class armor.
An anti large ship ground weapon installation might have large heavy armor for it
As you can see, this is a workable plan. I am not saying it's a good plan or that there isn't a better one out there, but it's workable.
The problem is, I don't think CIG has ever thought things like this through and now they are caught in a problem of their own making.
This is why you need to have a comprehensive plan and someone looking out for the big picture. CIG seems so detail focused, that he has lost sight of the overall picture.
