Today we can define armor limits by specifying the following parameters:

  • The maximum armor mass that a ship can install.
  • The speed penalty when a ship has armor at maximum mass.
  • The standard armor mass for a ship class.
  • The speed bonus if a ship installs less than the standard armor mass.

While this system is very flexible and allows for lots of variation, it is confusing both for the mod-creator and the player.

This record proposes a new method for defining armor limits.

Armor Classes

We propose assigning armor to one of 7 armor classes based on their weight:

MASS (kg)        QUALIFIER
-------------------------------
    <= 1,000     ultra-light
 1,001-2,500     light
 2,501-3,500     medium (or no qualifier)
 3,501-6,000     heavy
 6,001-9,000     super-heavy
9,001-12,000     massive
   > 12,0000     battleship or dreadnought

Armor names would follow (or at least, not contradict) these classes, but we would also have a display attribute shown to the player. Thus the player will always know whether an armor is light or heavy.

Ship Armor Limits

In addition, we define limits on ship classes relative to the above armor classes—not to absolute mass values.

For each armor class, the ship class defines whether they incur a speed bonus or penalty or whether they can install it at all. For example:

<ShipClass ...>
   ...
   <ArmorClasses
         criteria=      "a +mechanist;"
         maxArmorClass= "superHeavy"
         >
      <ArmorClass id="ultraLight"  speedAdj="+2"/>
      <ArmorClass id="light"       speedAdj="+1"/>
      <ArmorClass id="heavy"       speedAdj="-1"/>
      <ArmorClass id="superHeavy"  speedAdj="-2"/>
   </ArmorClasses>
</ShipClass>

The above defines the classes of armor that can be installed and any speed bonuses or penalties incurred. As with the current design, if a ship has armor from different classes, we interpolate the speed adjustment. For example, if a ship has 2 segments of light armor and 2 segments of medium armor, the speed adjustment would be +0.5.