We have two primary goals for improving armor in Transcendence 1.8:
- Balance armor items so that none are wildly over- or under-powered.
- Increase the diversity and differentiation of armor so that more play-styles are viable.
As with weapons, we plan to balance armor by algorithmically computing a "balance" number, which will tell us whether a particular armor is over- or under-powered. We will use the results of the algorithm plus lots of play-testing to adjust armor stats.
Increasing armor diversity and differentiation is a harder, but involves adding new capabilities and new trade-offs to armor. The most important change is making armor mass affect a ship's max. speed. This will give players the choice to trade off some speed to get more hit points, or vice versa.
The following records describe these changes:
- Armor Limits
- Armor Design Guidelines
- Armor Balance Changes I
- Armor Balance Changes II
- Solar armor improvements
See Also
I think rotation rate is already affected by cargo weight, is it worth having the turn rate of lighter ships affected by armor mass as well? (unless it already is)
I think rotation rate and acceleration are also attributes that could use looking into. Acceleration in particular is highly under-rated.