Dynamic Armor

[Zenark]

So, I originally got this idea when I looked at  the Spire for the first time months ago, but I think it's time to share.

Now yall know how there's a big 'shield' on the front of the Spire? Right below the main gun is a giant metal crest like thing. What if that was a more reinforced part of the ships armor? A gatling when hitting anywhere else on the hull would do standard piercing damage, but hitting that plate would do only half damage.

This dynamic armor could be used on all ships. Ex.
Pyramidion has heavier armor on the front
Squid has armor near the engines
Galleon has armor around the guns
Goldfish has armor on the sides (everyone sees those big fin like plates)
Mobula has armor covering part of the front of the balloon
Junker has small pieces of armor spaced apart randomly-ish

These would compliment their respective ship's strengths; Squid's maneuverability, Galleon's guns, etc. Strategy would then have to be modified a bit to counter. Ambushing a Pyra from behind, choice between focusing on a Galleon's hull or guns, aiming your ram at that Spire somewhere other than its front.

This would require better gunning in order to hit between the chinks in the ship's armor. It could also open new ammo types, things like steel-cored rounds to negate part of that extra resistance.

Would this drastically change gameplay? Would it make certain ships overpowered? Is it plausible to implement into the engine? Discuss.

[treseritops]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't this require a new set of hit boxes and damage calculation?

As far as I understand damage is calculated by the gun being fired, what hit box it hits and then depending on what type of damage the hit box takes a certain amount of damage is applied. So you can fire a harpoon at the hull and do no damage. Resistance to damage is built into hit box and gun compatibility. I don't know if in the current system there is a way to make a "stronger" hit box in the larger scope of the hull. It would still need to be vulnerable to piercing damage, but I don't think they set hit boxes to be susceptible to piercing, but only take %50 damage from explosive, or in this case only take %50 piercing damage. I think it's the other way around where a gun might only do secondary piercing damage and not get the full effect of the damage.

I like the idea and we talked about having a ship with one side as a reinforced shield side as well. I think it would be a really great ship to use for positioning (such as cutting in between an enemy that is destroying an ally).

[Zenark]

The armor would probably have its own hitbox, yes. Like an engine or gun has its own resistance types, so too would the armor. The models are more or less already there, all it would take is some scripting to implement them into being resistant. The only issue I can see would be balance, but that could be worked out.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

I like it. Would give reason for an idea I had awhile back of color coded hit markers. Cept I had only thought about it as a trainer tool for new players. The squid has thin armor plates on it's sides and balloon. If you see a heavily damaged one you'll see them peeling off the side or cut in half.

[Echoez]

Would certainly add more depth to the various engagements by introducing directional damage resistance, makes engagement angle realy important and pilots can mitigate the damage they take by twisting their ships properly.

My only question is, where and what would be the damage resistance on the Galleon? It's already a very tough ship to take down, making it have extra damage resistance on top of its current tankiness feels kinda unfair.

[Piemanlives]

The galleon is mostly a broadside on vessel, the weapons are also fairly important so armor fairly centered around that would be nice but the rear and front be fairly weak.

[Captain Smollett]

Holy moly Zenark, I think you're in my head.  I've been playing this game forever and that very same thought just came to me a few days ago.

I think it would be super interesting if ships had certain armored hard points and soft spots.  It would really raise the complexity of the game and further reward positioning and gunnery. 

Probably wouldn't be super easy to balance but I think it would be really cool when everything was finally working.  Imagine pilots turning their armor towards oncoming fire while focusing guns on a different target, now how cool would that be!

[Echoez]

So if this gets in, some ships should have to have some designated weak points as well.

For example the Pyramidion takes 50% reduced damage on the its nose and bow, back of the ship is a weakpoint, adding 20% extra damage done there.

Spire takes 70% reduced damage from the front, but 30% extra damage from behind.

Junker has no extra damage reduction as it's a ship that relies on it's thin hitbox anyway, but it has no weakpoint either.

etc etc.

[Eukari]

The idea is interesting, but I think we have enough trouble just getting people to hit the right part of the ship (balloon vs. hull) as it is...

[Keon]

Color code them. Bright white-yellow for a direct squishy bit and a sort of grey and small hit marker for armored areas.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Color code them. Bright white-yellow for a direct squishy bit and a sort of grey and small hit marker for armored areas.

Pretty much that initial concept I had except I had more color involvement. But for something like this it would be great, even if it was eventually relegating to being used as a trainer tool.

[Captain Phil]

Like a lot of people I thought up of something similar to this but with my own flair to it. Each of those armored plates counts as their own part and will block a small amount of damage before any shots start damaging the main hull armor; think of it as temporary hp. Each plate would be rather quick to repair but due to how many of them there are it would be hard to keep up on them. Was not one of my greatest ideas so I never posted it. But I do like the higher armor in different areas, would give more depth to the game then just "aim for hull."

[Zenark]

I figure this might make gunners a tad bit more important, simply because they'd most likely have better accuracy through experience.

I'm trying to think if the armor would also mitigate other damage types, and I think it should; probably an equal damage reduction for all types (fire might not change though)

If I had any photoshop skills I'd highlight the areas of each ship I feel would be armored. I might try and find ship pictures later and see what I can do, but no promises XD

The idea of a different colored hit marker on armor is awesome. I know it should be discussed in another thread, but I think these two ideas would compliment each other well.

[Swizy]

I'm all for making the game even more challanging. On topic I think some guns would need rebalancing to have less jitter and spread in order to even be able to aim precisely. Otherwise it would be less skill based but more a luckshot game.

[Zenark]

I'm all for making the game even more challanging. On topic I think some guns would need rebalancing to have less jitter and spread in order to even be able to aim precisely. Otherwise it would be less skill based but more a luckshot game.

Heavy Clip would make a serious comeback.