Good luck to the Devs, this is a hard game to make. I hope you can pull it off. One of the main things I would really like to see in a game like this is a combat system like in the old Renegade Legion table top game. Armor in that game and damage to ships was amazing, will try and get some links and explain it. Having a great combat system even if behind the curtain leads to a better game IMHO. Will keep watching.
Ships in Sword of the Stars II had exactly that sort of armor system (boxes and damage patterns varying by weapon type). They also use it in that massively complex space 4x Aurora. And yes it works extremely well in both games.
That is it. Also like the way damage can bounce around but not really cripple the ship at times after many hits, or just a few lucky shots get in and cause havoc. I think those 2 are the only ones to use it as well. Too bad it makes for some nice tactics. I have most all the 4x released but nothing in the last few years has really grabbed me. Hoping this one does.
Sure, the idea is that armor is more than just a wall that stops damage, its complex, it can be partially pierced, is affected differently by different types of weapons, can be blown off in chunks.... etc but that sort of depth and complexity is normally way too hard to model in a computer game. Unless you use this method. Basically ship armor is represented by grid of boxes and the deeper the grid the thicker / stronger the armor. Different types of weapons damage the grid in different ways, long and thin for lasers (good penetration), broad and shallow for kinetic weapons. When you manage to get through the grid the damage is applied to the ship's internal systems. Its a lot easier to show than describe.... http://wiki.swordofthestars.com/sots2/images/6/65/Elouda_weapon_prev.png and..... http://wiki.swordofthestars.com/sots2/images/e/e8/Elouda_tactical_102.png The game Aurora uses one armor grid for the entire ship. SOTS 2 is even more complex as it uses 4 different armor grids per ship to denote respectively top, bottom, port and starboard armor and you can visually see damage patterns during the battle and tell exactly how the armor is holding up for each ship. For example if starboard armor is almost gone, you can roll the ship so the top armor is then exposed to fire. Makes for very immersive, interesting and hands-on tactical ship combat.
