how does armor (or armour) work?

from Sins Forums
The sins ref sheet talks about "armor classes" ranging between "v light" and "v heavy" and affects specific ship types (not specific weapon types). It is also not necessarily always good to have more armor - when facing bombers for example it seems you will take less damage if you don't have "v heavy" armor. The tech trees on the other hand give armor numbers. So if you tech up your fighters with +5 armor do they get "v heavy" armor and become vulnerable to bombers?! Does the armor number represent a simple subtraction from the damage of any weapon that gets through shields? (which would be the most intuitive)

Is there an armor FAQ?
strategy
4,453 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
not sure but the higher the number the better ;-)
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
The armor type is determined by the ship, as is the damage type. Some ships deal more damage to certain kinds of armor and less to others.

The amount of armor doesn't change the type, and more armor is always better.

I think (can't check at work) that this chart lists off the different armor types: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/177682
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Yes it's the chart I was referring to that was confusing me. So armor type and armor value are quite separate things?

How important is armor do you think? Without knowing how it works exactly it is hard to get a picture of whether it should be a priority in teching up. If it reduces damage by a set amount rather than by a percentage it would be more important for small than large ships...
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
According to this, a simple way to look at it is every point of armor effectively increases the hull of the ship by 5%. If you had 0 armor and it took 100 shots to bring the hull, adding 1 armor will make it take 105 shots, 2 armor will take 110, etc.

It actually works by reducing the damage taken, and the formula is in the link. Its just easier to think about it by increasing the number of shots the ship can take by 5%. :)

Its a good upgrade. I wouldn't jump ahead in the tech tree to take it over a cheaper hull upgrade, but I also wouldn't skip it.

And yes, armor type and armor value are different. Type is determined by the ship, and never changes (except maybe in a patch). The value can go up from research (or abilities), and can also go down from abilities (the Vasari cap ship ability that takes 6 armor off a target is awesome against targets you want to focus fire on). (The link in this post also has a chart of how much damage each ship does to other ships.)
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Ah that link you gave me Tridus is the one I have been looking for! Thank you for that and for your valuable help in this and other threads I started...