Proposed Damage System Overhaul

[Barnacle Bill]

Suicide Junkie said:
What you really want is emissive ability.

Reduce damage by a fixed amount so small shots kapwing off, and big shots mostly go right through.

Combine that with armor-as-inert-internals, and you can make holes.

Yes, emissive is pretty close to the idea except I'd want shields to work that way, too. Also there should be a limit by hull size on how much you can pile on. I'm really wanting to set up a situation analogous to real world naval combat c.WWI, where you have distinct tactical roles for large, medium & small ships. That would stem from small ships being unable to hurt big ones with "guns" but quite dangerous at close range with "torpedos". So, you need a balanced fleet - big ships pound each other at range, little ships to try to close with the big ones & luanch potentially devestating "torpedo" attacks, medium ships to to keep the little ships away from the big ships.