AFAIK, armor points are removed before hull for each third. But is there a reason to choose armor over hull as armor have to be destroyed before eliminating hull point?
In fact, having 'ignore armor' weapons (if they are supposed to exist) will render armor useless. In that event, why should we chose armor as hull will, in the end, have the same effect?

Marc

It seems to me armor should be cheaper than hull, as you sill surely find 'ignore armor' weapons.

I don't understand why. Ship A should have three 'packs' of 3 armor and 9 hull each. So a threshhold check will happen on 12 damages (unless I misunderstood something).
Same thing for ship B.
Now, if armor is cheaper, it can be useful to have some.

Marc

Oic.  Hmmm, if the armor is going to be done like that, then what value, if any does armor have?  In this example, the 36 hull, no armor ship may be better because it would generate more repair units than the 27 hull armored ship.
I am curious, why is the armor broken up into three parts the same as the hull?  In many other games I have played the armor is marked off first, then the rest of the ship. (Examples are SFB, Full Thrust, Starfire)   
:idea: Would it be possible to have Ablative Armor?  This armor would all be hit before any hull gets hit.  It would work just like I thought the armor would work in the example from yesterday.  A while ago, in the days of Starmada X, I designed a ship with Ablative Armor and even placed a copy of it in the Boukari Basin, where it still is in the Starmada X files.  If armor worked like that, it would cost more.  For example, if the hull points cost 3 each, the ablative armor could cost 4 or 5.  This way a ship would get to delay its first threshhold check, but would cost a little more and may loose a repair party.

I probably don't understand how the number of hull boxes is determined.  Is the size of a ship selected, then this size determines the number of hull boxes?  Can this number be changed?
I guess that armor is an added feature? 
I look forward to the new edition and am sure I will understand how everything works when I see the new rules.   I was using some presumptions that probably are inaccurate. :oops:

The big challange for me is to  Patiently Wait  for the new Edition to appear, and not try to figure out all of the details beforehand.

(But my Adult ADD makes me want to ask about shields now, they work...  )

I understand what he means and that was the object of my question. If armor was as costly as hull (ie, having 12 armor and 12 hull is exactly the same as having 24 hull for resistance and CR), who cares about armor? Just take 0 armor and a lot of hull and you have a powerful ship which should last as long as the same one who devoted part of its hull with armor.
on the other hand, if one hull can be used to 'create' many armor points, than it could be useful to devote some hull as armor.
But as we don't know the mean to design a ship, we can only speculate.

BTW, the way that S NE ships are done (three parts of armor and hull) reminds me an optional rule for Starfire found in a old copy of Nexus (official magazine from task Force Games) where, a ship, instead of having it written with one long line of systems, was broken in three (or more) parts, each with shield, armor and internal systems. That way, you didn't have to lose all your armor and shield before losing some internal systems. You always had the bad feeling that a ship was invulnerable as long as it has armor and shields, then crumbled quiclky once they were gone.

Marc

Shields award saving rolls on all hits.
A "shields 4+" rating is simply a 4+ roll to save.

I'm not sure... 
It's been requested, but Dan would be the one to answer this one.

Yep, I believe that's what he's refering to.

You mean like in this thread?
http://www.mj12games.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3565&start=100
Paul

What is 'Damage Resistance'?

Marc

I'm actually doing this on my own as part of a general custom overhaul that is meant to greatly increase the amount of combined-arms tactics involved in the game. One of the things that's great about this new version is how easy it is to add modifiers.

My mod is not finalized yet as I want to apply it to the new systems construction rules, but this is a partial outline. Weapons have an armor pen rating, and ships have an armor rating. You column shift right a number of columns depending on how much you failed to pen by. For example, an armor pen 2 firing at an armor 5 will shift 3 columns to the right, and hit for squat. I also have a -1 armor modifier to the AP and AS hex facings, and a -2 armor modifier to the aft.

There's a fair amount more than the armor to what I'm doing. I'll probably post it up here when it's finished.

In the real world, you don't kill a soldier with 120mm shells. You can of course, but it would be a waste. In the Starmada world, the soldiers can be simulated by fighters and you can have weapons designed to kill them. Of course, you can use those weapons (barring any fighter-exclusive trait) to kill starships, but they could use a lot of time, time that can be used by the enemy to destroy your ships with bigger weapons.
Starships should be designed to have enough protection to be fairly protected from small weaponry, leaving the latter to softer targets. Usually, scenarios don't last long, so you can't expect killing ships with low weapons if that need a lot of scenario time.
Of course, that depends of the setting.

Marc