Behavior of projectiles hitting/penetrating armor

[Yasko]

A thing I'd like to see in the game would be a way to benefit from angled armor to try and prevent penetration from physical projectiles, and maybe even model the issue that a laser technically has more material in front of it, if it hits an armor plate at an angle. This type of physics simulation, possibly in tandem with beams that have a kind of miter cut at the end instead of just ending in a 90° angle, could lead to lots of interesting and practical ship designs, as well as more involved ship to ship combat, since for maximum damage dealt, you'd have to try and get to your opponent from an angle where your projectiles hit them ideally in a 90° angle to their plating.

 

[XenoCow]

I don't know for sure, but it seems like this is already the case if you take a look at some of the videos where they demo damage at angles. The holes made by shots fired from angles create a different pattern than ones hitting straight on. So, I suspect that material traveled through is part of the calculation.

 

[Yasko]

Yes, but I think the devs just made the projectiles cause angled bullet holes if they hit at an angle, not affecting likelyhood of penetration or the bullet just ricocheting off. At least that's what it looks like to me watching the videos. The different pattern of hits seemt to just be caused by a combination of angle and spray causing the hits to be spread over a larger area.

 

[CalenLoki]

I've done some extensive testing of in game damage model. Angled armour makes a bit of difference, but not much. Currently the "surface" of each object is stopping more damage than "thickness". Thus ATM it's the most efficient to use multiple thin plates, instead of single thick one.

If devs decide to switch that around, it'd be rather easy to do by reducing armour value ("surface") and increasing transformability.

You can read a bit about the damage system here: https://wiki.starbasegame.com/index.php/Damage