Using a percentage for armour

[quantumstate]

Currently armour works by the following rule.

damage = max(attack - armour, 1)

The proposal is to change this to

damage = attack * (1 - armour/100)

So with 20% armour you only incur 80 damage for every 100 dealt.

Discussion at http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16986

[quantumstate]

Three possible systems have emerged from the discussion.

Current system:

Damage = Attack - Armour

Percentage armour:

Damage = Attack * (100 - Armour) / 100

Exponential armour:

Damage = Attack * 0.9^Armour

Summary of Discussion

Current system

- It is what we have now, the issues are known.

- Real armour tends to stop a certain amount of damage. More powerful missiles don't get stopped much by armour.

Percentage Armour

- Makes reasoning about changes more independent. Adding 10% attack will increase attack by 10% vs every unit in the game.

- Percentage can represent the percentage of body coverage.

Exponential Armour

- Techs have the same effect on each unit. So a 10% armour tech will decrease damage by 10% for every unit.

- Basically works the same as percentage armour except for techs.

- Players may find the concept difficult if they have not studied higher level maths.

[Enrique]

My vote here goes to percentage armour because:

• Fixes current system problems
  
• Easy to grasp for new players
  
• Will help balancing units and techs
  

[quantumstate]

I am in favour on exponential armour. It means that techs are evenly weighted across units, so that already strong units don't get even stronger (relatively) with upgrades. It can be displayed as a percentage to players and the effect of technologies should be easy to describe, so players can understand what is going on.

[Enrique]

After following the discussion thread I changed my mind. It will be better than percentage armour for even upgrades between all units.

[feneur]

I don't have a strong opinion either way, so with both Jonathan and Enrique agreeing I'll agree as well. Exponential it is

[Mythos_Ruler]

Exponential is what I'd prefer. My only concerns are:

- How we present this to the player, and...

- How it will be handled in the technology files. Alpha123 has some thoughts on this.

I'd personally like to present the armor as "Levels." Just sounds cool to have "Level 5 Hack Armor." Though I think it could be useful to present it as both: "Level 5 (44%)."