Armor.tbl

The armor table stores data on FS2's as-of-now-simplistic armor system. It lets you define different damage types per armor.

The reason for defining different damage types per armor is that, realistically, armor may be damaged less by certain types of weapons. For example, a fire-retardant suit may offer excellent protection against a flamethrower, but virtually none against bullets.

It's important to note that the cumbersome +Calculation Type/+Value system used for defining calculations will, in the future, be deprecated in favor of a more efficient scripting system. However, the current system will be kept for backwards compatibility, if any mods or campaigns choose to make use of the table.

Example

armor.tbl

#Armor Type
$Name: Reflective
;;This armor is made up of some kind of reflective material, 
;;that deflects 1/4 of the energy from laser weapons back into space. 
;;However, it is somewhat more fragile than typical hull materials,
;;and takes 1/3 more damage from weapons that use physical projectiles.

$Damage Type: Laser
	+Calculation Type: Multiplicative
	+Value: 0.75

$Damage Type: Kinetic
	+Calculation Type: Multiplicative
	+Value: 1.33
#End

As you can see above, "Reflective" armor is dealt only 75% of the damage from laser weapons, but 133% of the damage from kinetic weapons. However, in order to activate the armor system, you must assign the armor type to the ships you want it to apply to, and damage types to the weapons you wish to use.

The Thoth fighter seems like a good choice for this armor. Its speed and maneuverability give it the ability to evade missiles, and many direct-fire weapons are energy based. So, to give it this armor, you would add "$Armor Type:" to ships.tbl, under the "Thoth" entry:

ships.tbl

$Hitpoints:             200
$Armor Type:            Reflective
$Flags:                 ( "player_ship" "fighter" "in tech database")

At this point, the Thoth will be equipped with Reflective armor. However, it will have no effect unlesss it is hit by a weapon with a "$Damage Type" that is defined in armor.tbl, under the "Reflective" armor entry. Otherwise, Freespace 2 would have no idea how to take into account the defined damage types.

So, in the interests of time, here's how you would assign the "Laser" damage type to the Subach HL-7, and the "Kinetic" damage type to the Rockeye.

Under the Subach entry, you would add "$Damage Type" like so:

weapons.tbl

$Damage:				15
$Damage Type:				Laser
$Armor Factor:				0.9

Under the Rockeye entry, you would add "$Damage Type" like this:

weapons.tbl

$Damage:				45
$Damage Type:				Kinetic
$Armor Factor:				0.1

Now, if you were to start Freespace 2 with these modifications, you would find that the Thoth would take 3/4 as much damage from the Subach HL-7, 1/3 more damage from the Rockeye, but normal damage from everything else. All other ships, not being equipped with any kind of armor, would also be dealt normal damage from all weapons, including the Rockeye and the Subach.