Materials, armor and protection.
There is a misconception about spaceships. It consists in the fact that in the mass imagination it is something very durable and made of unknown scientific cosmic materials. That's not true. Since in space, as in aviation, every gram counts, the structures are strong enough to hold air and withstand launch into orbit. In the case of landers, withstand landing. An interesting point is that the overload of most spacecraft is less than the overload for which most combat aircraft are designed. Here, planes again. And for a reason. Most designs of space technology are very similar in materials and characteristics to aviation. The Space Shuttle gives us a perfect example of this. It's made of... ordinary duraluminium. And if it is more accurate of course from a certain brand. In aviation, only 3 brands of duraluminium are used, differing from each other in strength and plastic characteristics. In the wing one, in the skin of the other, in the power set the third. Naturally, there are other structural materials, there are planes made of steel and titanium, of wood after all. But the dural is overwhelmingly massive. In our game, we give players greater freedom in the design and selection of materials, which in turn will significantly affect the final characteristics of ships.
The hull of the ship consists of a power set, 6 skin zones and coating. The power set is a “skeleton” that holds almost all loads. Outside, the skin is mounted, which performs 3 functions - adds strength to the entire structure, retains the atmosphere and is protected from radiation, micrometeorites, radiation, and, in our game, from the effects of damaging factors of weapons. The coating is responsible for additional protection functions, depending on its type.
The body can be made of any materials available for construction and available to the player. Titanium, carbon fiber, ceramics, dural, steel - this is not a complete set. Each material has its pros and cons. The main 2 parameters are weight and tensile strength. This applies to both the set and the skin. In the case of power set, this affects primarily the maximum permissible loads and as a result, the value of the maximum permissible acceleration. Weight also plays a significant role, but in second place in importance is reliability and safety margin. If, in case of damage, the safety margin comes to zero, the hull is disintegrated, which is catastrophic damage and equals the death of the ship.
Sheathing can be made of different materials, including complex and have different thicknesses. For example, 1000 millimeters of steel in all zones or a composite of steel, ceramics and gel filler in the front and 5 millimeter dural in the other zones - the choice is up to the player.
Each material has its own resistance to kinetic shocks, explosive, thermal effects, high-speed kinetic shocks. When a projectile hits any zone, the angle of collision, the armor penetration of the projectile, the equivalent of armor, is calculated, and as a result, the skin is pierced or not penetrated or ricocheted. In case of penetration, the trajectory of the projectile and its hitting the internal modules and power set are calculated. Each internal element of the ship has its stopping force, so that the projectile that penetrated the armor can end its path both in the first module that appeared and penetrate the entire ship through, causing multiple damage. In case of penetration in the skin area, there is a chance of ignoring the armor for each subsequent hit. It depends on the size of the ship, but increases with each successive breach. The mechanism works out the chance of a projectile hitting an already punched armor.
The thermal effect on the armor is as follows. The power of the initial radiation is distributed by the spot taking into account the angle. Next, the thermal conductivity, heat capacity and melting temperature of the material, the area and mass of armor in the affected area, as well as the coating effect are taken into account. It is hard to cut a mirror with an visible-light laser. After that, the enemy needs to hold the spot without shifting the time necessary for smelting the armor. It can vary based on calculations from fractions of a second to infinity. One method of protection is to turn the ship on the other side if the smelting time is tens of seconds. A similar mechanism works when using exotic weapons.
External modules can either be closed with armor or not. It depends on the specific module, or rather its manufacture. Depending on the design, the armored outer module initially has a chance of ignoring the armor and can be quite high. For example, for a rocket launcher, you need to open the guides to fire. At this time, an enemy shell can get there.
External coating can be only one, which does not negate its multilayering in manufacture and, accordingly, the resulting characteristics. Your ships will be mirrored or charcoal black, with stealth coating or brightly painted - a matter of your choice and necessity. It all depends on the tactics of the fight and the potential enemy.
Will there be defense fields, shields? They will. But not on the primary server. When and if we start running a parallel server with a different version of the story and other events, we can bring in any elements that will be of interest to players and play softer, unscientific fiction. In the meantime, a powerful electromagnetic field generator will be able to delay and lead to the poles charged particles released by exotic weapons. The need for which tends to zero. Who knows?