Dev Diary #7— Armor System
Welcome back, Guardians!
Today we’ll be exploring an important element of combat: the Armor System.
We have implemented a tier-based armor system that works in tandem with different Damage Types. These damage types have unique properties and bonuses against specific armor tiers. This allows each weapon and stratagem to have its own combat role, whether that’s penetrating medium armor, performing well against shields, or destroying buildings.
Armor is not a one-size-fits-all system. Enemy units and buildings can feature different Armor Tiers and even Weakpoints.
Let’s take the Arthromare as an example. Its top shell is considered Medium Armor. Standard weapons like the ARX-15, the default Guardian rifle, will ricochet off it. However, weapons with penetrating damage types, like the HMG-44 Suppressor machine gun, will penetrate the armor and damage the Arthromare.
Weakpoints, on the other hand, are your primary targets. These are areas where incoming damage is amplified. In the Arthromare’s case, the weakpoint is an unarmored area. However, some enemies may have armored weakpoints, requiring penetrating weapons to exploit them effectively. If you manage to penetrate those weakpoints, the damage dealt will be even higher.
As you progress, you will encounter increasingly dangerous enemies. For example, the Advanced Combat Droid of the Void Empire is a fully armored unit with only two small weakpoints to attack. Without a penetrating weapon, it can become a very tough enemy.
Buildings also feature Armor Tiers and can contain segments with different armor strengths, as well as weakpoints affected by specific Damage Types. For example, you might be able to destroy a turret emplacement with a grenade, but tougher structures like a Cannon Tower may require the raw firepower of an orbital bombardment from your destroyer. Alternatively, you can take a more strategic approach and target its weakpoint directly with a rocket launcher.
We can’t go into the specific Armor Tiers currently available, as we are still balancing the system. However, the current framework allows us to expand the mechanic further with additional armor tiers and more specialized interactions between armor and damage types.
For example, we could introduce armor that resists everything except explosive damage, or Shields as their own Armor Tier that are especially vulnerable to Energy Damage. This system also gives us room to evolve combat mechanics over time and keep gameplay fresh after release.
In any case, you won’t need to figure everything out on your own during combat. The Encyclopedia, combat VFX and SFX will clearly indicate whether you are effectively damaging an enemy.
Let’s close this Dev Diary with a small preview of how ricochets are portrayed during combat.
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NOTE: Footage recorded in a pre-alpha build. Some features, visuals, animations and SFX are placeholders and may change during development.