Armor provides additional hit points (HP) and provides resistances (percentage based damage reduction). Armor is added to each of the four sides of a Hull. The overall HP on any one side is equal to the Hull’s structural HP, plus the armor HP for that one side only. The starting Medium Tank, for example, has 120 structural HP and 210 Armor HP. The Armor, however, is broken down into 63 HP in Front, 64 HP on the Left and Right, and 19 HP in the Rear. Therefore, in the Front it effectively has 183 HP (63 + 120).
Armor does more than just provide additional protection. Damage to armor has no chance of damaging components like the engine, radar, weapons, etc. In order for a component to be damaged, the Hull must receive damage to its structural HP in the side(s) where the component is located. For example, if the engine is located entirely in the rear section, then structural damage to the front or sides will not have a chance of damaging the engine. Good armor with high integrity will drastically reduce the chances that your units will get disabled. Structural damage also tends to be very expensive to repair compared with armor damage.
Resistances: Resistances allow armor to ignore a percentage of the damage received of the same damage type. For example, if your armor has a resistance of 1 in Impact damage, it will ignore 1% of the Impact damage it receives. So, if hit for 4 Impact damage, the armor will lose 3.96 HP instead of 4 HP. However, if this same armor is hit with 4 Piercing damage, it will take the full 4 HP of damage because it has no Piercing resistance.
Hull Usage Per Plate: This determines how much hull space, or Hull Units (HU) each plate will require.
Hit Points Per Plate: This determines how many hit points will be added for each plate of armor.
Highlight Checkboxes: Each armor plate is made up of three layers, which can each be a different material if you desire. The properties you want for each layer depend on the resistances you selected. Checking the “Highlight” boxes next to the resistances you want will cause the green and red bars to show up when you click on the dropdown arrow for each layer.
Integrity: Armor Integrity ranges from 0 to 100% and represents the chance of enemy fire bypassing the armor entirely and going straight to the Hull’s structural HP. With an Integrity of 0, enemy fire will bypass the armor almost every time. Armor Integrity is determined by how well the materials you’ve chosen match the properties desired by the resistances you’ve selected, as well as how high you’ve set each of those resistances. Too many HP can also lower Integrity. There is also an element of random chance.
