Complex Armor

Complex Armor is a general term used to describe various ways of improving the survivability of a ship based on the configuration of the ship's armor.  There are many classifications and subclassifications of complex armor, but the major forms of complex armor include: Layered, Spaced, and Modular Armor.

## Layered Armor

Layered armor is based on the concept of stacking materials one in front of the other improve the armor's stopping potential.  This form of armor is generally seen as the ideal low-tech solution to direct fire weapons such as beams and cannons while also offering slightly improved benefits versus energy missiles.

The 5 most common implementations of layered armor are as below:

### Solid Armor

Solid armor is the practice of covering your ship in several layers of the same kind of armor (hull, standard, or advanced).  While this method is generally considered obsolete, there are still many older ship designs in service that utilise this form of armor.

### Sloped Armor

Many players implement this kind of added protection by accident without even realizing its benefits.  While energy weapons can not be deflected the same way that kinetic weapons could in the past, sloped hull still offers the advantage that they can force direct fire weapons to have to break though several armor blocks even thought they are hitting a hull that is only one block thick before they can reach any vital systems.  Furthermore, rounded, thin, or wedge shaped features on your ship can cause an explosion to happen mostly outside of your ship giving added protection versus missiles as well.

### Obliterative Armor

This form of armor typically uses an outer layer of hull or armor with many layers of lightweight, highly expendable blocks behind it such as scaffolds, girders, or capsules.  The idea behind this armor type is that a direct fire weapon loses some of its damage potential with each block it hits; so, if it wastes all of its momentum hitting "obliteratives", then it will not be able to cause any major structural or system damage by the time it reaches anything critical.

### Composite Armor

This form of armor is a more lightweight, cost effective variation of solid armor.  It uses an outer layer of advanced armor with inner layers of hull.  This kind of armor takes advantage of the higher soak factor of the advanced armor on the outer shell and combines it with the much more cost and weight effective aHP of the Hull to maximise how much damage can be offset into your aHP.  This kind of layered armor is much better than Obliterative Armor at absorbing explosive weapons, but is not as cost efficient at absorbing direct fire weapons.  This is a popular armor configuration to pair with armor passive effects.

### Bulkheads

Bulkheads are layers of armor buried inside of your ship.  These internal plates can be use to guard key parts of your ship such as weapon systems, auxiliary power, or computers.

## Spaced Armor

Spaced armor is the use of armor that creates an empty space between your outer Hull and any internal systems.  Spaced armor is designed to cause missiles to detonate away from your internal systems so that only your armor is caught in the explosion radius.  Spaced armor is often seen as a lightweight alternative to Obliterative Armor, but does not give any advantage versus direct fire weapons.

A variation of spaced armor is to use prongs or buttresses that stick out from your hull in key places to detonate weapons further from your hull.

Ships that place thier non-vital traversable areas on the outside of thier ships (crew quarters, hallways, hangers, recreational rooms, etc.) gain a similar advantage.

## Modular Hull

Modular Hulls goes by many names with an equally wide range of implementations.   The January 20, 2318 update in theory rendered a lot of these systems obsolete, but it is still unclear if this manner of armor still possess enough advantages to be useful. Many of these names have faction specific designations based on how it is implemented and the "tricks" used to gain extra survivability out of them.  Even poorly implemented modular hulls offered many advantages over their fixed hull counterparts, but there were at least 13 other known advantages to docked armor systems that could enhance the survivability of a ship based on how it was implemented; so, it is expected that at least some of these may still be viable. That said, these advantages were often considered highly classified information so there may have been even more.

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Disclaimer: This is a highly controversial technology.  Many servers have strict guidelines regarding the implementation of Modular Hulls due to issues with them being able to cause massive lag spikes if not implemented properly.  For this reason it is always suggested that you ask the local Galactic Authorities about their rules regarding this potentially contraband technology before installing it on your ships. Unstable docked hulls will in many cases get your designs banned from servers and you ships deleted without warning, even if the technology is generally permitted in your galactic cluster.  It is highly suggested that you consult with an experienced designer of modular hulls before attempting your own design to make sure that your ideas will be stable and effective.

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There are a few destict classifications of Modular Hulls; some of which are known to be more taboo than others.

### Wrapped-Hull

This is generally considered the most unstable form of modular hull and will almost always be seen as contraband technology.  This kind of hull is a single docked entity the wraps around your entire ship, or large portions of a ship in such a way that if it were to become detached, the inner portion of your ship would ricochet around inside of it causing massive lag spikes.  This method was frequently experimented with early on in the Modular Hull arms race but most major factions have abandoned this ill-advised practice in favor of Layered, Spaced, or other forms of Modular Hull.

### Docked-Plate

This is a more commonly implemented form of Modular hull.  This kind of armor uses separate "plates" that encase a ship from several angles such as to resemble a normal hull.  However, in this configuration, the plates are designed to fall away if they become overheated or detached.  Docked plates require skillful engineering when paired with turrets since this can cause the same detrimental flaws as a wrapped hull if not handled appropriately.  Confirmed stable versions of this method are frequently used by various Odium Pact factions, Knights Belligerent, and MercDragon; however, it is suspected that most major factions are now using this technology on at least some of their warships.

### Projected Shields

This kind of modular hull is typically situated floating in front of your ship so as to not collide at all with your ships fixed hull.  It is often made from non-physical blocks, door blocks, or force fields so as not to interfere with docking or camera views.  This is typically considered the most stable form of modular hull since it does not overlap its bounding box with your ship.  The most notable implementation of this was the Thryn Wave Shield. While projected shields largely fell out of favor following the fall of the Thryn Monarchy, there have been a large number of factions adopting this practice as of late 2317 including Trinova Technologies, the Dominion, Sentinel, and many others.