armor Additional armour placements and coal protection

[Shaun]

Firstly, I’m unsure about how the game’s armouring is placed. I am unsure whether the deck and extended deck are the upper deck or lower deck above the citadel, but either way I think it’s important to differentiate the two.

I’d like to propose two new armour placements:

1. Citadel deck: the deck directly above the citadel. Tended to be thicker than the upper deck, which was also armoured on armoured cruisers and battleships.

2. Citadel slopes: diagonal armoured slopes from citadel deck to base of belt armour. They were mostly below the waterline, thus offering better protection without the need of a belt.

These two placements would allow for differentiation of true armoured cruisers and true protected cruisers; the later lacking in belt armour completely. Both would allow for better protection of boilers, which seem to be rather vulnerable in the alpha despite a thick belt. They wouldn’t be available to destroyers or torpedo boats, or alternatively remove belt armour from destroyers while allowing for a lightly armoured citadel, as seen in later classes.

Heres two diagrams from Wikipedia:

 

Armoured cruisers layout:

- In game, the deck becomes the upper deck, shown in thin red.

- The citadel deck is the deck directly above the citadel. Often thicker than upper deck, sometimes not as thick as slopes.

- The citadel slopes are the diagonal slopes and would by default be thicker than decks but not as thick as belt.

 

Protected cruiser layout:

- Citadel slopes and deck armoured.

- No belt or upper deck armour.

Hopefully this setup would allow players to keep their cruisers light and fast while still having a protected citadel with thinner armour. This is all down to player preference of course. Could also address the weight issues I currently see which is cruisers being far heavier than in real life, sometimes twice the weight.

In both diagrams, the areas shown in grey are coal bunkers. It would be nice to simulate the added protection by allowing coal (and semi-oil to a lesser extent) to improve belt armour and citadel armour, and/or reduce penetration damage. This could scale with range/amount of coal on board. It would also reduce flooding in areas where coal is stored.

Edited October 15, 2019 by Shaun

[Niomedes]

The different citadel types should really reflect this, and they don't at the moment.