Weird mechanic or bug late game absorbing armour?

[rustyj]

This issue has occurred every Very Hard game when facing an empire of equal or higher strength late game which could be linked to Absorbing Armour. I attacked a small group of frigates - each with value of around 4,000 (from memory) with three separate fleets of total health 180,000, and the almost unplayable lag aside, I could not destroy a single frigate.

Both sides had similar loadouts, except I had hyperdeny, so the frigates could not get away. I even loaded the best gravitic weapons which have armour bypass. What happens is that the frigates are instantly stripped of shields down to bare armour, but no further. Three fleets can sit there hammering a single frigate for 5 minutes and not get the frigate below 100% armour health. Armour health does not budge.

A similar scenario plays out with space stations and defensive bases. They are stripped down to 100% armour health but cannot be destroyed. However if I then bombard the planet and depopulate it, almost immediately the bases are destroyed.

I first thought the issue was linked to the planet's defences, since the bases are immediately destroyed when the planet is depopulated, but enemy ships around the planet still cannot be destroyed, and a similar thing occurs around planets with next to no defenses. When I had similar problems attacking fleets well away from the planet I put the issue down to the absorbing armour.

The funny thing is my fleets were taking an extraordinary amount of damage, despite also having absorbing armour. So it seems there is an issue with the absorbing armour on AI fleets.

Can anyone shed some light on this issue. Is it a bug, or a mechanic I don't understand? It is game breaking when a massive fleet is maxed out in weaponry and is taken apart by a small flotilla of frigates.

[zgrssd]

Your weapon have Armor Bypass.

They skip the armor - leaving it untouched - and should deal damage straight to the interior components. And it is only the interior health that should count for destruction.

[zgrssd]

Well, a small correction:
Disabling the interior components with intact armor could result in the ship becoming a unowned derelict. Like the ones you find floating in space at gamestart.

I honestly never tried what happens if I only damage shield and interior components.

[rustyj]

Perhaps I didn't explain the issue well enough. The small enemy fleets were not being disabled. Internal components were not being destroyed, even with bypass. Irrespective of whether bypass was working (which it didn't seem to be) my 2 late game fleets (800,000 strength) were sitting there hammering a single ship (20,000) with self repairing swarm missiles for five minutes. Because I also had hyperdeny the enemy ship couldn't get away. It's shield went in a microsecond, yet there was not the slightest armour damage.

I had the same armour classes as the small fleet, yet only my ships were being destroyed. This should not be possible.

The same thing was happening with space stations. 2 late game fleets should have shredded the stations in seconds no matters how much armor they had.

I have had several games that this has happened. It's as if self absorbing armour is indestructible for other factions but not for me.

[MaximKI]

Perhaps I didn't explain the issue well enough. The small enemy fleets were not being disabled. Internal components were not being destroyed, even with bypass. Irrespective of whether bypass was working (which it didn't seem to be) my 2 late game fleets (800,000 strength) were sitting there hammering a single ship (20,000) with self repairing swarm missiles for five minutes. Because I also had hyperdeny the enemy ship couldn't get away. It's shield went in a microsecond, yet there was not the slightest armour damage.

I had the same armour classes as the small fleet, yet only my ships were being destroyed. This should not be possible.

The same thing was happening with space stations. 2 late game fleets should have shredded the stations in seconds no matters how much armor they had.

I have had several games that this has happened. It's as if self absorbing armour is indestructible for other factions but not for me.

Hello rustyj, could you please provide a save file that shows what you're observing?

[StormingKiwi]

Is MaximKI staff without flare?

[thegreybetween]

Is MaximKI staff without flare?

They are the same person posting the official Beta version changelog posts pinned above (since around V1.0.8.X), so I assume that they are. Agreed that some flair is in order.

[zgrssd]

Perhaps I didn't explain the issue well enough. The small enemy fleets were not being disabled. Internal components were not being destroyed, even with bypass. Irrespective of whether bypass was working (which it didn't seem to be) my 2 late game fleets (800,000 strength) were sitting there hammering a single ship (20,000) with self repairing swarm missiles for five minutes. Because I also had hyperdeny the enemy ship couldn't get away. It's shield went in a microsecond, yet there was not the slightest armour damage.

I had the same armour classes as the small fleet, yet only my ships were being destroyed. This should not be possible.

The same thing was happening with space stations. 2 late game fleets should have shredded the stations in seconds no matters how much armor they had.

I have had several games that this has happened. It's as if self absorbing armour is indestructible for other factions but not for me.

You could try Steams File verification and/or deleting the settings files used (stored in a separate folder).

If the issue persists, you might have found a genuine bug. If it doesn't, the bug was only in your damaged files

[rustyj]

Hello rustyj, could you please provide a save file that shows what you're observing?

@MaximKI only just noticed your post. Unfortunately I don't have a save, given the time elapsed. Plus I wasn't sure whether or not I had done something silly as I couldn't believe I was the only one experiencing these issues if it was a bug. I will try to replicate.