Does Alien armor actually do anything?

Ansom

Does it or is it merely extra health with a fancy title? If so, they should just get rid of it and make it flat health. I always wonder while I'm sitting on a Hive regenerating if that huge orange chunk is different than the rest.

Idleray

Yea it counts as 2 normal hp to most marine weapons but to some things, like the exo Mini-gun it counts as only 1 hp. It only takes (off the top of my head) 70% of the total damage you take.

Ansom

That's odd. I mean, I know armor is nothing more than effective HP, but it makes sense from an aesthetic point for the Marines, so I have no problem with it there. But for Aliens? Eh.

Hessian

<!--quoteo(post=2019696:date=Nov 11 2012, 11:24 AM:name=Ansom)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Ansom @ Nov 11 2012, 11:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2019696"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Does it or is it merely extra health with a fancy title? If so, they should just get rid of it and make it flat health. I always wonder while I'm sitting on a Hive regenerating if that huge orange chunk is different than the rest.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's basically superextra health. I believe 1 point of armor basically absorbs additional damage depending on the damage type.

<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/index.php/Armor" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/index.php/Armor</a>

Typhon

Yeah, it isn't quite as simple as extra health because different damage types regard armor points as different values. Normal treats it as 2hp, heavy treats it as 1hp, light treats it as 4hp.

antacid

As typhon stated, there are different damage "types" for different weapons. Such as heavy, normal and light.

Armour gives different resistance to different damage types.

Heavy - Think Exo
Normal - Think LMG
Light - Think welder.

__Viking

Actually the welder is flame damage.

From the tests that I've performed, if you have armor, 70% of incoming damage is taken to the armor and only 30% to your health directly.

What others have said regarding damage types is correct. To further clarify I will use an example:

You are a gorge with the carapace upgrade and you take all of a single shotgun blast without upgrades. The shotgun deals 17 damage per projectile, and fires 10 per shot, for a total of 170 damage. This damage is divided into 119=170*0.7 to armor and 51=170*0.3 to health. Because the shotgun deals *normal* damage, each point of armor absorbs 2 damage. This means that the incoming 119 damage is mitigated to 59.5 damage toward your armor.

In summary:

<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->Gorge Health: 150
Gorge Armor:  150

Shotgun blast: 170
Damage to Health: 170*0.3 = 51
Damage to Armor:  170*0.7 = 119
Damage reduction for type normal: 119/2 = 59.5

Gorge Final Health:  150-51 = 99
Gorge Final Armor: 150-59.5 = 91   //you can't have half a hitpoint<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

Also, a note on armor for aliens 'not making sense', read this: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoskeleton" target="_blank">Exoskeleton</a>

Zek

Damage types aside, the main purpose of armor for aliens is that it's better than health but it only regenerates after health is full. It prevents them from being able to stay in combat indefinitely with healing support since armor generally doesn't get healed at all until they return to safety.

Soulfighter

Why people never check the wiki ? there are so many easly accessible informations there that would make every single game much more enjoyable.

Underwhelmed

<!--quoteo(post=2020489:date=Nov 12 2012, 01:21 AM:name=Zek)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zek @ Nov 12 2012, 01:21 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2020489"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Damage types aside, the main purpose of armor for aliens is that it's better than health but it only regenerates after health is full. It prevents them from being able to stay in combat indefinitely with healing support since armor generally doesn't get healed at all until they return to safety.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Other way around. Armor is more effective but gets healed as the same rate as hp, so healing armor is more efficient than healing equivalent hp. By getting heals right as armor is depleted and before hp takes all of the damage, aliens can increase the tempo of their hit-and-run.