I think we need to compare the old shields with the current armor.
The Old shields were compared directly to range. As in, (Range-shield)/Range As chance to hit, with minimum of 5%. That is probably not the equation, but close enough to show what it did.
~Essentially, it was seen as matching the attack's frequency, to nullify it. Faster moving attacks (Higher range) give less time for the shield to calculate the frequency and match it. Stronger shields, however, don't need nearly as close a match, and so tend to ignore even longer ranged attacks, unless they close range. (Sniper being instant, due to infinite range, ignores shields entirely)
The effect of this is that closing distance reduces shield's effect. Building turrets closer to a wormhole helped. And no matter how much or how little damage an attack did, it would scale up or down with distance and shielding, and NOTICEABLY. (Unless sniper or equivalent)
This also paired up certain traits. Damage to Health (Tier Multiplied, but cancels). Range to Shielding. Now, however, Range has this artificial, patchy Radar dampening (which keeps getting added to tons of structures, because range mitigation is NEEDED), and Damage , armor, Health, and Tiers, which is four variables, 6 total. No wonder it is so hard to balance.
Radar dampening is essentially a replacement for old shields, which used to force ships to get closer anyway, but without as much of a hard limit. Your chance to hit (which could have translated straight into damage reduction at distance) scaled from 5%, until you hit a threshhold (based on target's shield) and increased up to 100% as you approach. Hence most ships were essentially radar dampened, but it wasn't absolute, and snipers still ignored.
~Space tanks had 30k shielding, which was what made them special. 95% of most attacks would just bounce right off, and only the really long ranged attacks would go through.
The current Armor, on the otherhand, compares to damage. Damage - Armor, minimum of 20%. Aside from a different minimum, Damage fluxuates insanely in comparison to range, and in more cases, too.
Damage, first of all, Varies a lot. Bigger ships tend to have more damage. Some ships have more damage anyway, with a longer cooldown to match. HIGHER TIER ships have more damage.
Now, higher tier ships also have more Armor, but attacks from lower tiers to higher tiers tend to be highly mitigated, and higher to lower are super effective. Hence armor only really applies at matched tiers, and then only for comparable ships anyway. Its a chaotic mess, because of how many variables you have to manage.
The solution, to me at least, seems obvious. Or at least part of the solution. Reduce complexity. Exclude Tiers from the Calculations.
All Tiers of ships, I to V, have the same level of armor. However, on taking a hit, multiply the armor by the tier of the ATTACKER, and negate that much damage. (down to 20%, or, preferably, 5%)
I think the effects of this, should be obvious. No matter what tier matches you have, the effects of armor will be the same. Like the old shields, Armor will not care about ship tier. Hence, only damage and armor will be part of the equation, and tier won't invalidate it 80% of the time.
It is feasible, to totally rip off the old shield equation instead. (Rename armor to Deflectors. Not gonna be confused with Shields&Forcefields, both being common bubble names)
(Range-Deflectors)/Range = Coef . Then, we can either A, Use Coef as chance to hit, or B, Deal Coef * Damage. Either way, we win, as it lets us drop the rigid Radar Dampening, and replace armor with it, like before, and, takes us from 4 variables messing with damage, to only 2, like before.
The Question here, is whether or not we want a Random Factor. I seem to recall someone saying that the Random factor was why we got rid of Shielding. (It might have been name confusion however, which is easily mitigated with keeping Armor, or using Deflectors)
I can understand why the mechanic seemed too Random, in some cases. In the case of Heavy, slow attacks, from singular units (Golems? Did they exist back then?), Massed fire, with hundreds or thousands of shots, would tend to average out FAST.
Regardless, it had something else VERY important: Visibility. Every time a space tank took a shell, it had a little green gem to the side moving up. And it took no damage. And you could easily alter the relation between range and shield by approaching the target, see the % chance to hit by mousing over, and mitigate it that way. That was fine, and understandable. And tanks were terrifying unless you unlocked snipers... (Or I was just bad at the game. High likelyhood, admittedly)
However, If the Random Factor is Really THAT BAD, it is Easy to make it a simple Scalar, and just reduce damage linearly. Admittedly, you must then recalculate damage dealt relatively often as you close distance, but showing the mult next to the target, instead of damage, may be advisable... (Actually, this needs a different suggestion, applicable immediately)
So, In conclusion. A Is my first choice, B my Second, C my Third.
Current:
~Range, Radar Dampening~ Interaction
~Damage, Tier, Armor, Health~ Interaction
A:
-Remove Armor from damage Equation. Damage * Mult -> Health.
-Projectiles, on Impact, have a ("Distance Between Ships" - "Target Armor") / ("Attacker Range") Chance to Hit. Else show the highly visible Green pulse effect.
-Display, with selection, while hovering over a target, Minimum and Maxium chances to hit. (possible average and median as well)
-Armor Renamed to deflector (optional)
~Has Random Factor.
~Armor effects Highly Visible
~Range, Armor~ Interaction
~Damage, Health~ Interaction
B:
-Alter Damage Equation to (("Distance Between Ships" - "Target Armor") / ("Attacker Range")) * Damage * Mult -> Health.
-Display, with selection, while hovering over a target, Minimum and Maxium Range Mult. (possible average and median as well)
-Armor Renamed to deflector (optional)
~NO RANDOM FACTOR
~Armor effects Highly Visible
~Range, Armor~ Interaction
~Damage, Health~ Interaction
C:
-Reduce Armor on all ships to T1 Values
-Multiply armor by Attacker's tier
-Reduce 20% minimum to 5% minimum
~NO RANDOM FACTOR
~Range, Radar Dampening~ Interaction
~Damage, Armor, Health~ Interaction
