I'm not saying armor is useless I'm saying that it's irrelevant, the almost non exsistant benefit of protection to subsystems does not on its own justify the cost and weight. If the enemy isn't only shooting your powerplant yeah it's a good idea I agree armor in that instance has great effect. But holding your fire and attacking only the powerplant renders it irrelevant.
Sure, that'd be a valid reason if the person getting shot was sitting still or running in a straight line the whole time, almost all the ships' broadsides are low profile, and the engines do maintain a benefit from armor which are already stronger than a power plant for starters, you'd blow the ship up before you'd ever destroy the engine if they had lightweight armor, countless engagements have lead to that conclusion, from not just me, but i believe all of the players, only engines that would be destroyed before ship is an anacondas which i have no idea why you would waste the effort in destroying those when it 90% of the time has turrets on the side mounts.
Edit: the lower the ships hull, the more damage subsystems take, powerplants take increased damage the more the hull dissipates, armor protects every subsystem, less so to engines, sensors, cargo hatch and canopy.
In order from modules you SHOULD shoot first if you're trying to destroy a ship is as follows:
FSD takes most damage but is in a hard place to hit, only from the top can it be breached and in a smaller hit box, damaging it it ensures the target won't escape though as it will have a very long charge up time at 50% health and will keep powering off during charge up, destroying it just kills the ship like the power plant, it's most favorable for me to destroy as most all ships try keep you in sight and prefer exposing the tops of their ships to keep that sight, also as this is the fastest turn point, it is the most likely place you will be seeing during an engagement, even on AI.
Power Plant is next in line can be damaged from all sides depending on how much damage you have dealt to the hull is where you can hit it from, but has a greater benefit as thrusters, cargo hatch, shield generator life support and sensors are all default set to priority number 2 on most ships, each are different however, but this makes it more favorable to target, the more damage it takes, the more things stop working making it easier, though it can first be shot from beneath the ship, until about 60% hull, it can be shot from top, and 30% from sides.
Power Distributor is second last but not worth going for as it would only slow down the ship if damaged and still destroys the ship if destroyed, or used to anyway, i think it was patched last patch, it's on the opposite side of the FSD, also hard to hit
Shield Generator is the least favorite pick as it doesn't do much in terms of shutting things down, haven't destroyed a ship doing this one as the ship has exploded before i have gotten it past 50% on even anaconda's, it's in a really hard place to hit, behind the power plant under the heat vents.
