Engineers Is the Military / Mirrored / Reactive armor worth it?

[Herbrand]

Considering how powerful HRP / MRP are, does it make sense to pay for the improved hulls, or it's better to just Engineer the Lightweight Alloys?

Context: I'm preparing a heavily engineered Cutter for multicrew PvE, but I won't disdain using it for self-defence in PvP eventually.

 

[Nerwan]

Considering how powerful HRP / MRP are, does it make sense to pay for the improved hulls, or it's better to just Engineer the Lightweight Alloys?

Context: I'm preparing a heavily engineered Cutter for multicrew PvE, but I won't disdain using it for self-defence in PvP eventually.

You do have to consider optimal mass on the build.. for some builds speed and maneuvering can be more important than armor (the lightweight super-fast courier build springs to mind). However, I believe most people are still putting bulkheads on. I certainly do. Consider that reactive + thermal L5 can give you 30% resistances to all damage on it's own...

 

[StiTch]

Considering how powerful HRP / MRP are, does it make sense to pay for the improved hulls, or it's better to just Engineer the Lightweight Alloys?

Context: I'm preparing a heavily engineered Cutter for multicrew PvE, but I won't disdain using it for self-defence in PvP eventually.

MGC bulkheads have one advantage: fair beefing up of HP without taking a slot.

Which, in PvP, can be essential. I used to be VERY mass sensitive but engineered drives remove a lot of this concern. HRPs will always have the edge on the HP to Mass ratio, but if in practice you realistically are not losing much if any agility, then why not an additional 1200HP for engineered bulkheads on the iCutter?

I wouldn't really consider mirrored but depending on your resistance preferences reactive can also be quite appealing. I use them on my gunship to help it stop being overrun by pure kinetic builds and has a bonus resistance against missiles, so I feel more confident only running 1 PD and against the unmitigatable packhounds - IMO essential for something that is a hybrid tanking ship at best, so no reliance on shields to keep the explodies away.

Ofc as Nerwan says, will be situational. On my PE iCourier I wouldn't dare use anything but lightweight bulkheads, obvs modded for heavy duty.

Now in your case - for self defense - the iCutter really wants to rely on shields, speed and ability to avoid almost any masslock. Frankly most attackers are hard pressed to break through that, so if for self-defense on a trader, I might recommend say 6 shield boosters with some resistance ones in there and a couple of heat sinks so thermal shock has a hard time breaking you. But if you are happy to take the drop to jump range and want to be absolutely unbreakable the MGC/alternative bulkheads might suck for HP to mass ratio, but doesn't stop it being a big ol' HP you're getting there...

 

[Elyssaen]

The following is about answering the general question. I'd agree that it doesn't seem like it's worth it for a Cutter.

Considering how powerful HRP / MRP are, does it make sense to pay for the improved hulls, or it's better to just Engineer the Lightweight Alloys?

Context: I'm preparing a heavily engineered Cutter for multicrew PvE, but I won't disdain using it for self-defence in PvP eventually.

Hm, well, let me compare my Gunship Coriolis build (max engineering, Reactive Surface Composite with G5 Thermal Resistant) to a build that's exactly the same except for having a Lightweight Hull with G5 Heavy Duty.

Reactive Gunship will strip the armour of Lightweight Gunship in 47 sec.
Its armour will hold for 75 sec.

...yep, it's worth it. Especially considering that 75 sec is long enough to get my shield back online to 50%, which in this case is an extra 1400-ish effective shield, adding another 13 sec onto survivability, to bring it to 47 sec Lightweight vs 88 sec Reactive.

Effective armour is 2585 vs. 2074 against absolute damage, 4494 vs 2429 against explosive, 4794 vs 2834 against kinetic, and 4794 vs 3401 against thermal.

Downsides... speed/boost goes from 240/395 to 235/387, which doesn't bother me. Jump range from 19.7 down to 18.1, not too bad on a pure combat ship but would be a problem otherwise. Handling is mostly unchanged, though roll speed drops rom 113 to 111 degrees/sec.

Of course, if money is an issue at all, 84.4M and an extra 4M rebuy makes it not worth it.