There's no need for armor to have a 'health pool', or be depleted as currently planned. Instead, go with a system like this: The chart says it all, but here's some caveats: Ships classified as "heavily armored" go up one tier on the chart from their normal size class/position (i.e. valkyrie, andromeda, perseus) Ships classified as "lightly armored" go down one tier on the chart from their normal size class/position (i.e. 300 series, most drake ships, the polaris) Cannon type weapons count as 1 size higher for armor penetration/damage Scattergun type weapons count as 1 size lower for armor penetration/damage Only weapons which meet "0% damage reduction" fields can fully penetrate hull and damage internal components, anything reduced by 25% or more from armor cannot damage internal components as it lacks the penetration value to fully pass through the hull, and just causes hull damage instead. Beyond this, there should be 3 specific types of "ship death": Soft Death (Disabled): The norm, what happens most of the time. This occurs when a ship loses power due to powerplants being destroyed. Fractured (Hull Death): when all "vital" parts of a ship's hull have their HP reduced to 0, the ship 'fractures' apart, much like how they do when using the fracturing mode in salvaging. Ship doesn't explode, but is effectively dead and unrecoverable. Catastrophic (Explosive Death): ONLY occurs when using self destruct, or when a missile/torpedo/bomb directly hits and destroys a ship's powerplant(s). Not caused when powerplants are destroyed by ballistic/energy weapon damage that penetrates armor, or by component destruction from distortion weapons. Distortion Weapons & Fuses Distortion weapons, when shields are down, should cause zero damage to a ship's hull, but instead spread damage to nearby components. If those components are protected by a fuse, the distortion damage first has to destroy the fuse (And fuses should have higher HP values to soak up a bit of distortion damage first) before it can damage the component. Replacing fuses restores this protection to the components. In this system, distortion weapons become the ideal way to 'soft kill' a ship without actually damaging it (preferred for law enforcement or piracy/stolen ship recovery), but can be countered by engineers/crew replacing fuses and repairing components by hand. Fires Fires should only occur in two situations: Component overheat due to hull being impacted by energy weapons, or coolers being damaged/disabled A chance on component destruction via direct weapon damage to spark a fire. Fires should be rare, but dangerous: Causing damage to nearby components, injuring/incapacitating crew, and potentially detonating munitions if the fire spreads to them. Fires should not be able to exist in zero atmosphere - venting the ship manually, or suffering enough hull damage for breaches, should extinguish any fires connected to the breach or open airlock/door/ramp. Shields Shield recovery/regeneration continues under fire, unless damaged by distortion weapons. If shield HP reaches zero, recovery/regeneration is temporarily paused while the shield reboots Shields should reduce ballistic damage by 50% while active, but ballistics do zero damage to shield HP Shields should reduce energy damage by 100% while active, but that damage is dealt to the shield's HP Shields take 100% increased damage from distortion weapons, and distortion weapons pause shield regeneration/recovery Shields take 50% damage from explosives (missiles, torpedoes, bombs) while allowing 50% to pass through These changes enforce the use of multiple weapon types on single ships (distortion for shield recovery/component damage, ballistics for penetration, lasers for overheating or dropping shields), and for squadrons to vary their weapon loadouts to compliment one another.