Size of alien alloy

Something I've been curious about. How big is one alloy, physically? It never made any sense to me that one set of wolf armor requires four, and some planes require ten. I mean, physically it would take many sets of armor to equal the size of a plane. So the armor is extremely dense and the plane is paper thin?

It's just kind of immersion breaking is all. I don't get why it takes almost half of a shot down light scout to make one set of armor. Getting enough materials from a scout to make a plane makes sense. But damaged or not, you shouldn't need to shoot down an entire fleet of ships just to make a squad's worth of armor or weapons.

I agree that there is a discrepancy in the amount of alloy needed.

In general planes do have a very thin skin, reduced weight makes it easier for aircraft to take off. Armor is usually only attached to vital areas on an aircraft. Body armor is different, currently many soldiers prefer not to use body armor because they prefer to have speed and maneuverability. Common body armor often has either thicker kevlar or plates on the front and back of the torso. Some armor has plates on the sides of the torso as well, but they are usually thinner and any type of plate limits flexibility. Full body armor like bomb suits (juggernaut suits if you prefer) are uncommon but sacrifice almost all speed and maneuverability for maximum protection.

If I remember correctly, the lore for one of the alien ships mentions that their skin is extremely thin. If that's right it gives some credibility to needing a significant amount for body armor. Body has to not only mitigate the force of the impact from the plasma bolt, but also be thick/heat resistant enough to keep from having a hole burned through it.

I'm a vet myself, I've worn those plates before. Good lord that stuff is heavy. However, that doesn't detract from the fact that one suit of armor wouldn't cover very much of an airplane, thin skin or not. I also believe the xenopedia mentions something on at least one plane of having thicker armor because it used the new alloy, which is lighter than what we currently use.

So if armor takes 4, these planes should require 20 or so. Small ships should have a heck of a lot more of it; not only is the outer hull made of the stuff, but I'd imagine the interior as well as everything in it

I just think these minimalist numbers that the game uses isn't an accurate realization. I don't know why they decided to go with smaller numbers, especially since resources were nowhere near as constrained in the original games. Hell, you could MAKE alien alloys back then. I'm sure this ability was intentionally left out, since again, the system is based on you not getting diddly for resources.

Well, on the extreme end, the A10 has armor that is over an inch thick in some parts. Some WWII aircraft such as the Hellcat or the B-17 also had a fairly significant amount of armor (over 100 lbs anyway).

Yup, it's just a gameplay conceit for balance purposes. If we had it set to realistic levels, the alloys required to equip your team with all the latest battlefield gear would be a rounding error compared to what you'd need to build a couple of interceptors, which rather trivialises the ground combat aspect.

I think of it in terms of wastage. Large items such as planes use alloys fairly efficiently because they alloys are rendered into large, fairly simply pieces. In contrast, making small items like weapons and armour requires refabricating the alloys into small components which results in the production of a lot of unusable/unrecyclable waste.