Armor parameters, need your opinion

[KA3NMNP]

Hello everyone, I’m currently developing a mod that adds simple types of armor as opposed to expensive and bulky vanilla ones. To start, I made these chestplates and greaves. The question is, what parameters would be correct for these types of armor? I’m thinking of taking the parameters of brigantine armor as a basis, because these are also essentially hung metal plates. But through what parameter can we correctly express similar strength, but a much smaller coverage area?

[Streetwind]

Whenever a player is hit, there's a diceroll that determines which of the three armor zones (head, body, legs) is selected. After a zone is selected, then that zone's armor protection comes into play: first the flat reduction, then the percentage reduction.

There's no check in there whether the armor of a zone applies or not. Therefore, you cannot model reduced coverage, where sometimes you get the benefit of armor, and sometimes not. The only stats you have to play around with are flat and percentage-wise damage reduction.

[KA3NMNP]

Yes, i know. That is the question of how to set these parameters. I was thinking about the option of proceeding from the metal consumption, that is, the less metal in the recipe, reduce the parameters by that much.

[Streetwind]

That's a sensible first step, but consider that there are armors that do not consume metal at all. You need to balance against those as well.

I'd say, try to fit them into gameplay niches.

For example: it is generally accepted that (1) the improvised armor should always be worn from day one until you have something better; (2) wood lamellar is a waste of resources; (3) copper anything is an emergency solution and you should probably pick the cheapest recipe, meaning lamellar; (4) bronze lamellar is the first good option for cave exploration; (5) iron chain is the logical upgrade once available; (6) you should try and find a set of blackguard or forlorn hope armor for endgame; (7) nobody ever uses scale armor; (8) steel plate if you want to be the frontliner in multiplayer.

The reason for this progression is that (1) the improvised rmor has zero downsides and costs almost nothing; (2) wood lamellar is pretty much the same stats as improvised, except more expensive and with downsides, and its higher durability doesn't matter at all because it is defense tier 0 and thus will get torn to shreds in a small number of hits anyway; (3) copper is defense tier 1 and still gets torn to shreds rapidly by all animals and most drifters; (4) bronze is defense tier 2 and thus will hold up against all animals except bears, and three out of five drifter types, making it the first armor you can actually wear for an adventure and expect it to still exist when you return home; you pick lamellar because it is the only armor type that doesn't need leatherworking established, and durability on that set should last until you can upgrade to iron; (5) iron is defense tier 3 and thus covers bears, all locusts, and all drifters except nightmares, and additionally chain has low downsides and is very low effort to make with a helvehammer, so replacing this armor is quick and easy; (6) the relic armors give you almost-steel stats for iron repair costs, making them a no-brainer; (7) making scales is just about the most annoying and tedious thing you can imagine doing on an anvil, and the armor you get in return has high downsides; (8) plate mail has extremely high downsides, and as a single player you are limited in your DPS output; even if you can tank a million hits, you will probably end up eating hit after hit because you can't avoid enemies and it takes you ages to kill everything that swarms you, and thus this armor is improved by having friends that can supply extra DPS from afar.

Additionally, there are the nonmetal armors. Leather is your zero-downsides, every day armor that you have on when you don't expect to be fighting, but still don't want to be completely unarmored. Tailored gambeson covers the same niche but better (tier 2 instead of 1), in return for some minor downsides, and the fact that it's a class-exclusive recipe (though tbh most players disable that feature anyway even though it's technically cheating). Normal gambeson has more downsides, but still not too much; it is certainly still better than anything bronze. The reason you go for bronze anyway early-on is because flax tends to be the more valuable commodity during your first six months of a playthrough. Later-on, after your windmill is up and running, you definitely would choose gambeson over bronze every time.

So where do your armors fit in with this?

You'll notice that the only metal armors that are considered "efficient" to use in the first place are lamellar and chain. Both of those are considered that because they are the cheapest and fastest option. If you make options that are even cheaper, chances are your options will be preferred (and doubly so if your armors have fewer downsides due to being lighter), unless you downgrade the stats a lot. Remember, defense tier is more important than durability or damage reduction; due to how the armor system of the game works, you will choose tin bronze lamellar (-0.6/77%, 600 durability) over copper chain (-1.1/80%, 600 durability) every time, even though chain has lower downsides on top of its better stats. You'd make this choice even if both cost the exact same amount of resources. Having defense tier 2+ is especially important due to just how many creatures in the game are at attack tier 2, so players tend to beeline for the quickest way to get tier 2 anything, no matter the stats.

Of course, all of the above counts mainly for a resource limited scenario, and the pursuit of "optimal play". If you're at a point where you have more metal than you know what to do with, or if you like the look of certain armors more than others, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with going for brigandine or scale or whatever else you might prefer. But that kind of usage is not useful for defining balance.

So, ask yourself the following bonus questions about your armors: (1) Does it require leatherworking? If no, it must compete with lamellar and gambeson only. If yes, it must be balanced against everything. (2) Aside from just considering raw material cost, how much player effort is it to craft them? Using metal plates and chain could be considered low effort if the armor is meant for lategame use, due to the helvehammer, but before that point, asking players to manually smith chain or scales is liable to make them run for the hills.

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by Streetwind

[KA3NMNP]

Yes, this is an interesting thought. According to the recipe, I have so far settled on two plates and a leather strap or rope. This is for all base metals from copper to steel. With the given parameters, the protection comes out to be approximately the same as a gambeson or slightly better than copper lamellar. But it also costs much less than vanilla armor.

Edited December 17, 2023 by KA3NMNP