ReGristy Posted February 25, 2025 Report Posted February 25, 2025 (edited) I thought that now that we have sturdy leather we should have a armor that’s based on this, we already have gambeson (linen armor) and leather armor. This is what chat gpt came up with and I thought why not post it here. There is multiple things I think should be changed with this suggestion but as a base idea I think it’s good. last thing is I also asked if you a suggestion on airships that’s why it also talked about that… Brigandine Armor – Late-Game Leather Reinforced Armor Summary Hardened Brigandine is a high-tier late-game armor, crafted by layering sturdy leather and reinforcing it with steel rivets, linen fabric, and glue. It offers strong protection against slashing and blunt attacks while remaining lighter than plate armor, making it ideal for agile fighters and airship crews. Why This Armor? Provides a midpoint between leather and full plate armor, offering strong protection without full metal encasement. Uses sturdy leather, steel, glue, and linen, making it expensive and time-consuming to craft. Ties into existing mechanics like leatherworking, metalworking, and textile crafting, keeping them relevant in the late game. Crafting Process 1. Steel Rivets (For reinforcing the leather plates.) Materials: 1x Steel Ingot → 6 Steel Rivets Charcoal or Coal (to heat steel in a forge) Hammer + Anvil (or Metalworking Bench) Crafting Process: Heat a steel ingot in a forge. Work it on an anvil into 6 steel rivets per ingot. 2. Sturdy Leather Plates (Heavily reinforced leather sheets.) Materials (per plate): 4x Sturdy Leather 6x Steel Rivets 2x Glue Workbench + Smithing Hammer Crafting Process: Layer sturdy leather together. Use steel rivets to reinforce the structure. Seal with glue. Drying Time: 6-12 in-game hours (like leatherworking, to prevent instant crafting). 3. Hardened Brigandine Armor (Final Assembly) Torso (Brigandine Coat) 6x Sturdy Leather Plates (24 sturdy leather total!) 4x Linen Fabric 2x Flax Twine or Sinew Workbench + Tailoring Kit Legs (Brigandine Leggings) 4x Sturdy Leather Plates (16 sturdy leather total!) 3x Linen Fabric 2x Flax Twine or Sinew Workbench + Tailoring Kit Helmet (Brigandine Coif) 3x Sturdy Leather Plates (12 sturdy leather total!) 2x Linen Fabric 1x Flax Twine or Sinew Workbench + Tailoring Kit Final Material Cost for Full Set: 32 Sturdy Leather (Comparable to 40 for 4 sturdy backpacks—very expensive!) 32 Steel Rivets (6 steel ingots required!) 12 Glue (Doubled glue cost → makes hunting and glue production more important!) 9 Linen Fabric (Keeps flax relevant!) 5 Flax Twine or Sinew (Extra crafting step to increase effort!) Balance & Justification ✔ Massive sturdy leather usage (ensures this is a late-game armor choice). ✔ Increased glue requirement (makes hunting and bone collection much more important). ✔ Steel rivet requirement keeps steel smelting relevant (late-game metal production). ✔ Drying time prevents instant crafting (forcing long-term planning like leatherworking). ✔ More expensive than sturdy backpacks, meaning it's a serious commitment to craft. Why It Fits Vintage Story’s Progression Uses existing mechanics (glue, sturdy leather, metalworking, linen) to fit naturally into the game. More expensive than Leather Armor but more flexible than full plate, creating a viable alternative armor set. Reinforces late-game material loops (flax farming, steel production, and hunting for glue). Drying time forces long-term investment, making it more rewarding when completed. Conclusion Hardened Brigandine would be a perfect addition to Vintage Story’s late-game crafting. It fits naturally into existing mechanics, adds a unique armor alternative, and makes sturdy leather, glue, and steel more valuable in the late game. Would love to hear feedback on balance and possible tweaks! Edited January 10 by ReGristy
LadyWYT Posted February 25, 2025 Report Posted February 25, 2025 (edited) Leather armor is really more of a fantasy thing; Vintage Story goes for a more realistic approach. You can harden leather, yes, but it's never going to offer the same level of protection as metal armor. In many cases, weapons will go right through it, whereas metal is very effective at stopping or heavily mitigating most weapon strikes. What I would do, is make the ingredients MUCH cheaper, like on par with the mid-tier bronze kind of cheap, and keep the high leather cost(basic leather, not sturdy). The idea is that the armor set can function as a mid-tier armor set roughly on par with gambeson, so not amazing protection, but decent enough to use if one doesn't want to sink the resources into metal armor and wants to save flax for other projects. Or, just keep the leather sets we already have, but let players dye them different colors. Then leather stays relevant as a fashion choice that also happens to offer some basic protection without much penalty. Edit: To clarify, a leather steampunk armor set would be really cool, but I think that's best left to modding territory, as it doesn't really fit the base game. For a steampunk armor that fits the base game, I would utilize cupronickel alloy and a lot of Jonas tech to make a sort of power suit, if anything. Edited February 25, 2025 by LadyWYT 3
Teh Pizza Lady Posted February 25, 2025 Report Posted February 25, 2025 I stopped reading when you said chat gpt leather armor is actually pretty weak. If you want high-tier late game protection that uses leather, make steel and use it to make steel brigandine armor. 3
Michael Gates Posted February 26, 2025 Report Posted February 26, 2025 I've been thinking it would be neat to have a sturdy-leather armor, because right now you've got a very limited use for the stuff. Four hefty backpacks is Enough Space even for mining, so you kill six bears and you're basically done with all this fun chemistry forever. I would like to have enough uses for the chemistry to start producing alchemical glassware to make it more efficiently-- who doesn't want An Laboratory in the half-ruined tower on the castle? Maybe some specimens in jars for appearances. Given that we HAVE leather, it'd make sense to call the sturdy version "studded leather," because it all comes from D&D anyway. And that lets it be a kind of minor upgrade-- bump up the protection by 5%/0.25 fixed and +1 tier, leave the no-drawbacks so it lives in the same niche. You can SAY it's better, but really you're just being Fancy. In accordance with that it should also LOOK Fancy, like how meteoric plate has the gold trim. The studded should have some obvious "HEY I'M DRIVING A CYBERTRUCK" thing about it. And now I'm imagining a whole armor set made of cybertruck-ish panels, and this is SO completely wrong. Maybe don't do that part.
Teh Pizza Lady Posted February 26, 2025 Report Posted February 26, 2025 25 minutes ago, Michael Gates said: Four hefty backpacks is Enough Space even for mining, so you kill six bears and you're basically done with all this fun chemistry forever. 26 minutes ago, Michael Gates said: Given that we HAVE leather, it'd make sense to call the sturdy version "studded leather," because it all comes from D&D anyway. And that lets it be a kind of minor upgrade-- bump up the protection by 5%/0.25 fixed and +1 tier, leave the no-drawbacks so it lives in the same niche. You can SAY it's better, but really you're just being Fancy. I like this.
DUCATISLO Posted March 1, 2025 Report Posted March 1, 2025 On 2/26/2025 at 12:29 AM, LadyWYT said: Leather armor is really more of a fantasy thing and in most of the cases it looks like shit and nothing to what we had irl like give me a buff coat for once ffs
Medved7 Posted March 3, 2025 Report Posted March 3, 2025 On 2/26/2025 at 1:02 AM, ReGristy said: I thought that now that we have sturdy leather we should have a armor that’s based on this, we already have gambeson (linen armor) and leather armor. This is what chat gpt came up with and I thought why not post it here. There is multiple things I think should be changed with this suggestion but as a base idea I think it’s good. last thing is I also asked if you a suggestion on airships that’s why it also talked about that… Brigandine Armor – Late-Game Leather Reinforced Armor Summary Hardened Brigandine is a high-tier late-game armor, crafted by layering sturdy leather and reinforcing it with steel rivets, linen fabric, and glue. It offers strong protection against slashing and blunt attacks while remaining lighter than plate armor, making it ideal for agile fighters and airship crews. Why This Armor? Provides a midpoint between leather and full plate armor, offering strong protection without full metal encasement. Uses sturdy leather, steel, glue, and linen, making it expensive and time-consuming to craft. Ties into existing mechanics like leatherworking, metalworking, and textile crafting, keeping them relevant in the late game. Crafting Process 1. Steel Rivets (For reinforcing the leather plates.) Materials: 1x Steel Ingot → 6 Steel Rivets Charcoal or Coal (to heat steel in a forge) Hammer + Anvil (or Metalworking Bench) Crafting Process: Heat a steel ingot in a forge. Work it on an anvil into 6 steel rivets per ingot. 2. Sturdy Leather Plates (Heavily reinforced leather sheets.) Materials (per plate): 4x Sturdy Leather 6x Steel Rivets 2x Glue Workbench + Smithing Hammer Crafting Process: Layer sturdy leather together. Use steel rivets to reinforce the structure. Seal with glue. Drying Time: 6-12 in-game hours (like leatherworking, to prevent instant crafting). 3. Hardened Brigandine Armor (Final Assembly) Torso (Brigandine Coat) 6x Sturdy Leather Plates (24 sturdy leather total!) 4x Linen Fabric 2x Flax Twine or Sinew Workbench + Tailoring Kit Legs (Brigandine Leggings) 4x Sturdy Leather Plates (16 sturdy leather total!) 3x Linen Fabric 2x Flax Twine or Sinew Workbench + Tailoring Kit Helmet (Brigandine Coif) 3x Sturdy Leather Plates (12 sturdy leather total!) 2x Linen Fabric 1x Flax Twine or Sinew Workbench + Tailoring Kit Final Material Cost for Full Set: 32 Sturdy Leather (Comparable to 40 for 4 sturdy backpacks—very expensive!) 32 Steel Rivets (6 steel ingots required!) 12 Glue (Doubled glue cost → makes hunting and glue production more important!) 9 Linen Fabric (Keeps flax relevant!) 5 Flax Twine or Sinew (Extra crafting step to increase effort!) Balance & Justification ✔ Massive sturdy leather usage (ensures this is a late-game armor choice). ✔ Increased glue requirement (makes hunting and bone collection much more important). ✔ Steel rivet requirement keeps steel smelting relevant (late-game metal production). ✔ Drying time prevents instant crafting (forcing long-term planning like leatherworking). ✔ More expensive than sturdy backpacks, meaning it's a serious commitment to craft. Why It Fits Vintage Story’s Progression Uses existing mechanics (glue, sturdy leather, metalworking, linen) to fit naturally into the game. More expensive than Leather Armor but more flexible than full plate, creating a viable alternative armor set. Reinforces late-game material loops (flax farming, steel production, and hunting for glue). Drying time forces long-term investment, making it more rewarding when completed. Conclusion Hardened Brigandine would be a perfect addition to Vintage Story’s late-game crafting. It fits naturally into existing mechanics, adds a unique armor alternative, and makes sturdy leather, glue, and steel more valuable in the late game. Would love to hear feedback on balance and possible tweaks! Steel armor can be made after a week of playing.
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