balance Redistribute armor downsides to better match their protection and supposed weights

[Byrnorthil]

This suggestion is closely related to my previous one, but I believe they are separate complaints, and this one is less important, so I've listed them separately.

It's my understanding that the downsides of armor are supposed to represent weight and restriction of movement. So, even apart from any gameplay consideration, it is very strange to me that a chestpiece weighing 3-5x as much as your helmet gives exactly the same penalties. In the future perhaps the downsides could be more thoroughly separated (legs primarily restricting movespeed, helmets primarily affecting ranged capabilities, etc.), but I'm not asking for that. I'd simply like to see armor's downsides shifted around a bit to be more in line with the actual benefit each piece gives you. Not necessarily a 1:1 correspondence (would mean chestpieces would contain half of a set's downsides), but in such a way that I'm not strongly encouraged by the mechanics to run mixed armor sets. As the system works right now, it could be considered more or less optimal to always run something like lam-brig-lam or chain-plate-chain to get most of the benefit of bulkier armor without most of the downside.

 

Edited May 14 by Byrnorthil

[LadyWYT]

I've had similar thoughts, and the devs did tease potential armor changes in a recent interview, though what those changes might be who really knows. If a status effect system is imminent though, it would be a good time to take a look at armor, since the kind of protection that covers a slot could determine what kind of injuries the player might suffer. For example, the torso piece might be the most protective overall, and thus be attractive for the player to make first, but leaving the head slot empty could leave the player more at risk for "instant death" type injuries. Flipping it the other way around might mean the player equips a helmet to avoid "instant death", while suffering less serious body injuries. And of course, armor type matters too, with plate protecting players from most injury types entirely and lighter stuff like gambeson perhaps only turning more serious wounds into less serious ones.

[cjameshuff]

A related thought I've had is to reduce the speed penalty proportional to the health you've gained due to good diet. If you've built up muscle mass and energy reserves, it should be easier to wear armor. This would make nutrition and death more meaningful.