I've now been seeing some uncommon high tier armor in 1.2.0. In one of the battanian cities I saw some Noble northern armor (or whatever it's called - its the gold-trimmed stuff battanian lords wear) going for 40k.
This is great, but the problem with armor right now is that its basically pointless... it acts as a subtractive component in the damage equation. Instead it needs to offer % mitigation to be relevant.
This is great, but the problem with armor right now is that its basically pointless... it acts as a subtractive component in the damage equation. Instead it needs to offer % mitigation to be relevant.
- For example if I hit you in the chest for 150 damage [e.g. hit by a thrown javelin on horseback or hit by a polearm], and you're wearing that 40k armor which gives something like 42 damage mitigation, you're still getting (150dmg-42chest armor) ~108 damage to your chest. An instant kill. (its not purely 1:1 subtraction because of the force component, but it's near-enough)
- You still die, whether you wear that expensive noble armor or a 29 gold cloth tunic.
- For armor to be relevant it needs to offer % mitigation, rather than integer-based mitigation.
- E.g. that noble armor could offer 60% damage reduction to the chest (150 - (150*0.6)= 150-90 = 40 damage received after that 150 dmg javelin strike.
- Suddenly that 40k chestplate is something I WANT to buy as it will actually protect my bloke from a nasty death.
- Right now, an expensive bit of armor is really only good for protecting you from minor grazes, or glancing hits that wouldn't have killed you anyway, like a chop to the arm or shoulder (even on realistic).
- There's no reason to spend the equivalent value of an entire army's worth of troops on expensive gear... when I could just buy an army's worth of troops and win all my engagements through numbers. Or use a fast moving horse+shield+polearm strategy so I just don't get hit.
- Right now you have armor that is a higher tier in some cases but simply isn't better than armor at a lower tier - either because it weighs more for the same protection or offers more protection but not enough to justify the increased cost and weight (and that increased protection wont actually save you in most cases either, as my above example shows).
- It would also make more elite units... actually feel elite.
- For example, Catephracts could have armor that mitigates 2/3 of the damage done to them, per hit, turning them in to actual tanks on the battlefield -- right now they die extremely easily (just as easily as low tier cavalry which makes them feel pointless) to most weapons because the difference in armor protection between a tier 2 horseman and a top-tier horseman is like 20-30 damage, which is beyond negligible.
- This might also be a good way to make blunt weapons stand out, if you have different % mitigations for slash/pierce and blunt damage on armor - so the catephract from the above example might mitigate 90% of all slashing damage, but only 50% of piercing damage and 10% of blunt damage to their chest, making 2h mauls useful for killing certain units, actually adding some tactical depth to combat / justifying taking different types of weapons to battle - depending on who youre fighting.
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