As you all know, Armor is the universal defense in video games. It either reduces damage taken or increases your health; sometimes both. High end armors also have nifty little attributes that add abilities or increase the wearer's prowess.

However, that's pretty ridiculous.

My idea of an armor system is an attempt to replicate more realistic situations.

The wearer of the armor will have 2 bars.
One health, and the other is the Armor Durability (AD).

The qualities of the Armor Durability is:

• There should be multiple types of armor, such as leather, plate, and robe.
  
• Recharges quickly.
  
• As it is damaged, the maximum AD will be decreased.
  
• Certain stats affect AD.
  
• Stamina will increase the rate of regeneration by a small percentage.
  
• Constitution will increase the factor of Armors, increasing the amount of AD given.
  
• Endurance reduces the damage taken by Armor.
  
• To restore AD to its maximum, you must repair it or replace it.
  
• Better armor gives more AD.
  
• Certain armors, not armor types, will decreases damage from certain types, for example Wool Skirt decreases Magic but increases Piercing while Bronze Chestplate decreases Blunt but increases Magic.
  
• Different pieces of armor adds more or less Armor Durability and has different factors of Armor.
  
• Only certain enemies will have AD, such as humans or turtles. Others will have strictly Health.
  

For example, Hero has a Bronze Chestplate, Leather Cap, and a Wool Skirt.

The Bronze Chestplate, being the most useful up front, adds 35 AD and increases by a rate of 1.003, increases regeneration rate by .1% of base/Stamina, and takes:

• 90% from Piercing
  
• 80% from Slashing
  
• 105% from Blunt
  
• 110% from Magic
  

The Leather Cap, best defending against multiple forms of ranged attacks, adds 20 AD but increases by a rate of 1.005, increases regenerate rate by .2% of base/Stamina, and takes:

• 95% from Piercing
  
• 100% from Slashing
  
• 100% from Blunt
  
• 95% from Magic
  

The Wool Skirt, though provides little protection it guards well against magic, adds 11 AD and increases by a rate of 1.002, increases regeneration rate by .3% of base/Stamina, and takes:

• 100% from Piercing
  
• 100% from Slashing
  
• 100% from Blunt
  
• 90% from Magic
  

If Hero has 5 Stamina, Constitution, and Endurance and base regeneration is 10%, the stats for the Armors will be:

AD = 67
Regeneration = 10.3%
Damage Taken by Piercing: 95%
Damage Taken by Slashing: 93%
Damage Taken by Blunt: 102%
Damage Taken by Magic: 98%

If Hero has 20 Stamina, Constitution, and Endurance, the stats for the Armors will be:

AD = 72
Regeneration = 11.2%
Damage Taken by Piercing: 95%
Damage Taken by Slashing: 93%
Damage Taken by Blunt: 102%
Damage Taken by Magic: 98%

I made these example with no thought of balance, so they're not that good to use. The examples follow the rough outline though. Using only a certain type of gear is suitable for certain playing styles. You can make other armor types and fiddle with it.

I posted this in hope that someone would utilize this in an RPG/AoS/Survival game. It allows for a more dynamic choice of gear and more realistic approach to Armors.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Jul 29 2010, 5:34 pm by Gladius_Tito. Reason: Balancing Examples

Interesting. Of course, your examples aren't quite right. Everything should reduce damage taken from all sources so that players are never tempted to remove pieces of armor because it'd be better not to be wearing them. You do realize that, of course.

I'd personally be more interested in high-end armor equip effects or use effects. Imagine a shield that you can activate to breathe dragonfire on nearby enemies. Or maybe a pair of boots with rocket heels to make you run faster temporarily.

Well, the less pieces of armor you have, the lower your AD and armor regeneration. And those examples are rough. Most likely the most damage the armor will increase damage by is 120%.

And of course you shouldn't take away the side attributes. That would be plain stupid.
I just want the damage to be more realistically dealt than in most games.

And there, I fixed the examples for a more reasonable set.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 26 2010, 8:15 pm by Gladius_Tito.

So let me get this straight. The AD bar would have three seperate readouts - one for your current maximum, one for the maximum that it will recharge to, and one for the current remaining?

So it'd be like each weapon would deal a certain amount of damage to the current AD, and a certain amount of permanent damage that would require repairs? Your system is a bit unclear.

Yeah, I could work on how I outline it.
But yes. The AD bar will have 3 readouts and weapons will deal damage to the current AD and permanent damge to the Max AD.

But it's just an idea. I have nowhere near the coding knowledge to do it.

This would work very well to prevent players from grinding endlessly on monsters in any portion of the game. You have to come in for repairs sooner or later.

So wait, I put on a wool skirt and suddenly piercing weapons hurt me more? lolwut? And for some reason a metal chestplate is only twice as good as a wool skirt?

I lol'd. It's a good system, but very few armors should actually increase damage taken. I can see maybe a "magical doom armor" that increases magic damage or something, but other than that..

Like I said, the stats are only rough ones, to demonstrate the inner workings.
If you want t get realistic, plate armor wil increase Blunt and magic since an impact will cave it in while a fireball will cook whoever is in the armor.
Leather armor will probably increase Slash damage since things like a flesh wound would be hard to bandage up with leather armor in the way.
Cloth armor will most likely take full damage from everything except piercing and later on magic.

This is only an idea; I can't really make it but I'm putting it forth for others to elaborate on.

Yeah, see, that's the main problem. Everything (or nearly everything) should decrease damage taken from all sources. It's just that not everything should decrease it as much as something else. I'd say modify your examples to fit, k?

However, there could be some exceptions. Metal breastplates would definitely increase damage taken from some magical sources, since it could act as a conductor for heat and/or electricity. I'm sure other examples could be made, too, but that's the main one that springs to mind.

There. I've balanced the armors as best as I can without using a simulation.

I find this interesting.... but I'm going to say...

"Sure, whatever floats your boat"

It really depends on the game. For example, in Paper Mario, 1 armor = 1 dmg reduction. There're NPCs that have attacks that do 2 damage x 5, so with armor, these attacks are much less efficient. The system is simple, clean, and can still support a lot of strategies. I'm worried that your system may be too complicated for pubbies' measly minds to fully comprehend and entice strategic armor wears. I also think using percentages is a bad thing, since it often gets underrated.

But then again, there're games that take the HP/armor way off the charts... like any j-RPGs... For example, in Pokemon, the defense of a certain pokemon doesn't really matter, as most attack deal over 100's of damage. Also, any level difference will completely throw the defense/attack system out the window.

On the other hand, I like how armors have different attributes.. I think other games have that too, where armors are better in protection against certain elements and stuff like that.

I think, if your using this system it wouldn't be built for a RPG like that. For this you would probably have to make the actual character have realistic life points. Where, once your armor is gone, your also gone because any wound while unarmored is nearly always fatal.