Armor and Protection

[Ratwell]

I couldn't find it anywhere on the forum so I'll ask it here. How does Armor work?
Here's why I'm asking. I just robbed the three cannibal villages and I found a leather turtle neck, dark leather shirt, dust coat, assassins outfit (I don't remember the exact name, it's the one the flotsam where) all of high grade . So here is my delima, I like as much as I like the stealth stuff I also want protection. The dust coat covers a lot and has the same resistances as the assassins outfit but has way more coverage, the turtleneck and the dark shirt are the same way. More over all four items have the same resistances to damage so it is only a question of coverage.

How is my protection calculated(I'm not worried about Melee defense just the armor)?
How do they stack(shirt 100% chest, armor 100% chest)?
How important is quality (not asking about heavy-light just shabby-standard)?
How important is coverage (Right arm, left leg, stomach...)?

For the record I am currently using the Dustcoat (high), Leather turtleneck(high), Samurai Clothpants(standard), Wooden sandals, Rattan hat(standard).
Thanks!

[Sol Lignum]

I'll start from bottom, all but one are my assumptions, since i haven't seen code or any kind of reliable info on that:

Coverage(assumption): I think it's a mere chance that if you got hit on the covered zone the deffence will take effect. i.e.: 50% of right arm coverage means that, statistically, roughly half of the hits will have mitigated damage, according to armor specs.

Quality(fact): It does affects defence on an armour and attack on the weapon, more or less linearly, so better is better. Plus, higher quality, like masterwork, may mitigate some of the armours disadvantages. i.e.: Masterwork chainmail will not only have higher defence then, say, Standart, but will also hurt athletics less.

Stacking(assumption): I guess that if you have, say, 0.28 protection on the chest for a shirt and another 0.45 for an armour, and both has 100% chest coverage, then your effective chest protection is 0.28 + 0.45 = 0.73 always. If numbers are uneven, like 100% from a shirt and 50% from an armour, for the same chest, maybe it's effectively a middle 75% coverage, or maybe it's 100% hits mitigated by the shirt and only 50% by both armour and shirt. Which is still kind of 75% of effective coverage, but this probably is another topic

Mechanics[panic!]: That's where my reasonable logic ends, i won't try to assume anything here Hope someone will be able to answer you!

[Shidan]

You got the vast majority of that right Sol.

Coverage is the chance that armour piece will provide its resistance when hit on that body part.

Quality level is just a modifier for most of the stats on an armour piece. From worst to best, they go:
Prototype--> Shoddy--> Standard--> High--> Specialist--> Masterwork

As resistance is calculated on a per piece basis, each one's calculation is done independently of each other. So a piece with 100% will get used 100% of the time, while a 50% one will only get used 50% of the time. And it's calculated in the order in which you equipped the pieces (I know, it's weird). So after it hits one piece, the remaining damage will then hit the next one and so on. All remaining damage is then transferred to the body part.

The resistance values are also just simple percentages. So an armour with 0.50 resistance will negate 50% of that damage type when it gets hit by it.

Stun% is how much resisted cut damage (red) is changed into stun damage (black). Because of this and the order of calculations, it results in an odd "bug" where your armour is more effective if equipped in a specific order. Lowest Stun% first, then next lowest and so on.

Happy to answer any questions you might have. I may or may not have an addiction trying to decipher the numbers behind the game.

[Ratwell]

Thank you guys so much. I couldn't find what I was looking for anywhere else. This really helps!

[Bob]

You got the vast majority of that right Sol.

Stun% is how much resisted cut damage (red) is changed into stun damage (black).

Happy to answer any questions you might have. I may or may not have an addiction trying to decipher the numbers behind the game.

If X% of the shrug off is converted into black, then is it better to aim for high blunt resist for the 2nd layer? Is there a point where a leather undershirt is better than a chain undershirt?

[Shidan]

If X% of the shrug off is converted into black, then is it better to aim for high blunt resist for the 2nd layer? Is there a point where a leather undershirt is better than a chain undershirt?

Yes, if you have a higher stun% on the first piece then it actually might be beneficial to equip higher blunt resistance piece for the next one.

However, it is always better to aim for lower stun% instead. Generally speaking, any stun% is just extra damage you don't have to take. And if you get it down to really low numbers (0-10) on some higher quality armours, those characters start to be juggernauts. Often only taking 1-3 damage per hit from weaker enemies.

[Sol Lignum]

Omg, powerplay is evil! I had no idea about equipping pieces in a particular order (wtf?!) to improve overall set effectiveness. I won't bother with it since it's not very RP to wear heart protector -underneath- the chainmail anyway, but i hope it'll be looked into and fixed somehow

[deathdealerdelta]

So wait, if I put all of my clothes on starting from top down and then repeat starting from bottom up the effectiveness of the clothing will differ? I've spent a few months out of game and am getting back into it so please explain. Thanks.

[Shidan]

Yes, it will differ in effectiveness depending on the stats of the armour.

So let's say you have a chest armour with 0.5 cut and 0.25 blunt defense, and a 0 stun %. As well as a shirt with 0.25 cut and 0.2 blunt defense, but a 100 stun %. Both with 100% coverage for simplicity. And your opponent is hitting you for 100 cut damage.

If your chest armour is equipped first, the calculations will play out like this:

(100 x 0.5 = 50) This is how much damage got resisted so far. Because of its 0 stun %, no damage will get converted. So now the remaining damage will move on to the shirt. (50 x 0.25 = 12.5) But all of that is converted to blunt damage, so the total damage you'll receive here is 50


Now, if we swap the order here. So shirt is hit first, then chest armour.

(100 x 0.25 = 25) Now, because of the stun %, 100% of that resisted damage is now converted into blunt damage. Moving on to the chest armour. (75 x 0.5 = 37.5) And it gets hit by the converted blunt damage too. (25 x 0.25 = 6.25) Bringing the total damage you receive to 56.25


So here you can easily see the comparison:
Lower Stun % first: 50
Higher Stun % first: 56.25

Now this is simplified, there are a few more calculations that determine damage. And technically, if your second piece has a higher blunt resistance you might be better off with it second instead. But generally speaking, equipping your armour in order of lowest stun % to highest will make it more effective.

[deathdealerdelta]

Wow