How I'd like to see armor...

from Elemental Forums

I'd like to see armor handled in the same way that Master of Orion 2 handled weapons and special systems.  In MOO2, older weapon types alwyas held specific niches in warfare, and even after you had discovered 2, 3, or even 4 generations of new weapons, you could still go back to older weapons and use them in useful ways (also, each new generation of weapons provided new buffs that you could add to old weapons.)  So rather than have a linear progression in which each discovery out-dates the previous discovery, each type of armor would have special angles that would keep them useful depending on how you equip your armor.

For instance, your first armor type might be a simple leather tunic, which gives minor armor advances and allows your units to maintain a brisk speed.  However, you might discover splint mail later which grants more armor but less speed.  Discovering splint mail, though, would also let you add the "splint rib" buff to your leather armor, which adds armor to your leather armor (still less armor than your new splint mail) but raises the cost of soldiers created with leather armor.  Also, resistance could be implicit in specific kinds of armor, rather than the player only being able to stack on resistance to armor types.  For instance, "Feather Iron Armor" might give a soldier enhanced speed, decent defense, and resistance to lightening damage.  "Magma Iron Armor" might give a soldier enhanced damage, decent defense, and resistance to fire. 

What might be even more interesting are emmergent "special" armor types from novel techs.  For instance, you might discover a small population of unique, giant, tame insects.  If your farming techs are high enough, you can tame them and open up a research option that gives you "Chitenous Armor" made from their shed exoskeletons.  This armor might be fantastic for the mid game, but gradually lose its edge as the game moves on.  Numerous armor options like this could exist, not all of which are available to everyone (someone without the right farming techniques might not have the option of taming the insects and, instead, only be left with the option of slaughtering them or leaving them alone.

elemental
7,856 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Whoops, double post, please delete.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I like this idea, honestly.


In most fantasy games you have reasons for some people to wear lighter armor, like rogues, archers, etc, for improved mobility.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I kind of like my two-weapon idea (aka u can hold two weapons, with a button to switch weapon)

 

That way you can make an expensive unit called the Fortress. Plate Armor, LongBow, and LongSword.

If you make a whole army of these ... its extremely expensive, but ... first your entire army can unleash arrows, and then when the enemy get close, switch to swords and start trying to surround/flank your enemy while u pummel them with swords and are protected by heavy armor. Might not be able to move quickly (so might get flanked) ... but your army is 2 in 1

The only limit is the time it would take to make them all ... you might be facing a rather larger army. (but weaker)

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Two words Tasunke, "Pavise Crossbowmen". Several Factions in Medieval 2 Total War had them. Basically a medium swordsman armed with a crossbow. Not the best at either role but they were more than capable of decimating infantry charging at them, and because of their great floggin' shield they could hold the line until your heavy infantry came in to clean up. Oh how I loved them lol, only unit you needed to defend castle and city walls.

 

I agree with this idea entirely, there was a post by Frogboy a few weeks ago that suggested (rather heavily) that unit creation was going to be more than just paper/scissors/rock. It mentioned, among other things, a "scout kit" that enabled a unit to auto explore. Now, given the still early stage of the game and the diversity of the expected factions we can make an educated guess that there will be some interesting perks to mess around with in the final product.

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes, I would ineed like to make Pavise Crossbowmen types, as well as Horse Archer types that carry alt-melee weapons. Of course the build times would be longer because of the time it would take to build both weapons. Would the training time also be increased for someone who needs to train for two weapons? (not dual wielding, mind you, just alt-wielding)

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I had proposed mobility or at least changes to the speed of a unit based on the weight of their armaments in a topic a long while back, so yes, I agree.

I'd be really appreciative if no armor in the game actually reduces the chance to be hit unless it has some enchantment of some sort on it.  I'd much prefer armor to reduce incoming damage by a set or percentage amount.  Hell, you could even combine that with damage thresholds where perhaps some plate armor reduced all melee damage of X points or less to 0, signifying that those blows had just bounced or slid off.  Then for an incoming strike that did 2X damage, it would instead go back to the previous model of reducing that mighty blow by some amount.

This way you'd have nimble fighters in leathers that can avoid more attacks because they can move more freely and end up costing less to produce.  But when they actually get hit, it's rather devastating as the leather is easily bypassed.  At the same time, you'd have expensive knights clad in steel that get hit by almost any attack, but they ping off the armor unless sufficiently powerful.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Armor should reduce damage per hit; speed and shields should reduce chance to be hit. A fast dude with a decent (but light) shield should be extremely hard to hit, but able to take maybe two hits at most before getting downed.

I would also like to see it noticed in some what that some weapons are great at piercing armor. A club hurts just about equally through leather, chain or splint. A spear, when it does pierce armour, usually goes plenty deep. Just some extra strategic thoughts, some people want different damage types to represent this but I think it would be better abstracted to a degree.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Definitely the whole *equal damage regardless of armor* would be better abstracted instead of as a damage type (X weapon ignores armor based defense, or somesuch). However, it seems like magic will already be doing just that -ignoring armor, or in this case all "defense." In such a game already complex, its probably just as well that ATK/DEF are kept rather simplified.