Armor Damage

[nauta]

Hi,

I'm curious about two things related to armor damage.  From what I understand, each time you get hit (or hit for a certain amount?  or almost each time you get hit?) at a certain spot, your armor will take some wear damage, indicated by such flags as worn out, used, etc. pre-pended to its sdesc.

1. From my limited experience, I have not really noticed armor getting damaged that much.  Is the code not working as I just described it?  Or does it just take a lot longer and a lot harder hits than I take to wear out armor?  I've played now two fairly long-lived ranger characters who do a lot of hunting and fighting, and I've yet to really see armor move from new to another slot.  Then again, this is a limited experience.

2. What do people think about increasing the 'rate-of-wear' on armors?  Again, I could be off about #1, but I would, personally, love to have to go hunt down new pieces of armor or repair my current armor codedly after a reasonable amount of use.  Right now, I just pretend, sometimes junking a gorget if I take a nasty hit, etc.  A tentative proposal: for each 60 hps of damage a piece of armor takes, it will move from one slot to another.  I don't know the slots off the top of my head, but from 'new' to 'worn'.  Hmm, actually this would require tracking and more fine grain than the code currently has I suspect.

[Delirium]

Get hit harder. 

[nauta]

Get hit harder. 

Ok, yeah, so its probably based on a once-off roll after a certain hp threshold is reached.  So, to change the proposal in #2:

What if that threshold were lowered, so there is a chance that even a turaal claw could do damage to armor (a small chance).  So at 0-5 hp: 0%.  At 6-10 hp: 10% chance the armor is damaged and moves from one slot to another.  At 11-15: 15%.  Etc. 

I assume these are in place now, but I, again from limited experience, I feel like the threshold is pretty high.  I've gotten hit pretty hard too, btw, and not really noticed damage.

[Molten Heart]

.

[bardlyone]

Get hit harder. 

This.

I had a brand new torso piece wind up as 'used' after a (redacted) hit a recent pc of mine for half their hp out hunting, less than a RL week after buying it. So... I'm going to say it's probably that you're not getting tore the hell out of often enough for it to trip the RNG on you.

[Riev]

I feel its more on threshold of damage, moreso than damage over time. If you REALLY want armor degrading quickly, come spar with me and I'll show you how to disintegrate equipment REAL quick.

I'd be fine with it degrading faster, but also if "tailoring" the armor didn't immediately fix it too, for such a cheap cost.

[nessalin]

Armor getting damaged is based on single hits, not cumulative lesser hits.  These single hits will damage armor lowering how much it can protect, which in turns makes it easier to damage with lower value hits in the future.  As Doc Savage said, take care of your equipment and it will take care of you.

Armor does get damaged.  Your character not experiencing this is not the overall reality of other characters in the game.

[Reiloth]

Also IIRC ness recently overhauled the armor damage Code to be much more realistic and take into account material types that were avoiding armor damage altogether.

[Miradus]

Spar with stumps. Your armor will come out looking like you fell into a wood-chipper.

[nessalin]

Also IIRC ness recently overhauled the armor damage Code to be much more realistic and take into account material types that were avoiding armor damage altogether.

Correct, notably in the August 15th, 2015 release and the September 7th, 2015 release.

Specifically this was about weapon type (slash, bludgeon, stab, etc...) vs material type (leather, wood, obsidian, chitin, etc...).

[BadSkeelz]

I noticed (or thought I noticed) what appeared to be a significant drop-off in armor wear-and-tear after that change. Maybe I just happened to be equipped really well for what I was fighting, or I'm not playing enough, or not being hit hard enough often enough.

[nessalin]

I noticed (or thought I noticed) what appeared to be a significant drop-off in armor wear-and-tear after that change. Maybe I just happened to be equipped really well for what I was fighting, or I'm not playing enough, or not being hit hard enough often enough.

Entirely possible.  Prior to the change several material types and damage types weren't handled properly, or at all, resulting them doing/taking ridiculous amounts of damage in relation to how much damage was actually being blocked/passed on to the wearer.

[Hauwke]

I bought a full suit of armor, sparred a 'guy' once and had most of my stuff stuck at new. None of it has worn down further yet.

[Harmless]

I think the threshold based code is one of necessity because we dont want the mud to waste memory tracking how much hp all our armor bits have. Instead it is a chance to be damaged check against some variables. Those may need tweaking.

[Miradus]

So if certain armor is better against certain things, would this be something intuitive we would know? Could we get a list?

[Riev]

Last I knew it was intuitive to the point that leather on sandcloth won't protect you as much as an obsidian breastplate will. Piecemeal is basically the best way, just test out what -feels- right.

Though, I wish there was some sort of encumbrance bonus or armor bonus for wearing set items. All decked out in horror shell? Extra armor. Three pieces of leather? Better encumbrance. (Yes I know its never going to happen, but I like looking GOOD)

[nessalin]

Last I knew it was intuitive to the point that leather on sandcloth won't protect you as much as an obsidian breastplate will. Piecemeal is basically the best way, just test out what -feels- right.

I believe the question they were asking was not "is leather better than obsidian", but which materials are better against which attacks.   Obsidian is good against slashes and stabs - but not so great against bludgeons, for example.

That said, I hope that the system is intuitive, as in the example above.

[nessalin]

I think the threshold based code is one of necessity because we dont want the mud to waste memory tracking how much hp all our armor bits have. Instead it is a chance to be damaged check against some variables. Those may need tweaking.

This is, in actuality, exactly what the code does.  Each piece of armor has values representing it's current, max, and original max hit points.

[Miradus]

I think the threshold based code is one of necessity because we dont want the mud to waste memory tracking how much hp all our armor bits have. Instead it is a chance to be damaged check against some variables. Those may need tweaking.

This is, in actuality, exactly what the code does.  Each piece of armor has values representing it's current, max, and original max hit points.

So three integers, probably 384 bits total (128 per integer).

Armor on a player is only going to be moved into active memory when they log in, so the bigger memory usage is going to be armor sitting around in save rooms or on mobiles. You're probably still talking less than 800k or so.

Does armor tick down if it's outdoors? Like every hour or gameday or anything?

[nessalin]

Does armor tick down if it's outdoors? Like every hour or gameday or anything?

No, only food degrades over time.

[Seeker]

Does armor tick down if it's outdoors? Like every hour or gameday or anything?

No, only food degrades over time.

And (pretty please) pet owls?

[Malifaxis]

Does armor tick down if it's outdoors? Like every hour or gameday or anything?

No, only food degrades over time.

And (pretty please) pet owls?

I have always supported the idea that sometimes animals may just randomly fuck off.  I'm pretty sure I could find any falconer in the United States and ask them if they would ever take an unsecured bird into a Tavern, and they would laugh in my face.

[Miradus]

Yeah, but is it because they're afraid of being sued or because the falcon is legitimately a spastic killer who may chew off someone else's ear?

I don't know much about falconry but it doesn't disturb me greatly to see people in a tavern with a bird on their shoulder. It does sometimes disturb me when I see them stuff their bird into a sack.

[nauta]

Pro-tip: over shoulder items lay on top of on shoulder items so you can wear your satchel over your pet owl.