ORIGINALLY POSTED: Sept 4/2012
EDITED: July 5/2015 - Trial increased to shield stopping power (from AC / 5 to AC / 4).
At Nuku's prompting, I have reworked by update to the armour system. It is somewhat fancier, but I think it does a pretty good job of balancing the armour items, the feats and their overall effectiveness. Most of the complication is held in the background numbers. Coders need only be aware of the values used in the table guidelines below or to pick the appropriate absorbancy subroutine when building an alternate attack (there are lots to pick from). There is a thorough explanation of the system and the meaning behind the numbers, so I'd like for people to please try to stick within this. This has been a rather frustrating update to create and I don't want to have to redo it again or chase after items that break the rules. If you can't follow the guidelines, don't make armour. *grumbling in advance* Please keep an eye out to see if there's any unusual bugs or if the armour provides too much defense or not enough.
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With this fixed and updated, we can once again start creating the occasional armour item as well as clothing items w/o game effect. Most clothing items are going to be purely cosmetic and not provide any significant protection. They are meant to allow players a means to customize the character's appearance. Remember, the starting player is not typically going outside nude, but is implicitly understood to be wearing clothes with nothing noteworthy about them. Normal clothing provides no armour bonus - so set their AC and effectiveness values to
zero.
Clothing items, while not providing any combat benefit, may provide more esoteric bonuses or effects in certain situations. This could be stuff like constant infection, situation specific bonuses, a means of entrance to otherwise restricted areas, etc... These would either have to be managed with 'everyturn rules' or with direct checks in events to see if the player is wearing that specific item. This sort of thing would be uncommon, but ideas are possible.
EQUIPMENT:Equipment in this game generally means worn/carried clothing items, but can also represent some equipment held somewhere on your person. When created, they must be assigned a location where that item is placed. These include 'face', 'body' and 'head' currently, but other placements could be made. A player may only equip one item in each location.
MAKING EQUIPMENT:- Code: Select all
Table of Game Objects (continued)
name desc weight object
"combat helmet" "A basic army helmet. It should provide some minor protection while worn." 1 combat helmet
combat helmet is equipment.
It is not temporary.
The AC of combat helmet is 25.
The effectiveness of combat helmet is 60.
The placement of combat helmet is "face".
The descmod of combat helmet is "A green and brown camo army helmet rests atop them.".
The slot of combat helmet is "head".
- The AC and effectiveness values apply to armour and are discussed below.
- The descmod value is the snippet which will be included in a player's description when they look at themselves. It should probably be confined to short sentence to keep the player description from getting too large. More detail can be seen by looking at the item on its own.
- The placement value dictates where in a player's description that item's snippet will be inserted. The current options are "face", "body" and "end". "face" will show after a player's face is described. "body" will be shown after the body. "end" is included after the player's tail, but before their genitalia. "end" is the default value. Other placement points can eventually be added.
- The slot value dictates which slot it fills on the player's person. Currently, only "face", "head" and "body" items exist, though others can be used. Just be careful not to invent new slots when an existing slot could be used. Players are only allowed one item per slot.
ARMOUR:Armour may only be:
head or
body. No other armour locations are currently allowed. This exists to maintain some modicum of game balance and to keep me sane.
Armour has two values which affect how useful it is in combat: AC and effectiveness.
AC: This factors into how much damage a given piece of armour can potentially block.
Effectiveness: This represents how effective the armour is, resulting in how likely it will block a blow coming at the player. A check is rolled to see if the armour is effective. If so, it gets its full defensive (AC) value. If it fails, it may still grant partial protection.
This provides a little more variety in the results of outcomes and helps represent partial armour vs full coverage armour, armour with gaps or weak points, etc...
AC VALUE FOR ARMOUR:- Currently, we will be starting with a maximum AC value for any piece of armour to be 50, but will later expand this out to 100. The effects for values up to 100 are listed here, but that's for future reference. As you can see below, an AC of 50 can provide up to 34% protection, a very sizable drop in damage.
- This value gets combined with a player's natural protection, which has a base value of 10 and can be boosted by feats. (see below)
- Shields protection happens before armour protection is calculated. (see below)
- When the player's armour (body armour or helmet) blocks a blow, it will block a percentage of the damage to the player. The type of blow (head or body) will be selected at random for the determination of armour protection. The exception to this will have some special attacks which target one or the other.
0 - Normal clothing with no appreciable armour value.
10-15 - ~12% damage reduction for 10, ~15% for 15 - provides minimal to low protection, but could take the edge of some blows, but not a very effective as armour. Heavy leather jacket or life jacket.
20 - ~18% damage reduction - provides some protection. Protective padding, leather armour.
25 - ~21% damage reduction - provides good protection, equivalent to the "Toughened" feat.
30 - 24%
40 - 30% - Chainmail
50 - 34% - very good protection. Bulletproof vest.
60 - 38%
70 - 41% - great protection
80 - 45%
90 - 47.5%
100 - 50% - excellent protection, half damage
EFFECTIVENESS FOR ARMOUR:The effectiveness of a piece of armour dictates how often it will provide full protection, thereby approximating a direct hit to that armour. The main factor in this is the amount of coverage they provide to their area, though other factors could be used as well, such as gaps, weak points, poor fitting, coverage of vulnerable or vital areas, etc...
If the effectiveness does not succeed, it will still provide a fraction of the protection, meaning all but the weakest of armour has a chance to do something even if the effectiveness fails. This helps represent glancing blows across the armour or slashing attacks that only get blocked in part by the armour. The maximum effectiveness of any piece of armour should be about 80% and that's when they provide total coverage to their area (either a full helmet and neck guard for the head, or full armour suit covering all the body, limbs and extremities.) This is to allow the chance for some blows to still get by and for feats and upgrades to improve these numbers a little further (see below).
Head gear: The head will be considered the target for 25% of the blows to the player, necessitating a check to their head armour. Here a breakdown of effectiveness values for head armour. This does not say anything about their damage absorption capabilities, just how likely they are to block the blow to their full AC value.
Top of the head: Typical biking helmet, magic baseball cap:
~40%Full face only: Hockey mask (à la Jason), welding mask:
~50%Cranium: WWII helmet:
~60%Full head, no face: Motorcycle helmet:
65-70%Full head and partial face: Football/Hockey helmet w/grill, aviator's cap w/goggles:
70-75%Full head and face protected: Riot helmet with face guard, knight's helm w/full visor:
75-80%Body Armour: The body will be considered the target most of the time, being selected 75% of the time, necessitating a check to the body armour. Something that provides complete torso coverage has an effectiveness of about 60% and full coverage of the limbs is needed to reach the full 80% max.
Here's a breakdown of some examples of effectiveness for body armour, which again doesn't say anything about their damage absorption capabilities.
Minimal, mostly useless coverage: Single shoulder pad:
~10%Minimal (but useful) coverage: Knee and elbow pads:
~20%Minimal torso coverage: Chainmail bikini:
~25%Partial torso coverage: Life jacket, baseball catcher's pad,
~40%Good torso coverage: Football pads:
~50%Full torso coverage: Bulletproof vest (
55%), chainmail shirt w/o sleeves (
60%).
Full torso and arms: Chainmail shirt w/sleeves, upper body plate armour, leather jacket:
65-70%Full torso, arms and legs: Full body armour:
80%NATURAL PROTECTION:- As mentioned, the player has a base value of
10 natural protection, which has little effect on its own, but has the advantage of always being considered as having been effective. This value allows smaller value armour (10-15) to have some effect when combined with this, but makes little difference once stronger armour is worn.
- The "
Toughened" feat boosts this value to
25, making it more effective on its own as the player gains a toughened skin and body, making them naturally damage resistant. A toughened player will still gain minor benefit from weak armour pieces, but he's generally considered to have better natural protection than they provide. A toughened player will be able to provide some additional effect to stronger armour as well. They will also get more consistent protection since they're toughened hide always gains its full protection (basically 100% effectiveness since it covers the whole of the player).
- A second feat may be added later, "
Armoured Hide", boosting this natural protection even further. It would probably put the natural armour up to
45, almost as good as if their skin were a bulletproof vest.
SHIELDS:Shields in this game are anything held or used in the player's off hand to block or deflect blows from enemies. This can range from an armoured bracer or a catcher's mitt, to bucklers, knight shields, riot shields or even an energy shield. Clearly some of these would be better than others, but they all might help.
Shields provide an improvement from 5 to 20% removed from damage based on their AC value provided they pass their effectiveness check. But as well, if they pass their effectiveness check, a minimum of one point of protection is provided. This means that there's always some gain from a successful block, and more for higher damage attacks.
A failed block has no effect.
AC VALUE FOR SHIELDS:This value will not have much variation, ranging between 20 and 100, depending on how much protection it may be able to give. The percentage of damage blocked will be equivalent to the AC / 4 for an effective block. Most shields will be in the 40-60 range ( 10-15% ) and we should probably not exceed 60 for the moment, but they can be made later. The capacity for more extreme values exist for poor shields (catcher's mitt) and exceptional ones (energy shield). This range should
not be exceeded, otherwise weak ones would be too low and strong ones would be too high. A block from a shield reduces damage from attacks, as blows which would be completely blocked or deflected are part of to-hit roll.
EFFECTIVENESS FOR SHIELDS:Effectiveness is a shield's main value and it should go up to a maximum of 80% as with other defensive equipment. This represents how likely the shield is to be useful in blocking to obtain its full defensive value. Smaller or clumsier shields generally have lower effectiveness values, meaning they'll only help some of the time. Larger shields will work more often, but may get to be cumbersome as well. As with armour, flimsy or poorly constructed shields may also have poorer effectiveness values.
Little coverage, low ability to block: Armoured bracer (
25%), Catcher's mitt (
30%), Garbage Can Lid (
30%), Buckler (
35-40%).
Good coverage: Medium round shield (
45-55%), Kite shield (
55-65%)
Great coverage: Riot Shield (
70-80%), Tower shield (
70%), Large tribal shield (
65%). These would likely come with some form of dexterity penalty (maybe something from -2 to -4) as they obstruct your ability to fight in return for their added protection.
Armour and shields should be designed with a balance of AC and effectiveness in mind, and the effort for obtaining such items should be balanced in this regard. A couple of weak armour pieces could just be found lying around, but more valuable ones should require some work to obtain (or someone would have already have taken them). Higher value armour can be used as rewards for events with mid-to-tough fights or short quests. The greater the value of the item, the more time/effort that should be required, in general.
THE MATH:The process of calculating the armour will work as follows:
Shield check: If the effectiveness check is successful, reduce the damage based on the AC at a rate of AC / 4, to a minimum of 1 damage prevented. If the effectiveness check fails, there is no partial block. The remaining damage is then dealt with by the player's armour and natural protection.
Armour check: The target location (head or body armour) is decided and then the armour is tested against its effectiveness. If the effectiveness check succeeds, it gets its full protective value. If it fails, it only gains a random percentage thereof (up to its effectiveness). This is the effective armour value. The amount of protection is then calculated according to the following formula.
100 * dam
------------------------------------------------ = reduced damage.
100 + √ ( effective AC^2 + natural AC^2 )
ARMOUR IMPROVEMENT:EDIT: Upgraded Armour: Snow has been tweaked to provide a small boost to armour by upgrading it. The upgrade results in:
- A 5% increase to its original AC, to a minimum of +2 AC to ensure even the low ones get something.
- A 10% increase to its original effectiveness value.
Defensive Skill: A feat to allow a player to better use their armour and shield may come as well. It will probably let the player get a bonus to their effectiveness rolls, showing their increased awareness of their armour and their ability to ensure that blows hit armour instead of player.
EXISTING ARMOUR:Currently, only 2 armour items exist, the leopard suit (created by helping Omio) and the combat helmet shown above (found in an army surplus store).
- The combat helmet is a very average helmet, providing a protection of 25 AC with an effectiveness of 60, as it only covers the brain case and not the face or neck. This is good protection and alright effectiveness for a helmet. Even on its own, it should save the player from considerable damage over time. If effective, it will block 20% of damage if successful.
- The leopard suit is an alchemical creation and has some pseudo-magic powers, making it unusually tough for fabric. Between that and its almost full-body coverage, it is actually good armour with an high effectiveness of 70 to go along with its 16 AC value. It will be effective at blocking 15% of damage quite often.
UPDATE: A few others have since been added.
POSSIBLE ARMOUR IDEAS:Here's a bunch of example armour pieces and given rough figures. We may need to adjust these values a little over time, but it'll help give you a starting idea.
Bulletproof vest: Find where a cop made his last stand, perform a difficult stat check or two to gain entry (locating an entry point, climbing to it, forcing a door open...), then fight the creature he became to obtain his bulletproof vest. AC 45-50 at 55% effectiveness, given that it only covers most of the torso.
Chainmail: Valerie wants you to give her a hand with a few things (does not open until the player's a minimum level). She asks you to retrieve some stolen Museum items. After that, she asks you to locate a wayward exhibit (creature), etc... eventually culminating in being given a chain mail shirt/vest from among the items in storage. Typical effectiveness, but weighs quite a bit. (ADDED - Wereraptor by Stripes)
Wolf Armour: Wolfskin pelts that act as armour, which you obtain after a short quest and a fight with the Alpha Wolf (with boosted stats) wearing them. It's a combo of wolf's head helmet and body armour. Each grants about 20-30 AC due to its 'magic', but it's actually cursed, infecting the player with the Alpha Wolf infection every four turns if wearing one item and every three turns if wearing both. There's a chance for some humanity loss as well each time that occurs (0 - 5 points?). Not much, but enough to help wear you down or drive a regular person to succumb even faster. The headpiece and the body armour would have an effectiveness of about 45% due to its piecemeal coverage and overall weaker nature.
Centurion Helmet: Obtainable as a prize after a pair of events in the museum. The first event involves some situation or fight where you see the creature grabbing/wearing the helmet, but it leaves before you can confront them. The second has you finding them again and fighting/stat-checking/trading/etc... to obtain it from them. Somewhat higher effectiveness due to more head coverage (65%?) but a lower protection of about 15-20 AC.
Football Helmet: Obtainable somewhere on campus. There's something odd about it which allows it to always fit your head despite your constant changes. Good coverage results and designed to pad blows makes it very good. AC of about 25-35 with 70-75% effectiveness.
Football Pads: Obtainable somewhere on campus, possibly separate or with the helmet. Provides ~20 AC with good coverage (~50% effectiveness), since it covers less and is made for sports and not combat.
Motorcycle Helmet: Similar to the football helmet in values. I might save this for a gift from Grant for helping him.
Zephyr Field Armour: Padded armour pieces for the shoulders, back and chest with adjustable straps so you can fit it to your changing body. It is normally reserved for their field staff, but they'll add it to their store list after you complete some tasks for them. You'll still have to buy it, but they'll let you get one. Given how some people look at you while wearing it, you quickly find some dark paint to cover the company logo. Probably pretty good values, depending on how strong you'd like to make it. AC of 30-50 (maybe more) and an effectiveness anywhere from 50 to 65, depending on how good (and expensive) you wanted to make it for the player.
Single Shoulder Pad: Taken from the corpse of a beefity guy with a grizzled face who clearly had too many muscles for his tiny feet to balance. You know it's not really going to help much, but it's better than nothing and isn't doing that guy any good. 13 AC, but a very low effectiveness (13%) due to minimal coverage. This one's been written up and will be added soon. (ADDED - Scavevents by Stripes.)
Garbage Can Lid: This will be reworked into a crappy shield with an effectiveness of about 30% and an AC value of 28 (5.6%) making it occasionally useful if you've got nothing else. I'll aslo be sending this one along shortly. (ADDED - Odd Weapons by Hellerhound)
-And so on...
CODING ARMOUR IN COMBAT:The calculations for armour in combat have been split into their own subroutine ( normalabsorbancy ) which will require that the damage to be checked against the armour be updated in a variable called 'damagein'. It will update and output the variables 'damageout' and 'absorb'. Several variations on this subroutine have also been created (all with the same in and out variables) to potentially be used as part of alternate attacks if armour protection is somehow affected. The list of those I've created are listed here:
normalabsorbancy - normal absorbancy, used most commonly
highabsorbancy - increased chance to block better
weakabsorbancy - only partial absorbancy
headabsorbancy - automatically calculates using head armour
bodyabsorbancy - automatically calculates using body armour
areaabsorbancy - weighted absorbancy that covers both the head and body for area of effect attacks
noarmourabsorbancy - boosted natural toughness only, ignores armour and shield
noshieldabsorbancy - ignores shield protection, armour and natural protection only
FINAL NOTES:I have spent a lot of effort planning, changing, re-planning and re-changing this thing. There is a very, very thorough dissertation and should provide you with plenty of direction on how to use this armour feature correctly. Please don't make me hurt you by breaking it or ignoring what I've written here.