|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armor Basics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Much has changed with the new armor system. There are now three main armor types: Assault, Battle, and Reconaissance. Armor now requires certification to wear, and all combat professions (save Teras Kasi and Jedi) receive certification for one of the three types.
All armors are equal in that they can theoretically have the same maximum armor rating (I will explain how the ratings work in another section). No one armor is inherently "better" than another, although each of the three types may prove better in certain combat situations than others. Because of the way the new armor crafting system works, there is no inherent difference between the different appearances for each armor type. Different appearances made from the same cores will only differ in overall condition depending on the materials used for the final assembly.
The old system's HAM encumberance has been replaced by hindrances to rate of fire, accuracy, and movement. Unlike the old system's encumberances, hindrances are directly tied to the general protection rating of the armor and cannot be reduced experimentally. However, masters of an elite combat profession will find that they should have no hindrances when using unsliced armor.
Hands and feet have been removed as valid hit locations, so boots and gloves are now merely cosmetic. You must wear a full suit (seven pieces for most types) in order to have full protection. Because "body hits" are distributed between the chestplate, bicep, and bracer locations, it appears that helmets and leggings are now the most rapidly decaying pieces.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armor Types
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assault
Professions: Bounty Hunter, Commando, Squad Leader
Bonus: +1000 Kinetic
Penalty: -1000 Energy
Appearances: Chitin, Composite, Ithorian Sentinel, Kashyyykian Hunting, Factional
Battle
Professions: Carbineer, Combat Medic, Creature Handler, Doctor, Fencer, Pikeman, Ranger, Swordsman
No Bonus or Penalty
Appearances: Bone, Marauder, Padded, Ithorian Defender, Kashyyykian Black Mountain, R.I.S. (quest), and Factional
Reconaissance
Professions: BioEngineer*, Pistoleer, Rifleman, Smuggler
Bonus: +1000 Energy
Penalty: -1000 Kinetic
Appearances: Mabari, Tantel, Ubese, Ithorian Guardian, Kashyyykian Ceremonial, and Factional
* BioEngineers only receive hindrance mitigations equal to "basic" core armor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armor Stats
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What the heck do these numbers mean?
The four-digit number on your armor is technically the independent variable in a quadratic equation for percentile resists mapping the domain [0, 10000] onto the image [0, 60]. In layman's terms, that means that the armor rating signifies a percentile resist (as in the old system) ranging from 0 to 60%. Because the equation is concave quadratic, you get diminishing returns for higher resists.
The actual function is: 60 * (AR/10000) + { [ (10000 - AR) / 10000 ] * (AR/200) }
Which reduces to: 0.011 * AR - 5E-7 * AR * AR
Some hard numbers:
1000 = 10.5%
2000 = 20.0%
3000 = 28.5%
4000 = 36.0%
5000 = 42.5%
6000 = 48.0%
7000 = 52.5%
8000 = 56.0%
9000 = 58.5%
10000 = 60%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Damage Types
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are two primary damage types -- kinetic and energy. Additionally, some weapons add "elemental" damage of acid, electricity, heat, or cold. Currently, however, the quantity of "elemental" damage compared to kinetic or energy makes worrying about any of them pointless.
As before, the majority of creatures use kinetic melee attacks. Those that do ranged attacks do energy damage. The majority of ranged weapons are energy-based, although there are a significant number of good kinetic ranged weapons.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armor layers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previously, layering was a virtual necessity, as layers added to base protections, special protections, condition, and encumberance. With the new system, layers are very optional, and very expensive.
Layers now add to a resist but reduce the resist of its "opposite," so there is a bit of a yin/yang effect. An armorsmith can now add up to 12 layers for a piece of advanced armor, so the effect can be major (up to +1200/-1200). Kinetic layers will reduce energy resists, energy layers will reduce kinetic. Acid and electricity are opposed, as are heat and cold. Advanced layers increase two otherwise opposed resists at the expense of the other four.
Because elemental damage is so minor and irrelevant at this point, the primary layer types one might expect to find are kinetic (for creature hunters), energy (for bounty hunters), and primus (adds to both kinetic and energy, useful for anyone).
I expect that most mass-produced armor will be unlayered. Because the resource requirements and factory time commitments for layered armor are so high, I would also expect that layered armor will largely be a specialty item, and command a price much higher than unlayered armor (double or even triple).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armor Slicing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because encumberance is gone and hindrances are affected solely by general protection, slicing now only affects resists. Slicing affects both standard and special protection equally. Slicing is also entirely predictive -- knowing the stats of the armor and how it was constructed, you can accurately predict what the post-slice results will be.
Ignore whatever the system message tells you the armor's general effectiveness was increased by -- the number means nothing as far as I can tell. For armor made with advanced cores, all resists will increase by a number generated by the following expression, where GP is the "general protection" of the armor as determined by the crafting of the core.
DELTA = 1892 - 0.25 * GP
For unlayered armor, GP will always be the special protection resists (acid, cold, electric, heat). For layered armor, particularly primus-layered, GP is a bit more difficult to ascertain on first glance.
As mentioned previously, hindrances are affected by general protection. It is possible (and indeed likely) that sliced armor will have hindrances high enough that combat masters will still have some minor hindrance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armor Example
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a sampling of what you might expect to find with newly-crafted armor on Bloodfin in the coming weeks and months. All pieces are unlayered. Note that these are all better than what 90% Composite converted to.
With full primus layering, I would anticipate the kinetic and energy resists to rise about 420 points each.
Assault
Kinetic: 6862
Energy: 4862
ACEH: 5862
Battle
Kinetic: 5982
Energy: 5982
ACEH: 5982
Reconaissance
Kinetic: 4760
Energy: 6760
ACEH: 5760
_________________
|
