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From: baker@castor.cs.uga.edu (Danny Baker)
Message-Id: <9207280139.AA29459@castor>
Subject: Armor Info, Standardization ideas
To: dm-proj@coyote.cs.wmich.edu
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 21:39:05 EDT
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
Status: OR
Here is my proposal for a standardized armor system, along with info
on how Diku equiped items work....
Here is a compilation of armor info from the 1st and 2nd edition AD&D Players
Handbook, along with some adjustments for Diku of my own. All AC values in the
two charts are in the AD&D format - multiply by 10 to find out how much a full
suit of a type of armor will remove from your Diku Base AC of 100.
Weight of Cost of
AC Type(s) full suit full suit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Robes, Clothing 5 lb varies
2 Soft Leather 15 lb 5 gp
Padded 10 lb 4 gp
3 Studded leather 25 lb 15 gp
Ring Mail 30 lb 30 gp
4 Scale Mail 40 lb 45 gp
Brigandine 35 lb 45 gp
5 Chain Mail 40 lb 75 gp
6 Splint Mail 40 lb 80 gp
Banded Mail 35 lb 90 gp
Bronze Plate Mail 45 lb 100 gp
(note : just to get away from the old diku feel, let's not use
bronze plate unless it's really appropriate ;)
7 Plate Mail 50 lb 400 gp
8 Field Plate 60 lb 1000 gp
9 Full Plate 80 lb 4000+ gp
(note on costs : these are just suggestions - "fine" armours, shabbily made
armor, etc, should cost whatever is appropriate - it's up to you, just don't
make it too cheap ;)
Shields :
AC type weight cost
-------------------------------------------------
.01-.03 Buckler 3 lb 1 gp <- Thieves should be limited to
.03-.05 Small 5 lb 3 gp
.05-.07 Normal 10 lb 7 gp
.07-1.0 Body 15 lb 10 gp (Full length, chin to toe type)
Shields are done as fractions of an AC point to simulate that they are only
good vs a certain number of attacks/round.
*******
Diku items of type 'ARMOR' are modified in the following manner according to
what location they are worn on.
Armor Value is multiplied by
Equip Position this number when worn
------------------------------------------------------------
BODY 3
LEGS 2
ARMS 2
HANDS 1
HEAD 1
FEET 1
SHIELD (1)
---------------------------------------
TOTAL w/o a Shield 10
Thus, when a player is wearing a full suit of Plate Mail armor, AC 8, they
will have a total AC of :
100-(8*10) = 20 (which is 2 in AD&D terms - exactly what plate should be)
With a large shield, worth 10 points of Diku AC, that person would have an AC
of 10, or 1 in AD&D, which is correct for Plate mail and shield.
The point here is that when you are designing armor for your area, whether it
be for sale or whatever, you should keep Value 0 in the Obj file constant for
every piece of that armor. The game will automatically insert the multiplier
appropriate to the location when figuring a players AC, so there is no need to
make chain leggings AC 5 and a chain hauberk AC 10 - the game takes into
account the difference in area and importance between the various locations.
The primary 'vital areas' - chest, head, and groin/legs - are all 'weighted'
to be worth more of the total 10 AC than the other areas are.
Also, there is no need to have anything with a base Armor Value of 9. If a
piece of armor is magickal, give it an APPLY_AC with the appropriate value, and
you may wish to take into account the various location modifiers when doing
this, because APPLY_AC is *not* affected by the multpliers.
Example : Here are several pieces of a suit of Plate Mail +1 ->
#1000
greaves plate platemail~
a pair of plate mail greaves~
On the ground you see a nicely polished pair of plate mail greaves.~
~
9 0 33 <- Type ARMOR, wear flags : TAKE and WEAR_LEGS
8 0 0 0 <- Armor value of 8, which is plates base value
10 80 1 <- wt 10, as it = 2/10ths of a 50 lb suit; 80 gp = 2/10*400 gp
A
17 -2 <- The -2 comes from -1 for the enchantment * 2 for the location
#1001
breast plate~
a plate mail breast piece~
On the ground you see a nicely polished plate mail breast piece.~
~
9 0 9
8 0 0 0
15 120 1
A
17 -3 <- BODY location is *3
#1002
gauntlets plate~
a pair of plate mail gauntlets~
On the ground...blah blah blah...~
~
9 0 129
8 0 0 0
5 40 1
A
17 -1 <- HANDS location is only *1 -- no mulitplier
#1003
shield metal~ <- not part of the plate +1, just a shield example
a metal shield~
On the ground...~
~
9 0 513
6 0 0 0 <- not a 'body shield' therefore not worth 10 AC but only 5-7
10 10 1
E
shield metal~
Just a normal shield made of metal.
~
If the all 6 parts of the suit of plate are done in this manner, you will
end up with a suit of armor worth 90 AC, giving an effective AC of 10 w/o a
shield, by simply having each part of the full suit be partially enchanted
while preserving the base AC as that of plate mail. Doing the opposite will
produce a suit of Plate Mail -1, cursed ;)
If you want to simulate exceptionally well made armor, or shabby/old armor,
you could give some key parts a positive of negative modifier as is fitting,
or even have it resistant/susceptible to certain attack types (Immunity just
shouldn't happen for players ;). For example, a well made suit of full plate
may give a resistance to slashing weapons, or a good suit of padded armor may
work well against bludgeoning weapons, but be susceptible to piercing weapons.
Actually, just about all armor sorts (non-magickal) had a hard time against
piercing weapons, so a bad suit of *any* type of armor could give a
susceptibility to piercing. Of course, magickal and 'exceptionally' well made
stuff oughta be rare, and if sold anywhere, should be expensive and only once/
reboot.
********
Items worn on any location besides HEAD, HANDS, ARMS, LEGS, BODY, FEET, and
SHIELD should not be of type ARMOR - only those 7 locations are meant to be
for armor, as they cover all of the important places. Wearing a full suit of
one particular type of armor (ie, all 7 pieces) will grant you an Armor class
equivalant to AD&D; there is no need, and no sense, in trying to pass rings,
bracelets, capes, cloaks, necklaces, belts, girths, etc, as 'armor', thus no
reason to give them Item Type 9/ARMOR. Items such as the above should be of
item type 11/WORN. If they grant AC through some magickal means, then they
should have an APPLY_AC of the appropriate amount. A 'Ring of Protection +1'
would have :
A
17 -10
as +1 in AD&D terms = -10 in Diku terms.
All locations besides the 8 meant for ARMOR are mainly for ornamentation, and
for magickal items. However, just because something is worn on one of the
ARMOR locations doesn't mean it should automatically be worth any AC -- for
example, a jeweled tiera or a pair of silk gloves shouldn't do anything in
terms of Armor, as neither item is going effectively directly protect against
a weapon, though they may affect DEX or MANA, or may just be 'treasures' or
'trinkets'. I personally would recommend having alot of 'trinket' type items
in an area, to add spice and interest, especially if Scrolls of Identify are
rare/expensive (as they should be, IMO). A nice diversity of items will keep
players interested, and is more realistic. Just because an item wouldn't be
magickal is no reason to not make it, ie - animal furs, some normal clothing,
small gems, etc. Remember also that wealth needn't be especially managable or
easy to get back to town - it can be tapestries, silver/pewter mugs, a keg of
fine wine, statues of moderate size, gem stones and jewelry, parts from rare or
magickal creatures such as unicorn horns, cockatrice feathers, etc. It should
be possible to sell these items somewhere also - a Magician's shop would buy
spell components, a jeweler buy gems and such, etc. I personally think a 2
coin system would be interesting - copper and silver, or silver and gold, etc.
Also, one other standardization - all Cloaks should be 'WORN_ABOUT' rather than
WORN_NECK - Wearing 2 cloaks is not believable IMO, though wearing 2 necklaces,
2 capes, or such, is logical and believable, as is wearing a cape and a cloak.
That's it... hopefully it didn't lose anything through it's length. If I
didn't explain something well enough, or if someone thinks anything I said
doesn't make sense (happens to the best of us ;) please lemme know.
Derkhil
