Armor, Shield, and Slayer Suggestions (Retitled)

Revised the first post to keep new people coming in up to date on current suggestions. This is a duplicate of the main post.

Armor Reworks.

1. Distinguish plate as heavy armor by adding an additional amount of armor equal to the dex loss penalty on each piece.
2. Allow the use of a runic hammer and a creature reagent on shields to add additional effects to shields.

A few examples of what possible enhancements might look lik...
% chance to negate katana para blow
% chance to negate mace stamina damage
% chance to negate concussion blow
% Physical/Elemental Resist Bonus
% Block Firebreath % (Heater Shields Only)

Any shield or piece of armor should only be able to hold 1 creature reagent enhancement. Thus an armor piece or shield could offer some fire resist, but then would be ineligible for any other modifiers. These enhancements are also dependant on the creature reagent, not the runic hammer. The runics however, could distinguish the level of the achievable enhancements.

Some more examples. (Pick one per list, not the entire list.)

Dull
43% chance to block a special attack
43% chance to block a special attack - 21% firebreath damage reduction
2% elemental damage reduction
+1 AR

Shadow
50% chance to block a special attack
50% chance to block firebreath - 25% firebreath damage reduction
4% elemental damage reduction
+2 AR

Copper
57% chance to block a special attack
57% chance to block firebreath - 30% firebreath damage reduction
6% elemental damage reduction
+3 AR

Bronze
64% chance to block a special attack
64% chance to block firebreath - 35% firebreath damage reduction
8% elemental damage reduction
+4 AR

Gold
71% chance to block a special attack
71% chance to block fire breath - 40% firebreath damage reduction
10% elemental damage reduction
+5 AR

Agapite
78% chance to block a special attack
78% chance to block fire breath - 45% firebreath damage reduction
12% elemental damage reduction
+6 AR

Verite
85% chance to block a special attack
85% chance to block fire breath - 50% firebreath damage reduction
15% elemental damage reduction
+8 AR

Valorite
92% chance to block a special attack
92% chance to block fire breath - 55% firebreath damage reduction
20% elemental damage reduction
+10 AR

Base Shield Reworks
To start, I would leave armor ratings on shields alone and instead look at each shields block chance at GM Parry.

Buckler -This isn't a shield. It's a dinner plate. Realistically, it's too small to block large weapons. Personally, I would put the buckler at a 15-20% block rate. THEN I would introduce a rare - buckler of reactive reflection. Ofc - those spells would only trigger 20% of the time due to the low block rate.

Wooden - Block chance 85% - Super high block rate. However, the shield should have low durability and be non-repairable.
Wooden Kite - Block Chance 80% - Super high block rate, but - the shield should have low durability and be non-repairable.
Bronze - Block chance 80% - Can be marked as a recall rune. Low durability but can be repaired.

Metal - Block Chance 70%
Metal Kite - Block Chance 60%
Heater - Block Chance 50%
A note on heater shields: As much as I would love to see the 'dragon shield' as a rare drop. Tamer's have very-not-rare blessed dragons. It only makes sense that in a world where dragons are so commonplace, that the inhabitants of said world would come up with a way to defend themselves against such creatures.

Order - Block Chance 65% - Can be marked as a recall rune. AR and elemental enhancements at 150%.
Chaos - Block Chance 65% - Can be marked as a recall rune. AR and elemental enhancements at 150%.

Runic Slayers
Using the same method of runic hammer + creature reagent, allow sub slayer weapons to be crafted. Slayer Quality dependant on runic hammer being used. All slayers created are equal to the runic hammers standard weapon output, ex...

Dull ---------- Durable Accurate + SUBSLAYER
Shadow ---- Durable Ruin Accurate + SUBSLAYER
Copper ----- Fortified Ruin Surpassingly Accurate + SUBSLAYER
Bronze ----- Fortified Might Surpassingly Accurate + SUBSLAYER
Gold -------- Indestructable Force Eminently Accurate + SUBSLAYER
Agapite ---- Indestructable Power Eminently Accurate + SUBSLAYER
Verite ------ Indestructable Power Exceedingly Accurate + SUBSLAYER
Valorite ---- Indestructable Vanquishing Supremely Accurate + SUBSLAYER

Crafting
The required creature reagents would be dropped by mini bosses such as the cave troll, and then also by bosses such as the dark one, azure wyrm, etc. Reagents drop at a similiar rate to pecuiliar meat. I would also use the old pagan reagents such as wyrm hearts and daemon bones. (Because there are quite a few of them to choose from and they are all asthetically pleasing.)

I would also require crafters to have GM Smith/Mage/Alchemy/ItemID to successfully imbue an item with a creature reagent.

Success rates - Shields - The base shield would be irrelevant to the process - Double click reagent, click runic hammer, click shield = 33% chance success rate to bind a creature reagent to a shield. Failure leaves the shield intact but wastes the reagent and a swing on the hammer.

Success rate - Slayers - Must be an exceptional runic weapon - Double click reagent, click runic hammer, click exceptional runic weapon = 33% chance success rate to bind a creature reagent to a weapon. Failure leaves the weapon intact but wastes the reagent and a swing on the hammer.

Economy
Runic hammers of all types would have value and lesser enhancements would be readily available and easily replaced. No blessed weapons or armor being added to the market. In the meantime, platemail would outclass bone in terms of AR, but it would still come with 17 points of dexterity loss.

Expected retail on a Gold-Slayer @ 10-15k per swing + 25-50k per creature reg = 105k - 195k (+10-45k for multiple swing to achieve an exceptional runic in the case of hard to make weapons.) -- Why so expensive? This is a slayer weapon that outclasses every force slayer on the market today. This also assumes you're paying for 3 swings and 3 reagents. Get her done in one try and you'll pick up the same weapon for 35-65k. Bump that down to Bronze and you might squeeze by for 25k. The main point though, is that when you take your dragon slayer or daemon damner out to farm, you won't have to worry about shelving the character for weeks while you try to find a replacement for the lost weapon.

Bone armor has crap for max HP. Metal is more durable and is repairable.

Chain maybe, but nobody wears plate. It's not worth the tradeoffs.
Suggestions above would improve and expand on the entire dimension of armoring a character.
From studded leather to bone, to chain and plate.

People tend to min/max way too often in this dang game. If you want to wear shiny metal armor, go for it. BUT LOOK OUT THOUGH! you'll swing like .8-1.2 seconds slower!

for the record i've worn shadow platemail suits just because i wanted to wear plate. I didn't get nauseous or ill from the dex loss

I am also wearing plate because I want to wear it.
But, are the suggestions here bad ones?

'Expanded crafting across multiple crafting skills'
'Desirable uses for the few currently worth-less runic hammers'
'Marginal and hard to achieve improvements via runics on all but standard leather armor.'
'And slight improvements to GM crafted plate that would still leave it at odds with bone via different playstyles.'

The only plate pieces that would have no dex-loss would be pure magic finds, but I also suggested not changing the raw defense on magical pieces. -- Thus, an invulnerability set of platemail would only be marginally better than an invulnerability set of bone. It would, however, remain harder to find.

Then, the ability to improve magical armor with a runic hammer. It would be extremely difficult (skill based) and expensive (due to dependence on creature based reagent drops.) Basically, runic armor would be the equivalent of runic weapons, and most of it would still fall short of a GM Barbed Bone suit. -- However, of it would be neon colored, and all of it would be viable for a dexxer to wear out into the field. The exception to this would be gold, agapite, verite, and valorite sets - and you're talking about the very likely possibility of using all 25 uses of a runic hammer to enhance just the tunic. I would expect such armor would be extremely valuable and rare.

The plain old GM exceptionals on the other hand, would still suffer standard dexloss, but also grant an extra 17 points of defense. 17 points may seem like a alot at first, but in reality, the majority of an armors usable defense is on the chest piece itself (as this is where the most hits are landed). So basically, you would be giving dexxer's 5 extra points of defense where they need it the most. This would be regardless of the armor's material because the bonus would be raw on the armor type itself. In the end, platemail would only offer a total of 5 more defense on the chest over bone, and it would still cost you the dex.

Your questions are valid ones, yes.

I wasn't poking / prodding as to downplay your opinions.There is just so much more that needs direct attention, that affects all of UOR.


I'm a believer that the past few years of "we should change ______" have gotten out of hand.

I agree with most of the theories but the brunt of work goes down to one man. That man faces all sorts of bullshit when it doesn't affect every person beneficially at the same time.

If every dexxer was completely screwed until X is fixed, it would get pushed a little higher on the list of urgent gameplay balancing issues.

It we make hundreds of little tweaks this server would lose its place in time, and why people play here.


Got a little rant-y there. My apologies!



Tldr: itd be nice, I agree, but there's more to put attention to atm (like content!)

For the record I have more dexxers than tamers/mages, I've ran tons of instanced events with bone/metal armor so yes I've been where you have been. Promise!

Np man. And yeah, with Chris running a one-man show over in Solotown, if something like this was well received, I would put forth the effort, make it modular, and upload a plug and play set of scripts. RunUO, if I remember right, is very good about that kind of thing.

I agree with your suggested changes, I think they would definitely give people incentive to use heavy metal armors.

As you've mentioned, most players have simply written off using heavy metal armors in favor of bone/leather.

As an example I've linked my prior sale of a full invulnerability set of platemail.

http://uorforum.com/threads/full-in...osed-helm-invul-female-plate-chest-too.29002/

And a more recent thread as well

http://uorforum.com/threads/selling-some-invulnerability-sets-closed.32125/

As you can see from the prices of each respective set, the platemail is not considered as valuable/useful as the other options. Even if it has a higher hit point advantage and is repairable.

@Arawn , Due to the abundance of gold which most players who purchase these sets have, repairs vs fortification powder isn't much a talking point for me. But still one to consider I suppose.

So I understand when @Valrick says "If every dexxer was completely screwed until X is fixed, it would get pushed a little higher on the list of urgent gameplay balancing issues."

But I too would like to see heavy metal armors become a more viable option for characters to use. It is quite rare to see any characters near Ocllo bank wearing something other than mage robes with leather armor, or a spearman in leather/bone armor.

The odd person in a set of plate who may be there is usually only wearing it for fun/looks or hasn't played/read the forums to see they have lost 17 dex without much if anything gained for the loss.

What's frustrating is that plate armor is among the most aesthetically pleasing and, in terms of outfitting, dynamic wearables in the game...

... but it's nowhere to be found, and nobody would wear it.

It's too bad. These ideas seem good but, like another commenter said, likely won't be addressed for some time.

In the meantime, I've got all your parade needs covered. Just talk to Taylon at Carr Armory.

Full plate armor and armored swamp dragon... ...good old memorys.

let plate armor addionally to it's physical defense absorb magical damage + fire breath damage in pve fights
would probably make it worth wearing in pve fights
If my formulas are correct: 50 AR absorbs 8,5 damage
A full invul plate set would be able to absorb 9,35 damage from any source.
Thats fair enough for the dexx loss.

No idea about the balancing - but would be nice if a dexxer would be able to solo a LL without the need of "kill it fast with a vanq weap or die"

I love the armor actually reducing damage idea.

I support positive adjustments to a warrior's gear (don't forget parry) that promotes template diversity, gaming experience, and system balance.

My understanding is that armor is currently only good where it is being worn - Ex. When a troll hits you in the chest, only the chest piece acts to reduce damage. Part, or all, (clarification?), of the damage absorbed then damages the armor's durability instead of you. This is why weapons, shields, and chest armor is always falling apart while the rest of your eq is still in nearly full repair.

(I believe) the current day UO system has elemental resists being imbued on armor pieces via the different crafting materials. I always figured the values simply weren't being reported by the AoS status window because many of the AoS+ features aren't reported at all, or aren't reported correctly. The buff bar for instance -- magic reflect works, but the buff bar reports with a broken script and no values. Another example is reactive armor, which reports no change to physical AC in either the classic status window, or the AoS status window. The buffs/debuffs icon simply reports reactive armor as 'marble ingots'. The easiest example to notice is that the number of followers is reported where character gender is normally reported.

Basically, RunUO should support and have these elemental mechanics enabled 'out of the box'.
Has anybody ever tested to see if elemental resists are actually functioning in the background?

Personally, I think handling something like this via materials makes a lot more sense that isolating platemail for such a buff. Although, I do like the idea of being able to get some elemental resists on a dexxer. Maintaining a set of armor for every occasion would be a lot more fun that my current career of stockpiling bones and leather. I'm supposed to be playing a smithy lol.

Yep!

Outfits.

I've still got that agapite set of full plate with 1157 tunic and cloak... We'll, I don't have it... I'm afraid to waste the materials making something I can't sell, but lol... If you want the outfit... I can see it in my head... It puts the trammies to shame!

I've recently purchased an invul plate set for 20k and now doing all AMIBs in it. Very nice since it's repairable, and I only use ~10 dex potions per AMIB to be at 103 dex during all fights. IMO, a much better approach then buying & breaking fort bone all the time. And invul bone is simply not reasonable for AMIBs.

However, I do agree that crafted plate armor needs a buff. It's a shame no one uses plate from high-end materials here.

Ah -- very red!

How much for the suit? I'd be happy to purchase it (as well as others).

I support any changes that fall in line with this for any templates. The thing is while UO is amazing and UOR is even better , the game is like 20 yrs old. People make suggestions cause nowadays they can spot flaws easier ...gaming knowledge/understanding is much more common. People make suggestions cause they would like to see this game reach its max potential imo. The max potential a 20yr old game can reach lol. & while this game is so open and free sometimes you are crunched into doing only a few things to stay relevant or efficient. Changes open up template diversity as said in @wylwrk comment, which is actually one of the most important factors for a game like this. The option to have lots of options.