Mage armor property and imbuing...

[Beleth of Atlantic]

Is there a reason this property has such a high weight (140) to imbue?

As it stands a leather tunic has base the resists of: 2/4/3/3/3 with strength requirement 25.

A plate tunic has 5/3/2/3/2 with strength requirement 95.

Debating the fact that ALL armor should have the same relative stats now and days as it is truly just cosmetic in this UO time period will be left to another post...

My issue is with imbuing specifically. Why should it cost 140 imbuing weight on a piece of armor to imbue the mage armor property when I could use a piece of leather armor (which receives it for free) and has the base piece that has the SAME total base resists and a LOWER strength requirement?

I think the mage armor property should either be:

a) removed from the game, all armor should allow meditation

or

b) have a SIGNIFICANT lower imbuing weight (if not 0)

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Metal armor has been effectively worthless since AOS took away the higher armor with Dex penalties vs lower armor and no dex penalty/med aspect.

That's the bigger issue of the matter beyond just the weighting of the Mage Armor property really... the fact that Metal armor still has almost ALL of the disadvantages (heavier, no med/stealth, diminished protection in comparison to lighter armors) and the one advantage (higher armor rating) was completely negated/removed.

Quite simply, it needs to be rebalanced.

 

[Beleth of Atlantic]

True enough and I fully agree but that would require a lot more effort then say... setting mage armor property to 0 imbuing weight.

I want platemail armor to be effective again more then anything but I can accept that it won't happen for awhile... making it cheaper imbuing weight wise, to make it medable would be a step in the right direction.

My posts always seem to have a self-serving undertone and honestly it is because they usually do. My main character wears a full plate suit minus the helmet (uses a bone helm) for roleplay purposes so I would like it to be easier to imbue up an all 70's suit that is effective.

I could wear leather like everybody else and be setup easily.. but I do not want to.

 

[sablestorm]

What if the different type of armors had their own innate properties? For instance, what if plate mail automatically came with a DCI property which doesn't count against it's imbuing factor. Plate mail should offer more protection than leather, but the higher weight and the cost of med will make it more suited to warriors, as it should be. The various other army types could have their own base magical property that differentiates them from each other.

 

[Beleth of Atlantic]

I like the idea a lot and think there should be differences in armor, but major changes like that will take a lot of time. Making the mage armor property take 0 weight is pretty simple.

But, for the sake of it to get into things...

Studded leather armor could give 3 HCI per piece - this allows for 15 HCI maximum from armor pieces

Ringmail could give 3 DCI per piece
Bone armor could give 4 DCI per piece
Chainmail could give 4 DCI per piece
Platemail could give 5 DCI and per piece

These bonus's would not count towards imbuing weight or property limit.

As it stands leather armor is medable and the chest piece requires 25 str to equip

Studded chest is NOT medable and requires 35 str to equip

Ringmail chest is NOT medable and requires 40 str to equip.

Bone armor chest piece is NOT medable and requires 60 str to equip

Chainmail chest is NOT medable and required 60 str to equip

Platemail chest is NOT medable and requires 95! str to equip.

There should be some benefit to using these armors.


(quick interesting fact, studded armor has 16 base resistances, platemail has 15)

 

[Uvtha]

Yeah metal armor either needs higher max resists or damage absorb, or dci... or higher imbuing cap.

 

[Thunderz]

Its probably because with reguards to runics, a Val hammer will make MUCH better pieces than a barbed kit will, thats why everyone ran around in mempos/samari armour before imbuing as it came with mage armour for free.

They probably just used the same scale as before imbuing i.e. if it rolled on a amour piece from a runic it would be 1 slot and max imtensity like a super slayer.

Thunderz

 

[Warpig Inc]

Very good points and balanced imput. Agree fully but on the bone armor. I would make it with the 5DCI per piece also.

And I would add in the Dragon Scale armor at 6DCI each with there being no arty armor to abuse worth note.

Any artifact in play with DCI would override any natural DCI and not stack.

The sad thing that has never been fixed is armor being crafted or looted with below 20 durability out the gate. Weapons can be 255 cap but armor takes at least one jar of POF before walking out the door. Here is my ideal on crafted armor. Put an option on the crafting window, a slide bar. This bar all the way to the left is max Arms Lore resist bonus and all the way to the right is Arms Lore max durability. Slide can adjust the bonus gained as desired. How much a crafter has to play with on the slide based of Arms Lore skill. At 50/50 give up 3 resist and 125 durability at GM Arms Lore. As great as Imbuing is, no vendor shop can do armor without all the effort it takes to get POF.

And for UO sake put an ON/OFF button on the crafter window for DI weapons mod

 

[Thrakkar]

Ringmail could give 3 DCI per piece
Bone armor could give 4 DCI per piece
Chainmail could give 4 DCI per piece
Platemail could give 5 DCI and per piece

While this is an interesting approach, it does not make much sense in a logical way. Increasing defense means increase the chance to block, parry and dodge an attack.
But heavier armor should mitigate more incoming damage. That would make sense.

Also given the fact, that everybody, who needs 45% DCI, can rather easily get it, it's more or less pointless.

Personally I'd think it would be quite interesting, if the type of armor directly affects the resistance cap.
Let's say, the base resist cap is 10% per resist type. Also we have 6 slots for armor parts.
Now every armor type could increase the cap by a specific amount. I.e.:

Leather 5%
Studded 6%
Ringmail 7%
Chainmail 8%
Bone 9%
Plate 10%

Thus, if you equip 6 plate armor parts, your resist cap would be 10% base + 6 x 10%, which would be a total of 70% per resist type.
A complete set of leather armor would instead allow a maximum of 10 + 6 x 5 = 40%.

IMHO that would be awesome. Of course this would be a drastic change and probably a lots of game mechanics and/or even boss encounters would need some tweaking/rebalancing.

 

[Beleth of Atlantic]

I hear you in regards to DCI being easy to acquire but consider this... if you obtain 30 DCI from a full plate suit that frees up imbuing slots in the ring/bracelet, or your talisman slot, etc.

As for resistances that would work also and be acceptable, I was also thinking about perhaps that new damage absorption mod that was added? The one that when your hit with a specific damage type you regain some health?

Regardless of WHAT benefit is given, some benefit should be given to all armor sets beyond leather. Leather being medable and having the same base resistances as all other types makes wearing other armor pointless.

 

[R Traveler]

What about mods like kinetic eater for plate?
Maybe 5% fire eater for red scales and so on?

 

[Elric_Soban]

...

Metal armor has been effectively worthless since AOS took away the higher armor with Dex penalties vs lower armor and no dex penalty/med aspect.

That's the bigger issue of the matter beyond just the weighting of the Mage Armor property really... the fact that Metal armor still has almost ALL of the disadvantages (heavier, no med/stealth, diminished protection in comparison to lighter armors) and the one advantage (higher armor rating) was completely negated/removed.

Quite simply, it needs to be rebalanced.

Uh oh... COMMON SENSE ALERT! You're BAAAAANNNNNNNNEDDD!!!!

 

[Viquire]

...

Metal armor has been effectively worthless since AOS took away the higher armor with Dex penalties vs lower armor and no dex penalty/med aspect.

That's the bigger issue of the matter beyond just the weighting of the Mage Armor property really... the fact that Metal armor still has almost ALL of the disadvantages (heavier, no med/stealth, diminished protection in comparison to lighter armors) and the one advantage (higher armor rating) was completely negated/removed.

Quite simply, it needs to be rebalanced.

Uh oh... COMMON SENSE ALERT! You're BAAAAANNNNNNNNEDDD!!!!

I smell a booster pack.

 

[CovenantX]

Why not add damage reduction similar to Dragon Barding for swamp dragons

the following should be in Full set only
Studded Leather Armor = 5% reduction
Ring mail Armor = 10%
Chain Armor = 15%
Plate Armor = 20%

doesn't Swampy armor grant 10% reduction if not exceptional
and 20% reduction when exceptional?

just don't allow it to stack with dragon barding armor, this will also benefit Gargoyles as they do not get the damage reduction from swamp dragon's armor.

 

[Beleth of Atlantic]

Problem with using full set only is that chainmail has 3 pieces, ringmail 4, platemale 6. Adding properties based on slot makes the most sense so suits can be mixed and matched like in the days of the heavy archer suit.

All pieces of armor beyond leather should add a small bonus that when combined adds enough benefit to make them useful over just sticking to normal leather.

 

[sablestorm]

While this is an interesting approach, it does not make much sense in a logical way. Increasing defense means increase the chance to block, parry and dodge an attack.
But heavier armor should mitigate more incoming damage. That would make sense.

Defense Chance Increase is non-specific. Thus the defense in the case of heavier armor might be the fact that it simply turns aside an attack which otherwise would have damaged the wearer of the armor.