Plate armor needs life again

[Redxpanda]

I'm pretty sure this has been discussed and possibly suggested before:

I was just thinking how plate armor has almost become useless since the runics. I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of naysayers but i would like to see some sort of changes to make plate armor worth making. Perhaps plate can get some added chance of adding armor while leather has a better chance of adding LRC or something like that. This will also make it a bit easier on us crafters working on that perfect suit especially for warriors. I can't remember the last time i saw someone wearing full plate (and not doing it for a laugh).

 

[Pickaxe Pete]

Actually, with the valorite hammer boom, the mage armor plate (samurai stuff) is incredibly popular right now.

 

[Erekose]

Cap max resists on leather at 60 or so. Require plate if one wants more than that. Or, allow phys resist on plate to go to 80. There are lots of options. EA/Mythic will not do anything about it though.

Love the game. Hate the company.

 

[Sneaky]

Cap max resists on leather at 60 or so. Require plate if one wants more than that. Or, allow phys resist on plate to go to 80. There are lots of options. EA/Mythic will not do anything about it though.

Love the game. Hate the company.

Want to bet?

Oh and no EA = no UO. Just like no Origin/Garriot = no UO, as important as they were to the creation of the game, we have EA to thank for UO still being here, they could of canned it years ago quite easily...

 

[Solikos]

[rant]

I agree completely. I also hate seeing "Mage Armor" on anything except perhaps artifacts (but I hate those anyway). So much of this game has been completely dumbed down so that a 6 year old could do well (and I can't even do well!).

There is no longer an equipment dilema... With warriors now able to burn through mana, there SHOULD be an equipment dilema (plate for higher resists, or leather for more mana/dex/dmg output).

I remember when Plate used to drop Dex, you could not cast spells in it, etc. Archers were insane to use Plate Armor (most used studded leather, which has also fallen by the wayside now). Of course, none of that is important anymore, the only difference in armor now is weight and if it is meddable. Removing Mage Armor and making a TRUE difference between Plate and Leather would also make the Focus skill much more useful (if you want to fight in plate, you shouldn't be able to meditate).

Aside from warriors, mages/necros should not have the possibility of casting spells in an all 70's medable suit with mage weapons.

[/rant]

~ Solikos

 

[Solikos]

Want to bet?

Oh and no EA = no UO. Just like no Origin/Garriot = no UO, as important as they were to the creation of the game, we have EA to thank for UO still being here, they could of canned it years ago quite easily...

Well, saying you hate an entity doesn't necessarily mean you hate what they provide (but perhaps the mode in which they provide it). There are many real life examples of this... Hate gas prices? But without gas you'd have to walk... It's a folly argument.

The point is, we're happy UO is still around. But we're not exactly happy with the choices the company has been making.

~ Solikos

 

[Nestorius]

Was plate ever useful? I seem to remember at one point, between Blackthorn's Revenge and AOS that I found it may have been useful against golem attacks, but otherwise the dex penality always made it kind of pointless to wear.

 

[Nyses]

Was plate ever useful? I seem to remember at one point, between Blackthorn's Revenge and AOS that I found it may have been useful against golem attacks, but otherwise the dex penality always made it kind of pointless to wear.

Plate and Chain, used to be VERY useful, back when there was only AR, and that was physical, none of this elemental crap.

As a mage, you wore leather, to meditate and had a lower AR. As a dexer, you usually wore full plate, for the AR. OR, warriors would also opt for the "heavy" or "Light" Archer suits, which were combinations of Chain and Plate, for bolstered AR with minimal Dex penalties.

A full set of plate set you back, something like 18 dex and a light Archer suit (Chain tunic, legs, Plate arms, gloves, gorget, and helm) only set you back like 12 dex.

Those were definantly the high point for the crafters.

 

[Fink]

Plate and Chain, used to be VERY useful, back when there was only AR, and that was physical, none of this elemental crap.

As a mage, you wore leather, to meditate and had a lower AR. As a dexer, you usually wore full plate, for the AR. OR, warriors would also opt for the "heavy" or "Light" Archer suits, which were combinations of Chain and Plate, for bolstered AR with minimal Dex penalties.

A full set of plate set you back, something like 18 dex and a light Archer suit (Chain tunic, legs, Plate arms, gloves, gorget, and helm) only set you back like 12 dex.

Those were definantly the high point for the crafters.

As a newbie I looked on magic archer suits with envious eyes.. I thought I was so bad-ass in my first set of shadow iron ringmail, though.

 

[Solikos]

Was plate ever useful? ..... the dex penality always made it kind of pointless to wear.

Fighters lived or died by their heavy armor. AR was everything, and without a good plate (or near) suit you'd shortly be oOoing from a decent fight.

My Archer used pure studded leather for no dex penalty and just tried not to get hit in the first place.

Mages used Leather for medable and *some* AR for those scary moments.

Back then, most armor had some purpose... And people actually bought armor regularly, not just repair deeds for their arties or once in a life-time purchase high end craftables.

On the other hand, one good thing they changed (to a degree) was giving special abilities to weapons; I remember when everyone used a kryss, warfork, katana, or halberd... Few drifted outside of that. DPS are fairly evened out now, and the special abilities ensure there is no 'ultimate' weapon. The downside is uber magical weapons, and again, items that cannot be destroyed.

~ Solikos

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Was plate ever useful? I seem to remember at one point, between Blackthorn's Revenge and AOS that I found it may have been useful against golem attacks, but otherwise the dex penality always made it kind of pointless to wear.

Plate was never useful, people just like being nostalgic. The Dex loss on a full plate set made it useless, most people used archer sets back then [Ring mail with plate arms] When the special leathers came out that was replaced by full barbed studded armor as it gave the same exact armor with no dex loss as an archer suit.
Only roleplayers and noobs used plate back before AOS.

 

[Redxpanda]

Verite, Valorite and Shadow were valuable too. Not because it offered any extra protection but because it allowed you to look good while fighting in plate. This was of course way before pigment dyes. You had to protect yourself if it matched or not.

 

[butthead owns]

why dont you all sugesst they fixx all known issues first then move on before trying to ad more to deal with i mean comon kill the scripter then fixs the bugs then maybe have an expasion then add new items your just makeing the game worse asking them for new stuff till they fix all the known issues like maybe they can hire some real gms for the american shards that are as cool as the gms on asain shards

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Verite, Valorite and Shadow were valuable too. Not because it offered any extra protection but because it allowed you to look good while fighting in plate. This was of course way before pigment dyes. You had to protect yourself if it matched or not.

They changed that in Publish 16 where the rarer the metal [or new leather type] , the more Armor it offered. Valorite plate set had the same armor as a full invul set, then they boosted the invul sets to have more AR to counter this.

 

[Eslake]

Plate was never useful, people just like being nostalgic. The Dex loss on a full plate set made it useless, most people used archer sets back then [Ring mail with plate arms] When the special leathers came out that was replaced by full barbed studded armor as it gave the same exact armor with no dex loss as an archer suit.
Only roleplayers and noobs used plate back before AOS.

Pre tram (and for a while after), full GM Plate and GM resist made you virtually invulnerable. You didn't swing as fast as the dexers in leather but you didn't have to with max strength and a good halberd or vanq axe. Just joust through them a few times and they're singing oOoOOOo
That was after the original archery nerf of course... which broke shots while moving - and they said they couldn't fix it. Funny how moving shot is now a skill based ability.


Anyhow.. on topic..

Plate, IMO, should have more base properties. +5 reflect and +3 DCI at least.
But it should also have a base -2 Energy resist. A big hunk of metal is going to draw electrical attacks, not avoid them.

Personally, I think they should give each category of armor an absorption factor. The armor simply eliminates points of damage by any attack regardless of the resistance in that area.

(Mixed sets would use the Average of the type-peices rounded down)
Leather should absorb 1 point/attack.
Studded 2.
Chain&Ring 3.
Plate 4.

 

[Pickaxe Pete]

Has anyone posting in this thread actually gone and looked at high-end armor vendors on Atlantic lately? The best armor is mostly crafted plate.

 

[Solikos]

Has anyone posting in this thread actually gone and looked at high-end armor vendors on Atlantic lately? The best armor is mostly crafted plate.

Surprising... Is the title of the merchant "Rares"?

 

[timbeOFbaja]

Plate was never useful, people just like being nostalgic. The Dex loss on a full plate set made it useless, most people used archer sets back then [Ring mail with plate arms] When the special leathers came out that was replaced by full barbed studded armor as it gave the same exact armor with no dex loss as an archer suit.
Only roleplayers and noobs used plate back before AOS.

You don't have a very good memory or don't date back as far as I do.

I recall there being a gradual death to plate armor. I believe initially back in 97 it didn't even have a dex penalty. They added that in and it didn't have much of an effect because the AR was still worth it for most templates.....mages and tank mages who used slow weapons anyway and dexers who were up close. Later they made meditation an active skill and at the same time made non leather non medable. At that point, plate was still around a lot, but people were min-maxing their suits and you had people in ring or chain with some plate. What killed plate armor was AoS. With that expansion all non-leather armor instantly became worthless. That means the dev team no longer saw a need for different types of armor.....there would just be "armor" and it would be leather. There's no way, during all the design and development phases, that nobody raised their hand and wondered if everybody would just wear leather armor.

Anyway, no easy way to back out of the damage AoS did without some closed accounts which is why they won't bother.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

You don't have a very good memory or don't date back as far as I do.

I recall there being a gradual death to plate armor. I believe initially back in 97 it didn't even have a dex penalty. They added that in and it didn't have much of an effect because the AR was still worth it for most templates.....mages and tank mages who used slow weapons anyway and dexers who were up close. Later they made meditation an active skill and at the same time made non leather non medable. At that point, plate was still around a lot, but people were min-maxing their suits and you had people in ring or chain with some plate. What killed plate armor was AoS. With that expansion all non-leather armor instantly became worthless. That means the dev team no longer saw a need for different types of armor.....there would just be "armor" and it would be leather. There's no way, during all the design and development phases, that nobody raised their hand and wondered if everybody would just wear leather armor.

Anyway, no easy way to back out of the damage AoS did without some closed accounts which is why they won't bother.

I started around UO:R. In my opinion plate was a joke, ALWAYS. Sure they didn't take too much damage, however, a slow plate user was never any match for my light-archer or studded armor wearing mace/swords setup. By the time my opponent managed to hit me I had already broken several pieces of their armor, switched to a katana and wtfpwned them to hell.
Dragon Scale was even worse, more armor than plate but lol more dex loss.
I guess if you did PVM only it was ok, but even on fast casting creatures like lich lords, plate was death. PVP the dex loss was fully unnacceptable.
Pub 16 was great because a full set of barbed studded was the same AR as a light archer and no dex loss, so leather started replacing metal WAY before AOS.