ELI5: Why can you adjust armor?

[Bitcoin Baron]

I dont see the point, does it increase XP gain to reduce armor or somthing?

[Zeddy]

Once upon a time a Japanese guy beat EDF2017, the third game in the series, on inferno with the starting 200 armour.

In EDF2017 it was not possible to adjust your armour. If you look for it, you might be able to find blurry, overcompressed footage of that Japanese guy playing mission 51. He has to dodge many things.

He has to dodge artillery plasma. He's gotta dodge drones lasers. He needs to dodge ant acid. Most important of all is that he needs to dodge armour pickups, because there were no backsies on armour pickups.

Not only did that guy have to survive on Inferno with 200 armour, he had to not touch a single armour pickup as well.

Basically the option was made available to make the game easier for masochists.

[Kaldrak]

I dunno about anyone else, but when I play with friends who have much less armor than my characters do online, I adjust it so I'm near their level.

[Sennzai]

for anyone who like challenge.

or that kind of thing.

[The Pants]

It's fun to reduce your armor

[Salty Peanut]

I lower it when I play with my chums who don't have as much

[Sabin Stargem]

Too much armor breaks the game, fun-wise. You can still reasonably lose on Inferno if you got endgame weaponry, but 50,000+ armor? Nearly invincible, and the deaths that happen are drawn out excessively.

[New Breakfast]

why not?

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Salty Peanut:

I lower it when I play with my chums who don't have as much

This is a well meaning outlook, but I have found thinking about it not as YOUR "more health than they have'".

Instead (because why would one lower it if there wasn't a huuuuge gap), treat it as "Oh boy, my Thousands of health Ranger can revive their 400 health Air Raider and Wing Diver SO many times!".

That said. I'm thankful it's a TRUE "Optional challenge setting". So many idiots desperate for attention on the internet just want to slap on as many inconveniences as possible until they are the only one left willing to put up with a game, and pretend that makes you hardcore.

EDF is honest about it by giving more than enough room to have a nice joyride with your gains. Even the mandatory caps on health until you unlock the ability to disable them are scaled to be give you an honest advantage for all pre-inferno stuff.

Most games would add an artificial difficulty noose around your neck instead to make it feel like you're playing an MMO.

Which is the sort of thing that makes me understand perfectly why the OP would ask why it's even a thing.

In many cases, that sort of thing is a red flag in catering to the kind of people who react to the idea of Sonic the Hedgehog Mercy invincibility in a Sonic clone lacking it with "You don't get REAL oldschool Sonic games!"

Here though? It's fine. Just another reason EDF holds up via core gameplay logic.

[TheBlackParade]

Originally posted by Zeddy:

Once upon a time a Japanese guy beat EDF2017, the third game in the series, on inferno with the starting 200 armour.

In EDF2017 it was not possible to adjust your armour. If you look for it, you might be able to find blurry, overcompressed footage of that Japanese guy playing mission 51. He has to dodge many things.

He has to dodge artillery plasma. He's gotta dodge drones lasers. He needs to dodge ant acid. Most important of all is that he needs to dodge armour pickups, because there were no backsies on armour pickups.

Not only did that guy have to survive on Inferno with 200 armour, he had to not touch a single armour pickup as well.

Basically the option was made available to make the game easier for masochists.

link or didin't happen

[Zeddy]

Amazingly, I found it.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4s1rQus0i7g

[KittyRena]

When you play long enough to have enough armor to make even Inferno a breeze, you're going to want to nerf yourself.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by KittyRena:

When you play long enough to have enough armor to make even Inferno a breeze, you're going to want to nerf yourself.

That's what cranking up the reckless use of explosions knob straight past 11 to 17 is for.

But I guess you don't get bog standard internet bragging rights for using C4 or bombing runs to free yourself from a grab, as you to with "I gave myself a numerical handicap!"

Which also tends to have that whole ironic twist of how, well... If you feel you don't need that extra health to win... You've made zero difference in removing health you feel you didn't need to win, AND missed out on more entertaining displays of carnage.

Though out an of context "There, I finally reduced my health to the point I started dying more!" is always kind of funny to think about.

[KittyRena]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Originally posted by KittyRena:

When you play long enough to have enough armor to make even Inferno a breeze, you're going to want to nerf yourself.

That's what cranking up the reckless use of explosions knob straight past 11 to 17 is for.

But I guess you don't get bog standard internet bragging rights for using C4 or bombing runs to free yourself from a grab, as you to with "I gave myself a numerical handicap!"

Which also tends to have that whole ironic twist of how, well... If you feel you don't need that extra health to win... You've made zero difference in removing health you feel you didn't need to win, AND missed out on more entertaining displays of carnage.

Though out an of context "There, I finally reduced my health to the point I started dying more!" is always kind of funny to think about.

lol it's because the game is much more funnier (in the case of playing with friends) when you die from your or someone else's mistake. Explosions as you said plays a huge part of this since edf 4.1's air raider had stupid broken ♥♥♥♥ at inferno

[New Breakfast]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Originally posted by KittyRena:

When you play long enough to have enough armor to make even Inferno a breeze, you're going to want to nerf yourself.

That's what cranking up the reckless use of explosions knob straight past 11 to 17 is for.

But I guess you don't get bog standard internet bragging rights for using C4 or bombing runs to free yourself from a grab, as you to with "I gave myself a numerical handicap!"

Which also tends to have that whole ironic twist of how, well... If you feel you don't need that extra health to win... You've made zero difference in removing health you feel you didn't need to win, AND missed out on more entertaining displays of carnage.

Though out an of context "There, I finally reduced my health to the point I started dying more!" is always kind of funny to think about.

you don't need to think THAT negatively about people who like a challenge. some just do it for their own fun without bragging about it to everyone. some people also love watching how the pros do it