How impactful is armor? Everything you need to know.

[Wolfman_TTV]

Comrades... Comrades Meat!
I have tested and rated all armor variants in Darkwood. Believe or not but it's not a niche mechanic. It's quite deep aspect of the game. If you struggle in our wonderful woods, take care of armor and you will do just fine, trust me.

Here is a nice image of how much each armor reduces the damage, tested on a bear trap:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3155163853


If you wish to know the details, when armor works and when it doesn't, perhaps even see clips of it being in use, making you immortal etc, check my Reddit post about it where I inclunded all possible information!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Darkwood/comments/1ak67kb/everything_you_need_to_know_about_the_armor_in/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Heavy Armor is a threshold of being very hard to kill. Super and Ultra Armor are making you a walking tank.

[MazyRun]

Nice, good research. So basically it is the rework to the 'thick skin' status effect (making it a buff instead of a de-buff) that is causing all these extreme armor/HP buffs to be possible.

Taking odd meat out of the equation balances all the different armor/healing combos.. It makes me wonder if the reason thick skin was originally a de-buff was to balance all those kind of combos lol

Good point about the jar of meat/odd meat combo, that is some super effective armor, basically god mode (especially when combined with passive skills).

IF reverting the odd meat buff (to a de-buff) is not an option here, maybe nerfing the strength of the buff could help balance this? (not sure it would)

I think there might even be a way to prevent certain combos working together because I've noticed that some stamina buffs actually cancel each other out, for example, if you eat bread (a long lasting stamina buff) then eat an egg (a medium lasting stamina buff) the egg buff cancels/overrides the bread buff (it doesn't stack, you lose the original duration of the first buff)..

..What if you couldn't stack a healing effect and an armor effect at the same time, what if the armor status effect cancelled out the healing status effect (and healing status effect cancelled out the armor buff effect).. this would create a system where you could stack light armor with a healing status effect or a thick skin status effect, but not both at the same time.

The other thing to consider about this is just how abundant odd meat is, every time you kill something you have an instant armor buff available (lootable odd meat). Therefore you are walking around, day & night, with a persistent renewable armor buff always on the go, every time you engage in a new fight you are already buffed from the previous kill (by contrast, light armor is balanced because bug shells are rare).

Original discussion about what makes this OP.. https://steamcommunity.com/app/274520/discussions/0/4201363889248761954/

[Wolfman_TTV]

Oh, Thick Skin was never meant to be a debuff. It always was meant to reduce the dmg by 50%. But it simply was bugged and was making you take 50% dmg instead, luckily fixed in 1.4 version.

But now when it's fixed, Odd Meat AKA the Thick Skin AKA the Heavy Armor is too strong mainly because Acid Wizard nerfed enemy spawn rates and chapter 2 enemies to the ground.

Another problem like you've mentioned is the accessbility to it. Almost every enemy gives Odd Meat so you can maintain the Heavy Armor with ease.

I love the idea of it. Like stacking it on existing Light or Medium Armor. Sort of "preparation before the battle". It gives me great vibe of Witcher when the game rewards you for being patient and having a strategic approach to the game.

But honestly? I don't consider Odd Meat as #1 issue. The #1 issue are the healing pills which are even easier to access and instaheal like it's nothing. Instaheals shouldn't be a thing. It's alright with Embyro, Antlers but the pills are a horrible, unhealthy item.

To nerf Odd Meat I would try to remove the Food Endurance it gives. Another problem with the Heavy Armor is a poor way the devs handled the armor. Light Armor breaks and you have to craft a new one all the time. It would be better if it was an item to be repaired instead with 1 shell and 1 rag.
And the Sweater AKA Medium Armor also should be possible to be repaired with the Fabric instead of being gone after its durability is set to 0.
THEN we can buff the Sweater and make it become the Heavy Armor instead and nerf the Odd Meat to become the Medium one instead.

But honestly. I'm not sure about all this, feels like a lot of balancing while the major issues lie within the healing being OP and enemies being nerfed. Armor shouldn't be a big part of devs' concern...