Any real use for flak armor?

[Ender]

Sure it's been asked MANY times before, but opinions change, updates come out, etc, etc.

I personally only unlock the gear for the vest, and almost never use the jacket, or pants.
Flak gear doesn't have amazing stats for cold, or heat, It slows your pawns down, it can only be made from cloth...

A devilstrand duster / pants offer more defense, and I honestly find it easier to make.

Side thought- Why the Hell do flak pants take up the "skin" spot? The pants would be awesome if you could wear some devil underneath.

(Time line)
I go from just wearing normal clothing, to adding the flak vest, to turning all the clothes devilstrand, to power armor.

My guess is, this is a pretty standard, but I could be wrong. Thoughts?

[Astasia]

I sometimes use the starting set, and if I find any as loot I might use it, but I never craft any flak in any of my games at any point, not even the vests. It's too easy to skip right past it to something better. If I really need some early game armor for whatever reason I just make plate, which is a lot cheaper and provides better overall protection (less for torso but much better for arms and legs) plus you can wear pants with it, that way my tank doesn't instantly lose an arm or leg while blocking for an infestation.

Vests used to be pretty good, but the chance of being one-shot in the heart has been reduced drastically over the years to the point where I no longer consider it a serious threat. Just wearing clothes and a duster is fine early game for ranged combatants until you can start outfitting people in real armor.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Vests used to be pretty good, but the chance of being one-shot in the heart has been reduced drastically over the years to the point where I no longer consider it a serious threat.

Needle guns would like to know your location

[Hykal]

Can't say I've used much flak pants or the flak jacket. I'm stuck in my ways of wearing flak vests and flak helmets, simple helmets before that. The vest/duster combo is still mighty especially with devilstrand. It would suffice until you get everyone in power armor.

Before I get to that, I still craft plate armor for my best melee pawns. It's a shame there's no heavy helmet of any kind in vanilla. Can't help how goofy Fredrik the Slayer looks like wearing 15th century plate and a bowl for a helmet.

[Ender]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by Astasia:

Vests used to be pretty good, but the chance of being one-shot in the heart has been reduced drastically over the years to the point where I no longer consider it a serious threat.

Needle guns would like to know your location

Hahahaha. That actually made me laugh.

Originally posted by Hykal:

Can't say I've used much flak pants or the flak jacket. I'm stuck in my ways of wearing flak vests and flak helmets, simple helmets before that. The vest/duster combo is still mighty especially with devilstrand. It would suffice until you get everyone in power armor.

Before I get to that, I still craft plate armor for my best melee pawns. It's a shame there's no heavy helmet of any kind in vanilla. Can't help how goofy Fredrik the Slayer looks like wearing 15th century plate and a bowl for a helmet.

I very often play with Vanilla expanded add on's, because I, too, find it annoying that there's no damn good melee helm, and I refuse to send them forth with simple/flak helmets on. Hah'.

[Theo Hardmeier]

Need a proper vanilla plate helmet added...and heck even a low tech simple vest for early game tribals.
Guess mods have to handle that for now...

[Hykal]

Just as an aside, needle guns do 15 damage while a bolt-action (normal to excellent) does 18 damage so needle guns aren't TOO bad. It's lancers with their 30 damage you have to worry about.

[Hykal]

Originally posted by Theo Hardmeier:

Need a proper vanilla plate helmet added...and heck even a low tech simple vest for early game tribals.
Guess mods have to handle that for now...

Frankly the fact there aren't chainmail shirts just as a normal option is quite strange seeing as mail armor is the most common form of armor throughout history. Chainmail has been around since 500 BC!

[Astasia]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Needle guns would like to know your location

That's a pretty good example of what I mean. Needle guns would have been pretty dangerous in like A16 or whatever, but then the part destruction rules were added at some point and a 15 damage shot destroying a 15 damage part is incredibly rare now. Bullets have a 0 to 70% overkill requirement, I don't know what the odds of landing on 0 are but it's never happened for me.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Needle guns would like to know your location

That's a pretty good example of what I mean. Needle guns would have been pretty dangerous in like A16 or whatever, but then the part destruction rules were added at some point and a 15 damage shot destroying a 15 damage part is incredibly rare now. Bullets have a 0 to 70% overkill requirement, I don't know what the odds of landing on 0 are but it's never happened for me.

Just the other day I had a pawn die instantly from a heart shot from a Pikeman that landed near my base. Very first shot it fired.
Naturally it was virtually my only pawn that didn't have a flak vest.
Also I see destroyed lungs from bolt action rifles all the time, which is only 20% overkill.

[Astasia]

I'm sure other people have had worse luck than me and will swear by vests, but honestly the past 500-600 hours I have in the game I don't think I've had a single heart blown out, and probably only lost a handful of lungs mostly because a single big lungshot generally doesn't down a pawn and they get hit again. It's just not worth thinking about for me. It's definitely worth having good armor once you are getting into heavy combat, but the period of time where you can make vests and not recon+ armor is too short and too early to matter.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Ender:

...I personally only unlock the gear for the vest, and almost never use the jacket, or pants.
Flak gear doesn't have amazing stats for cold, or heat, It slows your pawns down, it can only be made from cloth...

A devilstrand duster / pants offer more defense, and I honestly find it easier to make.
...Thoughts?

I always push to being able to make vests and helmets. I use devilstrand for the rest when its available. I consider being able to craft, on demand, the Vests and even just the simple Helmets as an essential goal. Layering is important. Everyone gets a Flak Vest/Helmet when they're recruited until I have better. (Note: I don't have the DLC and am not as familiar with late-patch "new" armor sets. Even so, I see no downside to Flak Vests and even normal Helmets when one needs armor choices.)

I don't use or make Flak Pants or Jackets, either, though I will occasionally equip ones I get from Raiders if needed. (Usually the pants for melee fighters if I happen across some before I have better.)

[MortVent]

I use it early on while I research other things and later on I do vests for workers and better armor for combat specialists

Often though I just do duster, vest, button-down/formal shirt, pants, and cowboy hat for all till I move into heavier armors. Often with smokepop belts, or shield belts for dedicated brawlers

[LIMP BISQUICK]

Been awhile for me so I wonder if I recall things correctly. I never craft plate armor, I forget why. Maybe I didn't think it was worth it? I know they cover a good bit but I still honestly thought they were bad. If they have terrible move penalty then that could be why. I used flak vests cause of the torso protection. Just seemed like a good trade as the torso contains many critical organs. I don't care for the rest of the flak set. As for helmets I just couldn't gauge what the best options were before hitting marine. There's recon helmet now and I don't think I ever gave that a try. Plasteel advanced helmet seemed too much for too little but still craft them depending on the situation. So yeah, I'd assume it's a standard setup as well.

[Chuck]

they look cool. i guess.

[Vintorez]

They're kinda meant to be used before Devilstrand is available in the needed quantities. While the vest offers the bulk of the not-getting-instantly-killed factor, jackets protect the shoulders and arms as well. A pawn taking a bullet to an arm can reduce their combat and medical effectiveness drastically, especially if they get hit early. Maybe not quite worth kitting the whole colony, but definitely good for the front line fighters while you work up towards devilstrand.