80% of the armor pieces are useless

[Valfary]

Let's take the head chainmails as an example. According to the wiki, there are 10 different chainmails, with 7 tiers of protection granted. It's cool, as it provides the player with choices for fashion, and there's a clear progression path existing.

However, what typically happens is as follow :
-Players will steal a mail collar to escape Talmberg.
-Players will loot a standard mail coif around Ginger's quest.
-Players will loot a noble's mail coif around "nest of vipers".

And that's it. Before the first half of the game as ended, Henry already owns the best head chainmail. He never had to buy one, and will stick to this one for the next 50h of KCD.

The same can be said about almost every armor types : Milanese brigandine, arming doublets, noble's chainmail... Looting gives you access to the best gear before you reach level 10 on any stat.

Even if it's a little bit artificial, I like the strength and agility restrictions they put on weapons, and I think they should have done a similar thing for armor.

[kris.aalst]

Basically, it's correct you can get good armor early on. But not the best. AND without the right skills they will encumber and hinder you more than they do you good. Also, I want to take your example. The Wiki I use lists ten (not 7) head chainmail items: https://kingdom-come-deliverance.fandom.com/wiki/Head_chainmail

There's a huge difference between some items that look alike and even have the same name. In this particular case I refer to 'Mail Coif' that offers 4/4/3 defense, whereas there's an item with the same name that offers 11/14/8 defense. And this is just one of a dozen armour slots available. Also, it depends on your build. If you want some of the best sneaky armor, it requires keeping a constant lookout. E.g. 'Black Hood': you encounter plenty of the normal version but only rarely do you fid the other version which is a bit better.

[Boreal]

Originally posted by Valfary:

Even if it's a little bit artificial, I like the strength and agility restrictions they put on weapons, and I think they should have done a similar thing for armor.

They do it for Vitus' cuirass, Sasau Bailiff's brigandine and Armourer Ota's cuirass, according to the wiki, wich is kinda weird considering that like you said, you can get better armour, earlier, and they dont have requirements.

I like the idea of higher tier armours having requirements too, it adds a sense of progression imo.

[Valfary]

Originally posted by kris.aalst:

Basically, it's correct you can get good armor early on. But not the best.

As I said, there are 10 chainmails, but 7 tiers of protection. Regarding armor, defense is the only important stat. Charisma is the easiest stat to max, and it's not hard at all to get a set only made for stealth. By the way, high tier armor is often quite light compared to mid tier gear.

Before nest of vipers, you can have the best piece for coif ; head, leg and body chainmail ; body garment. You can have the 2nd best gloves and 3rd best body plate.

Helmets, arm armours and leg plates are the only things left to significantly improve. And that's only through looting corpses.

[Valfary]

Originally posted by Boreal:

I like the idea of higher tier armours having requirements too, it adds a sense of progression imo.

What I ended up doing was to add a RP rule saying that I have to buy armor to use it. I consider unlikely that gear found in chests or on enemies' corpses would perfectly fit Henry's body.

The game is funnier this way, so I regret that we can easily miss most of the very cool equipment warhorse built for us.

[eddie]

You can have one of best armor sets early, but Henry will be still pretty lame without training skills. ;-)

So, like in real life, for example somebody has got pretty good car, but that doesnt automatically mean he is a good driver.

[Franco_Scala]

Originally posted by Valfary:

Let's take the head chainmails as an example. According to the wiki, there are 10 different chainmails, with 7 tiers of protection granted. It's cool, as it provides the player with choices for fashion, and there's a clear progression path existing.

However, what typically happens is as follow :
-Players will steal a mail collar to escape Talmberg.
-Players will loot a standard mail coif around Ginger's quest.
-Players will loot a noble's mail coif around "nest of vipers".

And that's it. Before the first half of the game as ended, Henry already owns the best head chainmail. He never had to buy one, and will stick to this one for the next 50h of KCD.

The same can be said about almost every armor types : Milanese brigandine, arming doublets, noble's chainmail... Looting gives you access to the best gear before you reach level 10 on any stat.

Even if it's a little bit artificial, I like the strength and agility restrictions they put on weapons, and I think they should have done a similar thing for armor.

Bold of you to assume player's AREN'T playing through most of the game wearing Hans Capon's clothes and the beautiful scale helmet if it's raining out.

[Valfary]

Originally posted by eddie:

You can have one of best armor sets early, but Henry will be still pretty lame without training skills. ;-)

So, like in real life, for example somebody has got pretty good car, but that doesnt automatically mean he is a good driver.

It's not the subject. The problem is that most armor pieces exist to fill SSD space only.

Originally posted by Franco_Scala:

Bold of you to assume player's AREN'T playing through most of the game wearing Hans Capon's clothes and the beautiful scale helmet if it's raining out.

I assume most players will indeed play with the best gear they find, yes.

[Franco_Scala]

Originally posted by Valfary:

Originally posted by eddie:

You can have one of best armor sets early, but Henry will be still pretty lame without training skills. ;-)

So, like in real life, for example somebody has got pretty good car, but that doesnt automatically mean he is a good driver.

It's not the subject. The problem is that most armor pieces exist to fill SSD space only.

Originally posted by Franco_Scala:

Bold of you to assume player's AREN'T playing through most of the game wearing Hans Capon's clothes and the beautiful scale helmet if it's raining out.

I assume most players will indeed play with the best gear they find, yes.

...which is a choice to make. Still a bold assumption and an odd complaint to raise given all the ways to play through the game and all the different ways people do indeed find to play through it. Given the options to cheese Henry's stats from the start if you really want a complaint about mail collars seems a little asinine. There are a lot...A LOT of things taking up SSD space if they're not the things in game a player personally has interest in buying, or discovering, or digging up, or completing a side quest, or passively looking at whilst hunting in the woods...

It's all there to flesh out the world, give you options even if you don't choose them.

[AfLIcTeD]

Item stats aren't everything. Some people will wear what looks good, or maybe they want to look a certain way for roleplay. You would complain if there was little variety, but instead you are complaining that there are too many.

[MacSuibhne]

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

Item stats aren't everything. Some people will wear what looks good, or maybe they want to look a certain way for roleplay. You would complain if there was little variety, but instead you are complaining that there are too many.

[Valfary]

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

Item stats aren't everything. Some people will wear what looks good, or maybe they want to look a certain way for roleplay. You would complain if there was little variety, but instead you are complaining that there are too many.

Providing players with choices is a thing. Balancing the game to avoid one choice being clearly superior to every other is another thing. They had a nice idea with weapons and should have used it for armor as-well.

When Bloodborne came out, players whined that there was too little weapon choice compared to Dark Souls. However, 75% of Dark Souls' weapons were useless and everyone kept using the claymore... In Bloodborne however, each weapon was polished and balanced to fit into a specific playstyle.

Back to KCD, what difference is there between two brigandines ? Stats mostly. Why would you use light brigandine when you own a milanese brigandine ? I don't think there is a magical way to balance everything, but they failed to give value to most low and mid-tier armors.

[CalicoJack]

Originally posted by Valfary:

Regarding armor, defense is the only important stat.

maybe for you but not everyone plays the game as "Henry the Terminator".

given that armor also effects visibility, noise and charisma id say it really depends on what one plans to do with it and what other cloth stats he already has.

availability is also a thing, so is Henrys encumbrance.
not to forget that expensive armor is also expensive to repair.
aaaaand the looks of course...

[kris.aalst]

Originally posted by Valfary:

Regarding armor, defense is the only important stat.

I completely agree with CalicoJack.

As a general advice, don't take your own opinion as the only evangelic truth. I have plenty of defense from a few pieces of armor to survive, so I like to add some other pieces of armor that either increase my sneakiness (outdoors) or my charisma (in towns). So my opinion differs from yours, which should be perfectly acceptable.

[Franco_Scala]

Originally posted by CalicoJack:

Originally posted by Valfary:

Regarding armor, defense is the only important stat.

maybe for you but not everyone plays the game as "Henry the Terminator".

given that armor also effects visibility, noise and charisma id say it really depends on what one plans to do with it and what other cloth stats he already has.

availability is also a thing, so is Henrys encumbrance.
not to forget that expensive armor is also expensive to repair.
aaaaand the looks of course...

Originally posted by kris.aalst:

Originally posted by Valfary:

Regarding armor, defense is the only important stat.

I completely agree with CalicoJack.

As a general advice, don't take your own opinion as the only evangelic truth. I have plenty of defense from a few pieces of armor to survive, so I like to add some other pieces of armor that either increase my sneakiness (outdoors) or my charisma (in towns). So my opinion differs from yours, which should be perfectly acceptable.

Likewise. My style of playing the game has always been to follow the story/s and lean in to Henry's current capability and reasoning (or lack thereof). This means proceeding through a large part of the game relying on caution, guile and running light and inconspicuous until there's any natural 'pause' in the main story that allows Henry any appreciable time to train in combat, learn to read etc. Also, as a refugee with little experience of the world, my Henry isn't going around looting every corpse and hoarding all armour and weapon items with foreknowledge of what are 'good' stats. This also means that many of the items that were found early on were quickly liquidated into Groschen because...there's many reasons humans developed currency that apply even more strongly to a young man with little experience in a dangerous world and no home of his own. This isn't some conscious, extraneous effort to role-play in spite of the game, it was my natural inclination that made most sense because of the game.

...I also know very well that others play the game very, very differently...and thus find themselves at odds with other elements of the game that don't fit perfectly with their approach or seem redundant. That being said, I'm highly suspicious that any player on their first run through 'typically' has a nose for exactly what they'll need later in the game or what counts as 'good' stats when they have nothing else to compare it to or little knowledge of how the game works yet. The problems raised by the OP would surely only become visible after your first or perhaps even second play through...or if you spent hours watching YouTube guides and memorising wiki articles before even playing the prologue.

...also just gonna put here that in my gaming experience one of the most common 'typical' play styles that gamers devolve into in tabletop gaming or RPGs is 'murder hobo'. Given an open game world with no real-world repercussions it isn't long before any pretence of decency go out the window and the limits of the game will be thoroughly tested and broken. I wouldn't be surprised that many players turned Henry into a serial killer that could afford to buy/steal/loot anything he wanted before ever encountering the loot drops OP mentions.

[MacSuibhne]

Originally posted by Franco_Scala:

in my gaming experience one of the most common 'typical' play styles that gamers devolve into in tabletop gaming or RPGs is 'murder hobo'. Given an open game world with no real-world repercussions it isn't long before any pretence of decency go out the window and the limits of the game will be thoroughly tested and broken. I wouldn't be surprised that many players turned Henry into a serial killer that could afford to buy/steal/loot anything he wanted before ever encountering the loot drops OP mentions.

I agree with pretty much everything you posted but esp. the last bit.

“Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.” Sitting Bull