How do armor and damage values interact?

[Quattro Bajeena]

Does anyone know how the values interact?

[DargonBlak]

i do not know the exact answer, and i have looked, but i am willing to take an educated guess based on in game testing.

let's assume weapon damage is determined by the listed weapon damage for the attack type, and modified by circumstance (e.g. strength) - seems a safe assumption.

i believe armor works like a "damage resistance", but the total "damage resistance" is most likely the listed armor damage resistance for the attack type, plus modifiers based on circumstance ( ??? - expecting similar formula construct, but i don't know)

the net damage that gets through the armor's "damage resistance" seems to have 3 possible effects:

1. the net damage (attack - resist) is then countered by stamina, at some ratio, and possibly by attack type, armor type, etc. (again, most likely with "modifiers")

2. the net damage damages the armor at some ratio

also

3. the net damage sometimes can cause direct damage in the presence of stamina - like a stab or arrow shot to an open face - this seems to be calculated outside of damage through "armor".

an interesting test of this theory, and a way to learn about the benefits of blunt damage, is to use a two very different weapon types on the same encounter against a fully armored opponent - like a short sword (stab & slash) versus a blunt attack weapon (mace)

during these two combat examples, my experience is that the short sword fight takes far longer, as if the resulting armor damage per attack is much smaller for the short sword than it is for the mace - in a similar way, it always seems to me that the mace (or hammer) starts to cause damage through armor & stamina far faster than the sword.

to me, this implies that the "blunt damage" type is treated (attributed) differently than slash or stab damage type, but possibly merely by reducing stamina more quickly.

[Quattro Bajeena]

Thank you for your answer, it fits my experience as well. I just wish the system was not as opaque as it is.

[DargonBlak]

Originally posted by Van der Graaf Generator:

... I just wish the system was not as opaque as it is.

i agree.

There are other aspects of the game that also seem to vary unexpectedly, but it sometimes turns out to be an improvement over my expectations.

[mw00]

blunt weapons are for enemies wearing full plate
stabs are good against mail
cuts are good against unarmored enemies, gambesons
some sword combos/master strikes deal bonus damage against armored enemies

[danilo.schoeneberg]

Originally posted by error2k:

blunt weapons are for enemies wearing full plate
stabs are good against mail
cuts are good against unarmored enemies, gambesons
some sword combos/master strikes deal bonus damage against armored enemies

Blunt seems to work quite effectively against everything. I usually need nothing more than a Raven's beak to deal with any type of opponent.

[Gustuv Wynd]

At the basic level, It is just simple math. If a hit location has 15 slashing protection and 10 blunt protection and a sword slash comes in doing 19 slashing and 2 blunt damage...the target takes 4 slashing damage and 0 blunt. This is why axes don't do well because they do medium slash and blunt damage and have to break some armor before they can reliably do damage.

In reality it is a bit more complex than that because if the target's stamina is low they will not be able to defend themselves well and armor can get bypassed somewhat because the incoming damage is increased. A high warefare skill vs a low defense skill does the same thing. There is also the mechanic of armor taking damage and being less effective. The basic armor mechanic of the simple math stays the same, but just because a sword says it can do 40 slashing damage in a swing or an armor piece says it can block 15 piercing damage doesn't mean it will.

Oh, there is also a separate mechanic in play that kind of averages out armor. AverageArmorDefense is what is called if you are curious...this is an annoying RNG thing. Some times when a hit lands (that might be on a spot that has low armor vs an attack even) it will be reduced by a percentage the overall armor. So if the hands were just naked on an otherwise well armored target and you landed a weak hit there...there is a 50% chance you might not do any heath damage and instead all armor pieces will take some wear and tear. I have been playing with moding it recently and I can't say I like it. Though it is hard to say how much it helps though it kind of undermines tatics like wearing heavy arms to fend off blows while being light armored every where else. Though this is why after a fight you will sometimes see damage to your leg armor when you didn't receive any blows below the belt.