Does Armor Rating do anything on NPCs?

[Hatsodoom]

How does Armor Rating/Damage Resist work for NPCs? All the enemies in my game don't seem to resist physical attacks at all. I get their damage resist value using console commands and it does return a valid number, but all my attacks do unreduced damage. The only enemies that resist physical attacks are ones with special perks. I'm using "Armor Rating Redux" if that helps, but all that should do is modify the formula.

What am I missing? Surely it must do something, otherwise why bother giving NPCs different armor?

[Eternie]

Interesting question
UESP usually has answers for everything Elder scroll related.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Armor

If you give armor to an NPC that npc only gains a the benefit of that armor based on their skill in that armor class. So although they would get some protection from armor they need to get hit a lot to increase that armor skill to gain more protection.

However to what extent they can gain additional protection I haven't actually tried testing that.

[Hatsodoom]

Both Steam and the Nexus forums don't seem to understand what I'm asking. So let me make this as clear as possible.

Example: I use the "getav damageresist" console command on say, a bandit and it returns a value of 68. My sword deals say 40 damage. I swing my sword and the bandit doesn't block it or anything. It's not a power attack either and the enemy has no perks to resist damage. The sword hits and deals 40 damage, the armor seemingly doing nothing.

Why is this?

Edit: Okay that's odd. I uninstalled "Armor Rating Redux" and messed around a bit, then reinstalled it. The armor on enemies seems to be functional again, but is only following the mod's Linear formula despite me using Hyperbolic. I'm assuming for the moment that's intended.

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by Eternie:

Interesting question
UESP usually has answers for everything Elder scroll related.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Armor

If you give armor to an NPC that npc only gains a the benefit of that armor based on their skill in that armor class. So although they would get some protection from armor they need to get hit a lot to increase that armor skill to gain more protection.

However to what extent they can gain additional protection I haven't actually tried testing that.

Does it increase tho?
I am pretty sure all NPC skills are static and they dont improve from normal use as Player ones do

[Hatsodoom]

He might be talking about followers, dunno, don't use them. In any case things seem at least, partially fixed. I need to somehow get in contact with the mod author and ask them what the deal is. I tested it and the same armor rating/damage resist give different results for me and enemies. (Again, using Armor Rating Redux.) It has three different formulas. I use Hyperbolic and the enemy seems to use Linear. (Hitting an enemy with 89 AR/DR reduces damage by around 10%. Tested with 33 damage and 27 damage, each reduced by three since I think the game rounds to the closest number.)

[Alucard †]

Followers are NPCs
same rules apply to them aswell

[Hatsodoom]

Yah but you can give them stuff, so they can wield forged/upgraded weapons. But eh, I dunno anything about them.

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by Lazarus:

Yah but you can give them stuff, so they can wield forged/upgraded weapons. But eh, I dunno anything about them.

Doesn't matter what you give them they cannot level up their skills on their own via normal use (like getting hit in a armor won't level up their armor skills).

Only way to raise NPC skills is to give them skill boosting enchanted gear or via console.

But i'm sorry i won't hijack your thread anymore

[Eternie]

@Lazarus the followers will level with you to their maximum levels. So for example Aela from the companions can reach Level 50 (but others like Ria only reach L25 as a max) and as such can have similar skills like you do. (up to those levels) Same as all enemies will level with you up to their max levels (see details under UESP followers, Npcs or Bandits )

Whereas all other Npcs have static skills and levels probably close to Level 1 - 4.
Modded followers can level with you at least to Level 100 depending on your game level.

The UESP that I linked earlier for Armor shows the way the game calculates damage resistance. which is a bit beyond my capabilities to understand. I know UESP has info relating to damage resistance vs armor rating ... info on followers and NPCs. It's the most updated info on any Elder scroll game. With hints and tips

[Hatsodoom]

Problem is my mod completely does away with the vanilla calculations. I can't say the problem is 100% fixed, but armor is doing something now. It's just following a different formula than the one I'm using. (Again the mod has 3 to choose from. I'm using Hyperbolic but the NPCs seem to only be using Linear.) I've contacted the Mod maker for a potential resolution.