But before that, have a quick question:
Why does steel armor weigh the same as iron? One of the massive perks of steel is that it's lighter and stronger than iron. Admittedly, if I understand right, this may be due to how crafting's done mechanically but is there any intention to tweak this eventually?
Ok, back to Armor Use
Right now, one can only gain skill-ups in two ways:
-Succeeding with an armor check
-Being trained(Via the 1 pt skill up granted)
This leads to a rather odd situation when it comes to someone who decides to go from no skill and buys plate. Between being burdened and the low skill, a character has very little(or possibly none, can't tell due to the hidden rolls) chance to skill up.
Now, when I broached the subject in-game, it was suggested that I start with lighter armor so I can actually get the skill ups and I ran into some resistance when I honestly stated that I feel that makes very little sense. While there's some parallels in the use of leather armor compared to using plate they're completely different beasts altogether. How one handles themselves in leather armor is going to be rather different than how they'd act in plate.
For example, light leather armor is there as protection when you couldn't avoid taking damage and how you move in it is going to reflect that. Admittedly, that may raise a point for reducing leather armor's weight a touch, for how it's meant to be, probably shouldn't weigh as much as it does.
Plate? You may still attempt to dodge/parry attacks but you're also going to rely on it to take some of the damage and thus, learning how to use it will also involve how to take/deflect the blows correctly. It's kinda like a shield in that regard, just having it helps but knowing how to use it can prolong its lifespan as well as better protect you.
Thus, like I said, it's a bit odd having a single skill cover the usage of all types of armor. To me, the system's not dissimilar to having say a "Pointy Weapons" skill but in order to actually have a chance of using a spear effectively, I gotta train my it up with daggers first. Yeah, spears and daggers have a similar premise(pointy end goes into other guy) but learning how to use one isn't going to dramatically increase my ability to use the other. Honestly, how the weapon skills are done in connection with the base melee skill is something I really like about Clok's mechanics which brings me to...
Armor Use Overhaul Suggestion:
Make a skill for the major armor types while keeping "Armor Use" as an accompanying skill similar to how weapons skills work with the melee/marksman skills.
Categories:
Leather(Covers all Leather-based armors)
Metal(Non-Plate)
Plate(Do I really need to?)
Conversely, could go with Light, Medium, and Heavy and have some of the heavier/sturdier leather armor types classified as medium.
Mechanically I'd could see this being handled a few different ways. For each of em, we'll assume that our Target Number is 50 while the Armor Use and Plate skills are at 100.(Note I'm well aware that these examples may very well require substantial tweaking based on how the underlying mechanics behind Clok work. Please keep that in mind when responding)
Method 1: Weighted Mean
Code: Select all
Armor Check = {(Armor Use * 25%) + (Plate * 75%)}
Armor Use rolls 20
Plate rolls 40
Armor Check = {(20 * 25%) + (40 * 75%)} = 35 = (5 + 30)
35 is less than 50 so armor check fails.
Method 2: Combined
Code: Select all
Armor Check = (Armor Use + Plate)
Armor Use rolls 20
Plate Rolls 40
Armor Check = (20 + 40) = 60
60 is greater than 50 so check succeeds.
Method 3: Double Rolls vs TN
Code: Select all
Armor Check = Plate
Plate rolls 40
40 is less than 50 so check fails, proceed to roll Armor Use, increase TN(optional)
Armor Use rolls 20
20 is less than 50(or higher) so check fails fully
Code: Select all
Option 1: Armor = ({(Armor Use + Plate) * Plate Boost} / 2)
Option 2: Armor = ({(Armor Use + Plate) / 2} * Plate Boost)
Option 3: Armor = ({Armor Use + (Plate * Plate Boost)} / 2)
The intention with these suggestions is to come up with a mechanic that allows a character with experience in armor a better foothold when changing types(via Armor Use) compared to someone who's never donned a suit before while still allowing someone to decide to jump right into a suit of Plate armor and still get skillups. With that in mind however, I do suggest one more tweak:
Allow failed skill rolls to grant reduced skillups in specific circumstances. Specifically when below a certain threshold of skill as well as any time the character's under active tutoring for an armor skill. This is something I honestly would like to see quickly if possible to offset the need to wear undesired armor before being able to actually wear heavier stuff. One can learn as much from their failures, if not more, from their successes anyways.