Armor time to put on?

[Force_of_Will_]

I have played on different servers that had a system in place that held character immobile while putting on armor for a few seconds.The same system also froze a character for a short duration while changing weapons.
On another server they had decreased movement for different armors.A player in Full plate moved slower than a player in studded leather.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Force_of_Will_ - 2/17/2007  12:15 PM

On another server they had decreased movement for different armors.A player in Full plate moved slower than a player in studded leather.

I'd actually like to see this.

[Rayenoir]

Me too.  So long as it's done right (dwarves dont' move slower in heavy armor, etc) and applied to both players and NPCs.

[Witch Hunter]

Force_of_Will_ - 2/17/2007  9:15 AM

I have played on different servers that had a system in place that held character immobile while putting on armor for a few seconds.The same system also froze a character for a short duration while changing weapons.
On another server they had decreased movement for different armors.A player in Full plate moved slower than a player in studded leather.

I would -LOVE- to see that, that can finally add sense to wearing a light metal armor other than looking cool.

[Varka]

I'll go for Dorganaths idea instead of using the teams time on it.
I agree this could be a really good touch to RP, though there are (in my opinion way too) many aspects to consider, interpret, analyze before being able implement it.

[Nibor21]

A system like this wouldn't be that hard to code ((just a check on equip item) and would be interesting if combined with an X% chance of a random encounter when resting.

X% could vary according to the area. i.e. 0% for Hlint up to maybe 5% for say the underdark. Possibly the percentage should be less the larger the group (ie a creatures won't want a larger group?) There does need to be some carefull consideration here though.

The result of such a system is:

1.) Encourage parties to set up proper watch systems so the whole party isn't resting when an encounter and at least one warrior is wearing their armour.

2.) Mean there is a chance of magic users/clerics having thier sleep disturbed and not getting any spells (a trick the quest GMs are familiar with). This creates an air of tension and cautiousness.

3.) Increase the element of risk when soloing.

Having played on servers wear armour affects movement speed I saw the following effects:

1.) When fleeing from an encounter, heavily armoured PCs can be caught as they lag behind and opened up like a can of spam (YUM!)

2.) In an open battle it can be more difficult for heavily armoured chars to protect the magic users (the giants always rush after the fireball caster) as they don't have the intercept speed. It means spell casters need to think harder about where they stand and when they cast offensive spells.

3.) The Barbarian class becomes more attractive as it has a 10% speed boost. Similar story with monks and thier speed boosts. As someone who has played the 'classic D&D barbarian' (medium or light armour with a two handed weapon) on Layo, I know how tough it is to play in layo. This could balance it out a bit.

4.) Tanks in this scenario are far more likely to adopt the real-life medieval habit of knights, which is to travel in normal clothes, but then change when they reach somewhere where they know there will be trouble. i.e A PC walking from Fort Llast to Port Hampshire will risk light armour going through Krandor Outskirts, that river just south of Llast, and Fort Hope, but will suit up for all the other areas. It makes fighters think a bit more (horror of horrors) and means that a GM in the mood for mischief can cause chaos in a party by dropping a small and relatively easy encounter on an un-prepared party.

[Witch Hunter]

5) There will be a reason for people to use light metal armors

[Talan Va'lash]

There are NWN mechanics issues with movement speed decreases, specifically, getting around them via spells/item properties (which wouldn't work in PnP since the "slower-ness" isn't a modifier, it sets your base speed to whatever new value.) Also with stacking with various other speed increases/decreases. Not unsurmountable but annoying.

there are issues with armor equipping delays too. If we paralyze a PC who just donned armor then we might get into the ettercap entangle bug (documented bioware bug.) There isn't really a good emote for "donning armor," which isn't such a big deal I suppose. The only way to do this well would be via a mini-cutscene I think. If you've played Wyvern Crown of Cormyr and mounted/dismounted a horse, thats what I'm talking about. hm, yeah that could be done. Regardless this definitely needs an "Are we sure this isn't just going to be annoying?" analysis.

As for resting, I expect some interesting developments as v3 is phased in.

[Witch Hunter]

The annoying part is negated by the fact heavy armors currently have no down sides..
At best a chainshirt grants 8ac (with the 4dex bonus counted) and a fullplate with less dex grants more ac (9, and only 12 dex compared to 18 needed)... it requires a downside!

[IDii]

Downside?

Feats required: Heavy Armor
Weight: 50.0
Armor check penalty: -8

Well of course that's not really a problem if your class has heavy armor proficiency, has enough STR to carry it anyway and doesn't use any skills that would be lowered by the check penalty.

However you can't really compare armors like that. Different people wear different kind of armors, that's how D&D has always been. Like you have fighters and paladins with their full plate, rogues with their lighter armor and higher dex to go with it. Rangers get their dualwield bonus with light armour but no one's telling a ranger to not specialise in the use of heavy armor and shields if they want to.

Even a rogue could wear full plate. As long as you got enough STR to carry it and high enough skills to not be too bothered by the -8, and the feats of course. But why would a rogue usually wear a full plate when they get a higher AC from just their dex modifier (talking about NWN with its +12 dex from magic and whatever).

Though yes I have to agree it's a bit sad that only three or four of the armor types in NWN are used. It's either cloth (0/0), leather armor (2/6), chainmail (5/2) or full plate (8/1) you see. Worst I think is people not making their armor look like what it should. Like the typical thing you see in NWN is a full plate with a full metal torso and the rest of the look is all cloth, bare hands, etc. But that's how NWN deals with armor... not much to do about it.

EDIT: Well that was totally offtopic. So I'll add a bit more here.

I have to agree with the people here who say it's up to people themselves to RP the taking off armor and equipping it. And it should take a while. Though if you're just running around yourself, I don't think it's that important to stop for a minute to equip your armor and emote it and all. However in a group it makes a bit more sense and watching people change their clothes while talking to people or while running is quite horrible to watch... at least when they're not emoting it.
I suppose a high dex character would be able to change clothes while running... I would really like to see that happen sometime with proper emotes. Hehe.

And then about the slow thing. I think I've said it before that I disagree with making heavy armor slower to move around with. I mean if your character has 30 strength and can carry a few tons of ore... What's stopping him from running around in a bit of metal that's made to be moved around in.
If we were living in a real world here, of course you couldn't run in a full plate... probably not even really move by yourself. But this is more like a roleplaying game that's not supposed to be realistic. Besides some of the metals may be lighter or the armorsmiths could have ways to craft the armor so that it's durable but lightweight.

Not to mention it would be kind of difficult to implement with the speed stacking things. Like a freedom of movement before equipping your armor would probably make you immune to the slow and stupid things like that.
Also half the characters in a group moving at a slower speed and having to put on their armor every now and then would just make things frustrating. It's about fun after all.

[blonde]

The downside is that you need a good deal of str to lift the full plate. And i really dont find it unfair that a full plate can get you 1 ac higher than a chainshirt.

About the time it takes to put on an armor, this discussion has come up before. It all comes down to how fine gritty we want to go with realism. It also takes longer than a few seconds to sail between continents, and you cant run from one end of Mistone to the other in mere minutes. Putting on armor is one of those things that does take time and all characters know it takes time.

EDIT: Uhm yeah, and what IDii said

[Witch Hunter]

With 18 str you can carry a full plate just fine, infact, with 16 you can do it.
Now to gain any decent AC with a chain shirt/chainmail you need high dex (18/16)
How is that a fair trade? the STR adds weight, damage, fort.. the dex adds reflex saving throws

Not to mention that the little advantage of having light armor when climbing stuff/swimming is totally negated by the fact they remove their armor and magically carry it on their back as they climb up the mountain naked with the same ease I do with my light armor.

[darkstorme]

Do not disparage against the reflex saving throw.  Drop a fireball on a fighter and a rogue, watch who comes out unscathed.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Also, there's much more you can do in RP with DEX than with STR, in my experience. Unless you carry around ingots of adamantium that you like to bend.

[Witch Hunter]

darkstorme - 2/18/2007  5:30 PM

Do not disparage against the reflex saving throw.  Drop a fireball on a fighter and a rogue, watch who comes out unscathed.

Of course the rogue, but reflex is his higher save.
The extra 3 reflex a fighter using a chain shirt to gain extra ac doesnt do much help :/

[jrizz]

IDii - 2/18/2007  5:43 AM

Though yes I have to agree it's a bit sad that only three or four of the armor types in NWN are used. It's either cloth (0/0), leather armor (2/6), chainmail (5/2) or full plate (8/1) you see.it.

Yep and you heavy armor folks should really look at half plate armors (hint)

I try to always RP putting on my armor and taking it off. Somtimes you dont have the time though. But think of it this way, as a heavy armor fighter all I do is put on my armor and activate one or two items when the group is getting ready. The rest of the time I just stand there as a lot os spells and blessing get cast. So you can think of that as the time it take to put on armor. I dont see aneed to put any code in place for this