Sweeping Rebalance of Armors

[moonracer]

I suggest a drastic rebalance of the armors to flesh out their roles so that each has a purpose and is better balanced against each other or has a worthwhile role to play. I have placed each set into a tier to better explain their roles:

Tier 0:

• Cloth armor: no real change needed. Weak, general purpose starter armor.

Tier 1: Primary function is protection from elements, secondary function is armor.

• Hide: Straight upgrade from cloth. Offers more armor protection and durability over Fur and Desert, but lack any real environmental protection.
• Fur: The best cold protection in the game, but not as durable as Hide.
• Desert: The best heat protection in the game, but not as durable as Hide.

Tier 2: Average protection with unique roles.

• Hazard: Jack of all Trades armor. Lots of environmental protections (gas, radiation, etc.). Reduce it's heat protection to below Fur and give it a small amount of cold protection. Decent armor protection.
• Scuba: Underwater role. Reduce the durability drain it gets from being underwater. Increase it's armor rating to equivalent of Hide. Cold protection focused. distribute the cold protection of Scuba equally to torso and legs (currently mostly in the legs).
• Ghillie: Stealth role. Armor rating should be between Scuba and Hazard, but it should arguably have the lower durability of the three, since it is designed for avoiding combat. Heat protection focused. Perhaps add an effect that it increases the duration of consumables like bug repellent?

Tier 3: Mid-Late game combat role armors. Generally a higher quality version of tier 1 armors, but sacrificing environmental protection for much better armor rating and durability. Also, more of a penalty in environmental conditions they aren't designed for compared to tier 1 sets.

• Chitin: Hot environment combat armor. Penalty in cold environments. Lowest durability of tier 3 armors. Increase it's weight for balance.
• Metal: Best armor rating and durability of tier 3, but a penalty in both hot and cold environments.
• Flak: Cold environment combat armor. Penalty in hot environments. Keeps it's defense from stun damage. Perhaps some added bonus like reduced damage from firearms and/or explosives, since it it a late level unlock?

Tier 4: End game armors.

• Tek Armor: unchanged. Good at everything.

 

With these changes, tier 1 will offer the best environmental protections and still have a potential role late game for traveling/exploring through severe weather environments. There will be a low and high level armor sets for hot and cold weather environments.

The main challenge I see is possibly needing to change the levels at which some armors unlock and perhaps the crafting requirements, if a set's role shifts drastically. Chitin and Flak in particular would probably change the most. You might need to change weights a little bit also.

[yekrucifixion187]

Riot?

[Qwertymine]

The only armors I personally don't think have a purpose in the game are Chitin and Desert Cloth. Chitin because I usually just make Flak, and Desert Cloth because I'm fairly certain Ghillie has better heat resistance, so if you get a kill on a Mantis you're set. 

Really think only those two need something extra to set them apart. Maybe Chitin provides torp resistance or something? And Desert Cloth should have the flatout best heat resistance in the game, even if it needs to be more expensive to make. 

[moonracer]

https://ark.gamepedia.com/Armor has all the armor stats.

Desert cloth does get outclassed by Ghillie (and the Hazard suit). Though it really doesn't have any downside and is all around superior to Hide.

I suggested Chitin protect against heat because most shelled creatures live in hot environments, so it kind of makes sense. But yeah, in general Chitin armor gets outclassed by everything. It's not great combat armor, it's not durable, and it's the 2nd worse armor to wear in hot environments.

I think another factor is the negative stats on heat and cold resistance. Since they get multiplied on higher quality pieces the downside to wearing many sets is significant. And since 6 of the 11 sets have heat penalties they really limit a player's options. Interestingly no armors have a penalty in cold environments.