Idea: Plate Mail

[Tom]

In the real middle ages, plate mail was prohibitively expensive.

A roleplay posted by a player today gave me an idea. What if new characters started out with only, basic armour, and you had to acquire better armour over time? It would mean players need to split their money between troops and personal armour, and a full set of plate mail would be a symbol of prestige. It could have various "levels", as in cheap, regular, well-crafted and excellent or whatever.

It shouldn't be a major money drain, and it should be visible to others on inspection of your character. It would have an in-game effect, namely affecting your chance of getting wounded in battle.

[Eithad]

Sounds kinda like unique items, don't we already have unique items called plate mail of such and such that give prestige that you can buy.

[fodder]

.... hope there's no repair/upkeep. bit of a pain.

[Sypher]

It sounds like it would function more like the adventurer equipment code than the unique item code.

[Norrel]

Why not just make unique items rarer so they become prohibitively expensive?

[Lorgan]

I like it a lot. Unique items are way too much of a drag and this way I get to brag about my fancy armour without having to deal with advies.

[James]

I like the idea. As has been said though, there are already armours that can be got as unique items.

Would there be a way to incorporate the two together? Reduce degradation time more (armour only degrades if hit in battle or by an infiltrator, weapons only degrade if used in battle for example)

Also, having unique items repairable by any item (or value of items) through a sage would make them more appealing to try to keep long term.

[Draco Tanos]

Love the idea, Tom.

Though my question is, will it affect non-warrior classes any?  Such as priests.  I mean, if we still own the armor, could we wear it?

[Velax]

I like the idea.

How do you "inspect" a character? Are you saying the armour of each character would display on the Character page?

Perhaps there should be a set of armour for each class. I can't imagine an infiltrator would wear full plate while sneaking into an enemy camp, nor a priest wear platemail when preaching to the masses. Priests could have robes that get progressively finer and more elaborate as you go up the scale, for example. Highest level? Pope hat.

[Draco Tanos]

I want a Pope mitre.  >.>

[vonGenf]

I'm not a big fan of the idea. Parts of what I like about BM is that the game mechanics only takes care of the big picture. For example, you can't just send a RP that your army is bigger than the other one, or you can't RP that you've won a duel when you have not. The details, however, are left to imagination. You can roleplay that you have a shining armour if you want to. There is no need to make a game mechanic for that.

If you want to have a new type of paraphernalia to protect from wounds, however, that would all right. However, I propose that this paraphernalia be called "bodyguards" rather than "armour".

[egamma]

If you want to have a new type of paraphernalia to protect from wounds, however, that would all right. However, I propose that this paraphernalia be called "bodyguards" rather than "armour".

We already have those--they're called soldiers. I'm almost positive that unit size affects the chance of the infiltrator getting caught on his way to/from the tent.

I like the armor idea, I know there are plenty of people with older characters (such as myself) who HATE the 10+ days it takes them to heal. I would definitely love to give some of my characters extra protection.

[fodder]

heh... it might well be injury rate will be up to compensate for the potential increased protection

[vonGenf]

We already have those--they're called soldiers. I'm almost positive that unit size affects the chance of the infiltrator getting caught on his way to/from the tent.

Yeah, of course, also in battle usually you only get wounded after your unit retreats from the field or is decimated.

I would think this new paraphernalia would work differently.

[Longmane]

So long as it doesn't degrade overly quickly and can be repaired by a normal smithy this sounds brilliant.