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[Andeerz]

Agreed. 

I think before any of this, though, even though I am absolutely for the implementation of realistic armor, two things need to be taken care of first:

1.  First and foremost is better modeling physiology, injuries, what body parts are connected to what, etc.
2.  After that, the combat system: especially preferences for targets (why would you pinch a toe in a fight?), reach of weapons, physics of weapons and their materials, and combat tactics. 

With that, there would be even more compelling reasons for having realistic armor.

[Khift]

Personally, I'd just like for armour to be easier to tweak in the RAWs. Main things otherwise -

Chain mail should cover the neck, throat and head, like a "metal hoodie" as stated above.
Plate mail should either be renamed to cuirass (for accuracy) or have its protection extended to the shoulders and possibly the upper arms.
Helms should cover facial features.
Gauntlets and boots need to cover fingers and toes.

I agree with all of these. I would also like to go a little further and redefine a cap as a less protecting version of the helmet and mark it shaped and then create a new item called a coif which is not shaped and does protect the neck.

I would also love to see the armor system simplified to only allow one 'over' piece, one 'shaped' piece and one 'under' piece per body part. Kinda tired of seeing two caps, one helm, and six hoods on dwarves, or three mail shirts, one breastplate, and six cloaks. It's just a wee bit silly.

[Andeerz]

Agreed, Khift.  But, the history nerd in me cannot resist: there are some written accounts of people wearing two layers (or possibly 3!) layers of maille (as in maille shirts) during battle.  However, this was much less common than just wearing one layer.  :3 

[Virex]

Personally, I'd just like for armour to be easier to tweak in the RAWs. Main things otherwise -

Chain mail should cover the neck, throat and head, like a "metal hoodie" as stated above.
Plate mail should either be renamed to cuirass (for accuracy) or have its protection extended to the shoulders and possibly the upper arms.
Helms should cover facial features.
Gauntlets and boots need to cover fingers and toes.

I agree with all of these. I would also like to go a little further and redefine a cap as a less protecting version of the helmet and mark it shaped and then create a new item called a coif which is not shaped and does protect the neck.

I would also love to see the armor system simplified to only allow one 'over' piece, one 'shaped' piece and one 'under' piece per body part. Kinda tired of seeing two caps, one helm, and six hoods on dwarves, or three mail shirts, one breastplate, and six cloaks. It's just a wee bit silly.

There should be something done, yes. But having more then 1 underpiece might help sometimes. Adding too much armour shouldn't be flatout impossible, but it should hamper the user and dwarves should realize that. If the player wants to assign a uniform with 3 breastplates and a pauldron worn as a shield he should be able to do that, if he's willing to face the consequences.

[NightmareBros]

We all know Dwarfs would porbably try to punch someone to death with the paldrons anyway. They'd probably be the correct size for big, metalic dwarf boxing gloves.

[3]

Plate mail should either be renamed to cuirass (for accuracy) or have its protection extended to the shoulders and possibly the upper arms.

"Plate mail" no longer exists as of .31. It's called a "breastplate" now. I find it a little odd that you seemed to know that it doesn't protect arms in .31 but somehow failed to note the name change... or perhaps you just got the old and new confused.

I would also love to see the armor system simplified to only allow one 'over' piece, one 'shaped' piece and one 'under' piece per body part. Kinda tired of seeing two caps, one helm, and six hoods on dwarves, or three mail shirts, one breastplate, and six cloaks. It's just a wee bit silly.

This does not require a change to the armour system; only a change to the layer values of each piece.

[ungulateman]

I've seen people complaining about it being named "plate mail".

And yes, it's a breastplate now. I tend to call it plate armour or plate because it's shorter and easier to remember.

[TheyTarget]

I've seen people complaining about it being named "plate mail".

And yes, it's a breastplate now. I tend to call it plate armour or plate because it's shorter and easier to remember.

Breastplate is more accurate with what it does, then platemail, but cuirass would probably be the most accurate.. And while were at it, I can think of a few other though rare armor types we could put in like, scale mail, splint mail, or banded armor. And if were going historically accurate, shouldn't we be calling pauldrons, spaulders. Cause I think it wasnt called that till just about the end of Dwarf Forts timeline. And aventails replaced the coif, which also covered the shoulders. You got bevor, which protected the neck and face. You should probably be able to stud armor made of leather, I dont know you might be able to do that already. I know of plenty of gauntlets that don't protect fingers, simply to give the person wearing them the ability to move their fingers freely and properly wield weapons, and it's hard to make moving plate finger parts. Also dwarfs tend to use plate as a added componet to mail armor, rather then the actual armor, which is a change that happened sometime around the 14th century, so I guess it's toadys thoughts on how he wants to handle that. I dont know, all this knowledge is old and probably half right, I haven't dealt with armor forever, so just correct if I got something wrong.

[Andeerz]

I understand the following is somewhat unrelated to the OP, but...

I really want to know people's opinion of this, especially Footkerchief, Toady, and others who are partly responsible for the forums.  Would it be prudent of me and actually helpful to start a new thread with a list of reputable sources concerning medieval armour and weapons IRL?  I am not an expert, but I do have access to a lot of well researched material regarding virtually every aspect of armour.

I figure it could help save everyone's time, as it could help better inform people's suggestions about armour and weapons regardless of whether they are for or against this or that regarding implementation of armour.  In addition I wonder if it would help Toady out.  I know he's got his shit together, but I know that looking for sources can take a huge amount of time and be daunting regardless of connections...