Armor vs Speed

[Cyt]

Ok, here is how i feel about this subject. I've been playing PtD for some time now and feel that this current armor system could be improved.
When we choose (in game of course... think rpg in general) whether to wear armor or not we are deciding how we wanna go through the game. Armored, we are fairly slow and get hit a lot, BUT the bigger part of that damage gets absorbed by that same pile of metal we trudge in around. And there is the other way, unarmored or extremely lightly armored. This choice implies that we are quick and agile, totally unencumbered by any metal construct on our back (or legs, arms...). What happens is this. While we cannot take much punishment, we don’t often get hit because of our agile and speedy maneuvering.
So there are two ways with which we can avoid damage which should be equally efficient in their task. That is why i strongly feel another skill should be introduced. Unarmored fighting. Of course the details are open for discussion. Obviously, dexterity and speed would affect unarmored fighting and Strength (mainly) would define the characters ability to wear heavy armor.
If i failed to 'paint a picture', try this. Imagine (not the greatest example, i know) a ninja fighting a medieval foot knight. Let’s suppose both fighters are equally skilled. While the m.k. is heavily armored he can’t follow the ninja’s movement and thus can’t hit him. On the other hand ninja is fast and often finds holes in m.k. 's defense which he uses to strike a blow, but rarely injures the m.k because of the heavy plating he is wearing.
I had to say this, because i often feel such details (while not too drastic) can immensely improve the game. I would like to hear other ppls opinions on this subject and will gladly answer questions if there are any.

 

[thathmew]

I think that the 2 ways of avoiding damage aren't really equivalent.
One way is dodge which should increase as weight of armor goes down. The other is damage absorbtion which should increase as weight of armor goes up.

In PTD getting hit (or not) involves a lot of factors but primarily speed, dex, and weapon skill.

Speed is affected and modified by armor which in turn affects dodging and avoidance abilities, so therefore the more armor you where the easily you are to hit, but the harder you are to damage.

The armor skill does offset this penalty, but it doesn't eliminate it %100 particularly for the heaviest armors.

Basically you can build a character who can be fairly succesful at unarmed combat if he has a high speed and skill. But if he gets hit (particularly in the late game) he's probably toast.

We thought a lot about a "dodge" skill and decided not to go with it because we thought it was better modeled in other ways, i.e. with speed, dex, and weapon skill.

Considering the situation as above with a ninja vs. knight. A lot comes down not to their armor, but to their weapons, i.e. if the ninja stumbles and the knight connects with his claymore it's a lot more likely that the ninja is toast. Even lucky strikes by the ninja are not likely to disable the knight in a single blow except in the most extreme cases (a knife through the eye). But then you start getting in to systems of localized damage...

Also there's some plain old gameplay balance issues. It's hard to make combats where people aren't connecting often or dealing much damage interesting. Hits are just more interesting that misses. Eventually with the right graphics and animations one could probably create a system in which they were, but it was beyond our scope. The more we played and balanced combat, the more we made blows connect, originally I wanted a system that was a lot more about trading of blows and the "dance" of combat, but it just didn't work out.

blah, blah, blah,

-mat