Armor Wear - Damage distribution

[Juukin]

After quite some testing, for some odd reason I came to the result that the "Shield" is the last piece of armor taking in damage soak (Wear). If this was intentional, excuse me in advance for the long post, as I have not been active for the past 3 years, so I might have missed some details and/or updates regarding this.

Either way...

I was using the following setup:

Badger Vest
Bat Cape
Leather Armor
Leather Pants
Leather Shoes
Shield

Through the course of multiple (some-hundred animals) tests, the order in which the damage is spread around the armors is as follows:

Leather Armor > Leather Shoes > Bat Cape > Leather Pants > Badger Vest > Shield

Through this whole testing phase, my shield is STILL at 0 wear, meaning it did not soak up any damage at all.

I have let myself be chipped by foxes, hit by badgers, knocked around by deer and beat up by boar, allowing for big openings also, just to see what pieces will soak up the damage, and it has NEVER come to my Shield's wear.

The tests were done with Shield Up and Parry respectively.

What I have concluded is that the Quality is no factor, say that the highest Q armor soaks damage first, or lowest Q armor, as I have tested it with multiple setups where the Shield was lowest, highest and even middle Q of all the armors used.

Another thing that also seemed to not be a factor at all is the order in which the armor is equipped. Equipping the Shield last, still resulted in other pieces taking wear first. Same for equipping it first, or somewhere in the middle.
Equipping the "order of damage" also in a random pattern, still results in the same order of damage taken, Armor > Shoes > Cape > Pants > Vest > Shield

Swapping the Shield from left to right hand, or the opposite, also yield no results.


My proposition:

Can it be made so that the Shield is the first priority target for soaking up damage?
It makes no sense to lose gilded gear (Capes, Vests, Shoes) while still holding a 0 wear Shield in our hands. The Shield is there obviously for protection, and should be the first to soak any damage.

If this was the intention in the first place, then at least consider moves like Shield Up setting the Shield as priority for soaking damage, thus prevent losing gilded gear due to simplest chips of damage from the likes of foxes or bats.

[Juukin]

Bump, still wondering what the issue is with this.

[Sevenless]

iirc, the intention behind the system is wear being randomly distributed with the soak values determining the ratio. So if you had a 90 soak bronze plate and a 10 soak shield, the shield would only absorb ~10% of the wear. I believe it distributes deflection first (100% of damage is applied to wear) and then absorption (50% of damage is applied to wear). I've worn a shield and most definitely seen it take damage along with other pieces of gear, but since putting on a bronze plate it sees a lot less.

Pardon my possible out-datedness though. I haven't double checked that since start of last world.

[Gorakil]

it absorbs in order u equip it

[Juukin]

it absorbs in order u equip it

Really? What piece absorbs first then, the first equipped armor or last?

I have tried that in my testing and it seemed to not have an impact at all.

[Gorakil]

it absorbs in order u equip it

Really? What piece absorbs first then, the first equipped armor or last?

I have tried that in my testing and it seemed to not have an impact at all.

first on u equip - first to absorb

[MagicManICT]

first on u equip - first to absorb

Will confirm. Pain in the ass as a lot of people change out into a wardrobe. At least, this was how it was working last world.

Needs to be properly balanced with some randomness across all parts of armor, and agree a shield should take biggest brunt of hits if equipped.

[victorpatrick]

I'll validate. Many people's wardrobe changes cause them pain in the ass. This is how it operated in the previous world, at the very least.

Agree that a shield should, if equipped, withstand the majority of blows, and that other armor components need to be fairly balanced with some variability.