Batwing

[Mafious]

will be better if item would not break, but just stays at 0 wear, so it can no longer block any dmg, all other stats working (or maybe not)

and it should then be repairable, this way when you kill your enemy by first killing all its armor, you at least will got some spoils of war (and repair them later)

that could work.

[Audiosmurf]

Removing armour from one of the only capes with armour is silly.

if you're relaying on batwing for armour its either ridiculos high q or you are doing something wrong. mine are around q36 highest q bats i found yet. have around 3/3 soak and 229 durability, pretty much anything you fight damages the cape, and that damage stacks pretty quickly, one unlucky lagspike and a boar can hit you before you can reduce your oppenings and lag is sadly very common in the hearthlands.

I'm not relying on a bat cape for armour, personally, but I did use it early world for that couple of extra points, it's fairly well-suited to that purpose when paired with leather. What you suggest would leave no item with armour for the cape slot until you have hard metal, which doesn't feel correct. That's my primary issue with your line of reasoning.