Armor Redux - Installation and Benefits
I recommend you choose Hyperbolic as the formula used by the mod. Read on.
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The Problem:
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The vanilla armor system is utterly, utterly broken.
Having an armor rating of 0 - 300 is pretty much pointless, as you still take
almost full damage.
Having an armor rating of 300 - 600 suddenly means every point is valuable,
as your survivability increases hyperbolically.
Having an armor rating of over 667 (567 if in full armor) means any further
increase is pointless, as your damage resistance simply goes flat.
For a more detailed discussion, see this six years old(!) forum thread:
http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/481577-skyrims-armor-system-is-broken/
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The Solution:
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Replace the broken system with one like in Morrowind, where every point of
armor counts.
This mod attempts to do just that.
It replaces Skyrim's Damage Resistance calculation with one of 3 formulas,
as described below. All of them can be fine-tuned in the mod's MCM, which
also has some advanced options for that really specific armor formula you
never knew you needed.
All changes apply to both the player and any NPCs.
Additionally, the mod provides two (optional) ways of informing the player of
their current resistance: by notification or with a (fake) magic effect.
Hidden Armor Rating: On top of its visible armor rating, every piece of
armor you wear grants an additional 25 points of fixed, invisible armor
rating. This seems to be the result of a halfhearted attempt by Bethesda
to balance their broken system. This completely messes up the balance when
using armors with more than the standard amount of pieces.
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Hyperbolic:
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Morrowind-like. Every point of armor rating increases your survivability by a
fixed percentage. This means every point of armor is worth the same. Compared
to vanilla, your early armor will protect you a lot more, while armor past
the cap will still be useful, but it is difficult to reach crazy high
protection values.
HypDiv controls the increase per point. The default is 0.6%, which means you
will reach 80% protection (+400% survivability) at 667 armor rating, just like
vanilla.
Your survivability will increase linearly, damage taken decrease hyperbolically.
Twice the armor rating means twice the survivability.
Damage Taken = Input damage / (Armor Rating * HypDiv + 1)
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Exponential:
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A compromise between Morrowind-style survivability and vanilla "balancing".
Every point of armor will reduce damage taken by a fixed multiplier.
Your early armor will be worth less than with "Hyperbolic", but your late game
armor will let you come closer to 100% resistance.
ExpBase controls the damage multiplier per point. The default is 99.76%, which
means you will reach 80% protection (+400% survivability) at approximately 667
armor rating, just like vanilla.
Your survivability will increase exponentially, damage taken decrease
exponentially. Every 'x' points of Armor Rating, your survivability doubles.
Damage Taken = Input damage * ExpBase^Armor Rating
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Linear:
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Vanilla-like, but without the hidden armor rating. Just because.
Every point of armor reduces damage taken by subtracting a fixed value.
Results as described above.
LinearMult controls the reduction per point. The default is 0.12%.
LinearFloor controls the lowest possible multiplier. The default is 0.2
The default values let you reach 80% protection (+400% survivability) at
667 armor rating, just like vanilla.
Your survivability will increase hyperbolically, damage taken decrease
linearly.
Damage Taken = Input damage * max(LinearFloor, 1 - LinearMult * Armor Rating)
