Editing Armor

{{Quality|Masterwork|19:39, 13 February 2023 (UTC)}}

[[File:dwarf_armor_preview.png|right]]'''Armor''' is protective equipment used to reduce or deflect damage during [[combat]]. It comes in a variety of individual pieces that work together to cover a dwarf - there is no "suit of armor" in the sense of a single piece of equipment. Each armor piece protects a certain area or areas of a dwarf, and different pieces might cover a different collection of areas (see coverage chart below). The purpose of each piece is pretty much self-explanatory.  

Loosely speaking, anything worn provides some protection, so it is considered "armor". In the [[stocks]] menu {{k|k}}, each piece of armor is listed under the location where it is worn - "armor" being with other torso pieces, headwear, handwear, legwear, and footwear. However, this page will concentrate mostly just on combat-quality armor. Note that breastplates only protect upper/lower torso areas, while mail shirts also cover the neck, the upper arms, and the upper legs. (All this is explained below in more detail.)

 

'''The actual effectiveness of a given piece of armor depends largely on the weapon(s) being used against it.''' "Chain" pieces are flexible, and while good against slashing [[weapons]] (axes), they don't do much to stop the crushing force of blunt weapons (maces and hammers). "Solid" pieces (breastplates, greaves, gauntlets) are rigid, so they are more widely effective as protection against all weapons but are heavier. See the [[weapon]] article for more specific information.

[[File:Armor Coverage Chart.png|thumb|550px|Dwarven armor coverage chart{{Verify|Chart has errors, see talk page}}]]

[[File:armor_portrait_preview.png|right]]Armor's purpose is simple: to allow your dwarves to better withstand damage in combat. Where an unarmored dwarf would invariably suffer injury from a weapon strike, well-armored dwarves have a good chance of taking reduced damage or shrugging it off altogether. Potentially damaging blows become mere bruises and otherwise lethal or incapacitating wounds are reduced to serious ones. [[Clothes]], though not specifically recognized by the game as armor, nonetheless function as such and may block weak attacks.

While a clothed dwarf is a better fighter than a naked one, an unarmored dwarf will still succumb to a goblin [[ambush]] in seconds. One clad in a full set of exceptional-quality steel armor, however, can absorb most of a goblin squad's ammunition and half a minute of its time before finally being killed. Unarmored or lightly armored dwarves may suffice to deal with lone thieves and the local wildlife, but a serious [[military|army]] requires equally serious armor.

Note that if a mail shirt is combined with high boots, explicit "leg" covering can be omitted. (Dwarves don't have knees to protect, so the upper leg is covered from the shirt and the lower leg from the boot for complete coverage; though using greaves is still recommended, as there can never be "enough armor" in the world of Dwarf Fortress).

:: (* Bronze here also includes [[bismuth bronze]], as both have the same combat stats and are armor-grade metals. [[Black_bronze|Black bronze]] '''cannot''' be used for armor.)

Since most dwarves are not [[danger room]]-trained right away into legendary armor users, it is highly recommended that you do not outfit them with the maximum amount of armor possible, as this will make them super slow and allow the enemy to get in many hits before they have a chance to fight back. Weight also hinders ranged units like marksdwarves, who more or less depend on their first strike and fast reload to cripple the enemy before they get into melee and who may also spend the majority of their time behind fortifications anyway.

Wearing a combination of 1 pair of metal gauntlets, 1 pair of metal high boots, 1 metal helmet, and 1 metal mail shirt gives an armor level 2 {{Verify|Are armor levels still relevant in the new material properties-based mechanics?}} metal armor layer that covers all areas without sacrificing speed due to encumbrance on non-armor users. This setup will prevent most cutting and stabbing attacks from weapons below the armor's metal grade, but it will still be vulnerable to crushing attacks since no metal greaves or breastplate is worn. Lighter and weaker types of armor, like leather armor and bone greaves, can also be worn in addition to the metal layer to provide additional protection without encumbrance, and they tend to be at least moderately effective if they are masterworks {{Verify}}. Shields should be made of wood when possible because a copper shield could weigh up to 13 units of weight, and material does not matter for blocking attacks. However, wooden and leather shields wear out and break rather quickly in the new version when used to hit armor in combat, so in the long run, a metal shield might be worth it.

Armor is typically sized for the kind of creature that produced it.  [[Goblin]]s, [[elves]] and your [[dwarves]] are all about the same size and their equipment can be used interchangeably, but [[human]] armor is too big for other races.  You can manually specify the target race when forging armor, which is useful if you have non-dwarf [[visitor|residents]].  Also, armor sized for [[hyena man|hyena men]] is big enough to be worn by humans, but still small enough to be worn by dwarves. Being bigger, it also [[material science#Contact Area|offers]] slightly better slashing [[weapon]] protection than dwarf-sized armor, but is also more [[weight|heavy]].  Conversely, [[wolf man]]-sized armor is the smallest you can produce for your dwarf military, and may reduce their encumbrance a bit (but it's worse against slashing attacks).

Note: Striking with a shield trains both misc object user and armor user skills. Additionally, shield material and quality only matter for bashing attacks and do not affect blocking. Skills rolls are 1d(blockchance) + 2d(skill*15), so skill matters more than blockchance even at novice skill.

Items in ''Dwarf Fortress'' must be equipped in a specific order, similarly to what happens in real life: for example, a dwarf cannot equip a layer type of Under when they are already equipping a layer type of Over. The complete order is (inner clothing to outer clothing): Under, Over, Armor, Cover. It is common among civilians to see a dwarf equip pants with no undergarments due to this restriction, even when an undergarment is available. This issue doesn't typically occur with soldiers, however.

[[File:aardvark_armor_preview.png|thumb|300px|right|An aardvark wearing armor meant for a dwarf. Somehow.]]The following variables will be used in the logic below:  

:'''Permit''' is a capacity value indicating the maximum allowable size of items equipped on the same layer and lower layers as the item being equipped.

In order to equip a new item, the dwarf (or other creature):

:*determines if they are eligible to wear the item in question (perhaps the body part is missing/severed);

:*must start with the lowest layer first, continuing to the next layer when no other items of that layer need to be equipped;

:*checks if the item is shaped [S] and will only equip the item if no other shaped items are equipped '''on that body part''';

:*considers the item with the lowest permit value first. If two items share the same permit value, the highest-size item would be equipped first{{verify}};

:*checks if the total size of items on each body part the current item would cover (excluding the current item's size) is less than or equal to the current item's permit level.

:*if all above conditions are met, the dwarf/creature will equip the item.

|style="border:1px #AAA solid;padding:0.2em;"|45

'''[[Adventurer mode]]''' follows the arena rules, so it is possible to have three mail shirts (15, 50), a breastplate (20, 50), and 25 capes (10, 300) on one's upper body plus a helm and six hoods on one's head. Confirmation is needed to see if [[fortress mode]] follows the old rules or the new arena rules. (Testing finds that Urist McNopants follows a totally different set of rules than either of these - their rules tell them to forget both caps, all of the hoods, both socks, and their trousers, and each successive time they get dressed ,they feel the need to do it differently.)

* Against each of the mail shirts, you have '''2 × 15 = 30''' total size in mail shirts and '''+ 20''' from the breastplate, matching the '''50''' permit.

* Against the breastplate, you have '''3 × 15 = 45 < 50''', which is fine.

However, you can add cover layer items - in this case, cloaks. Each cloak has a size of '''15''' and a permit of '''150'''. Taking into account the '''50''' size already on the upper body, we can add '''100''' size worth of cloaks. This lets us add '''6''' ('''× 15 = 90''') cloaks over the existing armor.

16 × capes

Of course, so long as the bugs are still around, we are likely to see dwarves wearing more than this, or refusing to put parts on because they found their boots before their socks.

† It appears that equipping footwear on one foot can affect what can be equipped on the other. For example, if a uniform calls for socks and high boots, a dwarf will only equip 3 of those 4 items between both of their feet.