To note in the way that I designed the current balance types:
Metal armor should overtake the other armor types in total defense once pquality metal armor is made craftable, which should coincide (in the current way that things are set up) with the release of gquality weapons, oquality hardened leather, and new scary-level random load mobs. This would be the next patch on the list (the last patch was trash quality metal armor, oquality leather armor, and pquality hardened leather armor).
To note about the way that I conceptualized armor with this system was that I only did the numbers for what the code calls chainmail. I assumed that better quality metal armor would eventually become scalemail, platemail, etc.
I do think that on the new damnoun vs armor-type chart that you guys created a while back, things seem a little out-of-whack.
Note: Positive numbers suggest better effectiveness against that armor-type, while negative numbers suggest less effectiveness against that armor-type.
//1 - Heavy and/or Padded Cloth & Similar
//2 - Leather
//3 - Hardened Leather
//4 - Mail
//5 - Scale
//6 - Plate
//1 2 3 4 5 6
{ 0, 0, -1, -2, -1, -3}, // stab -- small-blades, knives, daggers
{ 0, 0, -1, -2, -1, -3}, // pierce -- polearms, arrows
{ 0, 0, -1, -2, -3, -3}, // chop -- axes
{-1, 1, 0, 1, -2, -2}, // bludgeon -- clubs, flails
{ 1, 1, 0, -2, -3, -3}, // slash -- swords
{ 1, 0, 0, -2, -3, -4}, // lash -- whips
{ 1, 0, 0, 2, 2, 2}, // burn - blowtorches, flamethrowers, etc.
{ 0, 0, -2, -3, -4, -5}, // regular arrows
{ 1, 0, -1, -2, -5, -6}, // broadhead arrows - +2 armour to all, +4 bleed
{ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0} // bodkin arrows - -2 armour to all,
I'd suggest making a few changes and simplifying, with the goal to be something like below (where each major damnoun has equal strengths and weaknesses). Note that I'm ignoring scale/plate -- I don't think that you need these (just better quality mail/metal to represent the better types of metal armor), and they will certainly break the game as-is.
//1 - Heavy and/or Padded Cloth & Similar
//2 - Leather
//3 - Hardened Leather
//4 - Metal Armor
//1 2 3 4
{ 0, 0, -1, 1}, // stab -- small-blades, knives, daggers
{ 0, 0, -1, 1}, // pierce -- polearms, arrows
{ 1, 1, 0, -2}, // chop -- axes
{0, 0, 1, -1}, // bludgeon -- clubs, flails
{ 1, 1, 0, -2}, // slash -- swords
{ 1, 1, 0, -2}, // lash -- whips
{ 0, -1, -2, 3}, // burn - blowtorches, flamethrowers, etc.
{ 0, -1, -1, -2}, // regular arrows
{ 0, -1, -1, -2}, // broadhead arrows - +2 armour to all, +4 bleed
{ 0, 0, 0, 0} // bodkin arrows - -2 armour to all
Bolded is mine. This wording's always been very confusing to me. Does your opponent get +2AC vs broadhead arrows, in addition to the armor chart? If so, I'd make broadhead be four 0s across the board.
Also note that this change might demand upping the inherent AC of oquality+ metal/mail armor by a single point.
ETA: I'd also suggest removing the pre-requisite on the sword skill now that roles/races/background regions are opening up.
