ARMOUR

aka Things that Help People Not Get Hurt

Armour in the devastated wastelands of southern California ranges from the ridiculous (such as the leather jacket) to the sublime (hardened power armour . . . it's like wearing a Hummer). But the aesthetics of armour don't really matter: the important thing is how well it protects you.

 

Armour modifies three stats: armour class, damage threshold, and damage resistance. The first stat, armour class, serves to protect you from even being hit. The higher your armour class, the less likely you are to be hit. For example, assume you're wearing armour with an AC of 20%. The guy shooting at you has a 75% chance of hitting you. Subtract your 20% armour class from his base to hit chance, and he's left with a 55% chance of hitting you.

Next comes damage threshold. DT is the easiest to figure out, since it's a single, straight number. If your damage threshold is 10, then your armour entirely stops 10 points of whatever damage is done to you - you don't feel it at all. Finally, the last stat is damage resistance, or DR. This is another percentage, and it takes care of the dispering effect armour has on damage. If your damage resistance is 10%, then 10% of the damage that has managed to get through both your armour class and your damage resistance is taken off the total. In the end, regardless of how bad your armour is, you finish the combat round taking far less damage than you would have without any armour at all.

Another point to note about armour is that different types of armour are more effective against different types of damage. A good example of this is Telsa armour, which is great at absorbing and dispersing plasma and energy, but not so great at handling regular or explosive damage. The chart below is organized by the type of damage. Each column has two figures: the first is damage threshold, and the second is damage resistance.

NAME	ARMOUR CLASS	NORMAL	LASER	FIRE	PLASMA	EXPLOSION	DESCRIPTION	APPEARANCE
BOS Combat Armour	20	8/40%	8/70%	7/50%	7/60%	8/40%	BOS combat armour is a good source of protection . . . however, by the time it becomes avaliable, you have access to much better equipment.
Combat Armour	20	5/40%	8/60%	4/30%	4/50%	6/40%	This is easily the best armour you can get in the first half of the game. It does an excellent job protecting against the lesser enemies, but you'll need to find some better stuff later.
Hardened Power Armour	25	13/50%	19/90%	14/70%	13/50%	20/60%	Hardened power armour is the wearable equivalent of a tank. Unbeatable protection against just about everything . . . this is the only armour you need.
Leather Armour	15	2/25%	0/20%	0/20%	0/10%	0/20%	This armour does an adequate job against rad scorpions and the like, but it can't handle anything big. Bad damage threshold too.
Leather Jacket	8	0/20%	0/20%	0/10%	0/10%	0/20%	Sure, the damage threshold is nil, and the damage resistance is horrible . . . but you really don't wear this armour for the protection. You wear it for the style.
Metal Armour	10	4/30%	6/75%	4/10%	4/20%	4/25%	Good, basic armour with decent protection against every type of attack . . . with the exception of fire. I guess metal armour tends to heat up a bit when blasted with a flamethrower . . .
Power Armour	25	12/40%	18/80%	12/60%	10/40%	20/50%	Regular power armour, while not quite as good as its big brother, is still excellent and worthy defense. Plasma is its only weakness.
Robe	15	0/20%	0/25%	0/10%	0/10%	0/20%	How much protection could you expect a bathrobe to provide? This "armour" provides horrible protection . . . but it does have other uses.
Telsa Armour	15	4/20%	19/90%	4/10%	10/80%	4/20%	Telsa armour is good at one thing and one thing only: absorbing and dispersing energy weapon attacks. It provides merely basic protection against fire, explosions, etc, but its laser protection is matched only by that of the hardened power armour, and its plasma defense is unparallelled.