understanding the AOS crafting system

[floppydisc]

I run my shard for 4 weeks now so I have the first good blacksmiths.
When watching his work and seeing that valorite armor was really weak,
I started to inform myself how the crafting system works. I saw the
ArmorRating calculation in BaseArmor.cs but found out, that this is for
pre-AOS only. So I took a look at OreInfo.cs and found out why the armor
values are that bad. But as this is the exact OSI behavior (but I never played
on OSI), there must be good reason for this.
A smith (not even GM!) can produce an exceptional dull copper ringmail/platemail
which already gives the maximum of 70 armorrating ... so why should anyone want another material than this? The physical resistance is the only really neccessary value in UO as most monsters are melee fighters.
Can anyone out there explain why this was done by OSI? (Or better: tell me that I misunderstood the whole system and it is just more complex to produce really good armor out of the different materials)

[kriggle]

I'm not sure why they changed it on standard UO, but I have numerous theories. The way the new system works is not the best way they could have done it, but they wanted to add more depth and overhaul the combat system. Personally I didn't like the changes either. Also, even the melee monsters deal various other forms of damage besides physical so you have to pay attention to the other forms of resistance that the different metals produce. Spell damage also changed a bit because you have a chance to lessen the damage with more than just magic resist skill. After AoS and the new combat systems, UO shifted to being heavily dependant on items, instead of just incorporating them into the game. With the new systems, the magical properties of your armor are just as important as the resistance it gives which is also another reason for using diverse metals. I formerly had a GM and GM+ smith on the Catskills OSI shard for almost 3 years, and the magical potential for valorite, along with its high resistances, a smith with Runic hammers was a very valuable character to have. Unfortunately my warrior didn't fair so well.

You can edit the resistance caps, but with the way the new combat system works, if you allow players to have a 100 resistance, they will only take 1 point of damage from sources of that damage type.

This also isn't really a server support question, by the way, but it is a rather debatable subject. I think there are similar posts on the general discussion forums.

-Kriggle-

try and put on a 100 suit of physical and fight a firesteed bet you get your arse handed to ya