I read elanthis' post. I disagree with it. I've actually worn armor before and I found my range of motion to be very limited. I realize this is anecdotal evidence and perhaps the argument could be made that it wasn't fitted properly, but I have a hard time imagining a fit that wouldn't be restrictive - at least not without having a very large gap in protective coverage at the joints.

I think his point was that fit and skill matter immensely. If you've read my previous post, you'll note that I question the relevant of skill given that his example is with a master of the art, however nonetheless the point is that the restriction can be worked around. Note that the question is merely "can one swim", not "can one win the Olympics" etc.

When I implemented armour, my objective was to balance its benefits against its drawbacks, so that it could be equally viable to wear different quantities of armour (or indeed no armour at all). At the simplest level, my approach was based on the idea that armour absorbs damage, but also adds encumbrance, which makes you easier to hit.

Thus a heavily armoured character will be hit more often, but take less damage when hit, while an unarmoured character will be hit less often, but take more damage when hit.

Each piece of armour has the following attributes:

Condition: The maximum amount of damage the armour can take.

Soak: A percentage of damage to the wearer (after applying armour bypass) which is ignored. Note that there is a different soak value for each of the eight damage types.

Absorb: A small fixed amount of the remaining damage to the wearer (after all other calculations) which is ignored. This was primarily done for cosmetic reasons, so that weak attacks could have their damage reduced to 0, and be described as bouncing off the armour.

Encumbrance: This is added to the wearer. It applies as a direct bonus to absorb and penalty to defence, and (depending on strength) each character can only wear a limited amount of encumbrance before moving on to the next encumbrance level (these are unencumbered, light, medium and heavy). Different encumbrance levels provide different penalties, slowing down the character and restricting their movement options.

Material: Applies modifiers to encumbrance and soak, and determines the durability of the armour (how well it can withstand damage to itself). It also determines other things such as heat tolerance, whether it can be corroded, etc.

Classification: Some armour is classified as 'heavy', which ties in to certain abilities.

Protected locations: Eg a breastplate covers the chest and back, bracers cover the arms, a full helm protects the head, face and neck, etc.

Layers: Eg a breastplate and bracers can be worn over a chainmail shirt, which in turn can be worn over a leather vest.

Visor: Helms with a movable visor can have the visor closed, which gives a 25% defence penalty (due to reduced visibility), but doubles the soak of face attacks, and allows the helm to protect the eyes.

Damage: Physical damage applies soak penalties, while heat and corrosion damage weaken the durability (making the armour easier to damage). Note that these are tracked separately.

Wetness: Armour can gain up to +10% soak against heat damage when wet, but suffers the same value as a penalty against electrical damage.

Note that I don't distinguish between clothing and armour. A woolen shirt might not provide any noticable protection against a dagger thrust, but it's pretty good protection against a ray of frost, and there's no reason why you can't wear it under a chainmail shirt to give you a more balanced degree of protection.

I also chose to implemented shields as both weapons and armour. I did the same for rapiers as well (they have a basket to protect the hand), although as I don't distinguish between basket damage and blade damage that means you can break the rapier by striking your opponent repeatedly in the hand - I should probably change that.