[Suggestion] Magic vs Warfare - Armors

I would love a set of magic armor that lies in protection between leather and chain, has very low weight and has bonuses or resistance built in.  And a whole suit, not like just a chest piece.  And a set of light magic chain would be cool.  More magic armors that aren't batter in armor rating so much, as have something different to offer, less weight, resistances, that stuff.  Like the Athican leather armor, but a full set.

Yes. Anything but magic plate that is just like mundane armor but uses crystals.

That is basically what I was thinking.

Hmm the more I think on this I have an addendum suggestion to make.

Add a basic Crude Leather breastplate for general armor instead of the armor available to Sov at creation.  This can also be used as a basic armor for City Defenders.  Then you can either differentiate to Warfare for higher defense or Magic for lower Defense but secondary bonuses increasing based on armor types.

They use to have a leather shirt and a patchwork leather armor, that was worse than the leather chest.  It's probably in there somewhere still.

I am thinking of doing a mod that changes around the magical items much like people here have suggested. I have some experience modding armors and making custom armor.

Ya those still exist but the problem is that the models don't always fit the current body types. Each type of armor actually has multiple models for different racetypes and genders. A lot of the old stuff doesn't fit wraith bodies for example. You have to play around and match them to get a full set that fits everybody. The other problem is the current automatic upgrade system. All armor is on the same path and it automatically decides which upgrade into which.

That makes sense, a lot of the armor in WoM didn't fit, I remember Magnar and his troops had it the worst.

Thats sad!

The way I read it, might as well use the current cloak-ish concept, but anyways, a seperate magical armour line in the magic tree would be nice. I always hoped warfare and magic be seperated more, instead of the magic tree having upgraded warfare tech stuff.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Well we will see what Frogboy says to all this when he announces what they have changed since they pushed the Beta 5-Final till tomorrow.

Of course could it not just be easy to use the current leather chest piece model and make a separate item named patchwork leather chest piece with lower armor?  I know it will look the same but at least the stats will be different, which is all the final goal is really, which is to make a simple chest armor for Sov creation and initial defender armor.

I'd kind of like it if they kept the current magical weapons and armor (and an added magical chainmail and magical leather armor set) as things which require both the Warfare research and the Magic research, and then added at least one of the following for magical armors:

1.  A separate magic armor line - some form of enchanted clothing early on which gives small defense bonuses and some form or another of magical benefits, similar to the current Robe of the Aegis and the lootable mage robes for champions - this should not be as good as real armor is as far as physical defense goes for most items, and if they are as good (or better) it should come at a cost to the other enchantments, perhaps even a slight penalty.

2.  A line of research specifically intended to give your troops antimagic defenses - things like spell and elemental resistance boosters. Elemental resistance boosters are kind of unnecessary right now, though, since most of the time I don't get attacked by something with an elemental attack (not counting air elementals and shrills), and the handful of elemental resistance boosters in the game currently can give you 50% to fire or ice with a cloak, or 25% to fire or ice with a ring, and you can have both rings and one cloak on any given unit.

3.  Maybe further development of the trinket line of equipment. Perhaps the way to go for magical 'defense' is to enable units to act more frequently and have a slightly higher dodge chance (not much higher, though - I often feel like I'm hitting things too infrequently anyways)?

4.  Add armor made from some of the creatures in the world. Rock Spider Plate Armor or Dragonscale Mail, anyone?

5.  More variety in the cloaks. There are, I think, three of these in the game right now that are anything other than cosmetic (at least, that are available to trained units).

For weapons, I would like to see further development of the staff weapons. Perhaps add in some sort of ceremonial weapons (i.e., Crystal Daggers, Sacrificial Knives, Tridents of Burning, whatever), but these should be equivalent to the ones in the warfare tree rather than better.

as an alternative to or in addition to magic/elemental  resistance, magic leather/chain/scale whatever could grant other bonuses like initiative, accuracy, or whatever, just to mix it up.  i know some items do things like this as well but there might be some creative ways to differentiate.

Great ideas!  Devs, Derek, can you implement any of these ideas for magical armor?

If magical weapons and armor are getting more focus, then they need a few more pieces than a robe and cloak to last until the endgame.  Enchanted leather or chain would be a great fit.