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Armor Is Useless: Difference between revisions

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Armor Is Useless (view source)

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** The Riders in that series need to shed the heavier armor to use their finishing moves. Yeah, even the ones whose finishers use almost-completely external equipment (Drake and Sasword).
* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''. As Mr. Bennet is putting on a [[Bulletproof Vest]], he admits that it'll be useless against the supervillains he's about to face, and he's only bothering with it in order to keep up [[The Masquerade]].
 
 
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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* [[Star Wars]] d20 had armor that really was useless, unless you were already almost dead. It provided damage reduction only when you were out of vitality points or against a critical hit, when damage went to wound points. So for most of a battle, all most armor did was provide a situation bonus to one ability and an armor check penalty to certain skills. ...yay? It also denied you your class-based AC and limited your max Dex Bonus. This could be designed to reflect the stormtrooper armor's uselessness.
** In ''[[Star Wars]]: Saga Edition'', characters gain bonuses to their Reflex Defense (the defense that keeps blaster bolts hitting you) from armor or a [[Statistically Speaking|level-based bonus]], and they don't stack. At higher levels, it's better to go into a fight naked, rather than wearing the heaviest protection you can find. However, it isn't played completely straight as the bonuses to Fortitude Defense from armor do stack and with the right talents, you can get them to stack with the Reflex Defense as well.
* One of the most notable examples in the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' background is the standard issue flak armour of the Imperial Guard - a bulletproof, heat and shrapnel resistant uniform with potentially extra armoured-areas by our standards... thatand is generally useless against most of the weaponry of the other species within ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''. The [[Power Armor]] worn by the [[Space Marine]] Mascots, on the other hand, is generally an aversion. Most weapons have a better than even chance of bouncing off harmlessly, and the even more powerful Terminator Armor is protection against anything short of Heavy Anti-tank weaponry or plasma weapons, and for dealing with such weapons, [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me|Storm Shields]] and [[Energy Shields|The built in energy shield]] of terminator armor still provide reasonable protection.
** Admitedly, the weaponry used by other species includes, but is not limited to, [[BFG|armor-piercing rocket-propelled grenades]], [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|mono-edged high-speed shurikens]], [[Abnormal Ammo|armored flesh-eating acidic worms]] or [[Energy Weapon|droplets of superheated plasma]]. And thats just what the line infantry uses. Especialists and other elites can, and often do, pack much deadlier weaponry. On the other hand, flak armor provides quite decent protection against lasbolts, bullets (even high-caliber ones) and most conventional melee weapons and its one of the best armors available to starting characters in the [[Dark Heresy|RPG]].
** Dark Eldar wyches play this trope to a tee, with a superhuman athleticism that means the less armour they wear, the more they've practised to avoid needing it (and wearing less armour allows you to be more agile). A wych who goes into battle [[Full-Frontal Assault|wearing nothing]] will mess your heavily-armoured troops up badly.
** In WH40RP flak is more useful, in that even vest-and-helmet flak makes it more survivable, at least if the enemy's weapon doesn't have good penetration or overkill damage. And (as the name implies) flak armor has a bonus against explosions.
* In ''[[Exalted]]'', averted at the low levels, as good armor vastly increases your survival chance in a fight—aside from the fact that the rules specifically state that the only reason to wear a helmet is if you don't think your hairstyle is [[Rule of Cool|cool enough]]. Played straight at high levels, as there are enough [[Martial Arts and Crafts]] abilities that only need to touch you to mess you up in ways ranging from petrification to ''having your soul fall off'' that characters will mostly be depending on magically-powered defenses, rendering armor somewhat redundant.
** Armour is a lot more useful with the 2.5 revisions, which halved the cost in Artifact dots for a decent suit and reduced weapon damage across the board. It's still vulnerable to bad-touch effects, though.
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** Armor rules were later printed in the ''[[Fanon Discontinuity|Cathay]]'' supplement, which was written after all of the setting's creators had [[Just for Pun|jumped ship]].
* In ''MERP'',<ref>and by extension ''[[Role Master]]</ref> unarmoured was usually better than soft and hard leather armour against most weapons. Each weapon had a strike table against each armour type (AT) and it was far easier to hit higher armors on average, but you dealt mere damage. The real killer in rolemaster/MERP was the critical strike table roll, which was easier to gain against most armors in the game than it was against not wearing armor at all. Soft and Rigid leather was not only easier to hit and deal damage to, it was far more deadly to wear as critical strike table rolls occured more often! Medium armors like chain also suffered from this to an extent against many weapons. Not only did critical strike table rolls deal things such as stuns, even the weakest table (A) had a chance to maim, incapacitate or outright kill your character on a percentage roll! And this is something you not only had to invest dev points in for manouvrability, it also carried a quickness penalty to make you even easier to hit while wearing it!
 
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** Leather armor is ''slightly'' more useful than the other armors - every class that ''can'' use armor can upgrade the leather skill to a level where this is no disadvantage to having one on, which meshes well with that it, as all armors, can carry useful bonuses that have nothing to do with armor class (there are no non-armor options for the torso slot), and in 7 and 8 the Grandmaster bonus applies even if the armor class does not.
* In ''[[Mount & Blade]]'', most weapons do cutting damage, which is significantly hampered by armor. Piercing and blunt attacks get through more often, but generally have less power once they pass the armor.
* ''[[X-COM]]: Enemy Unknown'', is a peculiar case that caused a fair bit of [[Natter]]mostly. AThe soldier wearing the most powerfulfirst armor inyou thedevelop game,occasionally hit where it's thickest, has roughly a 2/3 chance of surviving one hitsaves from thegetting mosttheir commonfaces alienimploded weapon.- There'smore no guaranteeoften against multiple shots. What would be rejected in most games is here a crucial improvement from losing half the squadweaker onweapons nearly every mission. The first armor available occaisonally saves from getting their faces imploded,- and instead leaves them in dire need of afirst medicaid on the field and time in the infirmary when they return.<ref>Thus doing exactly what reasonable armor can be expected to do in real life; making what would have been fatalities into living casualties.</ref> It's another major development. When you make later [[Powered Armor]], a soldier hit where it's thickest, has roughly a 2/3 chance of surviving one hit from the alien weapon most common in late game. Of course, they are fond of firing full auto... What would be rejected in most games is here a crucial improvement from losing half the squad on nearly every mission.
** Tricky players note that advanced armor makes automaticAuto-Cannon with high-explosive (and incendiary, but it's generally weak in this game) rounds intoan amusing close combat weaponsweapon, and that its flying version reduces Chryssalids from nigh-invincible instant death machines to mostly harmless. (While it also makes Silacoids completely harmless, [[Goldfish Poop Gang|that's not really a downgrade for them]].) The sequel ''Apocalypse'' has much stronger armor.
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]''
** In the original ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'', the Black Belt could wear some equipment, but when unarmored he gains one absorb for each level which will outstrip the absorb he can get from armors at very high levels. It's not something that people who tries to beat the game on a timely pace should worry about, though.
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* ''[[Deus Ex]]'': straight in the first game. Armored soldiers from UNATCO and Majestic 12 have as many hit points as homeless bums. NSF terrorists are actually weaker.
* An eroge RPG ''[[Lightning Warrior Raidy]]'' has an infamous "Spell" skill that does ''fixed'' damage no matter what kind of armor you're wearing. The stronger the armor late in-game you wear, the more of your speed and evasion are reduced. So people just end ups wearing mid-game armor and rely more on avoiding hits.
* [[Double Subverted]] in ''[[Fallout 3]]''. Normally armor does a pretty good job reducing damage. Then you go to [[Downloadable Content|Point Lookout]], where [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|the NPCs' weapons automatically get a certain amount of free damage in]]. This means that a player who easily mows through Enclave soldiers and Super Mutants can get pwned by mutated rednecks with shotguns. The tricksy bit is, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|said armor-ignoring effect only happens when they're fired at YOU]].
* The improved graphics of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'' reveal that Link wears chainmail under his trademark green tunic. But he takes exactly the same amount of damage from goblin attacks with the armor as he does without it in the prologue.
* Averted in the multiplayer online game World of Tanks, that is all about armor. Highly armored vehicles take little or no damage when shot by much weaker vehicles. There are weaker spots in hulls or turrets, but that´s relative to the overall endurance of the vehicles, and only an appropriately powerful gun can truly exploit them. For example, a Tier IV Russian light tank like the A-20 could empty his ammo rack on a Tier IX Heavy like the IS-4, without causing serious damage.
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* In ''[[Errant Story]]'', weapons technology (guns, magic, Durus Flamma weaponry, etc.) has advanced significantly farther and faster than armor, making most armor relatively useless. Sarine [[Lampshade|comments]] on this when considering if she should get her damaged armor repaired, stating that most people don't even bother wearing armor any more because of it.
** However Jon did have to fire pointblank in an armor-wearing elf's gut just in case.
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' has it halfway: armor is ubiquitous, but is really good only against low-grade threats. On the body level, common "carbonan crotch-huggers" reduce a gunshot to weak punch, but if hosed with a plasgun, even relatively good hardsuits can only take one for the wearer once - which saves the (former) wearers ''if'' no one continues to shoot at them and there's breathable air around. On the ship level, a heavily armored (military grade) hull can absorb minor leaks, but is no substitute to having [[Deflector Shields|shield]] adequate to the threats and enough of juice to keep it up, plus point defences and now also [[Teleport Interdiction|TAD]].
** Oafan ships have expensive hulls of superdense alloys everyone else uses only for powerplants. This allows them [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-12-23 to take head-on kinetic impacts that their shield could only divert aside]. If a breacher missile can punch through the shield, however, [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2015-11-03 it can punch through this hull too] - you just will end up with a boat husk venting its glowing innards out of a hole rather than adding its own pieces to the cloud of overheated fragments and droplets. It's understandable given that the builders were fragile bubbles and had a very good reason to not throw around gravitics when it can avoided. [[Cool but Inefficient|But generally it's very inefficient]] - especially given that normally cost of PTU alloys is one of the limitations on a ship's power, i.e. getting rid of it is likely to be cheaper, as long as the total mass of shells on extra annie plants is significantly less than that of this whole hull.
 
 
== [[Web Original]] ==
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