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Body Armor as Hit Points: Difference between revisions

Body Armor as Hit Points (view source)

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Possibly a bit of [[Truth in Television]] or videogames rather. Interceptor body armor for the most part stops bullets outright but breaks down after soaking up one or two hits, making it effectively a free bullet to the chest before dying card.
 
Compare [[Call a Hit Point Aa Smeerp]]. Contrast [[Destructible Armor]], where the amount of armor is a direct indication of the user's remaining HP. Using this system rather than making armour a separate stat [[Armor-Piercing Attack|Armor Piercing Attacks]] can circumvent may help avert [[Armor Is Useless]]. See also [[Multiple Life Bars]] and its common variant [[Regenerating Shield Static Health]] for cases when "armor" and "health" meters work in the same way, but differ.
 
{{examples}}
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* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' uses "realistic" personal shields.
** In ''[[Perfect Dark|Perfect Dark Zero]]'', body armor will mitigate the effect of being shot, although it will still undergo [[Critical Existence Failure]] and stop working, and is useless against melee. This actually makes sense, as kevlar vests in real life are designed to absorb bullet impact, and do nothing against a knife or club.
* The second ''[[FEARF.E.A.R.]]'' game.
* Played with in the early ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' video games. Without heavy armor, the player character can go down in as little as [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|one bullet]].
* The shields from ''[[Halo]]''.
* ''[[Half Life]]'', and the infamous HEV suit. Power in the HEV suit works like actual armor. Minor things will just chip away the power, but bullets will still take off HP.
* Played straight in ''[[Unreal Tournament 2004 (Video Game)|Unreal Tournament 2003]]'', which completely abstracts armour as a floaty yellow shield icon when not equipped, and otherwise as a number that will go down instead of your health when you're hit.
** ''Unreal'', ''[[Unreal Tournament (Video Game)|Unreal Tournament]]'' and ''[[Unreal Tournament III (Video Game)3|Unreal Tournament III]]'' also effectively played it straight. Although damage for most types of armour is divided between the armour and health, unless you were already heavily damaged when picking up a piece of armour, the armour will always be gone well before your health hits zero. The 2004 edition used a similar approach, only with the abstraction from 2003 in place.
** ''[[Unreal II: theThe Awakening (Video Game)|Unreal II the Awakening]]'' has an interesting aversion, where the level of your shields affected their effectiveness. At full shields they'd absorb 100% of any damage you took, but below 90% or so you started taking partial damage to your health with the shields only absorbing a percentage of total damage, which got lower and lower as your shields dropped (i.e. at 50% shield strength your shields would absorb less than half of the damage of a hit). It's not uncommon to die with with your shields still at 33% or more.
* ''[[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]]'' has the "Deflector Shields As Hit Points" variation (plus some of them actively restore health).
* Armor in ''[[Dystopia (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dystopia]]'' has a certain hit point value and takes damage in place of some of your health, but it works differently. It takes double-damage from explosive weapons and half-damage from everything else. It also cannot be regenerated like health.
 
== Literature ==
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* In ''[[Starcraft]]'', the Protoss have the "Deflector Shields" version.
* Armor upgrades in ''[[Dawn of War]]'' increase hit points rather than damage resistance. This is because the game engine relies on armor type to determine damage taken.
* In ''[[Starcraft II (Video Game)|Starcraft II]]'', the Vanidium Plating upgrade adds +5% HP per armor upgrade. This also affects vehicles and spaceships, as well as soldiers. Marines also get a [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me|Combat Shield]] upgrade that grants +10 HP.
 
== Role Playing Games ==
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* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' deflector shields roughly fit this (armour is the standard D20-style where it makes you harder to hit); there's a maximum damage quantity they can take, although they also have a time limit and a maximum they can absorb from any one attack.
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' plays the trope straight, with a third layer devoted to biotic barriers or shields. Most boss-type units in ''Mass Effect 2'' have at least armor or shields. On [[Harder Than Hard|Insanity]] difficulty, all enemies have armor or shields, and boss-type units have shields/biotic barriers, armor and finally health. Especially tough boss-type units have biotic barriers, shields, armor and health. However, huge or purely mechanical enemies ''only'' have armor, not health. Once their armor is depleted, it's assumed the last shot hit something vital and killed/destroyed them.
* In ''[[MegamanMega Man Battle Network]]'', the Barrier chips act like this. Each Barrier has a set amount of health, so if you have a 200 Barrier, 20 attacks with 10 damage will break it, but so will the attack with 200 damage. The only way to restore it is it get another barrier. The subversion lies in the sister set, the "Aura" chips. They can only be destroyed by an attack that is equal to or more powerful than their HP.
* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'' uses the trope and justifies it in universe. The body armor actively uses energy to deflect weapon fire. Once it runs out of power, it no longer provides any protection. The armor slowly depletes just by wearing it, getting hit makes it deplete faster.
 
== Stealth Based Game ==
* ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' also does this. Each armor upgrade adds another segment to your health bar, but does absolutely nothing to improve your resistance to damage.
* ''[[Covert Action]]'' has as optional equipment body armor that allows the player character to take 4 hits before knockout instead of 2.
 
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* ''[[Rifts]]'s'' Mega-Damage system basically ''replaces'' your normal SDC/Hit Points with the armor's MDC, given that even light Mega-Damage to a normal human will usually [[Chunky Salsa Rule|kill them outright]].
** Other Palladium games have body armor work as additional SDC, though it is also a slight aversion to the trope due to a mechanic called Armor Rating. It's dependent on how much of the body is covered by armor. Any strike roll that goes over the A.R. does damage directly to the character, anything under the A.R. damages the armor itself.
* ''[[Battle TechBattleTech]]'' armor is universally like this; it literally adds extra hit point boxes to a given unit's location 'outside' the internal structure proper, which are usually not actually any tougher but have to be eliminated before any actual structure damage can be inflicted.
 
== Third Person Shooter ==
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* In ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak 3 and TLF]]'', you start with around half a circle of hit points. Each armor upgrade gives you a couple extra points.
* ''[[Oni]]'' uses the [[Deflector Shields]] version with the Forcefield item absorbing attacks from guns.
* ''[[James Bond]]'', yet again. In ''[[James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing]]'', it's implied that one hit will kill you, and your HP meter is the effectiveness of your armor. In ''[[From Russia Withwith Love]]'', it's played straight in that the armor is a second health bar.
 
== Turn Based Strategy ==
* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' has no defense stat. Instead, armor just increases HP. Since you get a ''maximum'' of 2 HP per level, it's vital to make sure you have quality armor.
* The first ''[[Master of Orion (Video Game)|Master of Orion]]'' game had generic hitpoints and shields, determined by ship size and armor or shield tech, respectively. The second switched to [[Multiple Life Bars]] + [[Subsystem Damage]] model.
* In ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' all armor techs add to the health of your ships, but they also dramatically increase the chance of physical weapons simply ricocheting off the hull with no damage. Weapons in the 'Polarized Plasmatics' tree are dangerous because they negate that bonus.
* ''Battle Isle'' series has hitpoints called "Armour", whether on vehicles or infantry.
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* In ''[[Spore]]'', adding armor to the animal increases the hitpoints, though the increases don't stack.
* In ''[[Eve Online]]'', spaceships have hitpoints split into three types: Shields, Armor and Structure which take damage in that order. There are modules you can fit that will increase the hitpoints of each type, thus increasing your ship's "life".
* In ''[[Assassin's Creed II (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed II]]'', armor adds to your health bar. However, over time armor gets damaged and when "broken" you can't regain the health it provides until you get repairs done.
* In ''[[Prototype (Videovideo Gamegame)|Prototype]]''. Alex has two defensive powers, a shield and armour. The shield on his arm absorbs hit points until it breaks, whereas the full-bodied armour simply reduces the damage done to him while slowing him down.
* In the classic computer game ''Auto Duel'', your character has 3 hit points and can buy body armor at any truck stop, which provides another 3 hit points. Unlike your body, though, the armor can't be fixed once it's shot up, so once it's sustained the full 3 points of damage, you'll need to [[Breakable Weapons|buy new armor]]. (Oh, and if you're thinking that 3 hit points is a puny number, keep in mind that the game is designed around the concept of ''vehicles'' blowing the crap out of each other.)
 
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