We are planning a large re-balancing of all armour in Torn, the values applied to your armour will likely be substantially reduced which may come as a shock, but shouldn't actually be too much to be concerned about, explanations below.
The current issues
- Armour is currently overpowered, with pieces that can block up to 70% of damage we feel it has become not just important, but absolutely essential. Currently such armour can easily dictate the result of the fight. It should be important and serve a useful purpose, but it should not be as powerful as it currently is. This has become an issue because the scaling system was defined 13 years ago - new armour pieces were kept on that scale, pushing the value up and up. This was further exacerbated with the unique armour values addition.
- There is currently a lack of choice when it comes to armour. The gap of effectiveness of each piece / set is so wide that usually only a single option is forced upon players due to it being senseless equipping any other options. Many armours (and any new basic armours we add in the future) are / would be ignored.
- The issue is especially prevalent when hitting an unarmoured area of the body compared with an armoured area. This has become very clear now that the targeting system in attacking has changed, and armour only protects the areas it visibly protects. For example a hit to the face (when wearing a helmet) or arms (when wearing a vest) does an obscene amount of damage, making RNG wins / losses too common and making full-face helmets or full-body armour too powerful.
- We have no growing room for the future. With the regularly available and fairly cheap combat armour already providing levels of protection that are too high, we can't really expand beyond this with new content.
The proposed changes
What we need is a new scaling system which is well thought out, works perfectly for Torn today, and totally future-proofed. This can be achieved with minimal effect on the community, without vastly altering the TCD value of armour pieces today. The end results should not be significantly noticeable, and the price of the armour you currently own should not significantly change.
- The new maximum range of armour values will be adjusted from around 20% - 70% to 20% - 50%. So even the very best armour can only block half of the damage. This also tightens up the difference between the different pieces / sets, allowing the unique quality difference between each individual piece to overlap with other types, giving more options to players. The base value of the Combat set in particular will see a fall from 60% to 38%.
- When achieving a headshot, there's a 25% chance that it may hit the face (usually unarmoured) instead of the top of the head (usually armoured with a helmet). Full-face armour will need to be adjusted to compensate for this advantage: They will generally provide less protections than helmets, but offer reliability that any headshot, even if it hits the face, has armour mitigation. The welding helmet and motorcycle helmet will still be very effective options for players, as will any new full-face armour that is added.
- The general order of scaling will remain the same. Generally the armour pieces will be as good as others in comparison to how they are today, although their values will be tighter together. Adjustments will be made to some pieces that are heavily underused to at least give them a niche: bringing them back into use.
- All armour pieces which have good to high quality will keep that advantage. If you have the best Combat Helmet in Torn, it'll remain the best Combat Helmet in Torn.
- 'Tailoring' and 'Regulation' company specials would increase the performance of armour by 20% and 25%.
- We will introduce natural protection, reducing all damage by 25%. So your armour will protect you less, but you'll take less damage to begin with.
So what we're effectively doing is moving some of the defensive properties of armour to natural mitigation. Your combat armour would be reduced from 60% to 38%, but you'll gain 25% natural protections regardless of armour. The results should be fairly unnoticeable in attacking, except that hits to unarmoured areas will do far less than they do currently.
Thanks.