v0.31:Armor

Template:AV Template:Elven Armor is the protective equipment used to reduce/deflect damage coming from enemy weapons. It comes in several pieces, each one protecting certain area. The purpose of each piece is pretty much self-explanatory. Note that the breastplates only protect upper/lower torso areas, while the mail shirts also cover the upper arms. Throat, ears, nose, fingers, lips and teeth are exposed, even in full armor. The 4 best materials for armor are, in that order, Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, Template:L.

Concerning armored enemies you are likely to meet, it is advisable to equip your military dwarves with at least bronze armor. Testing in the arena shows that armored dwarves have a huge advantage over the unarmored ones, usually taking no casualties while making short work of their enemies. (Well now that is really new and unexpected,sire!)
It should be noted that armor material is extremely important now, for example fully iron-armored dwarves with iron short swords stand no chances against steel equipped ones. Same material cutting weapons cannot pierce same material armor ( e.g. steel short swords vs steel armor).

It is unclear whether the armor user skill affects combat in any way, since the movement speed and armor penetration looks the same for legendary armor users and untrained users.

Types of Protection

Garments fit on different body parts depending on the item in question, and require different orders based on material sometimes.

They may additionally protect upper and lower arms and legs, depending on the garment. Dwarves do not seem to make a distinction between genders when selecting clothing to wear, so don't be startled when you see males running around in dresses.

There is no real difference between armor and clothing, except that maybe only non-clothing garments may increase the Template:L skill.

This list only lists equipment Dwarves should be able to manufacture, from the file \raw\objects\entity_default.txt

Body Part	Clothing	Armor Level*	Material Size	Template:L/Template:L	Template:L	Template:L	Template:L	Template:L	Template:L	Template:L	Template:L	Layer
Head	Cap	+	1	Clothes	Clothes			Leather		10	15	Over
	Helm[S]	1+	2		Leather	Leather	Leather	Chain		30	20	Armor
	Hood		2	Clothes	Clothes					10	100	Cover
Upper Body	Dress			Clothes	Clothes					10	50	Under
	Shirt		3	Clothes	Clothes					10	50	Under
	Tunic		3	Clothes	Clothes					10	50	Under
	Vest		2	Clothes	Clothes					10	50	Over
	Robe		6	Clothes	Clothes					20	100	Over
	Coat		5	Clothes	Clothes					20	50	Over
	Leather Armor[S]	1	6		Leather					20	50	Armor
	Chainmail	2	6					Chain		15	50	Armor
	Breastplate[S]	3	9					Plate		20	50	Armor
	Cloak		5	Clothes	Clothes					15	150	Cover
Hands	Gloves		1	Clothes	Clothes					10	10	Under
	Gauntlets[S]	2	2			Chain	Chain	Chain		20	15	Armor
	Mittens		1	Clothes	Clothes					15	20	Cover
Lower Body	Trousers		4	Clothes	Clothes					15	30	Over
	Leggings[S]	1+	5		Leather	Leather	Leather	Chain		15	30	Armor
	Greaves[S]	3	6			Plate		Plate		15	30	Armor
Feet	Socks			Clothes	Clothes					10	15	Under
	Shoes		1	Clothes	Clothes					20	15	Over
	Low Boots	1	1		Leather			Chain		25	15	Armor
	High Boots	1+	1		Leather			Chain		25	15	Armor
Shield	Buckler	1	2		Buckler			Buckler	Buckler	NA	NA	NA
	Shield	2	4		Shield			Shield	Shield	NA	NA	NA

Some clothing articles may not be crafted in fortresses of a given Template:L - only those items marked as 'common' for that civilization may be crafted^vcurrent.

[S] = Max one [S] per body slot (e.g. only one plate mail, and no greaves and leggings on top)

• The armor level of an item with a "+" can be increased by one if made from metal.

Size, Permit, and layering armor

The Size and Permit values govern how much clothing or armor can be worn: for each body part, less than permit worth of size garments can be worn under the final garment. (The last garment itself can go over the limit.)

If a dwarf is not wearing too much mundane clothing (too many robes, etc), the following layering is usually possible:

• Cap (metal or other) under a helmet
• leather armor (torso piece) under chain armor (torso piece)
• chain armor (torso piece) under plate armor (torso piece)

As mentioned above, the lighter armor must be put on first, and then the heavier assigned. For some reason, leather armor will not be worn under plate armor.

Note also that socks do have a sizable armor value - wearing them under "armor" boots is recommended.

In Template:L, the permit of each garment is checked at the time it is put on, which allows you to put on several cloaks (permit 150) on top of several layers of armor. In Template:L, the lowest "permit" value for any given body part is used: for instance, if a dwarf is wearing a dress (permit 50) and a total of 50 or more size worth of clothing on the upper body, it cannot put any more clothing on the upper body. (This explains why Template:Ls tend to wear several cloaks: they arrive at the fortress wearing only a cloak on the upper body (permit 150), and can put on a total of 10 of them, at 15 size each.)

Other Restrictions

"Under" layers cannot be put on over "over" layers, so, for instance, a dwarf cannot put on socks unless it first removes its shoes. They can wear over layers without putting an under layer on first, which explains their fondness for "going commando" (trousers without loincloth).

Dwarves will only put on the specific level of armor they are told to put on -- unless it is unavailable, in which case they will put on the next-best available armor level. For instance, if set to "plate", a dwarf will put on chainmail if no plate is available, or leather armor if neither chain nor plate is available.

Dwarves will also not remove lesser-level armor when moving to heavier armor level (notwithstanding the "permit" restrictions detailed above). If you step them through each armor level, you can get them to wear a metal cap plus helm, and chain mail plus plate mail.

In adventurer mode, you have direct control over what armor you put on, and are only limited by permit and "one only" restrictions. This means you can wear three suits of chain mail (total size 45) plus another suit of chain or plate on top of them. On top of this, you can add six cloaks.

For some reason, dwarves will never put on cloth/leather caps or gloves (except those they arrive in). There are no "under" layer headwear or "over" layer handwear in the game; it is possible this omission is causing the clothes-wearing algorithm to be non-functional at this time.

Bugs

A metal breastplate currently only requires 1 bar of a metal to forge; however, when out of bars, the announcement seen reads

"Urist McArmorsmith cancels forge <x-metal> breastplate: needs 3 <x-metal> bars."
A similar situation exists with chainmail (40d:chain armor), but with an announcement re "2 bars". Since in 40d a breastplate (40d:plate armor) required 3 bars and chain required 2, it's a good bet that this can be viewed as a (minor) bug.

In adv and arena mode, putting a pair of socks(or any under-layer foot wear) on before putting on a pair of boots(or any over-layer foot wear) will keep you from putting on the last boot. So the order sock, sock, boot, boot doesn't work, but changing the order to sock, boot, sock, boot does. This is a very minor bug.