What's the intent behind Extended Armour?

[10t 12]

I see a lot of comments about AI taking too many shots to kill. I see almost as many responses telling people to turn off Extended Armour, because it makes AI stronger.

It begs the question: what's the point of it? If it only affected Friendly units (or the player) then I'd understand it as a crutch for people playing on Recruit or Regular (where it's enabled by default). But if enemy are assisted by it too, then I don't see the point.

Am I right that Extended Armour increases the number of shots to kill AI?

If so, is that deliberate? Or is it a bug?

Finally, would it be better to have it disabled for all difficulties by default? Would anyone (who didn't know how to turn it back on, that is) miss it? My guess is that it'd reduce the cries of "Arma 3 is teh not realistic!!1!one", and I can't think of a downside.

[progamer 14]

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=15584

[-Coulum- 35]

Extended armour doesn't do anything for enemy ai. Only you and your squad. Not sure about friendlies outside your squad but I believe it effects them too. Its good for those who are really new to the game or those who just want a god mode. You can literally sit ontop of two grenades and not die.

The reason it probably gives people the wrong idea of damage dealt is because they play the game think that its too hard to kill an enemy, and to further investigat, they go in the editor, plop down a friendly and shoot him till he dies. If extended armour is on they get the wrong results and think that it also applies to the enemies. It doesn't though.

I do think that it should be off by default though.

[rye1 22]

Yup and an example there Coulum if you increase the damage a grenade will do, sure it's temporary fix for that problem but it'll cause a cascade of other problems. You'll die just for being in a blast radius, it may kill players behind cover, etc, etc. It's a complex issue either way you look at it.

[L3TUC3 32]

I may be trying to read to much into this or done it wrong, but here goes:

Toggling extended armor on and off didn't change the outcome in any noticeable way.

A quick test in the editor showed that a standard blufor rifleman will take 16 shots (full P07 mag) of 9mm to the chest point blank before dying. When just the vest is removed he dies in a single shot. When just the clothing is removed (vest still on) he dies in 12 shots.

An opfor rifleman will take 10 shots to the chest at point blank before dying. With just his vest removed he takes 4. With just his clothing removed (vest still on) he dies in 4 shots.

An AAF rifleman will take 12 shots to the chest at point blank before dying. With just his vest removed he dies after a single shot. With just his clothing removed (vest still on) he dies in 12 shots.

This means that the armor value for the vests and clothing vary and probably stack or enhance with mathematical wizardry I don't understand. The standard blufor rifleman vest is a plate carrier (lite), the Opfor's a LBV harness, the AAF a GA carrier lite.

All I can assume is that the armor values haven't been finalized and that equipment combinations can increase survivability. And because the values aren't done yet there's a few (default) combo's that have a very unbelievable survival rate.

For example the default opfor officer can take 10 9mm bullets before dying. Without the vest (only uniform), 4. With just the vest (no uniform), 3. The vest is a bandolier and it really doesn't appear to have any armor value at all since it barely covers anything, and the clothes seem to be just plain officer clothing. The blufor officer on the other hand dies in 3 shots. Without the vest (only uniform), 1. With just vest (no uniform), 3. A more believable number if maybe a bit generous.

Ofcourse the survival rate really plummets as more lethal calibers are introduced.

[Greenfist 1863]

Just tested this and it looks like Extended armor approximately doubles the health of the units in your group.

The default blufor rifleman shooting another blufor rifleman to the center of the chest deals 20% damage on average. Shooting a member of your team deals 10% damage.

So disabling extended armor does not make enemies easier to kill but it makes your team harder to kill. Not your whole side, only your team, or a team controlled by human to be specific.

[iceman77 19]

...

Thanks for the info.

[Tacti-Cool 10]

Extended Armor is how SkyNet is improving its Terminators.