Modular armor

[mickelus]

Questions and suggestions regarding modular armor are frequently brought up on discord, here's an issue to gather ideas but also to present the issues that we need to solve. Some of this stuff is assumtions on my part, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Things that need to be solved:

• [ ] which other stats/benefits could the armor provide than just armor/toughness, why would you use leather or cloth instead of iron or diamond
• [ ] which are the minor and major slots (major slots host improvements and should be defining for the item)
• [ ] apart from material variations which different types of modules could be put into each slots (e.g. single/double plated shoulderguard, asymmetric shoulderguard, shoulder-mounted mining laser)
• [ ] are there different schemas/modules for different classes (e.g. A metal chestplate is very different from a chainmail/leather armor/scalemail, are those crafted using separate schemas?)
• [ ] what provides integrity, is it a single slot for which all modules provide the majority of the integrity or is it perhaps provided by different modules in several slots?

[Sz0rt]

maybe movement speed? the heavier the metal or material is the slower you get, so getting diamond armor would give you lots of armor but would slow you down considerably

[mickelus]

Would it also slow down anyone wearing a vanilla diamond armor? Or does it start to slow you down when it's converted to a tetra armor the first time you upgrade it? Because that sounds like not so fun if tetra is in a modpack.

[Sz0rt]

im guessing once it becomes a tetra armor piece, because if it was on vanilla armor that would cause correlation between mods and yeah just generally unfun

[kohlth]

for heavy armor debuffs: movement acceleration? like tetra diamond armor does not lower your movement max speed but lowers the rate in which you get up to speed? or maybe its a matter or leather having more ability for getting more material upgrades for movement and utility (rocket boots/slime block piston boots that boost jump hight?) and diamond armor has more enchant ability and fancy inlay and socketing options for special magical things?

hmm... I have some more ideas just want to make sure they are good and fit the mod

[MojiRS]

Which other stats/benefits could the armor provide than just armor/toughness?

Any bonuses usually obtained from enchantments, such as projectile/magic/etc. protection, and effects like depth strider and thorns could be unique to specific materials.

Why would you use leather or cloth instead of iron or diamond?

First of all, I think this question is based on a bit of a false premise. I don't believe light armor necessarily needs to be equally as appealing as heavy armor. No one ever asks what incentives we should provide to use wooden tools - it's totally fine to have different and objectively better tiers of equipment. The main reason frontline troops in medieval times didn't all wear full plate armor is not because there were significant advantages to mail or leather armor - it's because a suit of plate armor was extremely expensive, and the cost of outfitting an entire army with it was prohibitive, which is a system that's easily replicated in Minecraft.

That being said, there are definitely gameplay benefits for having a heavy vs. light armor system. As such, I think heavy armor reducing movement speed really needs to be the answer to the above question, since that's how it works in real life, and that's how it's already handled by tons of other games. Some games instead have stat thresholds to equip heavy armor, or have it increase mana costs, but those mechanics don't make any sense in Minecraft. However, there is the issue of non-Tetra armors existing that don't affect movement speed, so I would suggest armor only reducing speed once a certain weight threshold has been passed. Then you can design the weight system such that vanilla armors fit under that weight threshold, meaning you don't need to mess with vanilla armor stats or have stat changes when vanilla armor is converted to Tetra armor.

As a general response to the remaining questions:

I imagine each armor piece would have one or more different major components, and each component has a garment, mail, and plate layer, of which you choose up to two. So, you could have a mail glove with a leather lining, a plate cuirass with a mail hauberk, or a simple woolen cap. Some components may only consist of certain layers - for example, spaulders might only have a garment and plate layer.

A helmet could have a helm (cap/coif/helm) and a neck (collar/aventail/gorget) component. The chestplate could be divided into chest (tunic/hauberk/cuirass), and gloves/gauntlets. Spaulders might also make sense, but since they would only be one layer of plate or garment, it might be better to lump them in with the chest component. Leggings and boots probably just need to have one major component each, as you can't really divide them up into individual pieces (with the exception of plate legging components, but I'm not sure it's worth having specific plate armor components). I'm also pretty sure mail boots aren't a real thing, but they're already in vanilla, so there's not much you can do about that.

I assume there would be a binding and a socket minor component. Bindings seem rather more essential for armor than they are for tools, though - would bindings/sockets still be a choose-one thing like they are for tools? You could also add armor pieces like spaulders, cuisses, and greaves as minor components if it makes sense.

I don't see why integrity would need to function differently to how it works for tools. Bindings and garment/lining layers can provide integrity, plate and mail layers can consume it, and settling seems like it fits just fine as a mechanic.

[VaguelyLion]

SO! As a Blacksmith and Armorer in real life, i can tell you 2 things. first of all, different kinds of helmet shapes sacrifice visibility for protection. those stereotypical Armet style helmets knights are seen wearing are really, really good protection wise, but its like looking out of a bucket with two small slits for eyes.

Secondly, you're meant to wear a padded suit called a Gambeson under your plate armor to A) stop your skin from getting pinched in the metal parts of the armor and B) protect from bludgeoning damage, because it doesnt matter how thick of a piece of metal you have in front of you, a hammer or baseball bat will rock. your. world. The thicker that padded Gambeson is, the more protection it offers. BUT! it gets, really, really hot and hard to move the thicker it is.

know the reason i bring these up is, perhaps the armor could consist of three different parts. maybe the helmet could be; plates,which is the main component, lining, which is the inside of the helmet or armor that makes contact with your body, and then an armor specific component. for helmets it would be a brim or visor, for chestplates it could be pauldrons or bevors, leggings could be maybe belt attatchments or something? and shoes could be soles or insoles.

maybe you could add a visibility mechanic? the bigger a visor is, the harder it is to see? a kettle hat or nasal helm with no visor wound change nothing at all, but a sallet or armet styled helmet could give blindness-type effects.

anyway, im not that great at writing this kinda stuff and i have a lot of half-ideas. but half ideas are better than no ideas huh? tell me if this helps c:

(btw im really partial to sallets and kettle hats, and id be forever in your debt if you somehow added them... love your mod xoxo)

~FloofyMane

[Kronosus]

maybe you could add a visibility mechanic? the bigger a visor is, the harder it is to see? a kettle hat or nasal helm with no visor wound change nothing at all, but a sallet or armet styled helmet could give blindness-type effects. :

~FloofyMane

Not a good idea. Its very uncomfortable to have your vision restricted, noone will use those helmets and it would be wasted effort on moders part. Maybe if it was only minor "bits" on edges of screen it could go tho....

However, different modifiers could be added such as making you unable to make critical hits (you cant aim that much) maybe less realistic but more enjoyable.

[Kronosus]

Ok so, there is a lot of text so I put it into Spoilers, I tried to make it organized, hope you will like it. I also added ideas I liked from @VaguelyLion and @Seitz1 . I tried to keep it more or less "vanilla"; so no such things as piston boots or lasers. I also skipped more basic things such as "double lining", as Im sure those were considered already

Light VS Heavy

First get bad ideas out of way:

• Slower movement = Obnoxious. People would prefer vanilla armor.

• Weight system = Too complex, both for player and mod creator (imo)

Now for IMO plausible ideas:

• Integrity based on base material. This also answers last question. Pauldrons and such shouldnt cost much integrity, but addons such as straps or backpacks should cost a lot. This will make Light armor more modular, while not buffing its basic stats.

As for heavy armor, most of their integrity should come from Bindings.

• Armor "weight" should be modular stat, not based only on material. = For example you can only slightly reinforce leather for protection, or lighten iron armor by replacing/removing parts of it

• Reduced inventory space = Leather simply lets you strap more onto you. So when you equip heavy armor, columns of your inventory would get crossed out, unable to be used until armor is removed. This would cause people to prefer Light armor in everyday situations, medium would be for world/cave expeditions and heavy for when you expect hard encounters (bosses etc), and IMO it would have nice side effect with feeling of "Dressing for adventure"

• Mob detection based on how heavy armor is = This would suit "stealthy" light armor type of exploration, and is realistic without being too obnoxious. Also, you might want to be "louder" when you go farm mobs a bit.

• Armor is unequipable outside of armor station = Or reversely, only equippable in armor station. Kinda questionable idea tbh. So in theory, all of heaviest armor has several layers of protection, and is quite bulky. Taking it down would be very difficult and lengthy in random environment. As such armor would be considered as having "Curse of binding" on it once you equip it

Making a block, or re-purposing armor stand, a "armor station" would let you dress/undress this armor. Again adds to the feeling of prepping for adventure that I think game lacks. (also, maybe an achievement explaining how to don/doff it for new players would be good)

Minor / Major Slots

All armor pieces should have bindings and minor component, and inlay with base as major components.

HELMET -Major: Visor; Emblem (Adding sort of insignia, replacing "Gem" slot) -Minor: Collar

CHESTPLATE: -Major: Pauldrons; Vambraces Backslot (Most basic use could be backpack; or elytra affix; or maybe parachute) -Minor: Misc slot (This would house things such as "tool straps" reducing weight; armor skirts increasing protection at tiny cost of speed/knockback; Reinforcements (high integrity cost), Lantern (if you can do dynamic light) etc etc)

LEGGINGS: -Major: Separate Upper and Lower part. (Im sure some would like that look of "high leather boots", and it makes up for itself with customization options) -Minor: Misc slot just like on chest plate; with addition of module making you immune to those pesky berry bushes

BOOTS -Major: The Soles = This can include basic, riveted (no sliding), cushioned, insulated (magmablocks are safe), flippers (faster swim), weighted (you sink faster), or maybe spurs to make horse faster, with advanced things such as ice skates, soulsand immune module, or climber (very slow ladder everywhere)

Non-generic modules

Some were already in previous spoiler, but there is what I came up with, kinda just tossed there:

• Helmets: Primitive rebreather; Wide guards (for that samurai look);

• Armor: Spikes (of course), Emergency water reserve (places non-source water block when you fall in lava or catch fire. needs refill); Explosive paddling (chance to reduce durability at do bit of dmg; but blasts enemy away); Makeshift/scrap plates (absorb damage; needs replacements); Arrow catcher (chance to get arrows when you get shot, its silver lining);

• Leggings: Jump boosters (basically double jump, not higher basic jump, thats annoying)

(I might add more later)

Armor schematics (Yes)

Strong Yes for separate "parts" and schematics, ofc salvageable if desired.

Most types or armor are harder to make than blades, and require more time and investment. A separate block/forge setup for them would be great, also I think it would feel good to be able to separate weapon and armor crafting to different stations.

Damn, this took me 2 hours to make -_-

[swuff-star]

I'd limit movement speed to Obsidian Armor, should it be a thing through Tetra. I'd be disappointed if I couldn't use Tetra's diamond armor without a significant reduction in speed.

Maybe instead, a "mobility" mechanic? Wearing an Iron, Gold, or Diamond Chestplate would reduce the speed you can swing a sword or mine blocks, since it's harder to move your arms.

Wearing full Leather or Chain could maybe even introduce a mobility bonus? Or maybe wearing Leather Boots, Leggings, and a Helmet alongside a Diamond Chestplate would negate the Diamond Chestplate's mobility debuff?

[mickelus]

It's amazing to get input from someone who has real life experience, thanks @VaguelyLion. Here are some comments on what has been brought up so far:

• I don't want armor pieces to change when they are converted to tetra armor, and having things like a movement penalty being applied to all diamond/iron armor would be not-so-fun in larger packs
• toggleable visors could be a fun mechanic, you flip them down when going into combat which gives you more armor but limits your vision and then you flip it back up when you're done or when a zombie hits you from behind
• significantly higher integrity cost for heavy armor, makes room for more upgrades on ligher armor which makes for more utility => fits fantasy (at least mine)
• apply speed bonuses (swing/harvest for body, movement for pants & boots) from honing improvements, baseline tetra armor is the same as vanilla but light armor has the potential to make you faster as you tweak it to better fit that unique little blocky body of yours
• stealth mechanics would be fun, I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement. Some sort of interaction with tall grass and shadows would be cool. Should be applied as improvements to various parts
• I really like the idea of "Dressing for adventure" or rather dressing for the occasion and that you'd have several armor sets for different occasions

Remember to provide the reasoning behind your suggestions, why would something be fun or what kind of player fantasies would it play to.

[swuff-star]

I'd personally love to see Light Armor be viable, and movement bonuses sounds like a good start. Right now there's no reason not to use Diamond, and I'd kill for a reason to use anything else. Especially if I can show my skin off with it (hence me suggesting a "light Iron armor" earlier, with gaps in it).

I like the ideas of soles being a module for boots, and it's easy to come up with a few possible soles. Maybe some sort of soft sole from wool that dampens fall damage? Cleats that make it so you won't slip on ice? Flippers for underwater exploration? I feel like these could be interesting.

I'd really love for modular armor to allow me to only wear certain parts, too. Maybe a chestplate... But only the pauldrons, an arm piece, and a gauntlet (similar to Team Fortress 2's "Shogun Shoulder Guard"). I'm not sure what that combo would be good for, other than looking cool. Making Japanese-style plate armor like Thaumcraft's Fortress Armor would be really cool.

If there were a Japanese-style armor (or even just a kabuto), different crests and menpos could give different buffs. Using a Wither Skeleton mask would give a chance to inflict wither, but maybe at the cost of visibility.

Just some thoughts. The bottom half is moreso just me spitballing some ideas, but the top half really is the focus for what I'd like to see: light armor with a way to show off my skin better.

[Nightcaste]

Going along with what VaguelyLion said about the gambeson: I would compare this concept to the way swords already work in Tetra. Most tools have to head bits, a binding, and a handle. Swords have a blade, a handle, a hilt, and then at least two more module slots. You could easily have a cuirass/breastplate slot (primary armor properties), a pauldron slot (shoulder module), a fastener slot (penalty mitigation like handle wraps), and a gambeson slot as a sort of chassis that the rest of the armor 'hangs' on.

Honing upgrades and different materials could offer protection or other benefits. e.g. imp leather could provide fire resistance

[vaningaard]

Adding onto the whole 'gauntlets' suggestion - perhaps an unarmed stat someone can upgrade by wearing certain gauntlets? For example, punching someone with a heavy iron gauntlet that has reduced range but increased speed compared to something like a sword. Obviously these wouldn't be the main purpose of wearing a set of armour for most people, but I'm sure the ability to punch the heck out of creepers is appealing to at least some people.

[rowanthemodder]

Q. Which other stats/benefits could the armor provide than just armor/toughness? My thoughts on this: Looking at the list of stats we can add via nbt, there's knockback resistance, move speed boosts, flying speed (More on that later in my comment), jump strength, and luck (maybe a bit dubious tho).

Q. Why would you use leather or cloth instead of iron or diamond My thoughts on this: Capitalize on balancing weight for your armor, if you want really heavy armor you get slight speed debuffs (maybe 10-15% max) and more knockback resistance, as well as less modifier slots for other things. Light armor provides a bit less armor in total but more points to work with additional modifiers, as well as being light enough to provide slight speed boosts, maybe even jump strength, and even flying speed boosts (again later).

Q. Which are the minor and major slots (major slots host improvements and should be defining for the item) My thoughts on this: Major slots should be front and back plates imo. These two affect armor, armor toughness, and flight speed the most. Back plate has the possibility for an elytra, sacrificing some armor for flight. See Caelus Api for easy access to the hardcoded elytra behavior. For minor slots we could have lining and bolts. Bolts could use forged bolts, gems, woods, and metals and impact durability a lot. Maybe some luck with gems? Lining would use wool or leather and would be similar to wrappings for tools and give usage for leather and cloth.

Q. Are there different schemas/modules for different classes? I don't think this is needed, outside of enchantments, in vanilla armor is armor, more and less damage reduction.

Q. What provides integrity, is it a single slot for which all modules provide the majority of the integrity or is it perhaps provided by different modules in several slots? I think three parts should decide a lot of the durability like tools, bolts and front and back plates in my example.

That's my two cents anyways.

[Axelph237]

So possibilities could be

Helmet

Helm

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
• Full (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Add Comb (Appearance Only)

Visor

• None (default)
• Full (slightly increases armor, decreases durability) (must have a full helm as well)
  • Add Banner (Appearance Only)
  • Halloween Pumpkin Visor (does what a jack-o-lantern would do)

Chestplate

Breastplate (Used for Defense)

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
• Full* (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Add Banner (On back)

Plackart (Used for Integrity more than Defense)

• Linked (slightly decreases armor, increases projectile defense)
• Full* (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)

Right Pauldron

• Decorative additions
  • Spikes (Maybe?)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)
  • Adding Banners (Appearance Only)
• Slotting
• Plating
  • Leather Guards (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, increases draw speed)
  • Single Plated (slightly decreases armor, slightly increases attack speed)
  • Double Plated (default)

Left Pauldron

• Decorative additions
  • Spikes (Maybe?)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)
  • Adding Banners (Appearance Only)
• Enchanting
• Plating
  • Leather Guards (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, increases ranged damage)
  • Single Plated (slightly decreases armor, slightly increases shield recharge rates)
  • Double Plated (default)

Leggings

Cuisse

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)
• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)
  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)
• Full* (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)

Grieve

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)
• Full* (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)

Boots

Sabaton

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)
• Full (default)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)

NOTES

-*Fulls on Chestplate and Leggings could have Splint and Scale Mail variants (maybe just appearance maybe not).

-Leather would be excluded from tetra schemas (unless some other way is found).

-Chainmail is uncraftable by default and would be excluded from tetra schemas (unless some other way is found).

-These are all purely as suggestions for possibilities.

-I was unable to think of many other attributes to change.

[0thLaw]

I'm putting some stuff in here that came out of a discussion on the Discord around a month ago, because I think that they'd be useful.

A useful upgrade that could be applied to armor would be "Armor Coatings," which could be applied the normal way, or if you want to get fancy, a "Coating Station," made by right-clicking a Cauldron with a hammer (could also be designed as something found in a Forge). At its most basic, you could use it to apply dye to armor, increasing the durability of non-gold metal armor components to represent a degree of protection from rust/corrosion. However, one could also, further along in progression, use the coating station to brew & apply protective coatings, which would have the benefit of defending against weapons with various enchantments. For instance, if you made a fire-retardant coating (using a potion of fire resistance as a reagent, potentially) and applied it to your armor, then you would be less likely to be set on fire by an opponent wielding a Fire Aspect Sword. This also provides increased functionality for anti-armor improvements, which could also increase the chances of getting past the armor. (Theoretically, a Dagger/Shortblade could even start with that improvement, as a result of it being easier to jam into the gaps in a foe's armor. The same goes for other future potential anti-armor modules, such as a Tuck/Estoc).

[Corvus20]

Modular Armor could extend into Curios as well. Little modular accessories is something that hasn't been seen since the baublicious mod back in older versions, 1.10/1.12 iirc. Balancing would be my only concern, but could likely be easily handled.

Additional ideas:

• A back scabbard for swords, spears, etc. Having the ability to hold a heavy sword on the back would be too cool of an opportunity to pass up.
• Holosphere-style hud module for helmets. Would allow you to go into a mining mode that would indicate desired ores with little icons, or a combat mode that puts a "targeting frame" icon on enemies in your sight, and perhaps could function like the target lock feature from the old Dynamic Sword Skills mod or the VATS from fallout, but with your special "magitech" flair to it.
• "Offroading" boots module that allows for better movement through things that would usually impede movement, like soul sand, ice, or magma blocks.
• "Fortify" module for leggings/boots. Would stop the player from moving, but make them immune to knockback and provide a slight defense boost. Great for "holding the line" against a horde of mobs.
• The stealth mechanics mentioned earlier could be a compatibility feature for Dynamic Stealth if it ever updates again.

[WrongWeekend]

I see movement speed being brought up as a factor in choosing armor materials, but in reality, metal plate armor (at least the sort actually designed for battle) doesn't have a significant impact on the mobility of the wearer, despite it being a common trope in video games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzTwBQniLSc

With that being said, I feel a light/heavy armor distinction is unnecessary. I also do not believe that modular armor customization needs to be as complex as weapon/tool customization since Minecraft armor operates almost exclusively in a passive manner. The benefits of being able to easily customize and repair the armor like other tetra items (even if the armor offers fewer options) would probably be enough for most players.

As for choosing cheaper materials like leather or wool over iron or diamond, a good way to deal with this would be to increase the overall armor repair and crafting cost, making it cost 2x or 3x the materials that weapon/tool requires. This makes sense given the fact that vanilla armor already uses more material to craft than vanilla tools/weapons. If crafting and repair costs are higher for armor, there will be more of an incentive for players to use cheaper materials.

[SuiguraTaiki]

While I agree that the distinction of heavy and light might be unnecessary and having vanilla-like options is completely fine and likely enough for most players, I disagree about not having complexity on armour. Having various benefits and trade-offs for niche tools, weaponry and modules is what attracts me to Tetra, and I'd lying if i sad i wouldn't be disappointed if the same didn't happen to the possible armour implementation. You don't need the armour's resistance for mining, building, crafting, enchanting pretty much at all, while you do need it for exploration and combat purposes, so modules could be added for those niche purposes. But we don't need different items, they all can start with vanilla armour, then modified from there.

How about instead of looking at armour modules only as Light and Heavy, we shift and add a third category: "Regular" Specialized, and Heavy modules.

• Regular armour modules would be equivalent to Vanilla-like armour: Adds resistance, and maybe another material-based perk (Enchantability and such). This would work just fine for people who just wants the usefulness of Tetra's system.

• Specialized modules would be alternative and niche modules: enhanced in some features while having the lowest relative material resistances, durability and maybe another drawback for the slot. For example: -- Archer lens module (Gems/Glass) for the helmet slot that would take the visor/face-guard module, that would increase the zoom you get from drawing bows(toggleable), and slightly reduce the spread pattern of projectiles, based on integrity. -- Elytra wings (Elytra/Phantom Membrane repair material) for the chestplate slot, adding, well, Elytra flight at the cost of integrity. Might use a special slot not unlike Quick latch's bow/crossbow module. -- Weightened shin (Metal/Stone) guards for the legs' plate slot, would reduce knockback from attacks while increasing the fall speed acceleration. -- Insulated lining (Fibre/Skin/Fabric) for the boots, would reduce/remove natural damage sources such as Magma blocks, campfire, fire, fall damage based on integrity. Flipper soles (Fibre/Skin/Fabric), would increase swim speed based on hardness and flexibility.

• On Discord i've suggested that instead of movement speed penalities for "Heavy" modules: how about a tweaked, lesser but stackable vanilla Hunger debuff, that would scale with the material's weight/used integrity and flexibility? If you stand still or are mounted on animals while having Heavy Armoured (debuff), you don't consume food saturation, but when you exert yourself you reduce your saturation x% times faster. It would fit the niche of Heavy Armour without the not-attractive drawback of slowness, aside from the eventual need of food for Sprinting. Food is already a resource you have to deal with regularly, making it have a slight drawback in exchange for having higher resistances I feel is good and in theme. It would shift the penalty from the theme of "carrying weight", to the theme of "overextertion".

It would also make it slightly more balanced, as Food is directly tied to health regen: Give the player higher resistances to burst damage but lower heal-per-saturation point during combat. Which at some point would be negligible because of alternative healing methods (Potion of instant health, Regeneration, Golden Apples, not to mention modded alternatives). And kinda ties in with a rather underutilized tetra mechanic: Potion belts, but i digress.

[Eldhelion]

after reading everything, here are my 50 cents:

all pieces have at least 2 parts, I'll not bother with name, those can come later: defensive and padding

• armor is given primarily by the defensive material and it can be any type of wood/metal and also leather.
• padding can be string, wool and leather but maybe also vines and integrity is given by it

now the fun stuff, extra slots

• helmet -- top - decorative piece, can be a feather, wool(trim/color) or bone (horn) -- visor - wood/metal/glass -- mod - special modification to the helmet, given the fact that all vanilla enchantments can be appliend, I think we could go a little of the box --- sonar: highlight nearby entities, like the village bell --- track: if the player look at an entity and press a custom hotkey, this target becomes highlighted as if hit by spectral arrow (useful to track a player or some some) --- zoom: self explanatory --- drowner vision: gives nightvision when underwater (only)

• chestpiece -- shoulder - decorative, wood/metal/wool -- back - attachment slot, 4 options: --- air tank (made with metal, increase time underwater) --- elytra: allows fly with rockets --- bat wings: allow short glide sessions --- bag: chest/barrel/shulker, gives extra carry capacity if compat is made with simple jetpacks, allow attach one of thoses.

• legs: -- trim: decorative -- greaves: metal -- mod: dash, like rocket

• bots -- ankle: decorative, feather/wool -- sole: spike: wood/iron prevent ice drift snow shoes (1.17): prevent player from entering Powder Snow ( https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Powder_Snow )

[BoardGam3]

I don't know if you are still accepting recommendations, but here are my ideas:

All armour could have some sort of gilding/reinforcing with a different kind of material that gives durability, integrity(or takes integrity away) and add individual benefits (gold makes piglins friendly, etc).

I think the weight issue could be addressed in something like a dash/ram mechanic, where you can quickly close the distance between yourself and your opponent at the cost of weapon cool down. heavy armour would close smaller distances and have a longer tool cool down, but could have the option of ramming opponents. whereas light armour would close long distances and could be used to jump long gaps while having a shorter cool down. This mechanic could encourage players to find a combat style like tanking upfront with heavy armour and heavy weapons taking on large groups, or a rogue like strategy with light armour and weapons specializing in kiting enemies and taking them on one at a time. the dash/ram mechanic could just be a module that you can attach to your armour, I just think it could be a fun mechanic.

attaching a tool belt to your armour would be really handy as well.

[WitchRolina]

Would it be possible to distinguish damage types? For instance, Melee, Missile, and Environmental damage as different types of defense? That could provide different variables to modify the armor with, and different materials could have different base armor values vs each of the three armor types. Perhaps for each type of of defense enchantment?

Other attributes to look at could be things like the expected durability, toughness, and enchantability.

[Akagi-Nizana]

Maybe like what @WitchRolina said with damage types, going off what they are, like lightning striking a small bit more with metal armor and doing more damage with conductivity, while with leather, it insulates and does less damage. going off kinda logic from BOTW with lighting, and could do more with others, like netherite, being from the nether, makes fire and lava damage do less, stacking with fire resist, diamond, nullifying some blast damage with real-life diamond being hard, chainmail protecting more against blades or maybe being able to put chain-mail under your armor to give some more protection, going with why chain-mail was invented to protect a small bit more from swords and the like, and gold not doing much as its malleable, and conductive, but maybe have it give some kind of enchanting buff with how useful it is with enchantments? like lessening the amount of xp needed to enchant items? and iron (definitly did not almost forget about it from the first part) smaller buff from diamond as normally most people use iron before diamond, as it is the easiest to get, but maybe make it a jack-of-all trade type armor? and the ability to add thing inside armor like leather or chain-mail, kinda like what @VaguelyLion said about Gambeson, but make it more than just one thing and make uses for them, like with leather earlier, some insulation, and chain-mail adds a bit of bladed resist? would be a pain to code i bet but could make it unique if it is possible.

[TacocaTYT]

i don't know if it was already mentioned but perhaps vanilla diamond would convert to a default such as platemail in a similar way default swords turn into basic blades, and it would have base armor stats, but heavier material changes such as double plated or heavy plate could slow you down? in terms of armor slots i had thought that the body of chestplates would act the same as teh crown of a helmet, the same as teh middle of a boot, same as teh "codpiece" or "tasset" (possible alternate optiiosn for the region) in leggings. they would have a lining option that would mechanically be teh same as wrpping your handles, and could support bolts for tightening/loosening the fit of your armor, providing a tradeoff between prjectile and physical defence and movement speed/swing speed. loggings and boot tweaking woudl affect movement, while chest and head bolts would affect swingspeed/mining. armor classes could be organized into catagories of "Clothing", "Light fabrics" whcih would be leaether, cloth, and certain chainmail, "Medium" which could include ceratin metal such as aluminum from mods, iron, and things like studded leather, double layered lether, mesh armor, and mesh covered leather, and "Heavy armors" whcih could be anyhting like diamond, netherite, gold, steel, triple layered leather, tetra Shaft material (forget the name rn) or the forge hammer plate things, and other such heavy materials that woudl be unwieldy to use but quite effective.

[TITANOID123]

My personal suggestion is similar to up above. I like the idea of the armor 'classes' less being light and heavy, and more 'do i want protection, or do i want Fun Toys?'.

Similar to how a claw is (as far as I'm aware) rather un-good in combat (sorry if they're apparently secretly the best ever, i am unaware) but quite useful as a utility item, armor could leave you with a choice between more protection and more space for cool stuff.

My suggestion? For a suits slots for, gadgets, rather than have your armor slots and then the gadget slots, you instead have to choose how many plates of armor you want vs how many kit pieces.

You might have to trade out the pauldrons of your chestplate for the space for that elytra, or reduce your helmet to the padding if you wanna SEE FOREVER. Meanwhile if you don't want your armor to do anything fancy, you can instead use ALL the slots for actual armor, and I'd say that here would a good opportunity for a split between normal/heavy armor (I'd say to have heavy armor as just an option like how a bow can be straight or recurve).

Personally i say that heavy armor should have a SLIGHT decrease to... Agility. Rather than slowing you down while travelling, if you're loaded up in heavy plate, well, it's heavy, so while you can go as fast as normal it's kinda hard to steer. (If to anyone this sounds... Bad, then i also think that having saturation be drained in this would be equally cool.)

In short: For any given slot on an armor piece, you have a choice between regular armor, heavy armor, and some variety of gadget. (Potentially there could be some gadgets that also provide some protection, but i like the idea of keeping it split unless the idea only makes sense as a form of plating.)

As for options? A thermal core SOMETHING in the chest slot is, to me, a must. My personal suggestion would be something like...

• Every piece has a 'thermal systems' option. -It does something different for each, boots decrease fall damage, legs move you faster, helmet highlights mobs, and chestplate absorbs damage. -To GET these bonuses though, you need to actually insert a thermal core.
• 'd say you only need one core for the entire set, but the more pieces powered by the thermal core, the faster it's drained. -Basic system to get the core in/out, just craft the core with a thermal chestplate to get it in, and craft the chestplate with core by itself to remove it. -Advanced option, some hotkey to open a mini inventory for your armors gadgets AS A WHOLE with a slot in the chest area for the thermocore.

[Edulml]

and more 'do i want protection, or do i want Fun Toys?'.

That's the best way to go about it in my opinion. Some of the fun toys like Elytra should go in the main plating slot precisely to make us do this choice.

some hotkey to open a mini inventory for your armors gadgets

We already have a hotkey, it's the belt menu! I really don't like filling the game with hotkeys. The less you can possibly use the better. For this purpose it should be modified slightly, make a section to toggle the gadgets in the armor and to quickly change thermal cells. They should definitely be used more.

[Renno231]

Some thoughts that crossed my mind when I learned about tetra and that modular armor was in the works: (this is my first time posting, sorry if my formatting is off/weird)

1. Polishing. This would ideally be done prior to heat tempering because the material will be more malleable/not as tough. Just like in real life its effectiveness would be dependent on the material used and could be used to increase an armor pieces durability and toughness (exact amount is TBD).

2. A "heat tempering" system that uses "Focusing crystals" (obtained from a scroll?) and some new machinery that spawns in the naturally generated underground structures. A high-tier (6+ ?) forge hammer would be required to craft the focusing crystals. The process would require and consume blocks of coal (for carbon content) and focusing crystal(s). Limited to one tempering per piece of armor (or perhaps this should be done on ingots/viable materials and be used to introduce new-ish materials?). The end result of this could be extra (significant) durability, armor, toughness, and/or a trait based on the material of the focusing crystal. Undergoing such an intense process would undo any coating (suggested previously by someone else) & polishing.

   • Example: emerald focusing crystals increase enchantability of the item & make villagers like the wearer more resulting in reduced prices from villagers while wearing the armor
   • Heat loving materials like Netherite would get increased benefit from this process due to the nature of the material but would require more focusing crystals in parallel to be effective

[Fabizocker456]

About which bonuses they could give the player, possibly reactive armor? Like, a shield that blocks the first hit and takes, like, 15 sec to recharge, in which time it can't be used? Or, the exact opposite, a shield that gets stronger with every consecutive hit, but 5 sec without damage cause it to reset? Maybe also on-hit buffs/debuffs. About the integrity, I'd say it should be like modular doubles, having a frame providing stability and plates/padding providing stats.

[Corvus20]

About which bonuses they could give the player, possibly reactive armor? Like, a shield that blocks the first hit and takes, like, 15 sec to recharge, in which time it can't be used? Or, the exact opposite, a shield that gets stronger with every consecutive hit, but 5 sec without damage cause it to reset? Maybe also on-hit buffs/debuffs. About the integrity, I'd say it should be like modular doubles, having a frame providing stability and plates/padding providing stats.

A shield system in general would be cool, and could work well with the whole arcane-technology vibe the mod has going on already

[Fabizocker456]

Yeah, it would defitely fit. Expanding on that idea, different engravings/socketed gems would provide different reactions. Lapis, for example, would be reactive, charge up, tanking the first hit and reducing shield hp instead of player hp. Emerald could be retroreactive, slowly drecreasing and charge through consecutive damage, which would help against combos and many, weak hits. Diamond could provide a permanent ~30% danage decrease and quartz would charge when attacking and weaken incoming attacks. The shield would be displayed as a shield symbol to the right of the hotbar. It would only be on, e.g. helmet or chestplate. Also it would catch damage even before potions/durability.