you should've reserved the second and third post to edit later...

but i really like where you're going with this... armour plates are one of the most OP things in the game as evidenced by the market data... 70% of low slot modules sold are plates... this is supposed to be a game where you see thousands of different fittings but everyone fits their suits the same way...

and it is way to easy to armour tank with the low fitting costs... shield tanking my cal commando requires sacrifices but armour tanking my amarr sentinel still allows me to fit the suit with top-notch items...

this post might actually have a better chance of being seen by CCP in features/ideas forum... but good job buddy...

I like the first change you suggested but on the fence with the other 3, the bottom line in the game is ehp > rep. Be it infantry or vehicles if you balance player skill, whoever has the most ehp wins.

This is the fundamental reason why armor is OP to shields atm, by reintroducing a more balancing effect for making a trade off for having high ehp people might mix up their fits more. Also the situation isnt helped when the combat rifle has incredible range and shreds shields, and geks/duvolles are actually better suited to killing shields.

Plates would be better off balanced with more movement penalty than anything else, and making certain mods both high/low slot configuration for more DS versatility across the races without given any an unnecessary advantage.

It because armor plate got very little pg cost

Increasing the speed penalty on armor will only break it. The speed penalty as it is is fine... losing 0.5 m/s for using only two plates is insane. Not only that but your strafing and back tracking is gimped at 4.05 m/s thats a tad bit faster than a heavy suit. You cannot jump over obstacles if using more than 1 complex plate, and you are just so much easier to hit.

If you increase the speed penalty to armor. shield tanking should get a penalty to increase hitbox size. Or the speed penalty should only reduce your agility i.e strafing speeds, it wasn't long ago shields were OP as hell and all that was changed to armor was a small amount of extra HP and reduced speed penalties but increase the speed penalty will make shields superior once more. Not add balance.

Currently what makes armor unbalanced is that it doesnt scale properly, dual tanking is rampant, and there is no low slot/high slot module balance.

Another change:
I would increase the HP on both reactives and ferroscale plates further, just a tad, an extra 10-20HP each.

Using basic plates + armor reppers will still be better than using complex reactives.

What does HP regen malus mean?

OK I see it now, it was really hard to read to I missed some parts. I still think the shield penalty is terrible though, so dual tanking = death coffin, but I agree to what he is trying to do.

Also I still cannot agree to bumping the reactive plate penalty.

Couldn't imagine running a heavy with 12% movement penalty. I use 2 adv sometimes

I think this is great and will stop the brick tanked pew pew scum.

I applaud you sir, for putting together such a well thought out post. You're english isn't perfect but it's good enough to make sense and a hell of a lot better than many of the native speakers on this forum.

That said, I don't agree with everything you posted. I think basic plates just need their original speed penalties back (think it was 3%, 5%, 10% before) but not the repper penalty too. You're quite right that if you want that max HP from armour, you should get slowed the F down. That's the exact reason ferroscales were introduced in the first place. These changes would make them a viable choice again.

Currently, as a scout, I don't even look at them because the fittings costs are far too high. Do they really need to be so high when they already offer so much less protection than basic plates. And btw I'd call ferroscale plates the 'light plates' because no movement penalty. Reactives can be the mediums because they have a small penalty (I think 1%, 2%, 3% is fine for these but buff the HP just a little).

I look forward to reading your part 2 - repper tanking is something I've wanted to do for at least a year but currently even stacking 4 complex reppers is not a viable suit.

I didn't see any increased HP I think the numbers don't pop out enough on the thread and I miss them.

I'm sorry, that was too much writing, you have bored me; no Dopamine= no read.

You get +1

I don't think I agree with everything (might be some misunderstanding), but frankly at this point - someone willing to:

1) Accept there is a massive, huge problem with the current tank meta (not necessarily the suits that can abuse it).
2) willing to come up with sensible suggestions (not just nerfs).

Puts you like in the top 10% of intelligent posters. I hope to see more of this.

The speed penalties you propose are far too high for any fitting, which was the same reason no one used them long time ago and your proposed penalty to regen with it is going overboard even with you regen buff.

The reason Armor is being used so frequently is cause it's the only thing worth putting on and since anyone can benefit from using them everyone slaps 'em on. Same can be said for shields, it's not just a matter of Armor being OP, the biggest issue is that defensive modules are the only mods worth putting on. You're trying to fix a very complicated problem with far too simple solution, it's clear this thread was made to address tanked Scouts which have been around long before 1.8 and have only now become a problem.

Back on topic, I strongly disagree with your Heavy Armor idea but agree with you about buffing Reactives and Ferrors, but not Reps, your idea on reps would make shields irrelevant, crossing into their territory by repping too fast.

Simplifed your post to just numbers, and slightly altered some values to improve scaling. Also removed the level 5 bonus you applied so these are values at level 0. Applied this concept to shield tanking, and wrote a post about it.

https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=154463

The first part (armor) of this thread is a simplified version of the post above. Values slightly modified to remove the level 5 bonus applied in his numbers, and to scale armor a little better. I do not take or want credit for his idea.

Heavy - Medium - Light HP tanking system
Heavy HP systems give a lot of HP but with a penalty
Medium HP systems give medium HP with no penalty
Light HP systems give a little bit of HP, a bonus, and a penalty

Armor plating:

Heavy Armour plates (Speed penalty plates)

Basic: 95/ -5% speed
Advanced: 120/ -6% speed
Complex: 145/ -7% speed

Nanofibre Armor plates (Ferroscale plates)

Basic: 44/ -0%
Advanced: 65/ -0%
Complex: 87/ -0%

Reactive plates (HP values not affected by armor plating skill, repair values are)

Basic: 42/ -2%/ 2 HP/s
Advanced: 62/ -3%/ 3 HP/s
Complex: 85/ -4%/ 5 HP/s

Armor repairers

Basic: 3
Advanced: 5
Complex: 7

Shield extension:

Heavy Shield extenders

Basic: 67/ 3% increased hitbox
Advanced: 84/ 4% increased hitbox
Complex: 101/ 5% increased hitbox

Medium Shield extenders

Basic: 34/ -0%
Advanced: 50/ -0%
Complex: 67/ -0%

Light Shield extenders (HP values unmodified by Shield extension skill, shield recharging skill lowers delay)
Basic: 32/ +1% increased hitbox/ -10% shield recharge delay
Advanced: 47/ +2% increased hitbox/ -15% shield recharge delay
Complex: 63/ +3% increased hitbox/ -20% shield recharge delay

Shield regulators (REMOVED)

Shield rechargers (Vanilla)

@Mordecai - Didn't see the repper numbers the first time; I don't think it's enough, stacking 4 complex would only get you ~30hp/s. I'd go a little further; maybe not as far as I said in my post above but perhaps 3 / 6 / 9 before skills.

Which is the shields? I would like to know what. Gotta keep in mind there are heavy suits which use shields.