It would be awesome to see armor get a rework in favor of the sandbox feel of the game. Conan Exiles in my opinion is a game where you can do whatever you want. Yet the armor system is quit limiting in the sense that if you wanna run and encumbrance build its either base armor or some DLC. but if you want to go to volcano more limitation.
Armor could be structured like so.
1.) All base armor has no attribute additive or temperature additive.
2.) The player can make the following in bench and add it to armor perforated lining or insulated lining one for heat one for cold but only add one bar of protection.
3.) The player can make and item to add one attribute point to armor (i.g. flexible lining which would add +1 agility)
4.) A tier 4 thrall can make these in flawless which would add two bars of either heat or cold protection Or 2 points to an attribute.
5.) This would also allow the Legendary armor sets to remain unique as they would offer attribute splits other wise not obtainable by crafting.
Just a thought to keep thing more free and about having a good time either way love the game and keep up the great work.
I was thinking along the same lines. Armor that is temperature and attribute neutral, so we can wear our favorites for looks, but then give us enchanting capabilities to add stackable temp and attribute bonuses. Enchanting I at level 20 allows for 1 enchantment per item, Enchanting II at level 30 allows a 2nd enchantment (a secoond tick of cold protection on top of the one you already have, or add +1 to the atribute of your choice), Enchanting III at level 40 allows a 3rd and final enchantment to stack on top of others. Also applies to weapons. Armor and weapon kits for plating and reduction, etc. could still be used. Result is completely customizeable armor and weapons. Could also add enchanttments like increased breath or detrimental effects resistance. Obviously, level reqs listed are just an example. I would prolly start at 40. Then, for 20 fragments of power after level 60, allow a 4th tier, for 50 fop a final 5th tier.
I think the biggest bar to doing this is modifications.
Armor only accepts one type of modification or upgrade, because that’s the way it was written when it was first designed.
The temp and other characteristics are most likely part of the armor data, which is shared amongst all of the armors using the same “ArmorID”. If I was a betting man, the mod is most likely a value from 0 to 255 which describes the mod properties.
I think the biggest hurdle to this idea is re-writing stuff to allow for a base armor value, type, and multiple attributes.
Not impossible, but not an easy ask. You have to totally restucture how the data is being stored for armor, then that will need all the combat systems to look at a different piece of data when determining if that claw attack from the red dragon does 1,100 damage, or just 500 damage.
Then the entire temperature system will need to be changed to look at that new data, which covers everything from cold snap, to damage resists, and even sandstorm damage is probably read from this one characteristic.
The number of bugs which will get through such a restructure would probably be pretty scary, too.