Updated (L) vs unlimited armor discussion

All,

Let me start by saying I know how to search PCF and I have read through the history of this topic.

However, I am looking for a CURRENT perspective on this limited verses unlimited armor decision. The last real topic died almost two years ago.

Mainly I am interested in a comparison of mid to upper mid level hunting armors.

For example comparing (L) set of Boar which can be snagged for around 105% as opposed to the unlimited version which is probably over +2000 peds.

What is you current choice of limited or unlimited and why did you choose that?

The option generally comes down to having 2-3k peds in markup or floating the 105% perpetually.

Personally, i am a bit gunshy over having a lot tied up in markup with the current state of the game, not so much in danger of disappearing but in the ever changing drop quantities, upgrade missions, and new items. According to my loose calculations one can get anywhere from 30-40 (L) armor sets for the MU I would pay for a decent unlimited set. Tough for me to say how long those 30 sets would last me but with my current play style of 6-10 hours a week i am thinking its a pretty damn long time.

Hit me with some knowledge folks!

JEHU

Convenience has a lot of value for me personally as someone who doesn't touch foot on calypso soil.

1) old tt flamethrowers in pvp areas don't matter much to unlimited armor parts.
2) tiering sticks around on unlimited armor. this is especially handy for specialised armor, with one stat which stands out. Like the stolen imperium armor with nice acid protection or martial sga with its high impact, or paradox with the nice cut protection. Tier it and those stats which are so nice to have get a lot better.. L armor breaks, and you have to start all over again
3) Unlimited armor is armor you own. L armor is armor which breaks. it does, it breaks and then its broken, you toss it away in the bin, lost forever. That doesn't feel right. And with L items you get that feeling of something breaking on you, every time again. and again. It's like that second hand car you need for work. You want it to start and bring you from A to B.. but halfway your trip.. it breaks. That doesn't feel right in a game you play for fun.
4) Jarhead can be colored and textured. you can get it in L versions and UNL versions.. which would you choose if you want a special look?

It's mainly convenience for me. I even use the old school ul weapons for the same reason. Yeah I know I could place orders on the auction but the range of L stuff changes so often I'll never keep up anyway.

It also means I don't tie up my ped in items, I can cycle all of it through the loot system as ammo or decay as the gear I use only costs a few hundred ped. Think of how much ped is tied up in L items stuck in storage waiting to be used compared to how it used to be.

Yes the mu has dropped massively on my UL gear but I've had the use of it for nearly 9 years, at the time I bought it to use it plus I didn't have the option of L.

The whole L system should have been as attachments on the UL stuff, better barrels on guns to improve range, improved triggers, cooling fins to increase fire rate but all as mods / attachments and when it breaks then it falls back to stock. As for armor plate mods to make it lighter to improve speed or heavier to improve defense. Would have helped with crafting as well.

UL need to be repaired
So is pretty much the same or maybe worse comparing with L counterpart
I love Angel but I use L parts when I need this good protection, not all the time.
I don't know if I decide to buy an UL uber set in the future anyway.
You are going to spend 10-20k and one day there is a possibility to ended with something is pretty much TT value.
Someone who own an UL and also had experience and data about the L counterpart can be more accurate.

As for every day I'm stick with my Viceroy, it's a good armor, not so expensive when I need to repair it.
An uber UL it's big invenstement and tottaly different thing.

I personally love my ghost ul armor. And since I've tiered it all to tier 2 or 3 the defence is good. The only drawback I see is defense drops as it decays (unlike L armor) but since a portable repair unit can be had for cheap and lasts a long time that issue is solved.

I only use limited armor, mainly because it's cheaper to use.

All my sets of armour are UL except the Perseus which I use only very occasionally, the set I have is the first set I bought and is coming up to a year old now. My most expensive UL armour is the Liakon which got me up to hunting spiders, hogglos and big maturity atrox.

My most used armour is Ghost at tier 2 with a variety of plates on it depending on what i am hunting. I stand by a comment I made a while back that really if you cant hunt it with ghost 5b's and no fapping you really shouldn't hunt it at all. Some would even say adj pixie and a set of plates is all you really need but i like to hunt the big stuff quite a bit so i like some better armours

Plates are all UL except a set of Pulsar 10's which i keep on the Perseus. My birthday today so I am thinking of buying a set of pegasus with a set of Pulsar 9's.

So L or UL - depends what you need it for - I could never justify a UL armour set over 5k but am happy to by L for serious protection

Id say that L armors where all parts can be bought below 110% is better then UL. Simply because they are probably easy to find (considering the low MU) so not very inconvenient, they have full protection the entire hunt, locks up less peds so you can have more armors if u need protection specific ones. And below 110% the added durability makes them cheaper to use. Or atleast I have been told the breaking point is 110%

at any other time UL is to prefer if possible

but thats just me

When I started, there was only UL armor, and since L was introduced I always had some kind of aversion towards L items, it somehow feels wrong for me to buy something and then TT it after it is used up. Anyways, that is just how I personally feel about it, it does not have anything to do with utilizing it.

If you are buying it at low markup I think it is actually better than UL armor for low and mid skill range, however, as you start going into late game, you are faced with longer combats, higher hits on armor, for longer time (because you cycle more PED/day as you move up with skills), so the L armor might not be able to keep up with your hunting "throughput". At this point limited armor becomes a liability because you are not guaranteed to have every replacement part available for buying any time you need it, and if you have a daily routine of hunting for example araneatroxes or large trox, your hunt and progress will be impaired by the lack of supply of armor, so UL is better for long term heavy grinding of high level mobs, which happens when you become a "uber". I seriously doubt that the current market supply of high end L armor parts is good enough to keep up with 1 or 2 uber players hutning longterm.

And we always forget skills when talking about armor, so some high end UL armor is total crap for someone whose skills do not match up to the mob level he is hunting, and for this purpose, again, L is a better option. L also provides you with the convenience of having a late game uber armor for virtually no added price over TT if you buy smart.

It comes down to how you prepare and plan for your hunts and what is your demand over markets supply of L armor.

On paper L is better in most cases.

But we are not paper, we are human, and we can not escape our own weaknesses, I believe this is where UL has its strongest advantages.

A good personal example for me is hunting Code Demons.
There are 3 sets of nearly identical stats armors to hunt them efficiently with.

Thunderbird (L)
Thunderbird UL
Firewall Mk3 (L)

Without one of these sets of armor, code demons are not practical to hunt because of how much damage they do.

Thunderbird (L) is cheap in calypso auction (or was when i was grinding them)
Firewall Mk3 (L) is easy for me to craft and I loot all the resources I need while hunting them, so easily sustainable indefinitely.
Thunderbird UL cost markup and is less 'efficient' in that it will decay a little more each hunt than the L parts.

I have hunted them extensively with all 3 setups so have firsthand experience with them.

Thunderbird (L) - Just not practical for a grinder to use on another planet because their availability is planet dependent and I am not going to spend a couple hours to go flying every time a piece of armor breaks.

Thunderbird (UL) - Loved it! Hunt, Repair, Forget.

Firewall Mk3 (L) - What I have used the most and still use. The availability and ease of production makes it a no brainer for me.


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All that being said though, If I had access to UL thunderbird, I would use it simply because it is easier, makes tracking runs easier, and I don't have to worry about crafting between runs, I can just login, hunt, tally/repair, log off, AND I don't have to worry about changing broken pieces and plates mid hunt with a couple of mobs on me.

The mindset and 'feeling' of repairing is more natural even if its the same price you are spending. I hit repair all after every hunt, but a broken armor piece 'cost me peds' to replace.

narfi said:

Thunderbird (UL) - Loved it! Hunt, Repair, Forget.

Click to expand...

Second that !

Exactly that is why I keep all my UL sets.
Repair forget about it.

Harmony. said:

I only use limited armor, mainly because it's cheaper to use.

Click to expand...

Yep, (L) is eco.

IMHO, L armor was implemented by MA in an attempt to control skyrocketing rampant markups on items they didn't want to drop in loot anymore (or only at fantastically-reduced drop-rates). It also enabled low- to mid-range avatars to pursue otherwise unobtainable high-end armor parts.

While the latter might've been a decent goal, as there was a fast-growing segregation between "uber" players and "everybody else", and so many players were getting pissed off that they could never get ahead, the ACTUAL goal of attempting to control skyrocketing markup on high-end items by implementing a poor substitute didn't quite work out the way MA hoped.

All they needed to do was increase the drop-rates. If so few people had Shadow/Chronicle/Eon armor parts that it became insanely expensive to acquire a part, all MA had to do was up the drop-rate a tad, and the market prices would've normalized accordingly.

I prefer the convenience of owning sets of only UL armor. I'll always have it; I'm not forced into renting it.

Same goes for weapons. Used to be that loot drops on weapons like the regular Justifier MK2, and rarer MK3 and 4 and 5 were not that uber-rare, and the selling prices weren't that unobtainable. Then MA pretty much took them out of the loot pool entirely and prices skyrocketed. Nowadays, if you loot an UL counterpart/alternative to even something as mainstream as the MK2, it's a renamed weapon with similar stats worth thousands of PEDs instead of a hundred or less. Now if you loot an Omegaton A104 amp--which was a not that uncommon drop back in the old days before (L) items--it's considered a rare item.

MA could've just kept those items dropping instead of implementing the (L) system, and all the people repairing those items might've continued to be profitable for MA. That was supposedly the only way they made money back then.