Defense costs

Haven't played in a long time so I'm trying to learn the new stuff, and relearn the basics. Can you please help with the following:

1) What should I aim for in terms of defensive costs? I realize as low as possible, but what's reasonably "good"? (e.g. 3%?)

2) I think I read in another thread that armor basically costs about a pec per 20 points of damage, is this true? And is this true regardless of armor type - for example would I get the same repair bill whether I use musca or viceroy (in other words, is there any point to wearing smaller armor or should you just wear the best armor you have?)

3) Is the cost fractional? e.g. if the mob only does 10 points of damage does that cost half a pec?

4) How can I determine if armor would be more cost effective than fapping? My best fap is a refurbished heart, would it be cheaper to wear armor (low level mobs)? Is there a way to calculate that ahead of time or just try it and see?

Thanks yall

This doesn't matter as much as it used to... A few points in lines with your questions:

• With loot 2.0 your defense costs are accounted for in the direct returns you get on each mob. This includes fap use and armor.
• Armor costs were changed a long while ago and the costs are now more dependent on the damage your armor actually receives rather than a set cost. Additionally, durability is factored into this cost. The higher the durability the less the armor costs for the same amount of damage as an armor of equal protection with a lower durability. IE limited armors cost WAAAAAAAAAY less than unlimited ones (provided you're not spending some crazy markup on it).
• Also changed a long while ago is that plates only receive decay if damage actually spills over from your base armor. And even when that happens the decay is in relation to the amount of damaged received. Damage can also now be 100% deflected by your base armor resulting in no damage received and no decay on equipped plates.
• As far as what's cheaper fap vs armor it really depends on what you're hunting because there are many factors that come into play. In general though armor decay is almost always cheaper than fapping.

nvm, too slow

Ok thanks for the info.

I heard that armor and fap was returned in loot; but my understanding was that fapping is only returned if you fap while you have a mob on you. My old habit was fapping in-between mobs, so sometimes I forget. It will be much easier if I can just wear armor and not fap at all.

jambon said:

Additionally, durability is factored into this cost. The higher the durability the less the armor costs for the same amount of damage as an armor of equal protection with a lower durability. IE limited armors cost WAAAAAAAAAY less than unlimited ones (provided you're not spending some crazy markup on it).

Click to expand...

Durability is actually not that important, the extra 10K or so durability that L armour has is about a 10% reduction in decay costs. So spending more than 110% on L armour is less eco than UL armour.

Hijacker27 said:

Durability is actually not that important, the extra 10K or so durability that L armour has is about a 10% reduction in decay costs. So spending more than 110% on L armour is less eco than UL armour.

Click to expand...

I just read this post which goes over limited vs. unlimited:
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...imited-vs-Unlimited-Armor-an-Essay-by-Legends

Worth a read... looks like you're right, it only works out to about 7.7% less decay on limited vs unlimited. So not "WAAAAAAY" cheaper but still some savings.

You also have to consider the pros and cons of limited vs unlimited too.

Not sure about the fap cost between mobs - part of me wants to believe that value is applied to the next mob that you hit or hits you.

something else to consider, is that Mindark's promised, but not yet delivered, a 'skill based' type of thing tied in to armor where UL will decay the same way as L armor, i.e. it'll 'fully protect' down to minimum TT value of the armor that is required before it has to be repaired, but only if you meet minimum required skill level... Don't know if they actually will ever pull that off, or what those requirements will be, or if it was just another broken promise to add to the pile of promises Mindark's made over the years that they failed to actually implement.

about 1.)
everything from 0% to 10% can be right, depending on circumstances and situation.


about 2.)
cost per absorbed damage point is directly and only related to durability.
so the higher your durability, the cheaper the absorbed damage point. armor decay cost is around ~20 DMG/pec.
(L) armors are more economical than their (UL) variant, if their MarkUp is below 105%.

if you compare Pioneer (500 Durability) to Shadow (5000 Durability):

- the Pioneer's absolute repair bill will be lower than Shadow's, because it absorbs much less damage.
- the relative cost per absorbed damage point will be higher than Shadow's.

- the Shadow's absolute repair bill will be higher than Pioneer's, because it absorbs much more damage.
- the relative cost per absorbed damage point will be lower than Pioneer's.


about 3.)
ALL costs are fractional. MA calculates everything exact to 0.001 pec, you get shown results rounded to 1 pec, while the exact value always is cached.


about 4.)
- find your FAP here
check "Include Markup"
check "Skill based"
enter your Paramedic level
click "Apply"
sort the list by "Eco"
(the list is shortened by missing markups, so please help entering missing data! you can retry without "Include Markup")

- FAPs with 20 HP heal/pec or more are as good as armor.
- if your FAP is worse than this, definately use your armor!


now it is up to you to find a balance between cost and protection and healing (interrupted shooting!) which suits your needs.
if you already have a good armor, then wear it, unless you suffer from overprotection.