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<b>Message ID:</b> 5052 <br/>
<b>Date:</b> Sat Aug  7 03:47:37 BST 1999 <br/>
<b>Author:</b> Christopher Mills <br/>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: Digest Number 255 <br/>
<br/><br/>
<div id="ygrps-yiv-211877319"><blockquote><span title="ireply">&gt; I think there is a difference that I noticed a little while ago with my<br/>
&gt; bronzeplate armor.  I unequiped my two bracers that provide AC8 (I think)<br/>
&gt; and took a look at my AC total and it dropped by 15 points.  Of course<br/>
&gt; this is just a guess but it is possible that the material value is<br/>
&gt; factored into the AC total, so a piece of AC5 mesh(like chain) adds 8 to<br/>
&gt; your overall AC and AC5 plate adds 10 to your overall AC.  Thereby making<br/>
&gt; it quite viable to go for a full suit of plate armor, since this will tip<br/>
&gt; the scales in your favour for damage resists.  Can anyone verify this<br/>
&gt; hypothesis?<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>The character AC numbers have little to do with the armor AC numbers.  The<br/>
reason is historic.<br/>
<br/>
In early beta, the character AC number was simply a sum of all the armor AC<br/>
numbers.  Verant had intended to hide ALL numbers in the game originally<br/>
and in an effort to obfuscate the character AC number they changed it from<br/>
a simple sum to a percentage.  A value of 100 equivalent to a 50th level<br/>
Warrior with maxed stats in the best possible armor (but without buffs).<br/>
<br/>
Of course, this meant that small changes in the AC percentage didn&#39;t show.<br/>
Since it was anti-climatic to put on your first piece of leather and see<br/>
no change in the character AC number, they instead made the scale in<br/>
1/1000ths instead of 1/100ths.<br/>
<br/>
Of course, they never did get around to hiding the numbers on the items,<br/>
making Libretto and similar spells much less useful and adding a lot of<br/>
confusion about character AC vs armor AC.<br/>
<br/>
I do believe that the AC number only shows part of the armor stats, and<br/>
that there are more complex effects than just the raw AC...  I have no<br/>
experemental data to prove or disprove this theory though...<br/>
<br/>
- Luvas of Fennin Ro.<br/>
<br/>
PS: Speaking of beta, just got my Asheron&#39;s Call beta letter today.  I think<br/>
    I&#39;ll see if it&#39;s possible to be anything like a Bard in that system...<br/>
    I suspect I&#39;ll just end up as some sort of tank-mage.</div>