Alright, I've been thinking about some things that might make the armor in BW a bit more unique compared to other FPS's out there.
One main thing I'd like to see is armor that outlasts you. Sort of like in classic Doom. If you got 200 health and 200 armor, your health is probably gonna be destroyed first (if I remember correctly). I think what I would most like to see is the armor degrading a lot slower.
One possibility with this type of change is that you drop your remaining armor after dying.
Also, another thing, is a difference between heavy armor and light armor.
At the current state, you pretty much pick up armor to build your armor grade up higher, like you're just putting on all the armor you come across. Doesn't really make a lot of sense to me.
So, another idea includes differentiating those two types of armor. For one, what one you use would really determine how you should fight. Light armor should provide near full mobility and would be considerably lighter compared to heavy armor. Heavy armor on the other hand, would catch a great deal of bullets without being destroyed. But it is heavy. And chances are your movement would be restricted considerably.
Also, picking up say, some heavy armor and it gets heavily damaged, you can't just pick up a vest and kevlar to repair it. Instead, it'd just replace the heavy armor with light armor. As for repairing armor, armor plates could do the trick.
I don't think the armors should be able to be "repaired" past their max levels.
If you pick up armor plates without any armor on, maybe you'd treat that like the UT04 armor, only you'd maybe only be able to get a max armor of 25.
Another thing is the max armor levels. If you the armor behaves like how I stated, it wouldn't make much saense that light armor would have 50 to represent a state of perfect condition while heavy has 100. I think the armor should be represented in a percentile fashion, with their maxes being 100, though the rate at which they decay would remain the same.
As for how well the armor protects you, I think if they just made the penetration system work for armor (probably would need some tweaking, though) too, it'd be perfect. Maybe you'd have to have the armor appear in your character in order for the penetration to work, but I think that'd be better. You'd have unarmored spots this way that would be more vulnerable. Makes sense to me.
Although I am definitely happy with the current armor system, I would love to see some of the ideas I have implemented.
Also, I'll just mention again my idea to make armor a selection in loadout.
