Armor

In Fallen Earth, there are a wide variety of damage types. Everything from the basics, like Slashing and Crushing, to the more obscure, like Plasma or Psionic. For the foreseeable future, Fallen Earth will be sticking to the more mundane side of things, though more unusual damage may come into play in future story arcs. (There will never be an anti-matter damage type. Never. If the content people tell you otherwise, they are lying and Captain Pouches will come for them in the night. Fear the wombat.) Most types of armor provide protection from a half-dozen or so types of damage. This usually includes Slashing, Piercing, Crushing, Fire, Cold, Electricity, Poison, Acid, etc. Your kevlar vest may be really useful against bullets, but not so much against an axe; your sandworm hide armor may be acid resistant, but it does little to help you with fire. You will want to choose your gear based on the threats you face, so you'll break out the Disease-resistant suits when fighting giant roaches so you're not devastated by their Disease-based attacks. Some types of damage resistance will be rare, making armor that provides that type of protection exceptionally valuable. Finding something that provides Psionic protection is an epic task unto itself. The developers aren't planning for players to carry 15 types of armor all the time to stay alive, but instead that specific types of armor will be required for specific situations.

Most players will use the Slashing/Piercing/Crushing trinity of damage, but some mutations and tradeskill items will involve other types of damage. Creatures will often use other types of damage.

Protective gear is worn down when you take damage, so if you're in a dangerous environment for too long, your protective gear will fail, leaving you at the mercy of your surroundings. Protective gear can be repaired in the field using Armorcraft repair kits.

Technology Level[]

For the first story arc players will be rebuilding the technologies of the old world and getting back up to what we today would consider modern technology. In future story arcs Fallen Earth will get into more fanciful things. So armor in the initial story arc consists of things like leather jackets, scrap metal plating, reinforced synthetic clothes, nomex, sandworm hide armor, motorcycle helmets, kevlar, ballistic plates, etc. There is armor that looks much like riot gear. The top protection will vary widely in terms of what the armor looks like. Some folks will use advanced polymers and composite materials to make bullet-stopping suits of heavy armor, while others will hunt down special mutant beasts and make armor out of their hides.