With no armor - naked, I have AC 9

I put on 'Leather Jacket' I have AC 17

I put on 'Leather Armor' I have AC 24

So far so good.

I put on 'Metal ARmor' I have AC 19

This indicates Metal Armor is not as good as Leather armor. Which is counter intuitive.

I noted in the description of the two that the leather armor is 'Finely crafted' while the metal armor is metal plates, 'crudely forming' a suit of armor.

So I dismissed the metal armor and sold the next two I found. Now I'm reexamining this decision.

I've noted 5 words under Armor Class which would seem to elaborate on AC.
Normal, Laser, Fire, Plasma, Explode.
All these have higher numbers when I equip the metal armor.

What am I missing! Is the crudely made metal armor better then the Finely crafted leather armor? If so why is the AC number lower?

Leather Armor has higher AC but lower DR and DT. Metal Armor has lower AC but higher DR and DT. So in metal armor it's easier to hit you than in leather armor, but the armor absorbs more of the damage you get.

Ahhh the brilliance of dynamic combat mechanics ^_^

Ok firstly, just imagine metal plates hanging off your shoulders, 35lbs of pure unassisting encumbrance slowing you down, it's going to make you easier to hit. Fallout 3 doesn't have this dynamic so it can only interpret the encumbrance of Metal Armour by giving you an agility hit. But previous games used AC to interpret the quality of armour being on of two things: Being able to safely deflect projectiles (resulting in a complete miss rather than a 0 damage hit), and allowing your character to move fast enough to be a hard enough target.

Metal armour has a degree of AC bonus because of it's ability to deflect projectiles, if AC wasn't applied in this way, then Metal Armour would result in a lower AC than even your base, because of the penalty your character would get not being a fast enough moving target.

However the advantage of metal armour is in its ability to absorb damage (laser being the least effective, naturally). This makes metal armour a good enough gamble before you have the opportunity to find/buy some higher tier armours.

But in short Ausir got the point across

I do wish people on game forums would go with the old writers axium that you should never assume your readers know what an abrevation or obscure term means.

AC I know as Armor Class. DR I know has short for Doctor. DT I can only guess is what happens to acholics when they stop drinking.

It almost sounds like you two are saying AC takes into account chance to dodge?


It also sounds like you are saying maybe the metal is better maybe its not.

I do wish people would read game manuals or wikis before asking questions in game forums.

AC = Armor Class
DT = Damage Threshold (a fixed amount of damage the hits are reduced by)
DR = Damage Resistance (a percentage the damage is reduced by after you deduct DT)



It generally is better. Even if it makes you a bit easier to hit than leather, its DR and DT are far superior.

Ausir as far as I know has been a very long time veteran on these matters, even assisting in many of the Fallout based wikis, and even some Fallout Bible entries. It makes sense that he would use terms like this naturally, he meant no elitism by it I'm sure

AC is Armour Class, the term isn't very accurate for what it represents, but yes it comes down to your ability to dodge, hence why your agility affects your base AC (in your case it's 9).

DR is damage resistance. This is a universal DR in Fallout 3, but in previous games it's sub-categorised into different damage types (normal, fire, explosion etc).

DT is damage threshold, this value is applied before DR takes place, for example:

Metal Armour in FO1:
Normal.......4 / 30%
Laser..........6 / 75%
Fire.............4 / 10%
Plasma........4 / 20%
Explode.......4 / 25%

The first entry is the damage category, self-explanatory.
The second entry is the first value that determines damage absorbtion, this first value is the base amount of damage that will be absorbed from every attack. This is DT.
The last entry is the final value that determines absorbtion. This is applied after the first deduction. This is DR.

So if you were hit by a Laser Rifle that deals 30 damage, you would take the values from the Laser category, the first DT value (6) would reduce the damage to 24, then the second DR value (75%) will be subtracted from 24, three quarters of 24 is 18, subtract that to leave 6, which is the final amount of damage you would sustain.

Metal armour offers very good protection against certain damage whilst also being a cheaper, lower tier armour. Its disadvantage is that statistically you'll be taking more hits whilst wearing it than most other armours. And that it's not so good versus fire compared to its other strengths.

Edit: I can't do maths Hang on.
Update: Ok maths is fixed

Assisting? More like creating them.

Assisting in the overall effort, I should of said, but yes you are very undercredited

Well for me its very simple...just pay attention to your armor specifications ...like explained by



Each armor is stronger in something - than the other one (when you find Tesla armor you'll get the point)... forget about this AC - only matters for Fallout 3...because in the end those Mutants will rain some heavy firepower ...so dodge them - hmm yeah right...

So Metal armor is stronger then Leather armor....

Actually, Fallout 3 has no AC, nor DT - only DR.

Right well my mistake...I'm not into the Fallout 3 too much....but the Fallout 1/2 - played it since it was released until last year ...

AC does matter in the games (it effects chance to hit), but is only a minor thing. Focus on your DT's and DR's. I'd rather have 10/10% DR/DT with 0 AC than 10AC with 0/0%.

DT & DR should be included in a next Fallout game for sure.

I can pound power armored boy scouts to death with my bare fists, for crying out loud. Even simple bullets should not even be able to penetrate it, should they?

This was one of my very first dissapointments with FO3, I almost couldn't believe it when I noticed it was taken out, because it was a very balanced system.

And arguably, no they shouldn't. But previous games had ways of addressing this somewhat with different ammo types (though with the procurement of ammo like .223 FMJ and 2mm EC it made any other ammo choice obsolete ) Some ammo's would have inate AC modifiers (this could be a plus or a minus, depending on the nature of the ammo) to emphasise their ability to penetrate. Naturally the more piercing the round, the less damage it would do overall, but some ammo just excelled in everything, and when applied to a weapon that itself had a very high damage rating, the two become the ultimate choice, this was the Gauss Rifle in FO2. FO1 could be the Turbo Plasma Rifle, though Microfusion is a very vanilla ammo, no bonuses or penalties, the energy weapons themselves speak volumes.

Thank you all for such a complete explanation. A spacial mention to Curate for his thorough and lucid response.

As far as,
"Ausir as far as I know has been a very long time veteran on these matters, even assisting in many of the Fallout based wikis, and even some Fallout Bible entries. It makes sense that he would use terms like this naturally, he meant no elitism by it I'm sure "

I did not mean to imply I thought he was being elitist. Just that he was talking over my head and thereby I was none the wiser for having read his post. Using abbreviations and words that not all readers will know is a very common problem in writing. Is why not doing it is taught in every beginning journalism or writing class.

Hence it's best to read the game's manual first, and ask questions in forums only if you don't find the answer there.