Better Armor Scaling

Changes

Moved changelog here so it can be nested.

--Hard v2 scale to optional files (on Very Hard and Hard the 2 auto-driver sections at the start of the game (Nomad, Rescue) will likely be impossible with this file)

--Easy v2 scale to optional files

--Flat v2 scale to optional files by request of Syynx

--v1 renamed Smooth v1

--Easy difficulty multi lowered from 1. 5 at level 1 to 1. 0 and rescaled. 1. 5 was WAY to high.

--Easy: 0. 75      - Lower til lvl 10, then more till 60.

--Normal 0. 5     - Lower till lvl 18, then more till 60.

--Hard 0. 25       - Lower til lvl36 then the same till 60.

--Very Hard 0. 1 - Lower at all levels and is what I have for Very Hard on the Hard v2 file for lvl 60.

Initial version with just Smooth scaling, other scaling sets in v2.

The default armor scaling is rather odd, higher difficulties have higher damage resistance longer and end with more than double the final multiplier as Easy, and nearly double the multi of Normal.

Armor Values

Here is the current default values for all ArmorEffectivenessMultiplier at all levels and all difficulties. The last listed level is 36, that multi stays the same all the way to max level.

Bold is the coded value.

Italic is an internally interpreted value.

Small text is levels your armor doesn't change.

Armor Scaling

So knowing that, how does the game actually scale armor? The game codes armor multi to be at a certain value at 9 different levels, 1, 9, 12, 17, 20, 25, 28, 33, & 36. The game interprets a linear value between them for all other levels, it seems to do this for everything that changes passively by level; time, distance, etc. You can see that for all difficulties level 1 and level 9 have a multi of 1, so a linear scale from 1 to 1 is, well, 1 so armor doesn't reduce until level 10 which is an immediate 11-14% reduction of the multi.

ArmorEffectivenessMultiplier is reduced, on all difficulties, by 65-74% from level 10-20, and another 12-15% from level 20-36, for 77-89%, total, by level 36!

There are only a few levels your armor actually changes;

All difficulties: 10, 11, 12, 18, 19, 20, 26, 27, 28.

Easy and Normal: Above and also 34, 35, 36.

Changes

This mod aims to improve armor scaling, harder difficulties will lose armor faster, and end with a lower final multiplier, this will