Questions and suggestions regarding modular armor are frequently brought up on discord, here's an issue to gather ideas but also to present the issues that we need to solve. Some of this stuff is assumtions on my part, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Things that need to be solved:

• which other stats/benefits could the armor provide than just armor/toughness, why would you use leather or cloth instead of iron or diamond
• which are the minor and major slots (major slots host improvements and should be defining for the item)
• apart from material variations which different types of modules could be put into each slots (e.g. single/double plated shoulderguard, asymmetric shoulderguard, shoulder-mounted mining laser)
• are there different schemas/modules for different classes (e.g. A metal chestplate is very different from a chainmail/leather armor/scalemail, are those crafted using separate schemas?)
• what provides integrity, is it a single slot for which all modules provide the majority of the integrity or is it perhaps provided by different modules in several slots?

and more 'do i want protection, or do i want Fun Toys?'.

That's the best way to go about it in my opinion. Some of the fun toys like Elytra should go in the main plating slot precisely to make us do this choice.

some hotkey to open a mini inventory for your armors gadgets

We already have a hotkey, it's the belt menu! I really don't like filling the game with hotkeys. The less you can possibly use the better. For this purpose it should be modified slightly, make a section to toggle the gadgets in the armor and to quickly change thermal cells. They should definitely be used more.

Some thoughts that crossed my mind when I learned about tetra and that modular armor was in the works:
(this is my first time posting, sorry if my formatting is off/weird)

1. Polishing. This would ideally be done prior to heat tempering because the material will be more malleable/not as tough. Just like in real life its effectiveness would be dependent on the material used and could be used to increase an armor pieces durability and toughness (exact amount is TBD).

2. A "heat tempering" system that uses "Focusing crystals" (obtained from a scroll?) and some new machinery that spawns in the naturally generated underground structures. A high-tier (6+ ?) forge hammer would be required to craft the focusing crystals. The process would require and consume blocks of coal (for carbon content) and focusing crystal(s). Limited to one tempering per piece of armor (or perhaps this should be done on ingots/viable materials and be used to introduce new-ish materials?). The end result of this could be extra (significant) durability, armor, toughness, and/or a trait based on the material of the focusing crystal. Undergoing such an intense process would undo any coating (suggested previously by someone else) & polishing.

   • Example: emerald focusing crystals increase enchantability of the item & make villagers like the wearer more resulting in reduced prices from villagers while wearing the armor
   • Heat loving materials like Netherite would get increased benefit from this process due to the nature of the material but would require more focusing crystals in parallel to be effective

About which bonuses they could give the player, possibly reactive armor? Like, a shield that blocks the first hit and takes, like, 15 sec to recharge, in which time it can't be used? Or, the exact opposite, a shield that gets stronger with every consecutive hit, but 5 sec without damage cause it to reset? Maybe also on-hit buffs/debuffs.
About the integrity, I'd say it should be like modular doubles, having a frame providing stability and plates/padding providing stats.

About which bonuses they could give the player, possibly reactive armor? Like, a shield that blocks the first hit and takes, like, 15 sec to recharge, in which time it can't be used? Or, the exact opposite, a shield that gets stronger with every consecutive hit, but 5 sec without damage cause it to reset? Maybe also on-hit buffs/debuffs.
About the integrity, I'd say it should be like modular doubles, having a frame providing stability and plates/padding providing stats.

A shield system in general would be cool, and could work well with the whole arcane-technology vibe the mod has going on already

Yeah, it would defitely fit. Expanding on that idea, different engravings/socketed gems would provide different reactions. Lapis, for example, would be reactive, charge up, tanking the first hit and reducing shield hp instead of player hp. Emerald could be retroreactive, slowly drecreasing and charge through consecutive damage, which would help against combos and many, weak hits. Diamond could provide a permanent ~30% danage decrease and quartz would charge when attacking and weaken incoming attacks. The shield would be displayed as a shield symbol to the right of the hotbar. It would only be on, e.g. helmet or chestplate. Also it would catch damage even before potions/durability.

movement speed, durability, fall damage, jump height, recovery, immunity to some effects, water breathing for some linings such as prismarine crystal shard lining, fire immunity for netherite, spike resistance for things like cactus and sweet berries, ice walker for not sliping on ice, soul walker for soulsand, swim speed, void walker so you get teleported to land if you fall into the void, lava vision (like night vision but underlava), knock back resistance, poison immunity, lava walker, high damage resistance for speicific effects like arrow resistance for full leather armor. could do things simalar to thorns, gold plating/coating for friendly piglins.
hunger reduces slower for light armors, emerald coating/plating for cheaper villager trades, deep pockets armor allowing you to increase inventory space. wither immunity.
theres many things you could add.

Modular armor proposal:
1.Visual Addons - you can add them to make only visual changes like add plates(shoulder, neck), feather on helmet, make the armor look samurai(or other armor styles) and other.
2.Combining chainmail with leather(like the Witcher armor)

In the vein of attributes for lighter armors, such as leather or cloth (wool gambesons anyone?)
Cold Resistance for when you sink into snow blocks AND/OR mods that add temperature as a stat to maintain.
Easier to move in: .05 - .15 increase in weapon swing speed.
Snow Shoes (leather boots only) allow walking over quick snow
Ice Spikes (boots) no sliding on ice -.05 move speed on grass/dirt
Easier to move in: .05 - .15 increase in weapon swing speed.

Heavier Armors
Instead of just slowing swim speed, as I've seen suggested, should outright make you sink like a rock. (but you can still jump if not in a swimming state so you can "climb" out of the water)
Penalties for wearing heavier armor can be an impact on how long you can sprint (instead of a flat movement speed debuff), and when your done sprinting, your weapon is set to 0 swing charge. Heaviest armors disable sprinting altogether.

Some general ideas for armor mods
Archers Wrist Guard (body armor) decrease bow draw speed slightly (buff)
Nasal Guard (helmet) slight increase in def/dur
Aventail (helmet) moderate increase in def/dur
Flippers (boots) +50% move speed in water -50% move speed on land
Cod Piece (leggings) slight increase in def/dur heh >.>
Spiked (all armor) Thorns, .05 weapon speed debuff

SHIELDS
Size matters, the larger and heavier the shield the slower its recovery time is, easy enough to reflect.
Disk/Plate - main material of the shield
Boss - increase def/dur
Rim - increase def/dur
Rivets - increase dur
Disk/Plate - main material of the shield
Cover (leather/thin metal stretched over the shield - different effect based on material used.
Grip - increase shield recovery speed.

Hmm this is a really cool thread and I've seen a lot of great ideas one of the ones that inspired me most was the one about adding potion effects to the armor as a coating and i’ve been thinking about it throughout the day about how to improve upon the concept of just ordinary potions and applying them to armor. So, I thought what would be a great idea is not being able to put just single potions on but having to combine them together into a reagent or to just have two or three slots in the menu to put (probably lingering) potions in so it makes more sense. One combination I thought of was like a combination of instant damage and strength would decrease maximum health but give you an increase in percentage damage, like the old strength potion, and calling it berserkers’ rage or aura or something. Or like instant health and strength would give additional damage resistance or just maybe having more health but no damage buff whatsoever. So instant damage would strengthen the other original potion effects in percentages but instant health would dampen and change them and poison would give decaying properties to the armor like it takes more durability damage but with slow falling or other air related potions you could give off a poison gas trail. Maybe even blindness would be the sneaking reagent you have to mix with other potions to get a good sneak effect. Also i was thinking about certain schematics that maybe potion related mobs like witches or maybe finding them from clerics or potion related villagers to get power 3 fusion potion effects that offer maybe a special skill like the howler to certain armor pieces. Some of them might even include other items like golden apples or rotten flesh for their combination like one thing I just thought up would be aegis: instant health, regeneration, and golden apple and it would give like a regeneration or defence shield field for other players and friendly mobs and yourself. Or maybe rotten flesh for like a flesh eating skill? Get hunger bars from eating the enemy… sounds pretty weird but why not have weird effects with weird items?

About the light vs heavy armor debate I think I agree with the creator that there shouldn’t be a movement debuff from heavier armors but I do think there should be one for lighter armors and as one of the people said there should be tiers to armor but they should all be unique in their own way. Leather would give a speed increase but also a fall damage reduction effect and maybe foliage or insectile damage reduction or poison chance evasion, basically an adventurers’ clothes set. So it would be a really good beginning game armor used for exploring but not really for fighting. Chanmail would give better armor and better protection at the cost of a smaller speed buff, maybe copper would have the same speed and it could also be something you hone into armor such as bridging out the armor’s materials value.

Another thing to consider is the amount of pieces and layers should be in each armor piece and it should be different for each armor piece. I think the smallest helmet should have at least 3 main material slots and the chestplate should have at least 5 since it literally takes more materials to make armor than weapons and tools. The smallest amount (for boots and helmet) should probably be; inner lining, plate, and decoration/functional outward piece from the armor. Thoughts I’ve had on leggings would be separation between the thighs and shins so an extra plate, and for the chestplate should be like pauldrons and gauntlets for more protection or maybe the gauntlet would be an addon in which case you could have a triple layered cuirass for more chest protection since that’s pretty essential. I guess you could remove the inner lining or gabeson for an extra or a material slot that would not in the original armor piece.

Okay this is really the last thing I thought of but it’s also just a cool idea in general. Sets… but cool. Like it could interchange between armor pieces where all the inner lining would be leather and you would get physical or close range damage resistance, or a full set of leather outer material would give you the above mentioned adventurers’ spirit or whatever you call it buff for increased speed or higher resistance to certain debuffs that an adventurer might encounter. Or maybe a full set of nether/fiery material outer decoration could increase smithing strength or maybe decrease anvil costs? There’s a lot you could do with just the material properties.

TLDR: potion combinations on armors, having three pieces at least per armor and material potential, and having sets for the different layers of armors on different pieces being the same material to cause cool effects, I feel like this would have so many cool and insane combinations and synergies with the potions and set effects. I hope this gives some inspiration to others to come up with cool ideas and hope even one of these things goes to the creator I feel like modulated armor has so much potential.

just throwing this idea out there for armor stealth, modules to decrease sillouette in order to increase stealth
it may be lighter in armor or something to compensate but i got the idea from recon halo reach armor having a description that mentions the idea, and it does kinda make sense

So I've given this some thought and I wondered if maybe armour should be approached slightly differently from Tools?
Its an opportunity to do things differently, rather than just apply the current game design from tools onto something else - maybe Mikelus has some ideas he shelved previously but might be worth rehashing?

I'd like to see the player have to upgrade an Anvil instead of a crafting bench. A magma block or lava block nearby instead of just tool racks for forging (I'm sort of riffing off Tinkers a bit but without having to build a whole multiblock) so that when you get Tetra really going you have a sort of 'forge' room thrown together.

I also wondered if you design your build with more commitment in mind - you start your armour with leather to 'wear it in' but then you have to choose: work on detailing this and its 'set', or you could use this as a lining for iron plate and use gold thread; but now it needs wearing in again. And if you decide to take it a different route and go emboss it or then put gems into the iron; you cant go back. You have to sort of start over.

This makes you commit to that armour build. That first set you do might become your 'every day' run around set that is 'honed' for running around. But your boss set is something you work on over time with a specific goal in mind. Some experimentation is still available, but your encouraged to plan it out a bit. Gives the armour more identity.

You could make it so it uses the new armor trims from Caves and Cliffs. Make different trims/materials affect different stats, or add unique ones?

• Coast: adds swim speed or water breathing?
• Eye: Night vision or better crit rate?
• Wild: more move speed, jump height, or walk height (can walk over 1 block height instead of jumping)?
• Snout: more experience or magic capacity? (Due to being from piglin's and somewhat related to gold, which has more magic capabilities)
• Sentry: change bow stats is some way?

Or simply make using different materials add stats, like using diamond increases durability and gold magic capacity?

I think looking at the armor more like the toolbelt and less like the tools is a good option. Its a direct optional upgrade and not necessarily a needed use case. I would then lock it behind a found schematic. You could even make it part of the warforged set so that you would have to go to the nether and by that point youd be unlikely to be using leather for anything other than a material not a whole set. Also leans more to how the tool belt has leather or wool versions of some pieces that get replaced by a better iron or other metal piece later. For example you can add to that leather set youve been repairing and keeping with you for cheaper than making as whole new iron chestplate and if you put a vanilla iron cheastplate in the table it comes with an assumed leather piece underneath.

Think leather as the base layer ->you can add some iron upgrades but eventually need more integrity or schematic to go further-> you need a blackstone hammer to add better more specialized pieces to it

Ive always thought of mods like tetra as ways to keep that original wooden pick for your first stone as a trusted companion with you throughout a playthrough. Adding that component to your armor would be a nice addition.

Also no experience in the smithing or modding field so I would totally let my betters tear apart my idea and improve it.
Sorry if someone already proposed something like this too. Didn't read through every post just a few large ones.

Continuing off of @Sinuisan's idea, as I do enjoy the idea of a multiblock forge, armor could be comprised of an 'underlayer', 'chassis', and 'plating'. Potentially with one or two extra modules for utility, like an elytra upgrade or 'power armor' via the power cells for a few examples (since armored elytra is nice, and power cells lack extended functionality at the moment). Normal armor would lack the underlayer and extra modules, and would have a plain chassis and plating of the relevant material.

Underlayer variants could include:

• 'cloth/wool', which grants no protection bonus but increases move speed.
• 'chainmail', which would be made with chains and grant increased protection levels.
• 'leather', which would grant increased projectile protection.

Chassis variants could include:

• 'plain', which has no special modifiers.
• 'heavy', which grants increased protection but reduced attack/movement speed.
• 'shaped', which either increases projectile protection or adds a chance to ricochet projectiles, but has less overall armor.

Plating and chassis would increase or add stats depending on the material used to make them, which can be kept mostly consistent with vanilla armor (like netherites natural knockback resistance). And the enchanting would be the same as weapon enchanting, each module having e certain amount of stability to use.

The repeated 'breaking in' I personally feel is a bit redundant, especially since with normal tetra tools replacing a part removes all hones and properties to begin with. As for the 'full commit' to a build, that could make the armor itself a bit more balanced, but i feel the resource sink that's needed to replace the parts in the first place is enough.

Armor Improvements:
-General: reinforcing plates are created only from metals, give a little armor and strength, also if the plates are made of gold, the piglins will be neutral to the player. Spikes are created from metals and bones work like Enchanted spikes, but in addition to the damage it causes bleeding by the way, if they are made of gold, the piglins will be neutral to the player. The heating plates are in ruins, ignite creatures when attacked by the owner, work on the energy of thermal cells. The exoskeleton is an interior decoration that is in ruins, it gives the effect of strength and speed with haste, but it is very quickly rarefied works on the energy of thermal cells. Crystals give different effects: lapis lazuli (intuit), diamond (gives armor and strength as a percentage), emerald (chance not to take damage)
-Helmet: The lantern is made of prismarine, why not from a lightstone well because. Horns and combs are made of metals and bones only horns are exclusively decor. Turtle shell is an interior finish that makes it possible to breathe underwater. Banner install it on the helmet to show which side you are on. the mask gives protection slightly limits vision, you can raise and lower it by pressing a key.
-Bib: The backpack is made of leather and scales, gives an extra. place in the inventory. Liquid tank it stores liquids. Elites are just elites on the breastplate. Energoryukzak allows you to store and use FR Energy. Thermorukzak allows you to store and use thermal energy. Decorative shoulder pads. shoulder guns are in ruins and work on thermal energy and there are several types of them: a mountain laser is needed for rapid drilling of caves causes very little damage, which is why it is not suitable for combat, an alchemical cannon shoots potions, a rocket cannon shoots fireworks.
-Greaves: I don't know what to add.
-Boots: Jet boosters allow you to fly up. Fins accelerate the player in the water.

I think that the speed penalty for things like full plate armor which were historically heavy sure but made very specifically to not compromise mobility for knights, especially since they had to climb up onto horses and in the typical clumsy depiction of heavy armor that'd be nearly impossible.

The cost was the primary thing that made it prohibitive as well as the extreme difficult in making such armor as that stuff took a ton of skill and the collective knowledge of decades of metal workers. though preproducing any sort of skill like that would be extremely hard I think perhaps you could have the schematics play a big role in how the armor is made and how it gets better. without any schematics to work with the player may only be able to make the armor thicker to increase protection which would increase the protection and weight enough to justify a slowness penalty and an attack speed penalty. then as they explore they could find schematics for varying tiers of plate mail and other sets which would be similar to gild I-V upgraded to get better tiers or even made unique so higher levels could only be found rather than created with the final tier being a typical medieval set of plate-mail offering maximum protection without any significant debuff to mobility or attack speed.

you'd also have to debuff vanilla armor to make this worth while as the armor cap would negate the use of any heavy armors period if they had any negative since a vanilla set could do just as well without hindering you. light armor could then be a set that is automatically decent for players not needing to be upgraded to provide no bebuffs to them. being negated latter on sure but it would have a place early on if all other armors weighed you down at first due to a lack of knowledge in armor making from schematics. leather also generally is easier to work with so it'd make sense for light armor to be easiest to make early on as only some plates of certain materials are needed on top of the leather and chainmail.

Main attributes would have to still be armor and armor toughness but a weight would have to be in some way introduced. possibly also a mobility stat which could affect attack speed and perhaps even the speed at which you can turn your camera. weight could affect movement speed and the speed at which you sink in water or fall from heights. also could negatively affect mobility with an elytra for instance. also some materials could give special effects such as extra fist damage with things like gauntlets or extra luck on the player. maybe certain materials or modules could give potion effects or work like a hopper for a small inventory of potions offering an effect from the hopper at the press of a button. spikes on armor giving a thorns like effect or a sheath reducing the penalty for switching to a weapon or tool from any other slot.

overall I think it is important to keep in mind that if there are to many negatives to tetra armor, especially in the case of heavy armors, in relation to vanilla armor then it won't be used much at all. if there are to be negatives for heavy armor types then vanilla armor should be hindered with similar or worse negatives and the value should be reduced on them. could also add in a config option or auto detect to keep vanilla values as is and instead buff tetra armor above the cap if a mod that removes the cap is present such as attribute fix.

I had an idea how to implement armor, you need to divide it into 3 types:

1. Light armor is created from fabric, leather and scales. Gives little armor, but has a lot of integrity and gives a buff on speed and haste.
2. Classic armor is created from all materials except fabric and possibly scales, it does not give any bonuses to the characteristics and has medium integrity.
3. Heavy armor is made only from metal gives a lot of armor, gives slowness and fatigue has little integrity.

This could actually work rather well, as far as I'm aware. The default armor made in a normal crafting table could even default to the classic variant, just like how vanilla tools will convert to tetra tools once modified in the workbench.
I'd also add chain to the light armor too, unless we'd want that to be classic tier.

I may be biased but I still think my armor system would work just as well. It's functionally similar to the shield system, with the underlayer (the strap), the chassis (the shield), and possibly other parts (the embossing). From here, vanilla armor would just default to an empty underlayer and embossing, with the default chassis of plain. I just think this system is a bit easier to work with, and has a bit of room for addons adding in special chassis and underlayer variants without having to add an entire new item type.

I had an idea how to implement armor, you need to divide it into 3 types:

1. Light armor is created from fabric, leather and scales. Gives little armor, but has a lot of integrity and gives a buff on speed and haste.
2. Classic armor is created from all materials except fabric and possibly scales, it does not give any bonuses to the characteristics and has medium integrity.
3. Heavy armor is made only from metal gives a lot of armor, gives slowness and fatigue has little integrity.

The structure of the armor:
-The helmet consists of: the main plate it determines the type and gives the main characteristics:integrity, armor, durability; the interior finish is created from leather and scales gives additional armor; the side plate gives armor if removed gives integrity and can be replaced with improvements; the front part of the helmet can be fitted with a mask that slightly restricts the view and gives armor.
-The bib consists of: the main plate it defines the type and gives the main characteristics:integrity, armor, durability; interior decoration is created from leather and scales gives additional armor; shoulder pads give armor if removed give integrity and can be replaced with improvements; the front and back of the plate can be improved on it.
-Greaves consists of: the main plate it defines the type and gives the main characteristics:integrity, armor, durability; interior decoration is created from leather and scales gives armor; pants give armor if removed give a bonus to speed.
-Shoes consist of: main plate it defines the type and gives the main characteristics:integrity, armor, durability; the interior finish is created from leather and scales gives armor; the sole can be improved on it.

@CoolDemon96, perhaps the Greaves have a way of "infusing" your inventory with ender, to replace your inventory with your enderchest's inventory. The chestplate can have the backpack be the enderchest instead.
Maybe the Greaves can have thermal-based leg accelerators? If installed, they will slow you down without energy (since the motors are locked), but speed you up with energy!

helmet- "boiler" creates thermal energy from the sunlight hitting it, but only if you have water in a chest tank!
chestplate- a component that will weaken you, but generate energy every time you hit something.
greaves- a commonent that slows you down, but generates energy.
those generaters can be tied to a keybind. so, turn it off and then turn on an improvment?

So possibilities could be

Helmet

Helm

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

• Full (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Add Comb (Appearance Only)

Visor

• None (default)

• Full (slightly increases armor, decreases durability) (must have a full helm as well)

  • Add Banner (Appearance Only)
  • Halloween Pumpkin Visor (does what a jack-o-lantern would do)

Chestplate

Breastplate (Used for Defense)

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

• Full* (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Add Banner (On back)

Plackart (Used for Integrity more than Defense)

• Linked (slightly decreases armor, increases projectile defense)

• Full* (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)

Right Pauldron

• Decorative additions

  • Spikes (Maybe?)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)
  • Adding Banners (Appearance Only)

• Slotting

• Plating

  • Leather Guards (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, increases draw speed)
  • Single Plated (slightly decreases armor, slightly increases attack speed)
  • Double Plated (default)

Left Pauldron

• Decorative additions

  • Spikes (Maybe?)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)
  • Adding Banners (Appearance Only)

• Enchanting

• Plating

  • Leather Guards (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, increases ranged damage)
  • Single Plated (slightly decreases armor, slightly increases shield recharge rates)
  • Double Plated (default)

Leggings

Cuisse

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)

• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)

  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)

• Full* (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)

Grieve

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)

• Full* (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)

Boots

Sabaton

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)

• Full (default)

  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)

NOTES

-*Fulls on Chestplate and Leggings could have Splint and Scale Mail variants (maybe just appearance maybe not).

-Leather would be excluded from tetra schemas (unless some other way is found).

-Chainmail is uncraftable by default and would be excluded from tetra schemas (unless some other way is found).

-These are all purely as suggestions for possibilities.

-I was unable to think of many other attributes to change.

I really like this options, but some things id change:

• add an under-layer to the chestplate and leggings which would have options for either chainmail or wool gambeson. chainmail would add some additional armor but would debuff attack speed and take more integrity whereas gambeson would add projectile protection and take minimal integrity and no debuff to attack speed (it could also add insulation from powder snow)
• combine the pauldrons into one slot
• more visor options (like a corinthian helmet style and whatnot)
• soles for boots which affects both movement and hunger usage

Re: the speed issue, I'm throwing my vote in with lighter armor giving speed boosts. Not changing armor by default is a good idea, but if you're gonna change armor, it should be framed as a bonus ("If I want to be more mobile, I can switch to leather pants and boots!") and not a penalty ("Aw, man, my full diamond plate makes me slow. This sucks.")

I also think there should be specific benefits to wearing lighter armor. It's not super realistic, as IRL you'd just wear a gambeson under proper armor, and the lightest that you really went was chainmail (or heavily-layered cloth, which was apparently remarkably strong). However, one of the things I've never liked about Minecraft's combat is that there's no real decision-making to be made; in vanilla, diamond is just better in every way, so much so that going from iron to diamond more than doubles your effective health.

To that end, I think leather and cloth armors should have some sort of DPS/mobility role. Heavy armors can fill the tank role; leather and cloth armors should play into the fantasy of being a cunning thief who strikes so quickly that armor isn't a concern.

Maybe you could have a couple of armor schemas that have unique effects, which scale better with light, flexible materials like leather and cloth:

Vest/Boots/Trousers/Cap: Flexible

Gain bonus damage based on how full your health is, and bonus protection based on how close you are to death. The damage bonus drops to 0, and the protection maxes out, when you're at 5 hearts. Bonuses are based on material flexibility.

This would make the Leather Vest set a middle-ground between good armor and glass-cannon. Taking hits wouldn't be the end of the world, but if you can stay at or near full health, you get higher damage output.

Robe/Shoes/Pants/Cowl: Smooth Strikes

Attacking an enemy applies stacks of Flow. On reaching 3 stacks of Flow, the target takes additional magic damage and clears all stacks. Damage is based on material flexibility, with a penalty based on material density.

This would make the Cloth Robe set a potentially fatal combination with Shortblades or dual-wielding--fitting neatly with the classic assassin role. You could also use Leather, but since Leather is a little denser--and thus protects more--you get less damage out of the effect.

Chestplate/Sabatons/Chausses/Helm: Angled Plate

The "normal" armors should probably have their own effect, and they're meant to fall into a tank role, so:

Taking damage or blocking an attack applies a stack of Glancing Blow. Each stack of Glancing Blow reduces incoming damage from all non-magical sources by a small amount. Stacks begin decaying after 3 seconds out of combat (not doing or taking damage). Stack cap is determined by material density. Protection amount is determined by material flexibility.

In effect, heavy armor would shine in situations where you're taking a lot of hits at once. It would also synergize with having a shield or a Sturdy Guard--thus emphasizing a more defensive playstyle.

To go with the above, you could also make the medium-armor Vest set scale with flexibility and hardness minus density, the light-armor Robe set scale with flexibility minus density, and the heavy-armor Chestplate set scale with density and hardness.

You could also just set a hard limit on what materials can be used for Vests and Robes, but frankly, I like the idea of the player being able to make an Iron Robe, only to realize that it has worse stats than a Cloth Robe.

So possibilities could be

Helmet

Helm

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

• Full (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Add Comb (Appearance Only)

Visor

• None (default)

• Full (slightly increases armor, decreases durability) (must have a full helm as well)

  • Add Banner (Appearance Only)
  • Halloween Pumpkin Visor (does what a jack-o-lantern would do)

Chestplate

Breastplate (Used for Defense)

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

• Full* (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Add Banner (On back)

Plackart (Used for Integrity more than Defense)

• Linked (slightly decreases armor, increases projectile defense)

• Full* (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)

Right Pauldron

• Decorative additions

  • Spikes (Maybe?)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)
  • Adding Banners (Appearance Only)

• Slotting

• Plating

  • Leather Guards (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, increases draw speed)
  • Single Plated (slightly decreases armor, slightly increases attack speed)
  • Double Plated (default)

Left Pauldron

• Decorative additions

  • Spikes (Maybe?)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)
  • Adding Banners (Appearance Only)

• Enchanting

• Plating

  • Leather Guards (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, increases ranged damage)
  • Single Plated (slightly decreases armor, slightly increases shield recharge rates)
  • Double Plated (default)

Leggings

Cuisse

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)

• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)

  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)

• Full* (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)

Grieve

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)

• Full* (default)

  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)

Boots

Sabaton

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)

• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)

• Full (default)

  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)

NOTES

-*Fulls on Chestplate and Leggings could have Splint and Scale Mail variants (maybe just appearance maybe not).

-Leather would be excluded from tetra schemas (unless some other way is found).

-Chainmail is uncraftable by default and would be excluded from tetra schemas (unless some other way is found).

-These are all purely as suggestions for possibilities.

-I was unable to think of many other attributes to change.

I feel like it would be interesting to have a set of loot scrolls in strongholds or something that allows the player to craft different variants of armor! Like the scale mail, splint mail, and chain mail.

• Scale mail could be crafted with turtle scutes, different metals, and maybe even ender dragon scales (if there's another mod that adds it in the load order). Adding a custom drop like strider leg scales would be interesting as well, since their legs seem like they have layered 'scales' of sorts.
• Splint mail could just be a medium armor alternative, between lighter armor and full plate :>
• Chain mail could be made with different metals, and be a heavy-medium armor of sorts! Also would allow players to finally craft their own chain mail.

Also, I have some spitball ideas regarding other loot schematics and integrations with ancient ruins crafting materials :>

• Schematic found very rarely in end city chests that allows the player to affix an elytra to a chestplate!
• Schematic found in igloo chests allowing for ice skates, massively increasing speed while on ice so it’s comparable to boats on ice. This one’s just for funsies, and only really a half-serious suggestion.
• Schematic found in abandoned mineshafts allowing for 2-3 glowstone dust to be added to a helmet, causing a dynamic light to shine around the player? This one may or may not be possible, idk :>
• Schematic found rarely in ancient mountain ruins that allows for a holosphere-like HUD to be placed in the visor slot of helmets, similar to what @Corvus20 suggested! Like help with mining ores or a button that allows you to give all nearby mobs Glowing for a few seconds (with a small cooldown).
• The ability to put Quick Latches onto chestplates and leggings to allow them to be equipped and unequipped outside of armor stations
• The ability to put a Planar Stabilizer onto a chestplate or boots to allow for full knockback negation in exchange for a ton of Integrity/Weight? Maybe also requires a crafting scroll found rarely within underground ruins.
• The obligatory Bolts to allow adjustment for all four armor pieces. Maybe have it adjust between protection and armor toughness?
• Maybe Fiber Mesh being usable where leather/chain is applicable?
• Obviously repurposed plates being usable for plate armor

Is it possible to reduce the mob detection range when wearing light armor?

Doing a quick Ctrl-F does not yield any matches so hopefully nobody else has already suggested this.

armour toughness should probably be relates to hardness, while density could effect both armour and toughness, at a cost to movement speed obsidian armour super protective but you walk much slower, with flexibility reducing the spees reduction
something like toughness=material tier+(hardness/2)+(density/2.1)
while actual armour might be armour=tier*2+hardness
should probably also ensure only materials with tier 5+ can give hardness(prob using coding voodoo)armour types can be plated(natural state of most armour), chainlinked(much higher flexibility at a cost to armour points) or forged(more armour at a cost to speed)

be

(btw the armour calculations are for total armour across entire set, idk exactly how we would calculate per piece)

I personally think that armour points should relate to the hardness of the material while the toughness (which basically increases armour durability) should be related to the material flexibility and only remotely to the hardness. An armour made of vines would be basically impossible to destroy but only give two to three points at best, while e.g. armour made of gems should yield lots of protection at the cost of durability. Of course, knockback resistance should be influenced by material weight.

Also, I personally think that the constants in any equation should be tweaked so converting vanilla armour into tetra should not modify it's stats too much.

Well, I'll just write down my thoughts in a simple and concise manner to be quick:

Let us taxonomize a little bit:

   The whole point of tinkering in a mod is to _Manipulate the properties_:
     - add something to the mix
     - while sacrificing a bit of it
     
    To give tetra the sense of existing, you can simply:
      - make the addition WEIGHT MORE
      - than the subtraction

Other things that just make sense with tinkering are:

• fusing the unfusable | union framework
• adding magical interesting traits (not stats, effects) | particularizing framework
• recreating and just improving | reforging framework
• sacrificing a bit to gain more of something | tradeoff framework

NOTE: Tetra already does this with regular equipment and it works like a charm:

• you can add a guard to a sword for increased protection but slower speed
  OR
• you can just a diamond binding to increase other stats but sacrificing protection

NOTICE THE BENEFIT VS BADFIT TABLE

But we too often sacrifice defense, we use the Sacrifice Framework too often and with one single trait.

Of course things from ‘Tetra‘ Must be kept like:

• The base

NOTE: I played a lot of tinker's construct armory so I might be a lil biased, but I like it

Additionally Several armor pieces should have different responsabilities

graph TD;
    GenericTraits-->Protection;
    GenericTraits-->Agility;
        
    ArmorPieces-->Helmet;
    ArmorPieces-->Chestplate;
    ArmorPieces-->Leggins;
    ArmorPieces-->Boots;

NOTE: Agility can be expressed in several ways depending on the armor piece

• body recovery (attack speed / damage during non full swing)
• speed (tho I don't like touching what is ALWAYS TOUCHED, it ends up ] too much a single important thing)
• chance to avoid damage (as if the armor could allow you to deflect it and move accordingly more easily)
• speed while crouching

NOTE: Protection obviously has the more variants

• fire prot
• projectile prot
• blast prot
• generic prot
  [I think that you should be allowed to fine tune these by editing the armor piece]

Helmet

 graph TD;
    
    Helmet-->GenericTraits;
    Helmet-->Mind;
    Helmet-->View;
    Helmet-->Breathing;
    Helmet-->Consuption_(Food);

Chestplate

 graph TD;

    ChestPlate-->GenericTraits;
    ChestPlate-->Swiftness;
    ChestPlate-->Arm_And_Torso_Related;
    ChestPlate-->BodyWide_Effects;

Leggins

 graph TD;
    
    Leggins-->GenericTraits;
    Leggins-->Speed;
    Leggins-->Leg_Related;
    Leggins-->Jump_Height;
    Leggins-->Movement_Related;

Boots

 graph TD;
    
    Boots-->GenericTraits;
    Boots-->Movement_Related;
    Boots-->Jump_Related;
    Boots-->Walking_Related(What feet actually do);

What I mean here is

The point here being that:

the essence of a piece could be added to an armor as a:

• plating
• stone
• binding
  Or what not

And depending on:

• helmet
• chestplate
• leggins
• boot

Should imbue the piece with a specific trait, strengthen it and so on

How can this be balanced???

The answer is, with the whole point of minecraft look for it, and work hard in the crafting for it.

Within Tetra system I think words especially well because the amount of slots isn't really limited if not from a base

## BTW NOW LET'S TALK BASES AND STUFF

More Gems can give more effects to the armour (ok, listen, I'm brit ❤️ 🇬🇧 ) but to add more gems you need a solid base (sort of like tools).

The thing that might not fit with Tetra is the fact that this gem system isn't really something with the tools, but it could be made make sense by allowing the idea of:

• you are imbued with what you are wearing
• you challenge practical strength within the tools*
  after all it is typical to assign behaviours to people, while tools are an extension

Simply put: it does not make sense to add water breathing to a pickaxe ⛏️ 💧 🤔

So How about composition now?
I'll consider that:

• A base is necessary
• A place for props is necessary (the thing about gems I was talking about)
• "Componentizing Spacially" is a must, for good mental organization
• Keeping the amount of elements nice and tidy
• There must be an equilibrium between "changing elements" and "editing what is already present"

So Armor Pieces could be like:

Helmet:

• Cheek Plates [can be enlarged]
• Head Plate [can be embossed with 1 or more head related gemstones] [can be made more comfy or warmer with wool or leather]
• Binding

ChestPlate

• Base Body [can be embossed with 1 or more torso or arm related gemstones] [by default is "solid wide plate" can be reshaped into "plated (hermit crab like shell)" or "scaled" (reptile/fish like)] [can be made more comfy with wool or leather filling] (maybe wool makes it warmer? Can be useful for survival driven mods)
• Shoulders [can be reinforced with something (like gold topping)] [can be removed] [can be bound with gauntlets if existent)]
• Gauntlets [optional, by default does not exist] [can be made of any metal and reshaped in a few ways, I have to think about it]
• Binding (connects shoulders to the chestplate)

Leggins

• *Base Body (Ideally the part covering your lower tummy) [can be reshaped in something wide or thinner , I'll think about them shapes]
• Legs [can be carved in a few shapes to choose over agility or strength, or both (costs more)] [can be broken into plates or cut short to cover only until the knees]
• Binding (connects legs to base)
• Hinge (connects upper leg with lower leg, found at the knee)

Boots

• *Base Body (Ideally what covers immediately around your foot) [1 or more trait gems can be set on it] [can be made more comfy / warmer with wool and leather] [can be reshaped into a sandal (idk why but it seems cool) or a plated body]
• Sole (The part below the boot) [module not present by default, can be made out of leathers] [nails can be added below for more grip too]
• Binding (Holds the shoe together)
• Leg Guard (defensive part right above the feet along the legs) [can be reshaped into broader or thinner variants, or removed]

NOTE: Remember what I said earlier!

• The amount of gemstones you can add depends on the individual material (I call these gem stones "trait stones" too]

OTHER NOTES:

• Bindings here work in a similar fashion to the way they do in tools
• All armor pieces have the option of editing them in a "aqua affine way", maybe with some crafting with prismarine crystals and shards

EXAMPLE GEMSTONES OR SUBSTANCES
(mods can and should definiteily add more gemstones)
prismarine shards - allow for water breathing
glowstone - allows for light, or something with it, or with amplifying present effects
emerald - makes you trade cooler with villagers, you have a bonus against pillagers tho you'll attract them more
gold ingot - piglins are happy with you
nether star - bro are you looking for godmode? (severly increases many stats)
diamond - makes armor piece stronger in a few ways
fermented spider eye - mobs may be poisoned when touching you
redstone - you go faster
nether wart - potions last longer
algae - you have a bit more prot when in water
lapis - enchants may be more effective and you are overall luckier
gunpowder - something with explosion ... jumping? leaping? exploding on death?
... may more may be interesting

P.S. This makes think ... seeing all these armor abilities makes me think ... what if armors had special abilities that can be activated from player?? nah ... that would start being too much! But I'll leave it here as an idea 💡

This is my genuine idea for a Tetra Armor Sense, it mostly makes sense in my head and I think it will keep doing so

Tried to make the post as clear and fluid as possible, I'm sorry if I'm a bit vague and sound tired, I am, I'm just writing and thinking of this as it's late deep in night, have a great day guys.

@Explosif3005 I fully agree, any change must be contained within reasonable boundary, some wooden armor can't magically become diamond armor because the player was like "oh let me carve a few things on a bench".

And trait stones maybe are best if kept only to the helmet, I'd say these stones should be already present in the game rather than being added content from tetra, and no superior stone that just +1s everything.

I think that the customizable system we are thinking about should help each player highlight their combat style (one's tanky and one's agile) rather than just "improve everything", in that case its just another progression system like almost any other.

I'd say things like:

• Amethyst works for bowmasters, let them be faster and let their bows harm more, but make them weak in their defence (Amethyst is used in spyglass, so "distance")
• Redstone might be speed because redstone signal is FAST, make the player faster but more susceptible to damage
• Diamond would only add protection, nothing else

Etc ...

I hope you get the framework let me know of your thoughts on this

Here is some thought about the variable that we can touch:
Agility: penality / upgrade of modified swinging speed of weapon and tool (for exemple tetra)

Speed: the base speed of the player (a littlle)

Durability: the durability of the armor

Soud: additionnal variable that can appear we modifying amor, the effect is that it can randomly aggro monster in a certain range (good armor but can cause suprise attack by mob) (could also potentially be made in the other direction to lower the chance to lower aggro...)

Protections: the different kind of protection a basic (we can add or change some like: penetration type damage -> cactus and pufferfish)

Integrity: Base thing of tetra not need to expand much, but if we want to modify amor we need integrity

And then also some other that i dont really want to expand on here like vision or breathing for the helmet, jump height or running speed for boot / legging, anti-ice (name need to change) to reduce how much we slide one the different kind of ice and stuff....

What do you think @SYUMJOBA ? Give me your thought svp, so that it can make my job essyier, and have the view of an another person (i'm also trying a but at editting my comment for better readability).

(could also potentially be made in the other direction to lower the chance to lower aggro...)

Correction : (could also potentially be made in the other direction to lower the chance to aggro...)

@SYUMJOBA

@Explosif3005 I fully agree, any change must be contained within reasonable boundary, some wooden armor can't magically become diamond armor because the player was like "oh let me carve a few things on a bench".

And trait stones maybe are best if kept only to the helmet, I'd say these stones should be already present in the game rather than being added content from tetra, and no superior stone that just +1s everything.

I think that the customizable system we are thinking about should help each player highlight their combat style (one's tanky and one's agile) rather than just "improve everything", in that case its just another progression system like almost any other.

I'd say things like:

• Amethyst works for bowmasters, let them be faster and let their bows harm more, but make them weak in their defence (Amethyst is used in spyglass, so "distance")
• Redstone might be speed because redstone signal is FAST, make the player faster but more susceptible to damage
• Diamond would only add protection, nothing else

Etc ...

I hope you get the framework let me know of your thoughts on this

Yeah that is also why i am more leaning toward synergies with other tetra stuff, and modifier from différent mod, just to have the "normal armor" that doesn't change much, or the more specialized stuff like more agile and so sword's (for exemple) are more easy to use but with less amor, or more bulky, but sword's usage more difficult, and so on. In fact i had already an idea in my head like that it's just that your big post made it clearer for me. But i still have to find the time to finish a proper essay / document, for that. But i still hope that this task for this thread, are marked soon so that we can have armor with tetra...

But for the trait gems i thinks that we can use it on other parts but head still more efficient, and that trait gems (especially on the head) are concentrated more on speed, agility and proctection -> redstone is more speed / agility, and for exemple Amethyst provide protection against vision effect -> blindness, water? and so on? I dont really know right now...

Ps: Forgive my sloppy english, i'm french but i'm not yet bilinguist... So i have so difficulties...

Heres a few thought about how i would go about dividing things:

We could have one "handle" for the armor, aka skeleton, bindings, .... That would change the main familly of our piece of armor :

• Normal armor : Basic vanilla one, that are not that equilibrated

• Light armor : More flexible and adaptable armor, have hight integrity with low cost, hight improvement / enchantements / honning possibilities, more module available, and a positive agility, but less protections at the start and cannot use hard and non flexible material such as diamond. One main slot for armor and one for binding.

• Heavy armor : Less flexible and more heavy armor, hight integrity with hight cost, and so limited amount of improvement / honning and enchant, less additionnal modules, negative agility, but way more protection, two main slot instead of one for armor (plates) (that dont accept fabric as a material) and one for the skeleton. It weight allow more overhall damage (yes it relatively realisitic), and speed debuff (low) past a certain weight. Overhall more tanky and powerfull but slow in his actions and not very adaptable. Total armor given by full double plated diamond -> 1,5 to 2x protection given by normal diamond armor

• Special gear : Special armor that came with special recipies fond in dongon and rare loot provide special effects

But that not all!

Althout it is less possible for a heavy armor to be like a light one and so on, you can still use multiple familly on to the different pieces of armor you use. And special module that cost more or less integrity will help bridge the two (One idea that stuck to me: have a light armor but a more heavy, big gauntlet that provide massive damage...). I hope that this please for the two side (no distinction light / heavy; distinction light / heavy) i'm still tring to figure out the things so its not all that redable and all my idea but i want the point of view of others!

@SYUMJOBA
Some Thought:
I was thinking while reading that directly touching speed, might not be a good idea but i ad one that resemble your "agility": I would call it "liberty of movement" or something...
The important things is that this "liberty of movement" (that i will call L.O.M from now on) will provide adjustment to any change in the base speed of the player or the base swing speed of a weapon:

• Cobweb, soulsand or sneak for movement
• Essentially tetra modification for weapon
  Those adjustment scale differently depending on four thing : the L.O.M is positive or negative, the L.O.M (bigger it is the more change there is) , whether the change is a positive or negative one, and the amount of change.
  All so that those change are kept in reasonable boundary (no sword not moving, or moving at the speed of light...).
  And the type of change of movement affected differ for the different pieces...

An another thing is the helmet apart from having a little effect on the previously mentioned variable i think it would be nice if it as more space for the "trait stones" or for stuff that augment the different type of defense...
Which would make relative sense the head being a very sensible organ...
That can help for balancing everything...

Also a final things adding compatibly for mod like epic-fight and origin for example can provide more variable to use...

I will return later to make a more detailed post with some attached file to talk more about my idea

I thinks it would also be good that we all agree on somethings for the armor so that @mickelus can work on it as it would be dope!

Some spoiler from reddit

@Explosif3005 I am so sorry for not participating in the conversation anymore, I really did not expect to be taken this seriously 😅.
But yes, I especially like the Shoud trait, it feels like a renamed version of Stealth but with some twist, could create interesting game design tinkering possibilities with the warden and similar.

I also like the idea of giving good advantages at lighter armours, horizontalizing the progression, increasing so much more depth to the choice of a player before upgrading to some set of gear, as I believe that Minecraft progression is WAYY to streamlined and vertical. (Indeed one of the pretty things of Tetra is how it deepens the choices and better highlights the play styles of people).

I also appreciate the value associations you gave to gemstones already, very nice, tho thinking twice I like how mickelus is properly handling it fiddling with iron recipes, making the crafting process more of a "discover your style" rather than a "go look for gems, miner". It changes the message from the design I earlier suggested and allows greater expressive freedom.

Only thing I'd still add: individually customising colour by component, and adding better shader support.

I stopped playing Minecraft all of a sudden because of study, so pardon again, I just saw Tetra got updated with interesting armour customisation mechanics and I hope my comments helped a little bit in the development regardless.

P.S. why is this issue still open?

so, if this is still relevant (i say yes, stil want tetra armor XD), i'd see it like this:
major modules:

padding - "comfortability" (speed and jump boost), and armor toughness, decides a good bit of integrity

plating - raw armor value, vanilla transforms to "halfplate" variant, with heavy and light as options, deciding speed and attack speed more drastically than padding (and some scrolls hrom the dungeon for specials if you're feeling it)

minor modules:

trim - basically sockets

binding - extra integrity at the cost of attack speed (makes armor "clunky")

i'd just stick to making something, no need to make it great from the start, just make it then listen to the feedback

https://github.com/AlexTheDolphin0/TetraticArmory

@CoolDemon96

THE README OF THE PROJECT IS JUST ...

Going along with what VaguelyLion said about the gambeson: I would compare this concept to the way swords already work in Tetra. Most tools have to head bits, a binding, and a handle. Swords have a blade, a handle, a hilt, and then at least two more module slots. You could easily have a cuirass/breastplate slot (primary armor properties), a pauldron slot (shoulder module), a fastener slot (penalty mitigation like handle wraps), and a gambeson slot as a sort of chassis that the rest of the armor 'hangs' on.

Honing upgrades and different materials could offer protection or other benefits. e.g. imp leather could provide fire resistance

Adding onto the whole 'gauntlets' suggestion - perhaps an unarmed stat someone can upgrade by wearing certain gauntlets? For example, punching someone with a heavy iron gauntlet that has reduced range but increased speed compared to something like a sword.
Obviously these wouldn't be the main purpose of wearing a set of armour for most people, but I'm sure the ability to punch the heck out of creepers is appealing to at least some people.

Q. Which other stats/benefits could the armor provide than just armor/toughness?
My thoughts on this: Looking at the list of stats we can add via nbt, there's knockback resistance, move speed boosts, flying speed (More on that later in my comment), jump strength, and luck (maybe a bit dubious tho).

Q. Why would you use leather or cloth instead of iron or diamond
My thoughts on this: Capitalize on balancing weight for your armor, if you want really heavy armor you get slight speed debuffs (maybe 10-15% max) and more knockback resistance, as well as less modifier slots for other things.
Light armor provides a bit less armor in total but more points to work with additional modifiers, as well as being light enough to provide slight speed boosts, maybe even jump strength, and even flying speed boosts (again later).

Q. Which are the minor and major slots (major slots host improvements and should be defining for the item)
My thoughts on this: Major slots should be front and back plates imo.
These two affect armor, armor toughness, and flight speed the most.
Back plate has the possibility for an elytra, sacrificing some armor for flight.
See Caelus Api for easy access to the hardcoded elytra behavior.
For minor slots we could have lining and bolts.
Bolts could use forged bolts, gems, woods, and metals and impact durability a lot. Maybe some luck with gems?
Lining would use wool or leather and would be similar to wrappings for tools and give usage for leather and cloth.

Q. Are there different schemas/modules for different classes?
I don't think this is needed, outside of enchantments, in vanilla armor is armor, more and less damage reduction.

Q. What provides integrity, is it a single slot for which all modules provide the majority of the integrity or is it perhaps provided by different modules in several slots?
I think three parts should decide a lot of the durability like tools, bolts and front and back plates in my example.

That's my two cents anyways.

maybe movement speed? the heavier the metal or material is the slower you get, so getting diamond armor would give you lots of armor but would slow you down considerably

Would it also slow down anyone wearing a vanilla diamond armor? Or does it start to slow you down when it's converted to a tetra armor the first time you upgrade it? Because that sounds like not so fun if tetra is in a modpack.

im guessing once it becomes a tetra armor piece, because if it was on vanilla armor that would cause correlation between mods and yeah just generally unfun

for heavy armor debuffs: movement acceleration? like tetra diamond armor does not lower your movement max speed but lowers the rate in which you get up to speed? or maybe its a matter or leather having more ability for getting more material upgrades for movement and utility (rocket boots/slime block piston boots that boost jump hight?) and diamond armor has more enchant ability and fancy inlay and socketing options for special magical things?

hmm...
I have some more ideas just want to make sure they are good and fit the mod

Which other stats/benefits could the armor provide than just armor/toughness?

Any bonuses usually obtained from enchantments, such as projectile/magic/etc. protection, and effects like depth strider and thorns could be unique to specific materials.

Why would you use leather or cloth instead of iron or diamond?

First of all, I think this question is based on a bit of a false premise. I don't believe light armor necessarily needs to be equally as appealing as heavy armor. No one ever asks what incentives we should provide to use wooden tools - it's totally fine to have different and objectively better tiers of equipment. The main reason frontline troops in medieval times didn't all wear full plate armor is not because there were significant advantages to mail or leather armor - it's because a suit of plate armor was extremely expensive, and the cost of outfitting an entire army with it was prohibitive, which is a system that's easily replicated in Minecraft.

That being said, there are definitely gameplay benefits for having a heavy vs. light armor system. As such, I think heavy armor reducing movement speed really needs to be the answer to the above question, since that's how it works in real life, and that's how it's already handled by tons of other games. Some games instead have stat thresholds to equip heavy armor, or have it increase mana costs, but those mechanics don't make any sense in Minecraft. However, there is the issue of non-Tetra armors existing that don't affect movement speed, so I would suggest armor only reducing speed once a certain weight threshold has been passed. Then you can design the weight system such that vanilla armors fit under that weight threshold, meaning you don't need to mess with vanilla armor stats or have stat changes when vanilla armor is converted to Tetra armor.

As a general response to the remaining questions:

I imagine each armor piece would have one or more different major components, and each component has a garment, mail, and plate layer, of which you choose up to two. So, you could have a mail glove with a leather lining, a plate cuirass with a mail hauberk, or a simple woolen cap. Some components may only consist of certain layers - for example, spaulders might only have a garment and plate layer.

A helmet could have a helm (cap/coif/helm) and a neck (collar/aventail/gorget) component. The chestplate could be divided into chest (tunic/hauberk/cuirass), and gloves/gauntlets. Spaulders might also make sense, but since they would only be one layer of plate or garment, it might be better to lump them in with the chest component. Leggings and boots probably just need to have one major component each, as you can't really divide them up into individual pieces (with the exception of plate legging components, but I'm not sure it's worth having specific plate armor components). I'm also pretty sure mail boots aren't a real thing, but they're already in vanilla, so there's not much you can do about that.

I assume there would be a binding and a socket minor component. Bindings seem rather more essential for armor than they are for tools, though - would bindings/sockets still be a choose-one thing like they are for tools? You could also add armor pieces like spaulders, cuisses, and greaves as minor components if it makes sense.

I don't see why integrity would need to function differently to how it works for tools. Bindings and garment/lining layers can provide integrity, plate and mail layers can consume it, and settling seems like it fits just fine as a mechanic.

SO! As a Blacksmith and Armorer in real life, i can tell you 2 things. first of all, different kinds of helmet shapes sacrifice visibility for protection. those stereotypical Armet style helmets knights are seen wearing are really, really good protection wise, but its like looking out of a bucket with two small slits for eyes.

Secondly, you're meant to wear a padded suit called a Gambeson under your plate armor to A) stop your skin from getting pinched in the metal parts of the armor and B) protect from bludgeoning damage, because it doesnt matter how thick of a piece of metal you have in front of you, a hammer or baseball bat will rock. your. world. The thicker that padded Gambeson is, the more protection it offers. BUT! it gets, really, really hot and hard to move the thicker it is.

know the reason i bring these up is, perhaps the armor could consist of three different parts. maybe the helmet could be; plates,which is the main component, lining, which is the inside of the helmet or armor that makes contact with your body, and then an armor specific component. for helmets it would be a brim or visor, for chestplates it could be pauldrons or bevors, leggings could be maybe belt attatchments or something? and shoes could be soles or insoles.

maybe you could add a visibility mechanic? the bigger a visor is, the harder it is to see? a kettle hat or nasal helm with no visor wound change nothing at all, but a sallet or armet styled helmet could give blindness-type effects.

anyway, im not that great at writing this kinda stuff and i have a lot of half-ideas. but half ideas are better than no ideas huh? tell me if this helps c:

(btw im really partial to sallets and kettle hats, and id be forever in your debt if you somehow added them... love your mod xoxo)

~FloofyMane

maybe you could add a visibility mechanic? the bigger a visor is, the harder it is to see? a kettle hat or nasal helm with no visor wound change nothing at all, but a sallet or armet styled helmet could give blindness-type effects.
:

~FloofyMane

Not a good idea.
Its very uncomfortable to have your vision restricted, noone will use those helmets and it would be wasted effort on moders part.
Maybe if it was only minor "bits" on edges of screen it could go tho....

However, different modifiers could be added such as making you unable to make critical hits (you cant aim that much) maybe less realistic but more enjoyable.

Ok so, there is a lot of text so I put it into Spoilers, I tried to make it organized, hope you will like it.
I also added ideas I liked from @VaguelyLion and @Seitz1 .
I tried to keep it more or less "vanilla"; so no such things as piston boots or lasers.
I also skipped more basic things such as "double lining", as Im sure those were considered already

Damn, this took me 2 hours to make -_-

I'd limit movement speed to Obsidian Armor, should it be a thing through Tetra. I'd be disappointed if I couldn't use Tetra's diamond armor without a significant reduction in speed.

Maybe instead, a "mobility" mechanic? Wearing an Iron, Gold, or Diamond Chestplate would reduce the speed you can swing a sword or mine blocks, since it's harder to move your arms.

Wearing full Leather or Chain could maybe even introduce a mobility bonus? Or maybe wearing Leather Boots, Leggings, and a Helmet alongside a Diamond Chestplate would negate the Diamond Chestplate's mobility debuff?

I'd personally love to see Light Armor be viable, and movement bonuses sounds like a good start. Right now there's no reason not to use Diamond, and I'd kill for a reason to use anything else. Especially if I can show my skin off with it (hence me suggesting a "light Iron armor" earlier, with gaps in it).

I like the ideas of soles being a module for boots, and it's easy to come up with a few possible soles. Maybe some sort of soft sole from wool that dampens fall damage? Cleats that make it so you won't slip on ice? Flippers for underwater exploration? I feel like these could be interesting.

I'd really love for modular armor to allow me to only wear certain parts, too. Maybe a chestplate... But only the pauldrons, an arm piece, and a gauntlet (similar to Team Fortress 2's "Shogun Shoulder Guard"). I'm not sure what that combo would be good for, other than looking cool. Making Japanese-style plate armor like Thaumcraft's Fortress Armor would be really cool.

If there were a Japanese-style armor (or even just a kabuto), different crests and menpos could give different buffs. Using a Wither Skeleton mask would give a chance to inflict wither, but maybe at the cost of visibility.

Just some thoughts. The bottom half is moreso just me spitballing some ideas, but the top half really is the focus for what I'd like to see: light armor with a way to show off my skin better.

It's amazing to get input from someone who has real life experience, thanks @VaguelyLion.
Here are some comments on what has been brought up so far:

• I don't want armor pieces to change when they are converted to tetra armor, and having things like a movement penalty being applied to all diamond/iron armor would be not-so-fun in larger packs
• toggleable visors could be a fun mechanic, you flip them down when going into combat which gives you more armor but limits your vision and then you flip it back up when you're done or when a zombie hits you from behind
• significantly higher integrity cost for heavy armor, makes room for more upgrades on ligher armor which makes for more utility => fits fantasy (at least mine)
• apply speed bonuses (swing/harvest for body, movement for pants & boots) from honing improvements, baseline tetra armor is the same as vanilla but light armor has the potential to make you faster as you tweak it to better fit that unique little blocky body of yours
• stealth mechanics would be fun, I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement. Some sort of interaction with tall grass and shadows would be cool. Should be applied as improvements to various parts
• I really like the idea of "Dressing for adventure" or rather dressing for the occasion and that you'd have several armor sets for different occasions

Remember to provide the reasoning behind your suggestions, why would something be fun or what kind of player fantasies would it play to.

I'm putting some stuff in here that came out of a discussion on the Discord around a month ago, because I think that they'd be useful.

A useful upgrade that could be applied to armor would be "Armor Coatings," which could be applied the normal way, or if you want to get fancy, a "Coating Station," made by right-clicking a Cauldron with a hammer (could also be designed as something found in a Forge). At its most basic, you could use it to apply dye to armor, increasing the durability of non-gold metal armor components to represent a degree of protection from rust/corrosion. However, one could also, further along in progression, use the coating station to brew & apply protective coatings, which would have the benefit of defending against weapons with various enchantments. For instance, if you made a fire-retardant coating (using a potion of fire resistance as a reagent, potentially) and applied it to your armor, then you would be less likely to be set on fire by an opponent wielding a Fire Aspect Sword. This also provides increased functionality for anti-armor improvements, which could also increase the chances of getting past the armor. (Theoretically, a Dagger/Shortblade could even start with that improvement, as a result of it being easier to jam into the gaps in a foe's armor. The same goes for other future potential anti-armor modules, such as a Tuck/Estoc).

Modular Armor could extend into Curios as well. Little modular accessories is something that hasn't been seen since the baublicious mod back in older versions, 1.10/1.12 iirc. Balancing would be my only concern, but could likely be easily handled.

Additional ideas:

• A back scabbard for swords, spears, etc. Having the ability to hold a heavy sword on the back would be too cool of an opportunity to pass up.
• Holosphere-style hud module for helmets. Would allow you to go into a mining mode that would indicate desired ores with little icons, or a combat mode that puts a "targeting frame" icon on enemies in your sight, and perhaps could function like the target lock feature from the old Dynamic Sword Skills mod or the VATS from fallout, but with your special "magitech" flair to it.
• "Offroading" boots module that allows for better movement through things that would usually impede movement, like soul sand, ice, or magma blocks.
• "Fortify" module for leggings/boots. Would stop the player from moving, but make them immune to knockback and provide a slight defense boost. Great for "holding the line" against a horde of mobs.
• The stealth mechanics mentioned earlier could be a compatibility feature for Dynamic Stealth if it ever updates again.

I see movement speed being brought up as a factor in choosing armor materials, but in reality, metal plate armor (at least the sort actually designed for battle) doesn't have a significant impact on the mobility of the wearer, despite it being a common trope in video games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzTwBQniLSc

With that being said, I feel a light/heavy armor distinction is unnecessary. I also do not believe that modular armor customization needs to be as complex as weapon/tool customization since Minecraft armor operates almost exclusively in a passive manner. The benefits of being able to easily customize and repair the armor like other tetra items (even if the armor offers fewer options) would probably be enough for most players.

As for choosing cheaper materials like leather or wool over iron or diamond, a good way to deal with this would be to increase the overall armor repair and crafting cost, making it cost 2x or 3x the materials that weapon/tool requires. This makes sense given the fact that vanilla armor already uses more material to craft than vanilla tools/weapons. If crafting and repair costs are higher for armor, there will be more of an incentive for players to use cheaper materials.

While I agree that the distinction of heavy and light might be unnecessary and having vanilla-like options is completely fine and likely enough for most players, I disagree about not having complexity on armour. Having various benefits and trade-offs for niche tools, weaponry and modules is what attracts me to Tetra, and I'd lying if i sad i wouldn't be disappointed if the same didn't happen to the possible armour implementation. You don't need the armour's resistance for mining, building, crafting, enchanting pretty much at all, while you do need it for exploration and combat purposes, so modules could be added for those niche purposes. But we don't need different items, they all can start with vanilla armour, then modified from there.

How about instead of looking at armour modules only as Light and Heavy, we shift and add a third category: "Regular" Specialized, and Heavy modules.

• Regular armour modules would be equivalent to Vanilla-like armour: Adds resistance, and maybe another material-based perk (Enchantability and such). This would work just fine for people who just wants the usefulness of Tetra's system.

• Specialized modules would be alternative and niche modules: enhanced in some features while having the lowest relative material resistances, durability and maybe another drawback for the slot. For example:
  -- Archer lens module (Gems/Glass) for the helmet slot that would take the visor/face-guard module, that would increase the zoom you get from drawing bows(toggleable), and slightly reduce the spread pattern of projectiles, based on integrity.
  -- Elytra wings (Elytra/Phantom Membrane repair material) for the chestplate slot, adding, well, Elytra flight at the cost of integrity. Might use a special slot not unlike Quick latch's bow/crossbow module.
  -- Weightened shin (Metal/Stone) guards for the legs' plate slot, would reduce knockback from attacks while increasing the fall speed acceleration.
  -- Insulated lining (Fibre/Skin/Fabric) for the boots, would reduce/remove natural damage sources such as Magma blocks, campfire, fire, fall damage based on integrity. Flipper soles (Fibre/Skin/Fabric), would increase swim speed based on hardness and flexibility.

• On Discord i've suggested that instead of movement speed penalities for "Heavy" modules: how about a tweaked, lesser but stackable vanilla Hunger debuff, that would scale with the material's weight/used integrity and flexibility? If you stand still or are mounted on animals while having Heavy Armoured (debuff), you don't consume food saturation, but when you exert yourself you reduce your saturation x% times faster. It would fit the niche of Heavy Armour without the not-attractive drawback of slowness, aside from the eventual need of food for Sprinting. Food is already a resource you have to deal with regularly, making it have a slight drawback in exchange for having higher resistances I feel is good and in theme. It would shift the penalty from the theme of "carrying weight", to the theme of "overextertion".

It would also make it slightly more balanced, as Food is directly tied to health regen: Give the player higher resistances to burst damage but lower heal-per-saturation point during combat. Which at some point would be negligible because of alternative healing methods (Potion of instant health, Regeneration, Golden Apples, not to mention modded alternatives). And kinda ties in with a rather underutilized tetra mechanic: Potion belts, but i digress.

after reading everything, here are my 50 cents:

all pieces have at least 2 parts, I'll not bother with name, those can come later: defensive and padding

• armor is given primarily by the defensive material and it can be any type of wood/metal and also leather.
• padding can be string, wool and leather but maybe also vines and integrity is given by it

now the fun stuff, extra slots

• helmet
  -- top - decorative piece, can be a feather, wool(trim/color) or bone (horn)
  -- visor - wood/metal/glass
  -- mod - special modification to the helmet, given the fact that all vanilla enchantments can be appliend, I think we could go a little of the box
  --- sonar: highlight nearby entities, like the village bell
  --- track: if the player look at an entity and press a custom hotkey, this target becomes highlighted as if hit by spectral arrow (useful to track a player or some some)
  --- zoom: self explanatory
  --- drowner vision: gives nightvision when underwater (only)

• chestpiece
  -- shoulder - decorative, wood/metal/wool
  -- back - attachment slot, 4 options:
  --- air tank (made with metal, increase time underwater)
  --- elytra: allows fly with rockets
  --- bat wings: allow short glide sessions
  --- bag: chest/barrel/shulker, gives extra carry capacity
  if compat is made with simple jetpacks, allow attach one of thoses.

• legs:
  -- trim: decorative
  -- greaves: metal
  -- mod: dash, like rocket

• bots
  -- ankle: decorative, feather/wool
  -- sole: spike: wood/iron prevent ice drift
  snow shoes (1.17): prevent player from entering Powder Snow ( https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Powder_Snow )

So possibilities could be

Helmet

Helm

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
• Full (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Add Comb (Appearance Only)

Visor

• None (default)
• Full (slightly increases armor, decreases durability) (must have a full helm as well)
  • Add Banner (Appearance Only)
  • Halloween Pumpkin Visor (does what a jack-o-lantern would do)

Chestplate

Breastplate (Used for Defense)

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
• Full* (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Add Banner (On back)

Plackart (Used for Integrity more than Defense)

• Linked (slightly decreases armor, increases projectile defense)
• Full* (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)

Right Pauldron

• Decorative additions
  • Spikes (Maybe?)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)
  • Adding Banners (Appearance Only)
• Slotting
• Plating
  • Leather Guards (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, increases draw speed)
  • Single Plated (slightly decreases armor, slightly increases attack speed)
  • Double Plated (default)

Left Pauldron

• Decorative additions
  • Spikes (Maybe?)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)
  • Adding Banners (Appearance Only)
• Enchanting
• Plating
  • Leather Guards (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, increases ranged damage)
  • Single Plated (slightly decreases armor, slightly increases shield recharge rates)
  • Double Plated (default)

Leggings

Cuisse

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)
• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)
  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)
• Full* (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Poleyn (minor boost to durability)

Grieve

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)
• Full* (default)
  • Gilded (For piglin trading)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)

Boots

Sabaton

• Linked (minorly decreases armor, slightly increases projectile defense)
• Leather (decreases armor, slightly decreases durability, slightly increases movement speed)
• Full (default)
  • Hardened (minorly increases toughness, slightly decreases durability)
  • Engraving (W/ different materials)

NOTES

-*Fulls on Chestplate and Leggings could have Splint and Scale Mail variants (maybe just appearance maybe not).

-Leather would be excluded from tetra schemas (unless some other way is found).

-Chainmail is uncraftable by default and would be excluded from tetra schemas (unless some other way is found).

-These are all purely as suggestions for possibilities.

-I was unable to think of many other attributes to change.

i don't know if it was already mentioned but perhaps vanilla diamond would convert to a default such as platemail in a similar way default swords turn into basic blades, and it would have base armor stats, but heavier material changes such as double plated or heavy plate could slow you down? in terms of armor slots i had thought that the body of chestplates would act the same as teh crown of a helmet, the same as teh middle of a boot, same as teh "codpiece" or "tasset" (possible alternate optiiosn for the region) in leggings. they would have a lining option that would mechanically be teh same as wrpping your handles, and could support bolts for tightening/loosening the fit of your armor, providing a tradeoff between prjectile and physical defence and movement speed/swing speed. loggings and boot tweaking woudl affect movement, while chest and head bolts would affect swingspeed/mining. armor classes could be organized into catagories of "Clothing", "Light fabrics" whcih would be leaether, cloth, and certain chainmail, "Medium" which could include ceratin metal such as aluminum from mods, iron, and things like studded leather, double layered lether, mesh armor, and mesh covered leather, and "Heavy armors" whcih could be anyhting like diamond, netherite, gold, steel, triple layered leather, tetra Shaft material (forget the name rn) or the forge hammer plate things, and other such heavy materials that woudl be unwieldy to use but quite effective.

My personal suggestion is similar to up above. I like the idea of the armor 'classes' less being light and heavy, and more 'do i want protection, or do i want Fun Toys?'.

Similar to how a claw is (as far as I'm aware) rather un-good in combat (sorry if they're apparently secretly the best ever, i am unaware) but quite useful as a utility item, armor could leave you with a choice between more protection and more space for cool stuff.

My suggestion? For a suits slots for, gadgets, rather than have your armor slots and then the gadget slots, you instead have to choose how many plates of armor you want vs how many kit pieces.

You might have to trade out the pauldrons of your chestplate for the space for that elytra, or reduce your helmet to the padding if you wanna SEE FOREVER. Meanwhile if you don't want your armor to do anything fancy, you can instead use ALL the slots for actual armor, and I'd say that here would a good opportunity for a split between normal/heavy armor (I'd say to have heavy armor as just an option like how a bow can be straight or recurve).

Personally i say that heavy armor should have a SLIGHT decrease to... Agility. Rather than slowing you down while travelling, if you're loaded up in heavy plate, well, it's heavy, so while you can go as fast as normal it's kinda hard to steer. (If to anyone this sounds... Bad, then i also think that having saturation be drained in this would be equally cool.)

In short: For any given slot on an armor piece, you have a choice between regular armor, heavy armor, and some variety of gadget. (Potentially there could be some gadgets that also provide some protection, but i like the idea of keeping it split unless the idea only makes sense as a form of plating.)

As for options? A thermal core SOMETHING in the chest slot is, to me, a must. My personal suggestion would be something like...

• Every piece has a 'thermal systems' option.
  -It does something different for each, boots decrease fall damage, legs move you faster, helmet highlights mobs, and chestplate absorbs damage.
  -To GET these bonuses though, you need to actually insert a thermal core.
• 'd say you only need one core for the entire set, but the more pieces powered by the thermal core, the faster it's drained.
  -Basic system to get the core in/out, just craft the core with a thermal chestplate to get it in, and craft the chestplate with core by itself to remove it.
  -Advanced option, some hotkey to open a mini inventory for your armors gadgets AS A WHOLE with a slot in the chest area for the thermocore.

I don't know if you are still accepting recommendations, but here are my ideas:

All armour could have some sort of gilding/reinforcing with a different kind of material that gives durability, integrity(or takes integrity away) and add individual benefits (gold makes piglins friendly, etc).

I think the weight issue could be addressed in something like a dash/ram mechanic, where you can quickly close the distance between yourself and your opponent at the cost of weapon cool down. heavy armour would close smaller distances and have a longer tool cool down, but could have the option of ramming opponents. whereas light armour would close long distances and could be used to jump long gaps while having a shorter cool down.
This mechanic could encourage players to find a combat style like tanking upfront with heavy armour and heavy weapons taking on large groups, or a rogue like strategy with light armour and weapons specializing in kiting enemies and taking them on one at a time.
the dash/ram mechanic could just be a module that you can attach to your armour, I just think it could be a fun mechanic.

attaching a tool belt to your armour would be really handy as well.

Would it be possible to distinguish damage types? For instance, Melee, Missile, and Environmental damage as different types of defense? That could provide different variables to modify the armor with, and different materials could have different base armor values vs each of the three armor types. Perhaps for each type of of defense enchantment?

Other attributes to look at could be things like the expected durability, toughness, and enchantability.

Maybe like what @WitchRolina said with damage types, going off what they are, like lightning striking a small bit more with metal armor and doing more damage with conductivity, while with leather, it insulates and does less damage. going off kinda logic from BOTW with lighting, and could do more with others, like netherite, being from the nether, makes fire and lava damage do less, stacking with fire resist, diamond, nullifying some blast damage with real-life diamond being hard, chainmail protecting more against blades or maybe being able to put chain-mail under your armor to give some more protection, going with why chain-mail was invented to protect a small bit more from swords and the like, and gold not doing much as its malleable, and conductive, but maybe have it give some kind of enchanting buff with how useful it is with enchantments? like lessening the amount of xp needed to enchant items? and iron (definitly did not almost forget about it from the first part) smaller buff from diamond as normally most people use iron before diamond, as it is the easiest to get, but maybe make it a jack-of-all trade type armor? and the ability to add thing inside armor like leather or chain-mail, kinda like what @VaguelyLion said about Gambeson, but make it more than just one thing and make uses for them, like with leather earlier, some insulation, and chain-mail adds a bit of bladed resist? would be a pain to code i bet but could make it unique if it is possible.