Armour Upgrades Discovery

[JeffBag]

Over in the mod chat forums, nipinghan1984 has posted a semi-complete extract of the export_descr_unit of M2TW, and it seems that there are different values for different levels of armour upgrades. There are also two values of shield.

Taken from that page,
; stat_pri_armour Details of the man's defences
; m tat_armour factor
; m tat_defensive skill factor (not used when shot at)
; m tat_shield factor (only used for attacks from the front of left)
; m tat_sound type when hit = flesh, leather, or metal
; stat_armour_ex Details of the man's defences
; m tat_armour factor. 4 values. First for base value, then 3 upgrade levels
;
; it a
; i
defensive skill factor (not used when shot at)
; m tat_shield factors. First for melee, second for missile fire
;

Example of a unit, Mailed Knights

type
t
Mailed Knights
dictionary
; Mailed_Knights
; Mailed Knights
category
; cavalry
class
; heavy
voice_type Heavy
banner faction main_cavalry
banner holy
; crusade_cavalry
soldier

Mailed_Knights, 32, 0, 1
mount

heavy horse
mount_effect elephant -4, camel -4
attributes
sea_faring, hide_forest, hardy, can_withdraw, can_formed_charge, knight
formation
2, 4.4, 3, 6, 3, square, wedge
stat_health
1, 0
stat_pri

10, 6, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, spear, 25, 1
;stat_pri_ex
0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec

11, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, sword, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex
0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr
no
stat_pri_armour 5, 5, 4, metal
;stat_armour_ex 5, 7, 0, 0, 5, 4, 4, metal
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat
; 4
stat_ground
0, -2, -4, 0
stat_mental
9, low, trained
stat_charge_dist 45
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food
t60, 300
stat_cost
; 1, 680, 250, 120, 95, 680, 4, 170
armour_ug_levels 2, 3
armour_ug_models Mailed_Knights, Mailed_Knights_ug1
ownership

england, scotland, france, hre, spain, portugal, milan, venice, papal_states, sicily, slave, normans
era 0

y,england, scotland, france, hre, spain, portugal, milan, venice, papal_states, sicily,
era 1
y,
england, scotland, france, hre, spain, portugal, milan, venice, papal_states, sicily,
era 2

ndscotland
;unit_info
10, 0, 14


I believe the Zeroes mean that you cannot upgrade it to second or third level.
After looking at this I did some tests with custom battles; very hard, on grassy plain.

Billmen with no armour upgrade vs Croat Axemen, Billmen with stats of 15-3 and Croat Axemen with stats of 15-7, and Billmen got spanked.

Billmen with 1 armour upgrade vs Croat Axemen, Billmen with supposed stats of 15-4 and Croat Axemen with 15-7, battle ended because Billmen ran, while Croat Axmen were wavering, both commanders dead. End result 75 billmen dead, 75 Croat Axemen dead.

If this really works, and the +1 armour in the stats is just a mistake, then leather tanners will be the best buildings in the game; 600 dollars for a massive +4 padded armour to all your crap units. Yet another example why the stat system in this game doesn't tell anything.