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Some thoughts about armor


Tankred

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Hey guys, new player here. I've done a few PZ tries and although I haven't gotten very far in either of them, I have some ideas. I know that some people have brought the topic of armor up before and that it's gonna be in the game, so hey why not? I've been interested in the use and make of armor for quite some time and have given it a lot of thought so hopefully I'll be of some help.

 

Now the first thing is weight. What we have to remember though is that this isn't the middle ages and it's not supposed to stop bullets, blades or arrows (unless you're fighting another survivor, but that's rare enough that I haven't even done that myself yet) so it doesn't have to cover your entire body. What it SHOULD cover chief of all is the areas that zombies are most likely to go for which would be your hands, arms and shoulders.

 

Next we have to ponder what kind of materials would work for this and what comes instantly to mind for most people is probably leather. Now I've never actually been to Kentucky, but I can't possibly imagine that there would be a shortage of leather anywhere in the world where there are animals present. Now leather doesn't actually weigh that much and provided you have a knife and some good thread (using a needle is optimal but you can do it without) and some time on your hands you can make makeshift leather armor. This would greatly improve your chances of survival since even though humans have great biting power, it's very difficult to bite through tanned cowhide.

 

Second on the list on possible-to-make-into-armor is vulcanized rubber; tires. Now rubber is a lot harder to work with I admit, escpecially if we're talking car tires, but I'm pretty certain there would also be bikes in Muldraugh. Rubber is also very common, maybe even more common than leather, and although it would take a bit more time and effort it would give very good protection against bites and scratches.

 

Depending on the rubber used it would also be a little heavier, but then again we're not going to be wearing three truck tires here. A single car tire would give more than enough to cover your entire arms, and properly attached wouldn't actually weigh you down that much.

 

Finally we have chainmail. And you're probably going "Are you nuts? There's no way you'd find chainmail today!" and probably laugh, show your friends and call me an idiot. But here's the thing. All you really need is to find a single hardware store and you've got everything you need to make it.

 

First you need a rod of some sort, smooth. Pipes work but a solid metal rod is optimal, I have used wooden rods to do it but they deform and there's a risk that you don't get uniform rings, and you can only use them once. Then you need metal wire, which is readily available in any hardware store of many different gauges and spool lengths. To create the torque needed to bend it into wire it's best to have a hole drilled right through to stick the wire into but it's not absolutely necessary. I have personally used a Vise Grip to both hold the wire in place and apply the torque.

 

Of course this would take time, effort and a bit of skill (I'm self-taught, so it can be done) but if you manage to make it, there's simply no way that anything short of an alligator would bite through chainmail. And even if you don't have the time and know-how to do it I know that they make chainmail gloves for butchers and such.

 

Well, that's it for now.

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Since we are in a hardware store.

If you want to spare the effort of making a chainmail by yourself.

Makeshift lightweight Metal Protection:

- take a 1-2 mm strong metalsheet

(No need to search for long, the inlays of those 10 - 20$ Metalshelfs are perfect so take em home)

- Cut pieces matching forearm and upper arm length.

- put in arm and bend plate around (use gloves)

-punch 4 holes near the corners with a screwdriver and a hammer.

- apply shoelaces and tighten it to your arm.

You now have metal plated arms not anything close to 1kg

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGG!!!!  :mad: 


 


SHIT! I was typing out a huge, page long write upon why these armors would be highly impractical (IT EVEN HAD DIAGRAMS!)


WHEN THE BLOODY THING DECIDES THAT INSTEAD OF ERASING THE LAST LINE IT WILL GO BACK A PAGE!!! (WHO THE FUCKITY FUCK THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA!) AARRGFHGGHGFFGFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFRR!!!!!!


 


(sorry for the rant)


 


 


But yeah, the armors you described would be impractical and ineffective. The Zombie Survival Guide has several pages about this.


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Actually it's incredibly difficult to make chain mail. While medieval games have lots of it, in reality only royalty and the richest nobility could afford to go to battle in chain mail armor. 

 

Yeah, that was in my original post ( :cry: ), chain mail is crazy hard to make. And that's for a trained blacksmith with exact knowledge, large amounts of time and proper tools. For a survivor with no to basic equipment, limited time, no knowledge of exactly how to make it and no past experience/training of black smithing, it would be all but impossible. Even if they somehow made it the chain mail would be low quality, heavy and VERY load.

 

Plate armor is all the bad things about chain mail multiplied by three. It wouldn't even protect you! Zombies would just tear the plates off.

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Well sorry, but I don't have the zombie survival guide. So I'm just kind of improvising what seems best to me.

 

What I DO know is when the horde comes, you REALLY want something more than air or a single layer of cloth between your skin and virulent teeth.

 

Seriously, read it, The Zombie Survival Guide will give you a great knowledge of modern zombie lore and is great, entertaining read.

 

 

Instead of trying to build third rate armor it is a better idea just to scavenge for clothes that are thick and sturdy. Things like: thick rain coats, boiler suits, riot gear, ski jackets, motorcycle leathers, turnout gear, trench coats or even just multiple layers of clothing. The problem with almost all of these is that they are hot, bulky, heavy and difficult to find.

 

There is an exception though....

 

 

I present to you..... the Gore-Tex jacket!

orth-Face-Gore-Tex-Jackets-Men-Red89p006

Water proof, tough, warm yet breathable, light, form fitting, easy to find and most importantly-bite proof.

 

(sauce, I have one)

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Well sorry, but I don't have the zombie survival guide. So I'm just kind of improvising what seems best to me.

 

What I DO know is when the horde comes, you REALLY want something more than air or a single layer of cloth between your skin and virulent teeth.

 

Seriously, read it, The Zombie Survival Guide will give you a great knowledge of modern zombie lore and is great, entertaining read.

 

 

Instead of trying to build third rate armor it is a better idea just to scavenge for clothes that are thick and sturdy. Things like: thick rain coats, boiler suits, riot gear, ski jackets, motorcycle leathers, turnout gear, trench coats or even just multiple layers of clothing. The problem with almost all of these is that they are hot, bulky, heavy and difficult to find.

 

There is an exception though....

 

 

I present to you..... the Gore-Tex jacket!

orth-Face-Gore-Tex-Jackets-Men-Red89p006

Water proof, tough, warm yet breathable, light, form fitting, easy to find and most importantly-bite proof.

 

(sauce, I have one)

 

 

*rustle, rustle, rustle*

 

That's the only problem I could think for it. Otherwise yeah it would be pretty decent.

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Well sorry, but I don't have the zombie survival guide. So I'm just kind of improvising what seems best to me.

 

What I DO know is when the horde comes, you REALLY want something more than air or a single layer of cloth between your skin and virulent teeth.

 

Seriously, read it, The Zombie Survival Guide will give you a great knowledge of modern zombie lore and is great, entertaining read.

 

 

Instead of trying to build third rate armor it is a better idea just to scavenge for clothes that are thick and sturdy. Things like: thick rain coats, boiler suits, riot gear, ski jackets, motorcycle leathers, turnout gear, trench coats or even just multiple layers of clothing. The problem with almost all of these is that they are hot, bulky, heavy and difficult to find.

 

There is an exception though....

 

 

I present to you..... the Gore-Tex jacket!

orth-Face-Gore-Tex-Jackets-Men-Red89p006

Water proof, tough, warm yet breathable, light, form fitting, easy to find and most importantly-bite proof.

 

(sauce, I have one)

 

 

*rustle, rustle, rustle*

 

That's the only problem I could think for it. Otherwise yeah it would be pretty decent.

 

 

Better then most of the others though. Biggest problem is finding it, they are damn expensive. But hey, I guess you pay for quality.

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@Fj45 Well if it's the zombie apocalypse, I don't think you need to worry too much about the price anymore. Or money. :D;i++){if(!o.complete){settimeout('return;',d);}else>

 

I more meant that it would be uncommon in houses due to its price. (It would be non-existent in trailers.)

imagine breaking and entering into a store and then be like "whoa I can't afford this. I think I should just leave"

 

Someone, somewhere, has made a form of media about this.  :D

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imagine breaking and entering into a store and then be like "whoa I can't afford this. I think I should just leave"

 

"Sorry about the glass, I can pay for the repairs. I'll leave my contact details on the table and hopefully we can fix this."

 

 

"again, I'm truly sorry. I normally do not behave like this, I snapped for a little moment. Those undead outside really make me nervous. I have insurance though, so pleas contact me about the glass"

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One thing I forgot to mention, certain armors, while highly impractical for looting would be perfect for safe house defense.

 

Turnout gear, sharkmail, motorcycle leathers, raincoats and other high strength, bite resistant clothing would be fine in defending a fixed position as sound, heat, weight and bulkiness would hardly matter.

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I personally would wear my Motorcycle leather gear. It's not very heavy, breathable, waterproof, has elbow, shoulder, back and knee protectors and a thermolayer you could just remove if it get's to warm. And it really isn't heavy.

Edit: only thing not waterproof and breathable are the gloves....but i could "borrow" better ones. And i could wear the metal arm and shin protection i mentioned in the layer between leather and fabric so there wouldn't be any ripping off

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I personally would wear my Motorcycle leather gear. It's not very heavy, breathable, waterproof, has elbow, shoulder, back and knee protectors and a thermolayer you could just remove if it get's to warm. And it really isn't heavy.

Edit: only thing not waterproof and breathable are the gloves....but i could "borrow" better ones. And i could wear the metal arm and shin protection i mentioned in the layer between leather and fabric so there wouldn't be any ripping off

 

Going for the terminator look are we?

 

250px-Terminator-2-judgement-day.jpg

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I personally would wear my Motorcycle leather gear. It's not very heavy, breathable, waterproof, has elbow, shoulder, back and knee protectors and a thermolayer you could just remove if it get's to warm. And it really isn't heavy.

Edit: only thing not waterproof and breathable are the gloves....but i could "borrow" better ones. And i could wear the metal arm and shin protection i mentioned in the layer between leather and fabric so there wouldn't be any ripping off

 

Going for the terminator look are we?

 

250px-Terminator-2-judgement-day.jpg

 

 

can't go wrong with that.

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I personally would wear my Motorcycle leather gear. It's not very heavy, breathable, waterproof, has elbow, shoulder, back and knee protectors and a thermolayer you could just remove if it get's to warm. And it really isn't heavy.

Edit: only thing not waterproof and breathable are the gloves....but i could "borrow" better ones. And i could wear the metal arm and shin protection i mentioned in the layer between leather and fabric so there wouldn't be any ripping off

Going for the terminator look are we?

250px-Terminator-2-judgement-day.jpg

can't go wrong with that.

True that ;)

Unfortunately my gear doesn't have that oldschool biker coolness flair. It's more modern sportish...on the other hand it has all those protection inlays ;)

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Uh, no it isn't. I'm literally sitting here making chainmail RIGHT NOW and I have no formal training. I stated in my original post exactly how to easily make it, it's very time consuming yes but say that you're holed up in your safe house for reasons then why not?

 

Also I have now read the Zombie Survival Guide and I have to point out the fact that it's labeled not even as fiction but as humor. It made some points here and there, but I specifically and carefully read through the armor page and obviously the author is basing his "facts" off of movies. Firstly he's talking about a full-body suit which I've already mentioned that you don't need and then he goes on about the weight. Here's the thing: if properly made, chainmail will hug the body in such a way that it distributes its weight evenly over your entire body. There's also literally HUNDREDS of different styles and makes when it comes to chainmail, it wasn't just the most common armor for well over a thousand years, even more.

 

Cost is neglegible, yes it will cost you quite a bit to buy a chainmail shirt (or hauberk) but that is mostly based on time taken to make it since quality steel wire isn't quite so expensive.

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Making armor from tires is a good idea. If anyone has played How to survive by 505 games, you know what I'm talking about.

It's the only example I can think of from another game.

 

No, using tires is a ridiculous idea, they are heavy, restrict your movement, extremely hot, bulky and would be quite ineffective as zombies could simply pull it off.

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Making armor from tires is a good idea. If anyone has played How to survive by 505 games, you know what I'm talking about.

It's the only example I can think of from another game.

No, using tires is a ridiculous idea, they are heavy, restrict your movement, extremely hot, bulky and would be quite ineffective as zombies could simply pull it off.

Well, it wouldn't be made of just tires, belts would be used to attach it to yourself so it wouldn't be so easy to rip off. Plus wearing it on your arms and legs wouldn't encumber you as much as if u were wearing a full suit of tires.
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