I still have no idea how encumbrance rating works.

[nordetsa]

Knowledgebot says an encumbrance rating is

  Code:

A number representing how much armour harms your spellcasting, dodging, and melee accuracy. Units are "arbitrary units of encumbrance" (aue).

I'm really confused because it doesn't tell how exactly the number affects my spellcasting and such. In addition there is a thing called evasion penalty. But when I check the armor it doesn't say anything about that. What does encumbrance rating of 19 (as in case of plate armor) means, and what does it have to do with evasion penalty? And what can I do to lower the number that impedes evp and spellcasting?

[snow]

my advice: read spoilers.

i know that's the point you want to make and i've made it before... the game mechanics are overly complicated and then hidden because they're so disgusting and ugly. instead of simple black and white mechanics we have lolcurves and arbitrary "let's throw a 27 in here because CRAWL!" sort of things.

honestly i hate the mechanics and play crawl for the cool vaults and stuff.

[nordetsa]

To be honest I don't know what 'spoilers' are either. I always assumed that they referred to stuff on knowledgebots...

[snow]

ah, i misunderstood your confusion for sarcasm since this point comes up a lot.

there are a bunch of charts and stuff but basically just get your STR to at least the encumberance rating (preferably higher). armour skill and STR go into a some complicated formula and out comes god knows what but honestly all the devs want you to know is "get more STR and armour skill!" and the rest they don't want you to know since they don't think you can handle the truth or something.

so yeah get more armour skill and STR stat and that will make your spells and EV be hurt less.

[Magipi]

(...) basically just get your STR to at least the encumberance rating (preferably higher).

Where does this information come from? It sound like a good rule of thumb, but only if true

Also, I think this is an excellent time for the fans of the knowledge bots to come forward and point out where the bots help in this subject. I was completely unsuccessful in trying to dig out anything useful from the bots.

Under "encumbrance":
Henzell says...
see encumbrance rating

Under "encumbrance rating":
Henzell says...
A number representing how much armour harms your spellcasting, dodging, and melee accuracy. Units are "arbitrary units of encumbrance" (aue).

Under "aue":

(But no, I won't spoil it for you, dear reader, go see for youself).

[ackack]

(...) basically just get your STR to at least the encumberance rating (preferably higher).

Where does this information come from? It sound like a good rule of thumb, but only if true

The new formula is (2/5) * (enc^2) / (str+3). The encumbrance numbers corresponding to the old EVP were chosen so that at the old strength cutoffs armours would have similar EVPs. This is in the knowledge bot under "aevp"

Given old EV penalties and their equivalents in the new encumbrance system, you can find the strengths bracketing the point where the new EV penalty is the same:

old: -1 EV, new: 4 enc, 3-4 str
old: -2 EV, new: 7 enc, 6-7 str
old: -3 EV, new: 11 enc, 13-14 str
old: -4 EV, new: 15 enc, 19-20 str
old: -5 EV, new: 17 enc, 20-21 str
old: -6 EV, new: 19 enc, 21-22 str
old: -8 EV, new: 24 enc, 25-26 str
old: -9 EV, new: 27 enc, 29-30 str

So the heaviest armours (CPA, gold dragon) and the lighter ones (leather/MDA, ring mail) don't really see that much change in Str necessary to get to the previous minimum penalty, and with more Str do even better than before. Heavier dragon armours and especially chain mail require substantially more Str than before to get to the same level of effectiveness, and plate requires a little more. In the case of the dragon armours this seems reasonable; even though chain mail was slightly buffed, I think the huge strength jump there looks pretty wacky.

[crate]

smaller number is better
that's all you need to know

[rebthor]

I didn't realize there was such a huge gap in the numbers. Seems like you want ~13 STR or over 20.

[Siegurt]

Chain mail looks weird because they did away with Splint mail and moved chain up (In both EV penalty and AC bonus) to fill it's slot.

[pickled_heretic]

And then it gets more complicated with racial armor and spellcasting. Looking at that chart, it seems really silly that there is no optimal armor for the 15-20 range. That used to be the area I would shoot for to use some of the heavier racial armors in a hybrid type character. I guess I will stick to ring mail for now (yuck).

[Siegurt]

Well, you have to remember the penalty is now a smooth curve which decreases with more STR, while the smaller lighter armours which have less penalties to start with fall off rapidly, heavier armours tend to continue to get better the more strength you have.

There's no longer an "optimal" armour for any given amount of Str, but rather all armour is effective at any STR, and more STR makes whatever armour you have better, and heavier armours can take more advantage of higher Str than lighter ones.

With 15-20 Strength you're probably better off with scale/chain/plate mail than with ring, but wear them all and see what you think...

[citronvand]

Does armor skill and strength lessen the stealth penalty as well? All I've found was "-6*EVP^2 for armour with an EVP" which is the stealth penalty a armor gives.