Body Armor

Hey guys,

I had an absolute blast the first day of the alpha. I still enjoyed my time by the end on Sunday evening, but it felt like a completely different game. I only had a few hours to play each night and in just 2 days, noticed a fairly drastic change in how effective I was in infantry combat.

I've seen a lot of conversation about towers, vehicles and snipers, which all play a giant part in the transformation of course - but I have some fears about body armor, specifically as it relates to the health of the full game regarding the new player experience.

As you gain experience you unlock access to better weapons and better ammo, allowing experienced players to be more effective on the battlefield (in addition to their generally higher knowledge of the game).

I think providing access to tools that also allow them to soak up more damage against those that already have worse weaponry and worse ammo (who already don't have access to the armor) only leads to frustration. Currently, body armor is balanced by slowing you down, but to the new (or seldom able to) player, that doesn't translate when you think you've got someone dead to rights until they shrug off your shots and you get effortlessly turned on.

My suggestion is (similar to how the tac vests help with reload speed, etc but NOT additional storage); what if body armor protected against vehicular weaponry and explosion damage, but not firearms?