I got this note from a player:
"Is yellow armour intrinsically better than blue, or is it all based on AF?"
So I asked Mahrin Skel (a world developer, for those of you not familiar with him), and he replied:
"Effective AF is all the combat algorithm looks at, if blue gear is giving better AF than yellow because of higher Quality, the blue gear *is* better. I've tested this extensively, 50 percent quality 30th level armor gives the same performance as 100% 15th level armor of the same type (assuming you are 30th). We're going to be changing the right-click item info to display effective AF so people are more aware of this."
I replied with a look of confusion. There are two kinds of AF? What the heck? He gave a longer explanation, with tons of detail:
"Okay, I'm going to have to talk in math here.
"Effective AF" is derived from base AF (the number currently displayed
on right-click). Every armor item has a base Armor Factor, base AF divided
by 2 equals Item Level for everything but Cloth, where AF = Level. But when
you're in combat, the base AF is affected by Quality and Condition. Quality
affects both the chance the armor will completely absorb the blow, and the
amount of damage you take when it does, so the impact of quality "double
dips". Condition only affects the damage taken. So "Effective AF" equals
Base AF times Quality squared times Condition.
The "ArmorFact" field on the character display has always reflected this
effective AF rather than base AF. Soon, right-click will also show
effective AF, and base AF will only be shown on Shift+I."
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