Is Leather armor Mk II or regular Metal armor better?

[PinkEraser44]

I was thinking that early game (when enemies aren't guaranteed to actually hit you) a significantly higher AC would be better than minor differences in DT and DR.

Against normal damage Leather armor has 10 more AC, 1 less DT, and 5% less DR than Metal armor. (See https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_2_armor_and_clothing for details)

Fallout's armor system is so complicated I wasn't sure how much to weigh all the different factors. What do you think?

 

[lostabroad2]

If the hit value is 20 then the metal armour DR is going to reduce that to 14 and the DT will further reduce it to 10. If the hit % is 90 then on 10 attacks you'll take 10 points of damage 9 times with 1 miss. The same attack against leather mk2 will reduce the 20 hit points to 15 and the DT will reduce that figure to 12. On 10 attacks you'll take 12 points of damage 8 times with 2 misses. 90 vs 96 over 10 attacks is negligible and if the base hit damage is 40 the result is 216 vs 216. The problem is if the hit % is over 95% you're losing the benefit of the AC. If the hit % is 105% there's 0 benefit from the extra 10 AC. At 20 hit points and no AC benefit it's 90 vs 108 and at 40 points it's 216 vs 243. Basically 2 points more per attack. The closer the combat the greater the need for metal armour.

The game would be improved with less effective leather armour that was significantly cheaper.