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[Noel]

It seems when I wear all metal armour and a shield and a weapon my character slows and moves less then 1.000.

What tips do you have regarding the importance of various bits of armour and shields?

[Noel]

Iron seems lighter then copper..

[ShinQuickMan]

A creature's size, strength, and armor skill will make a big difference in how much one may get encumbered, as does an item's material and volume. In general:

-greater creature size and/or strength will let one carry around more stuff and heavier stuff
-higher ranks in armor skill will lower the encumbrance from worn armor, no matter its weight, up do diminishing it entirely at legendary ranks (shields are NOT armor)
-armor and clothing weight scale based on creature size, but weapons and shields don't
-for weapons/armor grade metals, in order from heaviest to lightest, and with more ">" equalling a bigger weight disparity: silver > copper >> bronze > iron > steel >>>> spoiler

As an example, a bug person with legendary skill in armor and average strength won't get encumbered at all by wearing a full set of copper armor, but will start slowing down by carrying a few copper shields and weapons. Another extreme example, an elephant person of very low strength won't get weighed down even after carrying around an arsenal of silver and copper weapons, shields, and human sized armors in their backpack, but will be encumbered on wearing a single elephant-person sized iron chain shirt.

[Evans]

-armor and clothing weight scale based on creature size, but weapons and shields don't

In MDF when I ordered my Elephant man to craft shield, it weighted over 100 units.
Therefore I conclude that at least for MDF shields do scale in size.

[peasant cretin]

Regarding metal armor, you can get away with having dabbling armor user and maintain a 1.000 walking speed, only if your character has superior strength.

Aside from roleplay needs, metal armor isn't necessary for surviving combat. Relying on metal armor's absorptive properties, tends to leave people with holes in terms of how they work their defense game.

Unless you like to strike with your shield, it's preferable to use a wooden one. There's one encounter where you'll need wood. When you fight dragons, the optimal amount of metal you want on your character/the tile your character is standing on, is zero.

[mikekchar]

I'm still learning, but the one place where I seem to need armour is when I have multiple opponents with ranged weapons.  Inevitably I'll get stuck with a few bolts.  I wonder if a shield is enough when you have good skill (haven't experimented).  Another place where armour is useful is a helmet for situations where you get punched in the head.  I know it is distasteful, but I wonder if a grown wooden helmet might be optimal ;-)

[peasant cretin]

Roughly, it seems like a shield is enough when your shield user skill is equal to the attacker's skill stat going by Zivilin's Dwarven Research: A Study on Shielding. For example, you would want to have a level 6 shield user skill versus say a night troll who has all level 6 skills.

But you can refine the process by knowing Toady had mentioned in DF Talk 21 that an active specific choice in manual defense will receive a boost to the defensive roll, while a passive auto defense will not (search for "roll" in the DF Talk link).

Given Hans Lemurson's post in the Zivilin shield thread, the important factor to be concerned with then, is chance of defensive failure. This applies for dodging as well. If the shield (or dodge) is meant to be the only defense, then it's important to shore up against defensive failure.

From a defensive perspective, your choice to manually defend is amplified, so stat parity seems like it's enough (even more so if focused or focused!), but only as a single action response to a single melee attack. The real concern for attacks that could spider through your shield block and your dodge is passive auto defense and the things that modify its roll for the worse.

Passive auto is a factor during the mutual exchange of blows (you'll auto defend their attack), when facing multiples (you can only manually defend against one attack) or versus ranged attacks (which can only be defended against passively).

What affects passive auto defense would be the height of your defensive stat level for shield and dodge, your position relative to the attack (side and back attacks won't help your cause), and that all important interplay in regard to how your choice of attack might leave you open. This you can see when experimenting with attacks of opportunity signified in your attack menu by -/+/!.

So you generally want to come in one level above, or more statistically. If you juggle all of this, you should eventually be able to have a run where you never/almost never get hit.

Also, anything grown is awesome.

[Tonolec]

Is there any significant weight difference between mail and plate armor?

[peasant cretin]

Depends on your character strength and armor user skill. You could have a peasant with superior strength and zero armor user wearing full armor and remain at 1.000 walking speed (this is the baseline). That of course is measuring the weight in a vacuum. It doesn't factor what you have in your backpack, if you carry bolts/arrows, etc.