Opinions on how to deal with armor management

[ZippeyKeys12]

So I rewrote the armor code for my mod to make it only have one save percent and be an inside the player class so that the damage calculations were in TakeSpecialDamage and not AbsorbDamage (for organization) where the player would upgrade their max armor and armor absorption %.

But now as I get to weapons, my mod is shifting to a more loot oriented gameplay loop with dungeons and such to explore and recover weapons and parts for crafting.

This makes the armor system seem a bit disconnected from the rest of the systems so I was considering making it loot-based as well with the loot deciding the absorption and max armor.

But then it seems way to confusing as to what the amount of armor is supposed to signify; is it durability, should the armor piece break? Or should it be more of a player upgrade system and the armor amount just gets "repaired" at the hub and the armor piece has no durability?

The more I think about the more confused and conflicted as to what I should do.

Also, I didn't know where this would go, so general it is
I don't know what to do
Plz help

[Matt]

I'd prefer durability and breakage. Too much stuff these days just kinda goes inexorably up and up for no reason and having stuff degrade is a great way to keep things balanced later on.