Please consider:
Armor, and items in general, as pointed out for a modern computer assisted/mediated experience, could be much more 'realistic' in terms of complex advantages and disadvantages. Specifically, instead of a clear, clean 'progression', the statistics could be perhaps percentile bonuses and deficits in a large number of attributes, such as piercing resistance, crushing, slashing, fire, cold, flexibility/freedom-of-movement, weight, electricity, location effectiveness (chest: 50% piercing/10% crushing/60% slashing; arms: 0% p/c/s, etc.) for any piece of 'cultural variant' in a complex web of choices with no obvious winner for 'most' situations. This way, maximum flexibility, flavor/look and realism, IMHO.
