The armor value settings for the firefighter jacket and pants are drastically lower than what one would reasonably expect from clothing that is specifically designed to protect the wearer (to a reasonable degree) from being injured in a multitude different ways in extremely dangerous environments. At the very least, the average person would clearly expect them to offer significantly more protection against health, blood, and shock damage from melee attacks compared to almost all other clothing items in the game (aside from things designed for protection in combat situations such as ballistic/press/anti-stab vests, for example).

This problem becomes even more clear when the firefighter clothing's armor values are compared alongside most other clothing items in the game.

Consider the following:

• Firefighter jackets/pants are anywhere from 2x-5x times heavier than any other jackets or pants in the game. This makes sense, given the very heavy, thick, and durable material they are made from, as well as the additional layers of padding on the inside.

• Currently their armor values reduce health, shock, and blood damage from melee and infected attacks by only 10% (as they all are set to 0.9).

Does it not seem rather odd (dare I say almost ridiculous) that such thick and heavy protective clothing gives the wearer no better protection/damage absorption against melee attacks than clothing items such as:

• quilted jacket
• denim jacket
• NBC jacket
• prisoner pants
• formal suit jacket
• hoodie
• sweater

(there are many more, but I think I've made my point)

If you had to fight even a single zed in hand to hand combat and you were given the choice of two outfits to wear: a pair of thin, cheap prisoner pants and a sweater, or a firefighter's jacket and pants. Which one are you going to pick? Wouldn't you naturally expect one of those to offer significantly more protection than the other against a clawing, punching, rage-filled zed?

From a game balance perspective, their weight and higher visibility of the firefighter clothing alone is more than enough to accommodate adjusting those armor values to something similar to the leather riding jacket's values without them becoming OP. From a purely practical survival angle, they are arguably some of the best non-military, non-hunting clothing items available to players early in the game.

However, even with their warmth, water resistance, and durability they currently have, any increase of their armor values to something more realistic/authentic doesn't change the fact that as their players progress though the map they will replace those clothes with other lighter and far more practical clothes. The jacket and pants combined weigh 10kg with nothing in them, making them more of a burden than a benefit as players collect more and/or better loot. For example, a hunting jacket and pants combo is only 4kg, and offers the same level of thermal protection with only slightly less water resistance. With or without improved armor stats, it's more than a fair trade off for freeing up 6kg of weight.

I encourage you to seriously consider giving the firefighter clothes the same armor values as the leather riding jacket and see how it goes, and adjust from there if necessary. If you still feel that game balance remains a concern, one possible option that seems reasonable to me is to increase their repair costs so that it requires more sewing kits to repair and maintain.

I know this was a rather long and wordy report, but this is something that I've been meaning to post for quite some time, and was something that deserved presenting in a rather detailed (and hopefully convincing) manner.