As stated a few times in the thread, plate armor is still among the most efficient armors to date and its decline had nothing to do with the rise of firearms at the time. Even lowly (By fantasy standards) steel plate could deal with firearms and with the crazy materials we have at our disposal, such as mythril, Wootz, and Allagan crap, it's pretty safe to say that anyone who wears plate is not going to be easy pickings. A skilled fighter in a well fitted suit of armor is pretty darn hard to kill, firearms or not. The main issue is well... Cost, basically.
But this is a world where everyone who is an adventurer can afford fitted armor of their choosing so ultimately anyone who wants to walk around in heavy plate is only going to be taken down by agile exploitation of their armor's natural weakpoints, such as joints, and magic. No one around here is going to have a 4 foot long 50 caliber steel penetrating sniper rifle and people who do I'm probably not going to associate with.
Of course this is all moot since my character's armor is like.. Small amounts of plate with mainly leather and fur. Tasa will not have fun digging bullets out of her hide.
But this is a world where everyone who is an adventurer can afford fitted armor of their choosing so ultimately anyone who wants to walk around in heavy plate is only going to be taken down by agile exploitation of their armor's natural weakpoints, such as joints, and magic. No one around here is going to have a 4 foot long 50 caliber steel penetrating sniper rifle and people who do I'm probably not going to associate with.
Of course this is all moot since my character's armor is like.. Small amounts of plate with mainly leather and fur. Tasa will not have fun digging bullets out of her hide.