Uh-hu.
Again, D&D has hardly any relation to reality. It certainly doesnt describe actual history. These terms like "Full Plate", "Half Plate" etc are not used by scientists who study medieval armor, because they have no actual meaning.
Real terms such scientists use are for example Mail, Gambeson, Brigandine, and Plate. Those are the four most important types of medieval armor. They can be freely combined of course. For example early plate armor would be combined with Mail, because it was just a cuirass or even just a breastplate in the beginning.
There is no "tech-level" in reality either. This is literally a gamer term.
Wikipedia is not a reliable source, even less so if you pick random pages and interepret them chaotically.
We think that the first cuirass may have been made of leather because the very word cuirass. Its a french word that relates to leather.
How exactly would one be able to distinguish a leather from a metal cuirass in the 12. century, anyway ? At that time knights would wear a cloth with their crest over their armor.
Nevermind that these are medieval images we talk about; typically drawings in books. Realistic paintings didnt really exist until the Renaissance.
If you had bothered to watch the video I linked you would know that an old man like Adam Savage can very comfortably wear a late Renaissance plate armor.
The 30 years war was a modern war, i.e. a war without knights, and a time of extreme destruction. A third of the population of the Holy Roman Empire perished during this time. A peasant unable to afford plate armor under these conditions isnt surprising. Apparently you have the strange idea that earlier times are always worse than later times.
The plate armor got introduced as the coat of plates in the 12. century, at the same time as the invention of gunpowder. Its height was the 15. and 16. century, when Germany and Italy produced the probably best plate armor ever made. After that war simply changed, so expensive protection for elite warriors became rare. Its end came in the 19. century, when modern guns became much more reliable, able to hit targets at greater distance, and could fire multiple shots before reloading. The concept is still not dead even today though, modern plate armor is made from titanium and combined with materials like kevlar and ceramic plates.
Again why are you talking about something called Dark Souls. I was discussing reality.
All plate armor has to be tailor made. If plate armor doesnt fit exactly, you will pay dearly. Plate armor is made from the same material as weapons. It will not budge. It can very seriously hurt you if it doesnt fit properly.
