new armor type "plated armor"

plating armor would be done in the smithing table and would only work for iron armor.

plating any tier of armor other than iron and leather would give iron the same defence of those items but it also has horrible durability.

the armor would only be able to survive a few hits before the plating breaks leaving just the iron armor. i think a good amount of hits this armor should be able to survive is 20 hits. this means it will often break mid fight but is significantly cheaper than regular armor only requiring one diamond, one gold ingot, and one netherite scrap.

there could also be other plated materials that don't have full on armor sets like turtle scutes or the new copper ore or shulker shells. they could all have unique abilities that you can only get from those pieces