Now I know this was changed during the era of blitzenturt. It seems to have changed again as well during the equipment standardization and introduction of the armor skills. Is this perception accurate or am I on that sweet purple crack again?

If it was changed with the armor changes in what way? does it now increase rate of deflections instead of dam redux? has the requirements for the redux shifted? Has the reduction been decreased?

Not looking to complain just curious cause vlougvhang seemed to think it changed.

Any changes would be news to me.

While we're on the topic of Gates, I forget whether you ever cleared up which AC counts. Is it just the "base" armor AC, i.e. the 10/10/10/10 numbers, or also AC bonuses, i.e. "-30 AC" (think shaman robe)?

Does armor weight or material play any part?

Does AC from DEX or other magical affects (e.g. armor spell) count?

AC from dex doesn't count. In most cases, I think you're looking for the non-magic ACs on the armor to be good. AC affects matter to some degree, I think.