By the 1400s-1500s, munitions plate was in fashion for foot soldiers, and even poorer soldiers would have been more likely to been in a brigandine than mail. Mail during the period of full plate was more expensive than a breastplate - European metallurgy had at that point progressed to the point where forging a plate of metal was less resource and labor-intensive than interlocking thousands of individual chain links.
By the 1400s-1500s, munitions plate was in fashion for foot soldiers, and even poorer soldiers would have been more likely to been in a brigandine than mail. Mail during the period of full plate was more expensive than a breastplate - European metallurgy had at that point progressed to the point where forging a plate of metal was less resource and labor-intensive than interlocking thousands of individual chain links.