My problem with heavy armor.

[TobyTravis]

And while we're here, why the hell do Nords use Light Armour? They're sodding viking expies....and not a little, it's just blatant. They should be going around in heavy armour! There should be enough chainmail in Skyrim to choke Alduin and every dragon he brought back to death with it!

 

Then again, they've ruined the Imperial Legion as well. The majority of them should be wearing the Imperial heavy armour, with shields. All of a sudden they've become the Bows And Leather Brigade.

 

:whistling: chainmail was always classed as light armor. I personally like the new legion armors... even if it looks as if they have gone from medieval to roman, backwards in time.

[AtmaDarkwolf]

For this reason alone I prefer a simple suit of leather armor, hide helmet, and done.

 

The fooglyness of the higher end armors could look snappy, but all the horns, spikes, scary things don't do it for me either. Consider this, your swinging your weapon around, with all those spikes, you can easily catch / snag on things, your own weapons and shield can entangle themselves in your own armor(LOL) and besides all that, OTHER wayward strikes on you would snag and screw up any mobility u may have had.

 

The simple leather armor set(or steal, the basic of the basic junk) actually looks decent, the higher end armors imo look like junk. Next play though I do am going to get what i need to get daedric for the weapons but no further.(Dragon scale COULD be neat looking, but as i said, with all the silly spikes it just doesn't do it. And that's the LIGHT version, the heavy versions just look goofy.

 

And note about the 'why would nords/vikings use light armor' the truth is, they would use no armor if history would serve to influence the game. Shields sure, but the clothing would be light, fur(warm) based, because they are sailors, and live in cold climates, armor is pointless.

Edited November 28, 2011 by AtmaDarkwolf

[kevinwastaken]

I just wish there was some basic chainmail.

 

Skyrim is great, but it's sorely lacking in content diversity, which has always been a staple of immersive rpgs. Not a fan of the weird looking weapons either. I'd have liked to have seen more nordic inspired weapons; especially swords, shields, and bows.

[Khorak]

:whistling: chainmail was always classed as light armor. I personally like the new legion armors... even if it looks as if they have gone from medieval to roman, backwards in time.

 

Not in real life it jolly well isn't. And certainly not when you're doing it right. And in any case, it's so iconically viking I can't for the life of me work out why we got Scaled Armour, which is some sort of fur monstrosity, instead of some good, sturdy chainmail! BAH HUMBUG!

 

And note about the 'why would nords/vikings use light armor' the truth is, they would use no armor if history would serve to influence the game. Shields sure, but the clothing would be light, fur(warm) based, because they are sailors, and live in cold climates, armor is pointless.

 

What on Earth are you going on about. They were the best heavy infantry of their era and utterly reknowned to the extent the Byzantine Empire set up the Emperors guards as a completely unchanged viking/Norman/Saxon heavy infantry force recruited only from those cultures. These professional soldiers, like the Huscarls, were heavily armoured death machines.

 

Levied forces were likely to be wearing various forms of quilted armour; we're not talking about those.

Edited November 28, 2011 by Khorak

[Garnn]

I like Daedric, it looks like it was really intended for wear by Daedra, and it has that Daedric feel to it, while still having a bit of dragon theme to it, especially in the helmet. This kinda suits me because it feels immersive, because, in all reality, the only templates for making Daedric armor would come from Daedra, so it should have more of that daedric feel.

 

I wish you were required to go on a mission to find and learn from a daedric armorer in order to wear/smith Daedric once you get the perk. Would make the most powerful armor in the game feel like you earned the ability to forge it. There could be variants of it too, with different stylings. Actually, this sounds like the base for a good mod.

[J_R]

Daedric armor looks like that because... it makes you look like the Daedra (Dremora). Shocking, I know. It makes sense that the most rare and legendary armor might be a little gaudy.

 

I will say though that I only wear my Daedric for special occasions and mostly stick to my Nightingale. My favorite overall is Ebony.. it's just so damn classy.

[Trey5511]

laughable conception of 'badass' or 'cool'.....look like a Warhammer Fantasy Chaos Warrior, a hulking brute of thick, overlapping plates, chainmail and furs, covered in runic script as a testament to the glorious workmanship of my awesome harness, powered by hearts torn still beating from the chests of daedra!

 

wut

[siomasm]

In regards to spikes and whatnot on the armor, it could serve a few purposes:

• 
   
  
• Combat with animals *1
  
• Small improvements for deflecting with minimal metal usage*2
  
• Impromptu weapon for extremely close range engagements and grappling
  
• Simple intimidation effect
  

 

Consider the winged lancers of the polish cavalry. The wings served no practical purpose, but enemies came to fear the sight that marked them as the elite. An angelic lancer bearing down on you could probable give a few people moment to pause.

*1

This applies largely to the realm of fantasy, as most animals would likely stay away from trails and especially far from settlements. But in Skyrim (And the rest of Tamriel) there are a number of neigh fearless and horrific beasts that would like nothing more than to wrap their fangs/claws/varied appendages around your throat! And with something that must physically attack you with it's own body, spikes would go a ways in defending yourself.

Like a spiked collar on a dog, a creature is less likely to try and take another bite out of you if the first one mangled its face in the process.

 

*2

Rather than just a flat or curved surface; spines,spikes and ridges could help to deflect a blow or lessen it's impact on the wearer. The ridge on the face of the dwemer armor for instance prevents someone from easily splitting their skull.

 

I don't condone the kind of ridiculous nonsense of warcraft's larger-than-your-head shoulder bits and whatnot, but I think Skyrim's armor is respectable.

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Light armor and 2 handed weapons make good skirmishers. The tundra, like the desert, would be a terrible place for a standard regimented military weighed down in plate due to the sapping nature of the elements and terrain along with the unpleasant effects of cold steel on flesh. I don't see why they would be using heavy armor as opposed to light.

As for the imperials, I understand the lightly armored troops here and there abouts, though in crisis I would expect to see more hoplites in heavy armor.

Edited November 28, 2011 by siomasm

[BarefootWarrior]

Good topic. I have always preferred light armor when I use it. Even playing as full warrior. When I wear the fur armor which is light armor, I get comments from guards and some folks... " You use less armor, that is good...means you are lite on your feet, makes good sense"...something like that. I think that at least on one point, the 'lore' is being kept quite well as far as the Nords go, using furs and relying on their own skills.

 

So I guess this really comes down to a matter of personal choice. I prefer playing as an archer, single hand warrior, travel lite, and rely on those skills rather then rely on heavy armor. Good comments here... :thumbsup:

 

But I am not crazy about the look of the heavy armor either, but that is just me.

[nitevision92]

Like the OP the higher levels of armour in skyrim turn me off. That's why I stopped crafting once I got my Ebony set (plan on using it till the end of the game). Then I switched the standard armour for Boethiah's Ebony Mail and everything was perfect.

I think the Nord + fur setup is growing on me... Might just try it out once to see how it feels like during a straight-up fight. I suppose the fur armour fits the lore too, since most people in-game refer to you as a traveller or adventurer, and not a career soldier or (Talos forbid) a Daedra of some sort.

 

Dwemer armour is nice too, what with the scowl on the helmet and the raised bumps (rivets?) all over the place. Dwemer boots look a little goofy though, but it could be just me. Good old steel plate armour ranks pretty high on my list too.

Edited November 28, 2011 by nitevision92