Armor Types and Materials

[Astrokid248]

I recently made a mod that allows the player to have Wolf Armor made of ebony instead of steel (in appearance too) and was looking at Crafting 300 (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2933) when a though struck me. What determines armor type? The shape of the armor, or the materials?

 

Why I'm asking you: I'm looking to do something similar to 300, but more limited in scope and with armors included. I just don't think any sword should be craftable from glass, or any piece of armor can be made of ebony. So, for instance, I think the dragonbone weapons could potentially be made of moonstone and malachite, because the shape is conducive towards the glass style, which seems to be a blade material supported by a metal spine of some sort. And glass and stalrhim can be interchangeable. But you can't make a standard steel greatsword shape with glass because the shape has no spine. But with armors, it's a little more ambiguous because there's two categories, Light and Heavy, and unless you use ACE/SkyRe (which, admittedly, I do) you have the light path/heavy path to follow.

 

So, what do you think? What is the cause of heavy versus light armor? I'm putting this in general instead of mods cos I think it applies to vanilla Skyrim just as much as it applies to any modmaker.

[matortheeternal]

I think armor type (light and heavy) is determined by the weight of the armor and the materials.

 

E.g. Any armor that is made of iron, steel, dwemer, oricalchum, ebony, or dragonbone should be considered heavy. These materials are "heavy", speaking from a realistic standpoint, when compared to the materials for light armor. The output armor and weapons should be heavy as well. This is why there's no light daedric armor in vanilla skyrim.

 

Any armor that is made of leather, moonstone, malachite, corundum, or dragonscales classifies as light armor. These materials are "light', speaking from a realistic standpoint, when compared with the materials for heavy armor. The output armor and weapons should be light as well.

 

(These are both speaking about these as "primary" ingredients. Primary ingredients are the ones you use the most of when crafting the armor.)

Edited March 5, 2013 by matortheeternal