Disclaimer: I love Skyrim, it's the best game I've ever played, I'd say. So this isn't a "OMG DIS GAME SUX" rant.

So, my main gripe with Skyrim: Fantasy syndrome with weapons and armor. The better the armor and the weapon, the more ridiculous and utterly impractical it looks. Does this bother anyone else? Iron armor is my favorite armor, as are the iron weapons..

After I crafted Daedric armor, I puked a little in my mouth. Then I proceeded to throw it in the river. Then I crafted Dragonbone armor. I laughed and threw it after the Daedric armor. It's a damn shame, because getting those cool difficult-to-craft armors should be a nice thing. The armors I think are awesome are iron, steel, steel plate and Blades armor (heavy armors, most light looks great). The rest are just awful. Dwemer armor? Now I know who the Terminators in Warhammer 40k are: the dwemer.

So yeaaah. At level 32, I still use iron armor. I'd have more than double the armor rating I have with Daedric, but meh.

Thoughts? Personally I can't wait for mods to add some more realistic looking armors to the game. Until then, I'm happy with iron.

Do you not want to look like a badass?

I don't personally think it looks very badass to have weird spikes coming out from all over your body.

Look to the ebony armor.

Possibly the Daedric armour is done by such good smiths that they can make it functional aswell as having those spikes all over it or w.e, thus making themselves look scary as hell to the average person, able to bodycheck someone with spikes, and also have good armour. Also it would be a massive pain to swing a sword at someone who had spikes all over them. Would really mess your swing up.

It's classic in fantasy and more of a reward mechanism. At level 40, I don't want to look like a level 4 in Iron.

I agree, I can only just barely stand the looks of fantasy weapons and armour. I'm missing realistic equipment such as chainmail armour and plate armour. hoping for a mod.

Could not disagree more...

Can you elaborate? Do you disagree that Skyrim has the "fantasy syndrome" or do you disagree that the high-end armors don't look good?

He means something like this: [img]http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/2897/31604810150408950147387.jpg[/img]

And yes, i agree with you. I hate the omgfantasygiantarmorspikeseverywhere15ftgiantaxe type deal. I prefer the more practical and realistic armors ingame. Oh what i wouldnt give in game for a simple chainmail hauberk...

you may be playing the wrong game son
this is a prettty classic fantasy RPG, no sense in complaining about a lack of realism
not like you couldn't know this before buying the game

Agree in general. "Super spike spam" is [censored] annoying. It's not like Skyrim has 100 armor models so they run out of badass-without-[censored]-spike spam ideas.

Ahwell. At least there's Ebony. Glass isn't too bad -- slightly to sparkly with all the brass look, but it's malachite after all right? It's supposed to be bright.

While the "Fantasy Syndrome" does not actually bother me, I do agree with the OP that the more"realistic" armors do look really cool. I absolutely love the regular Steel armor with the Nordic runes etched on it. Once the CK comes out that will be my final armor. I will simply upgrade it as my character levels up in order to keep it balanced.

I really need that damn CK....

This has always been one of my pet peeves in most fantasy (like the op, I LOVE this game, but this is something that bugs me in a lot of fantasy games).

With all my committments I haven't had time to get very high but I remember Oblivion. In Oblivion I so hated the look of the Daedric I went around in Ebony. I thought the ebony looked looked quite good though.

Fantasy armor is often so obviously impractical. You want an enemy blade to glance OFF your armor sparing you from the full force of the blow. You do NOT want it to get caught on some stupid projection thus giving you the full force of the blow. Unless the daedric is so freaking good that you NEVER take damage there's no reason to lesson it's effectiveness by having a lot of spikey projections all over the place which can catch an enemy blade.

Ok. Armor with pointless spikes isn't as ridiculous as that other fantasy staple -- the chainmail bikini. But it's getting there.

I don't know what I could suggest Bethesday for their next game though. As others pointed out, you don't want your level 50 uber character to look like it did at level 5. But some of it is pretty ridiculous. Perhaps just have the artists be thinking about how real armor works while they're putting together their concept art.

That's probably because this IS a fantasy game...

agree 100%
thankfully with crafting, you can improve equipment to the point where its equitable with higher equipment. once i find my favorite armor ofeither heavy or light, ill stick with that and improve the crap out of it.
down with big fancy ludicrous looking armor!

How am I playing the wrong game, dad?
The armors the trailers showed were nice looking - the Dragonborn wears the iron armor in the official gameplay trailer. And was my disclaimer not big enough? Did I not say Skyrim is the best game I've played?

I agree. This game needs a Transmogrifier.

So wear what you think looks cool.

The truth of the matter is the game is easy enough (at least at my low level of 20ish) that if you get smithing and upgrade lower end armors, maybe slap a few enchants on there if you go that route, you can look however want to look but still be fine in combat.

Obvs there may be a point where that's impractical? But eh.

I mean look at the mascot for the game. Iron helmet, banded iron shield, studded armor, iron gloves. He seems pretty on the ball.

I have no idea what the complaint is. Skyrim is a fictional fantasy game, not a medieval realistic simulation. I play a fantasy game for the FANTASY aspect. Sure it may be impractical in some sense to be covered in spikes, but in other ways it can be hella damaging. Plus having epic gear makes you stand out from the lame looking guards and other npcs. But I like the dramatic flare of the stronger armor. In movies, books, games, etc.. none of the super intimidating baddies are wearing iron chest plates and chainmail. Cause that doesn't give the effect of uniqueness and power. But hey, to each their own. That's just my 2 cents.

I agree. My nord (level 25) wears leather armor, uses a still battleaxe, and doesn't wear a helmet. I think 90% of the armors look like [censored] and I've only found 1 axe that is even close to cool imo and thats the steel battleaxe. There are a few cool helmets but nothing worth hiding this awesome face with.

I agree with the OP. The better the armor rating, the more silly it looks. The best looking armors in the game are Steel, Leather, and the more mundane unique armors such as the Whiterun armor, Stormcloak armor, and Imperial armor.

When the construction kit comes out, I am just going to make a custom steel armor that uses daedric values.

If the daedric armor were the same skin/shape as steel, but was merely black, it would be great! Oh well.

I'm right with you, OP. I was just telling the exact same thing to a friend the other day. And she was agreeing. Round viking shields are some of my favorite designs, but they're always the worst shield in games. Same goes for armor and weaponry. To be good they always gotta be all curvy and spiky and way too effing colorful.

My biggest gripe with Elder Scrolls,though, has always been that late tier light armor looks like plate/heavy armor.

I'm considering making a mod that adds new tiers of iron/steel armor and weaponry, with new skins and designs, so that people like the OP and I can enjoy. It wont be for a while, but it's a project I'm very interested in working on, instead of my usual quest/mission-based mods that never get anywhere.

If you're looking for ... semi-realistic? Try going up the light armor path to Advanced Armors. It unlocks scaled and Steel Plate. Those both look quite impressive while retaining rather nice armor level if fully upgraded.

The complaint is that super spike spam doesn't even look cool. It looks [censored] [censored], unless you're like 10 or something.