I agree with the side that wants to bring physics into the game I don't think boobs are realistic on armor made to protect you from random dragon attacks, Mages, magic traps etc.

Of course, if you want to "bring physics into it", none of the armors would likely protect against any of those things. Let's see:
Lightning? Metal armor conducts that stuff.

Fire (fireball, dragon breath, etc)? Again, metal armor heats up, so you'd keep taking damage from the fire long after it was gone. Plus the fur/cloth/leather bits would burn.

Ice? Hey, metal conducts super-freezing cold, too.

Physical attacks by massive creatures (giant's club, mammoth, dragon)? Don't care how strong your armor is, it and the spine holding it up would crumple like an accordian.

Why do people go on about over-exaggerating, impractical female armor when the Male armors are just as "bad"? However, "briast Plate" DOES NOT map to the crotch of male armor - It maps to those frikken huge shoulderpads that defy practicality but emphasize the broadness of the shoulders, and the helms like Iron and Horned Steel that emphasize the square jawline, and pectorals.

I'm not seeing any female armor that has a briast crevice that would threaten the sternum - any impact would be directed toward the sides of the armor or directly onto the shock-absorbing briast tissue first. Especially the female Ebony armor - looking at it, it doesn't have the traits it's been accused of having. Judging from the shape alone, it has sufficient padding because briasts aren't shaped like that.

That previously-linked piece of "real" briastplate is far more impractical because it exaggerates the size and crevice between the briasts. Ebony armor, in comparison, only exaggerates furthest half of the briast-space, leaving impacts against the base well-protected.

If anything, as a "shock absorber", the Female ebony armor is more effective than Male Ebony armor on a Female character - having a "flat" or rounded piece of plating that ignores female anatomy have a high chance of cracking the ribs by driving the physical mass of already-compressed briasts against the ribs without putting any offsetting pressure against the sternum or other half of the briastplate, allowing the ribs to flex the wrong way and crush inward as the ribcage checks out the "concave" look. In contrast, the female ebony armor takes the contours of the briasts into account, so that an impact against the chest has the entire force distributed along the entire surface area of the torso, instead of putting extreme pressure on the briasts only.

Lol, erm, briasts don't work like that.

Steel Plate in particular has a murder-plate. briasts and padding can't make up for the fact that briastplates shaped like that like that are inflexible and while a flat plate might allow briasts to absorb impact, a cerviced plate wouldn't. The impact would push the whole plate down and if a weapon strikes against that crevice, or across the briastplate, the groove will press down on the sternum. briasts aren't going to suddenly relocate to protect the sternum. If the woman falls, rolls up too tightly or ducks down hard, bad things will happen.

How would the plate even touch the sternum? Also, in the case of Ebony, the material's not flexible enough to allow the alleged "murder plate" to press against the sternum. By following the contours of the body, with evenly-spaced padding and rigid plating, it doesn't matter where you hit the plate - it's all evenly distributed over the entire surface. It would take an incredible force to depress the plate enough so that the Sternum was threatened - and even then, the briastplate hits the sides of the chest before the sternum.

An inflexible briastplate means that any impact is shared not delegated. If someone swings a sword across a woman's chest, the whole briastplate pushes down and retains its shape. It doesn't 'stop' if it hits briasts first because just as the cups push down, the crevice pushes down and it pushes down into the sternum. The briastplate has no give, so if a woman falls or ducks sharply, she's going to generate enough force on her own to shatter her sternum.

Smoother briastplates direct blows away from internal organs and allow the briasts to act as extra padding. There is no reason for boobplates.

That doesn't mean that they'll have visible, pronounced "armor boobs" showing through the vest, but it would mean some curvature to the inner surface. I understand that how you're imagining the interior of the female Steel Plate armor, the steel would have a more pronounced "dip" at the sternum, but it might not be that pronounced.

As I said above. The real world armour I have shows no shaping of the interior padding. It's flat like the mens. It is probable that the womans briast squished together into a single lump (Never has talking about boobies sounded less sixy) under both the weight and the tightning of the straps. Think about it for practical reasons, if you are hit by a hammer on the briastplate from the side, it will deform. Any bumps would cause all that energy to travel into the body at that point, either damaging the briast tissue, or transmitting it into the body. What you would want would be for the armour to move as unimpeded as possible for as long as possible, so that the energy would travel as long as possible through the outer armour and not through the body.

Or think of it this way, what is easier, sliding down a smooth railing, or sliding down stairs?

As I say, modern body armor plates are now doing this, although I don't know to what extent.

But then kevlar is far more forgiving on the dispersing energy front than steel and leather. Perhaps it is forgiving enough for comfort to become a factor. In Korea, I had what was called a "flak jacket". It was essentially scrap iron sewed into a kagool. Comfort was never a factor during any part of it's design. I didn't wear it for long.

But then kevlar is far more forgiving on the dispersing energy front than steel and leather. Perhaps it is forgiving enough for comfort to become a factor. In Korea, I had what was called a "flak jacket". It was essentially scrap iron sewed into a kagool. Comfort was never a factor during any part of it's design. I didn't wear it for long.

And don't forget the ceramic plate they put into modern balistics armor. It abosrbs the impact by shattering locally. Again, as you said, very different from the old steel and leather armor.

Good points. I emphasise the main point I wanted to comment on too. No one complains about the exaggeratuons on the men that could easily catch a blade or spear point.

But that`s not the point because these things would not catch as much as people think. I also believe that in reality a woman`s boob armour section would be slightly less pronounced (but still there). I think a proud woman warrior would want to be seen as a WOMAN warrior.

I believe it`s more about present day `political correctness` and embarassment from some girls about the body why they protest against such armour; nothing to do with it catching between the boob armour. A proud warrior woman of ancient times would not think that way. Just as a warrior male does not.

You people know this business about female warriors cutting their boobs off for "practicality" is a complete myth derived from the old tales about the Amazons? It's a myth. How do you think the women fed their newborn children after that? And how often do you think ancient people could perform radical mastectomies without massive and fatal infection?

Total myth.