I like the game Skyrim but I don't like "fantasy" looking armor/weapons.

The only passable armors, IMO, in Skyrim are: iron (except for the thing that hangs between your legs - that doesn't exactly sound right...no jokes please, lol), steel (no pauldrons) and Linwe's (except for the color)

I hate pauldrons so much I can't even describe it using human language. I would have to resort to grunts, hand gestures and inarticulate noises accompanied by spit.

I like simple low-profile looks.

So I go looking for mods...

I find a mod that removes the enchantments on Linwe and allows you to craft it at a bench...but leaves it the same color.

I find one that retextures it to a slick brown color but leaves the enchantments.

I find a mod that makes Ebony Mail (Boethia) light armor but you still have to be the whole in your butt to get it.

No mods made iron armor light or a light iron armor variant.

A mod that removed the cape, thankfully, from the Nightingale amor but also changed the color. Didn't like the new color.

A mod that made Nightingale armor craftable but left the cape.

Another one that removed the cape but added A (bleeping) Batman belt. With the bat symbol! Why would you add the belt but remove the cape? Wouldn't they go together? I know what it was...they knew I'd like it if they left off the belt so they added it just to mess with me.

One that made the Dark Brotherhood armor black but left the enchantments and didn't add a craftable version.

A mod that makes a craftable leather armor without pauldrons and with pants (I don't like that skirt look on most of the vanilla armors) but it's female only...I play as a male exclusively.

Another mod adds pants to the male armor but leaves the pauldrons...

A mod that makes a "Dragonborn" armor and retextures iron but leaves it heavy. I use light.

Really?

I'd be happy with a simple unadorned leather cuirass/jerkin and pants.

Oh well, I have another 120+ pages of "armor" mod pages to go through...we'll see...

I feel your pain, as I've also spent countless hours going through page after page of mods hoping to find that one mod that gives me exactly what I want, exactly how I want it. And I almost never find it, so my choices - just like everybody else - are to do without, make a compromise on what I want, or learn to mod it in myself.

Most modders make a mod that does something *they* want a mod to do. I mod stuff but when I do I don't sit there and think "gee I wonder if there's somebody out there who would like item A in color X instead of Y..." because I'm not gonna do that work to make somebody else's game work the way they want it to work. I'm going to mod my game into what *I* want it to be and I supsect most casual modders are the same. It's not like they're getting paid to do a job and then not delivering the goods. They're not really obligated to please anyone but themselves. If they put their mods up for the public and some other people like it, great, if not, well, too bad.

I mean, if I pass a house and the people inside have put a big buffet table out front with piles and piles of home-cooked food all free for the taking, I don't look it over and then complain that they didn't fix the one dish *I* wanted to eat that day.

I'm kind of in your shoes, OP, in that I love realistic armor and don't like the typical fantasy look.

Dawnguard armor is nice.

I also recommend http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19733, which doesn't change a whole lot but makes some of the more realistic styles viable later in the game even without high smithing skill.

@Lyn1964

100% true.

I just thought...

I just found another mod that removed the skirts from 'most' of the male armors. Guess which one they didn't remove? Iron.

I would've thought an unenchanted Linwe armor in black or a dark color was...

An unenchanted craftable all black Dark Brotherhood...

A Nightingale armor without a cape? Do people like Raven that much over Snake? They wore the same armor right? With Boethia's enchantment?

I guess I was surpriesed to, so far, not find any of the tweaks I would've expected.

Anywho, I'm not seriously complaining. This will actually be my first time trying mods on Skyrim.

Tthat fool Balimund got killed by a vampire and it was game breaking for me (don't ask, it wouldn't make sense) so adding mods was the only thing that motivated me to restart my game.

I was just shocked to not find a mod with a simple cuirass.

The one character I had that used the Nightingale set actually preferred no cape, as the cape constantly clipped with my bow/quiver when equipped. I found a mod that removed the cape but didn't address the now "empty" spots on the back of the armor where the cape was once attached, leading to the ability to see through my characters shoulderblades in 3rd person view. I went back to the cape and tolerated the clipping.

Mostly for armor I am happy with what's in the game, with a little tweaking here and there. Fortunately I usually play heavy as I think almost all the light armors are hideous either in color or design, the Nightingale was actually the only set I liked the looks of right out of the box.

@Lyn1964

Well based on my searches, so far, the people who mod don't seem to be fans of simple low-profile armor. To be read: armor without pauldrons

I've been reading some of the mod names and then when I look at the images...

I'm going from asking "really" to "WTF!?"