Game Skyrim Forum

Fantasy isn't a mentality you "grow out of". It's supposed to be its own thing, not a stepping stone to "gritty realistic history". Granted there is (has to be) an element of realism in fantasy, but just because something is more realistic doesn't mean it's automatically better and should be used in fantasy forever onward. For a fantasy RPG, it's better to look at the mechanical benefits offered by such a change, and whether or not it fits the tone of what you're going for, not whether it's historically accurate.

The problems with armor in TES are two fold. The first being obviously how the skills between each individual armor is applied when trying to wear multiple pieces from different "types", and the second is that each armor type doesn't have intrinsic traits, regardless of the Skill, that actually makes them seem different in a meaningful capacity.

Personally, I'd like to see the relevant Skill be utilized based on the combined total of your characters equipment, over managing each and every individual piece. You could mix and match heavy and light armors and wind up using the medium armor skill, while those individual pieces still retain the benefits of being heavy/light armor.

In TES, one of the biggest advantages of Light Armor is that you can carry more loot. Unless you travel with practically nothing with weight, you're not going to outrun many of the opponents, so increased speed isn't all that much of a benefit. Agility is not affected by armor in TES, so there's no reason why your sneaking thief or assassin needs to stick with less protection.

The entire Light-Heavy armor divide is completely artificial. I would much prefer a system where every piece has its inherent good and bad points, so it makes sense to wear particular types of armor for specific purposes. A thief should have drastically different armor needs than a fighter, and an assassin should have some differences in needs from either of those. Balancing protection, weight, durability, repairability, cost, and availability, in order to create a complete spectrum of types, seems like a much more reasonably approach than having a "rat race" where you have to keep getting the latest "simply better" type for your new level, and having two or three distinct "lines" of armor to progress through, with no real distinction at the end when Perks cancel all of the disadvantages.

Yep, I knew what you meant and I would tend to agree. The Wile E. Coyote weapons like the enormous hammers in http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/102500/header.jpg?t=1447355189 and the antics some heroes do (like Gerault's somersaults, for example) tend to make me not very interested in playing those games.