[WIP] Imperial Cloth & Armor

Great to have you on the team!

I'm loving the look of this. Keep it up! 

Looks great so far!

omg hes started! ITS ON!

Omg those boots already look epic! nicely done

If I might impose, there could also be a binding that would go behind the knees. Just a little detail that could add something. As it is, it kinda looks like the leather would flop down depending on the weight of the plate :p

This looks good, but I feel that the mage should be in light armor, to be more nimble. Magic users are in no way tanks after all. I think the pauldrons should be leather as in the concept art, not steel. Save that for the footsoldier and town/city watch. Keep up the good work :).

Quite the contrary, Imperial Battle Mages are heavy troops.

Dragomir

Quite the contrary, Imperial Battle Mages are heavy troops.

I thought so too until I saw the concept art, it depends on your strength. With Alteration magic, Imperial Battle Mages don't need as much armor, they are akin to archers. Take the mages at Helgen in Skyrim- light armor. 

Look at Oblivion battlemages :P

good point [External image], maybe light armor when in combat, heavy when in town?

Take your time, thanks for the update, and great work! ;)

I can't wait to see how these turn out.  They look amazing.

What would that dragon be made of?

I'm sorry, but the last couple images are ridiculous.  I hope we will be following Frederick Van De Brunt's concept as closely as possible.  It couldn't be much better.

I think the Frederick Van De Brunt concepts are right on the money, they feel very reminiscent of the original Morrowind Imperial armor but are also updated. I think they'd be a great fit for Skywind.

Well a few of the things could be improved, as has been stated before.  Some of the cultural motiffs of the Cyrodils of Morrowind were a bit 'off'.  Like the horses.  Horses and lions - these aren't the symbols of the Empire.  Moths and dragons are their thing.  They're not just Roman knockoffs, though Romans were the primary inspiration.  There's also Akaviri (Japanese) and a bit of British in there, too.

Overall, Fred's stuff is very well done and polished, but some of the new ideas could be used to improve it further.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the horse one was a specific piece of Imperial armor from Morrowind. Totally agree about removing the lions and adding moths and such though.

Oh it was, but horses have nothing to do with the Imperials.  Replacing the horses with moths and dragons would make more sense, as THOSE are symbols of the empire.

When Morrowind was being developed, LotR was big, and the Gladiator movie was still hot.  Romans and horse motiff armor was a big thing (Rohirrim of LotR for instance).  But the empire isn't Rohan or Rome, and its symbols are not theirs.

The lack of moths and dragons for the Imperial Guard's armor was an oversight, and likely a product of the time the game was made.  This is a chance to correct it.

I like how the look is more of a scout/ranger as the imperial forces in Morrowind would be more of a expeditionary force and would dress accordingly.

Solid points, I'm sold.

I'm good with horses being replaced with moths, but that dragon metal hood doesn't really work outside of Kirkbride's highly stylised drawings... Sorry. When put in 3D it looses all character, one would have to first make a 3D mimicking concept of it and it would probably end up looking pretty bad no matter what you do. MK's drawings are awesome, but they don't translate well into 3D, and here's one of those examples...

Besides, slapping a hood with a metal dragon on it, onto a very simplistic legionnary armour looks horrible. I could see that hood on a ridiculously powerful mage in an armoured robe suited in looks, probably pale, with purple lipstick on his mouth. That could work. But this hood is definetly not a part of that simple and practical set.

Imperial battlemages, being primarily Nibenese in culture, are far from simple in design. I could see a foreign legion stationed in Morrowind having a more Colovian influenced design, but Cyrodiilic battlemages are very "cultured" and "relish in garish costumes". Colovian designs are more in line with Fred's concepts, although battlemages are distinctly Nibenese.

If we go for representing all the Cyrodiilian casts properly we would have a shitload of work ahead of us, that would include me redesigning that stuff again. I would have to design a whole new set just to match that one hood. Probably would be interesting, but is my time worth it? You know, I'd rather spend it on something more relevant, like bonemold. Just replace horses with moths and wheat with saltrice and we're set.

aye, lets focus on the morrowind side.
If we want skyblivion armours with better designs, we can reuse the zbrush files later.

So well... I felt bad about flailing my point around without a proof of concept, but I didn't have enough time. Now it was stuck in my mind so I doodled.

[External image]

That's what in my opinion that hood would go with. You can use it for Skyblivion if you want :P

Looks really good :D One thing I'd change perhaps is to give that cloth across his chest some volume. Just make it a bit bigger so it covers more of the chest, and a bit more bulky so it seems loose. Other than that it's perfect ;)

I like what you did with the little pteruges there, across his back, the other legionaries' would stop at the armpit the way they do in the front, though I think it's fitting here on the battlemage.

It was an obscure detail on the sketch, though I made his robe underneath the draped cloth have a collar similar to this

Another thing, see if you can tighten up the cloth around his neck, and bring it up a bit, like this

lastly, good work so far. I'll get to adjusting the gauntlets and greaves soon, though right now, I'm a bit sickly, so I will have to wait. Heck, it was even a bit difficult to write this, ahg my head feels like a dizzy potato.

edit- actually, now that i think about it with my potato brain, the picture i linked to is a bit too high for the neck cloth, though it should still be brought up close to that.

First post, so, lol, my opinion is minimal, but, I love this mage set. It is absolutely in tune with Morrowind. I would love to see a moth/dragon replacement for the horses (although, I have to admit... I love the horses, ha!). The horses could be a symbol of the legion stationed in Morrowind as many of the separate Roman Legions had an animal symbol outside of the eagle. However, I find myself agreeing with the above statements that it was probably more paying homage to the popularized Hollywood films of the time.

And finally, I love the work you have put in eXecutex! This will really push the game experience to a new level. The only, very small, critique I could give would be that the collar looks to be two pieces or folds of cloth overlaid while the rest of the undercoat seems to be a single piece with no overlaid fold. But otherwise, outstanding work.

Hey eXecutex, since you're doing all the Imperial armours, would you add one more to the list? I've made that concept ages ago and almost forgot about it - the Imperial Ebony. It would be best if it was kept in a similar style with the other Imperial armours, so having one person do them all would be the best call. I know six armours is a HUGE undertaking, but luckily most of them don't have to be started from scratch :P

[External image]

 

Looks good color-wise, though I have an issue with the red pants, at least that particular hue of red... just my honest opinion.

Looks awesome! Really like where it's going. I'm sure it's too late for this, though I would suggest lengthening the leather strips hanging from the belt or at least adding a second row, since at their current length they don't serve their real-life purpose (to keep rocks and debris from hitting them in the boy loins)

Is the belt going to be part of the body?

Also the Imperial Templar Ebony should be one of a kind, something so beautifully crafted.
 

I think I might cry. That is incredible. Amazing work.

Looking good so far, really looking forward to the rest of the sets!

I think it looks AMAZING!!! but I have a problem with the gauntlets, boots and shoulder pads. These things  should all be light armor. The boots on the first few concepts should be the light armor ones same with the gauntlets. personally I think you should try to follow Fredricks' concept exactly even the belt and colors. I can see that your just trying to make it better but your trying to to make some thing that is soooooooooooo ggggggggooooooooodddd sorry if I'm being harsh I just want this armor to be just perfect and exactly like the concept.

On the contrary, I really like the design, and it should stay as it is. imo.

Hi, in my opinion, more violet colors to fit into the armor, so it may well make it look like? what do you think about that? :)

Looks better in my opinion. Red is too bright and makes the Battlemages too visible on the battlefield, like moving targets for archers.

This is also wip, especially the colors 

They probably know the Shield spell.