[RELz] New Metal Armour / smartinius

I'm not really seeing any level of detail here, you best try harder...

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pfff what is this its shocking thats what it is.......

its shocking that its only called metal armor and not amazing smarti armor of the divines great work as allways

I'm absolutely loving the rogue/bandit look of this armor! Maybe this could be a Dunmer variant of the steel or iron armor? It goes extremely well with the style of the existing netch/boiled leather armors.  

It is Taj, it's the default iron armour for Skywind.

amazing work smarty, looks sweet :)

First off, I want to say that this armor, both the concept and the model, look amazing.

Dragomir

It is Taj, it's the default iron armour for Skywind.

Although, does this mean that there will no longer be an imperial counterpart? If so, that concerns me a bit. It seems that replacing the imperial/outlander stuff undermines the contrast between the outlander occupation and Dunmeri culture, and thus takes away from the alien feel presented by the original game. Vvardenfell has been opened for colonization by both the other houses and foreigners, which, from the point of view of many xenophobic Dunmer, is seen as an outlander occupation. The original game shows visual evidence of this, and makes the player him/her self an outlander, arriving in the port of an imperial colony-settlement. By doing this, and having a point of contrast, the player feels like a "stranger in a strange land". However, when one dominant style is the norm, even for outlanders, that feel is weakened, as it gives the appearance that outlanders have adapted pretty well very quickly to Dunmeri culture. While I love and support the idea and concept of Dunmeri iron, I feel it is important that it does not replace its imported counterpart seen in the original game, for the aforementioned reason of preserving the theme of Morrowind at its time of setting. In the original game, it was evident what was native and what was imported, with Colovian clothing, armors and weapons as well as Dunmeri ones.

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Here is an example of an Imperial colonial's clothing, as worn by M'aiq. "M'aiq longs for a Colovian Fur Helm. Practical, yet stylish. M'aiq is very sad he does not have one." Think of, don't make M'aiq sad.

I apologize if this is taking the thread off topic. smartinius, great progress on the Dunmeri Iron, so much detail! I love the rings.

This has already been discussed countless times Ice. It's not been an easy decision. What this armour is, is a makeshift protection made by brigands and rogues out of scrap metal. Not necessarily anything particularly Dunmer, especially with the ringlets taken out. The undergarment is netch, which is the easiest kind of leather to get on Vvardenfell, and there are countless accounts and NPC's who are Imperial and use it, since it's locally avaliable and more comfortable than regular leather.

A culture that can make steel would very unlikely make proper soldier gear out of simple iron. That's been sort of shown throughout the games - iron gear being something pretty makeshift. I wanted to push that feeling farther, making it look like something that's not been made by actual smiths, but rather incompetent people who make it to suit their needs. Not necessarily Dunmer, and without ringlets it doesn't even have that much cultural alignment visible, it's rather similar to Skyrim's iron armour. The original design I don't want to see at all, for it makes little sense. A full armour with closed helmet, something suitable for a knight and not an adventurer. I don't think anybody would go over the effort of making it out of crappy materials either. I know TES is not real world, but I like to put some actual logic behind the designs.

Imported Imperial armour will be in game - the Legion stuff. Imported Nordic iron armour will be in too. Do we really need an imported Cyrodiilic non-legion armour? Should that even be a thing, does it exist? And if it's imported, would anybody make the effort to import something hammered together from scrap metal? Also, the original steel and iron looked just like straight up plate armour. What culture is that? Is it non-legion Cyrodiilic, or maybe Breton?

Iron armour, for what it is, would only be made locally. It's a rough-and-ready thing made by local outlaws, adventurers or hirelings. I gave it a slight Dunmer schnit, since so many brigands on Vvardenfell are Dunmeri, but that doesn't mean it's a cultural thing for Dunmer - traditionalists would go for Chitin or Netch.

The Morrowind Iron armor looked more Bretonic, but I feel the idea is still valid that too much of the Dunmer style replacing what didn't have it before can take away from the theme of Morrowind. As much as I love this, I don't think it should be a replacement for the original. I would be in favor of colovian-ising the Bretonic original a bit, but I just can't really see an imperial in in imperial colony wearing that armor, even with a non-ringlet version. And of course non-legion Imperial armor exists, not all imperials are in the legion. I think both the original game and Redguard before it did a great job at depicting the contrast between the occupation and the occupied, and I believe it is important to preserve that feeling. I remember seeing it discussed to replace the sabers with Dunmeri swords (that aren't sabers), and I just don't see the point. Why change things around so much in a way that is so unnecessary? The sabers didn't appear to be associated with Dunmeri culture, but not many Dunmer used them either. They were mostly used by pirates and the like, likely drawing from Redguard seafaring culture and their use of sabers and cutlasses.

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@Dragomir

If that's the case and it is incompetently home-made, shouldn't there be multiple variants? Maybe without thought as to what should and should not be covered? Also, why would traders (except maybe caravans) sell piecemail armor?

Because we can't afford to make every bit of weaponry and armour we would like to, and we have to take priorities. I said replacing sabers would be an option, since the original game had near to none actual Dunmer swords made of anything else than glass or Ebony. If we can get both I'd be up for it, but I'd rather see distinct swords for Redoran and Hlaalu than something for Redguard pirates to wield.

And if this armor doesn't fit Imperials in an Imperial colony, there are so many other armours we could put on them...

I could see Redoran warriors wearing this. While the ashlander tribes are heavily secluded of all imperial influence; the great houses, on the other hand, are seeing some of the imperial culture and may start adapting imperial technology into their way of life. Redoran in particular should be rather open to working with the outlanders instead of being xenophobic like Hlallu or Telavani.

I think Hlaalu would be the most open to working with outlanders, seeing as how they are the most "Imperialised" Great House and are really involved with trade outside of morrowind.

Hlaalu is the least xenophobic Deadman. Not Redoran, its the other way around.

Redoran are maybe not xenophobic as for example Cammona Tong, but they're hardcore traditionalists. As for this armour - no, Redoran would not wear it, simply because they can afford better armor, probably even the initiates. This has been made with brigands, bandits and sellswords in mind.