Morroblivion

The cuirass, pauldrons and the helmet look like they're made of a different metal than gloves greaves. Is that intentional, or just missing color-correction?

For dragon stuff, please wait until we get to more unique armors, such as dragonscale.

I'm going to ignore this for now because I have nothing else to criticize. Feel free to ignore the following in turn :)

The dragon on the helmet looks like it's etched into the metal. That's some fine metalworking, it doesn't look like something that would be sensible to mass-produce at Tamrielic technology level. With manual metalworking that requires a lot of time and effort for no real reason. I'd rather give it a more distinctly painted or chemically milled look.

My search for real-world examples of police force helmets turned up the custodian helmet which is fairly detailed, but that's been used only since the later half of the 19th century. Although I know basically zip about blacksmithing techniques, so take the above with a grain of salt.

On the latest pic the dragon on the helmet also should be moved either futher up or down - the current 3/4 alignment with the edge of the helmet looks awkward. Alternatively something to run horisontally through the center of the dragon can be added, like it is in the row of the concepts at the top (it has some kind of shadow there or something).

And the dragon on the helmet gotta be bigger if it's supposed to be a recognizable badge of some kind. That way the manufactureres wouldn't have to time-consumingly etch it into the greaves as well.

Oh and please drop the tiny dragon from the belt, that's just pointless.

Excellent work so far. My only complaint is how the color schemes are too similar to those of skyrims imperial armor(red, brown ect) which sort of gives a stereotypical roman legionaire feeling. I personally think that morrowinds blue/purple themed imperial armors  (Templar armor the exception) felt more unique. Just my opinion, whatever color the armor is isn't going to make or break anything. Once again, excellent job so far

You prove great artistic skill with these concepts, no doubt. If you're tired about content related critics than ignore the following bit :)

I don't see why we wanna completly scratch the morrowind concept though and build something completly different with more reference to skyrim? This is how morrowind armor looked like:

so there was that concept:

So why don't we keep as close to the original with something like this:

Also alot of the "roman" feel comes from the shoulderpads being similar to skyrim/original roman ones. But we could just make a smoother version of the morrowind one, which looked more asian than roman, something like that: (recoloured ofc)

I have to say, I completely agree with Gothic_Freak . These concepts do look very good. However, I don't understand why the original Morrowind concept is essentially being completely scrapped in favor of something similar to Skyrim/Rome.

I think the Gothic_Freak's post pretty much makes all the points that I would make, so I won't reiterate. Just agreeing with him and posting my humble opinion.

Well, I took the concept and edited it more to my liking. Nexos doesn't like it at all, but I tried to keep some original Morrowind looks, as well as romanesque feeling at least for some of them.

Left to right:

Imperial Battlemage robes. Suitable for battlemages and Imperial cultists. Callback to Fredrik's concept. Nibenese.

Imperial Newtscale Jerkin. Suitable light armor for mages, agents and scouts. Callbacks to Fredrik's concept. Nibenese.

Imperial Leather Jerkin. Suitable for light infantry, archers and guards. Colovian.

Imperial Steel Armor. Suitable for heavy infantry and guards. Callbacks to both Morrowind and Oblivion chainmails, based on Phillipino armour. Colovian.

Duke's Guard Armor. It was purple in Morrowind, though instead of making it full silver, it's blackened steel with silver trim. Suitable for officers and honour guard of the nobles. Most romanesque, callbacks to original Morrowind guard armor. Nibenese.

Dragonscale Armor. Merge of the dragonscale and the other silver armor. Shiny polished steel reinforced with actual dragonscale. More Byzantine in looks, suitable for Legion commanders. Colovian.

Imperial Templar Ebony Armor. Merge of original Morrowind ebony and Templar armours, based on Phillipino armour. Suitable for Imperial Templar guards and Hlaalu nobles. Will have to do a variation with moths replaced by Hlaalu banner (the scales), but only cuirass. Nibenese.

Ravanna approved it tech-wise, and even though the shapes and details might still change a bit, this is the direction I'd like to take.

I like what you did there, Praefect. Shorter/no skirts for the grunts and all. The cloth on those helmets might make them look a bit too stealthy, though. And that colour scheme does look good, but is it lore-friendly, I wonder?

If I had to choose from those steel shoulder variants I'd definitely go for the third one. Just because it's closest to the Morrowind original. The other three are more like actual Roman pauldrons.

Nexos said:

For technical reasons, there will not be chainmail.

Does that mean no scale or lamellar, either? I think one way to make them look Roman-esque without making them straight-outta-HollywoodSkyrim would be to go with something Byzantine. For example, this or this.

I like the new concept, with the 3rd (basic roman) shoulder pad, the original one is too medival-ish (in my opinion). 

Still, my main problem is about the harness. If the general imperial steel armor is seen as too posh for the standard guard, I'm fine with that, but the steel harness was just too iconic to MW for screwing it, even that it was a copy. See below:

Nexos wrote:

This armor is basically a reproduction of Gladiator's armor.
https://faithljustice.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/russel-cro...

So what? Other armors in MW are done based on original concepts in this world too, take the orcish version for example (1/1 Samurai armor). This one even might have a harness that is based on a movie armor but together with some other roman concepts (helmet, bracers etc) and some special (shoulder pads) it creates something unique. All our other armors are based on the ones from MW itself, we want to have players who played the game remember the iconic stuff and the imperial armor is definitely iconic to Morrowind.

Till just now I didn't even know the harness was based on the gladiator movie, but doing art you're always copying from somewhere and putting it together from something new. If we make a new armor based on the old one it would be copying the copy, but the same would apply if we make a new one based on skyrim concepts together with breton/middle age inspired stuff.

The harness was so iconic to the imperials, everything is debatable, but keeping the harness, the black steel and the icons in our concept would be keeping a true MW icon.

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Guards also looked like this. By the way, this is also the armor you are given.
http://i43.tinypic.com/n2jrpu.jpg

that's the light armor, most of the soldiers were the heavy one which is the one with the black cuirass.


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And the muscled cuirass.
And the scrubbrush helmet.
And the leather strips.
And gladiator

True, but my point was rather that earlier people said that some concept looked "too-much" roman so the shoulder pads make it more unique but still keep the association roman.


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Yes, but this doesnt mean we have to draw everything from them. For instance, in the late Roman Empire, Byzantine riders, Parthan archers were included to the forces, and had different uniforms from the standard legionnary. Also, we're not recreating Rome.

No but recreating Roman-inspired armor.
 

Gothic_Freak wrote:

Till just now I didn't even know the harness was based on the gladiator movie, but doing art you're always copying from somewhere and putting it together from something new.

I was gonna say that that's just pure speculation, and that the two horses might've been a common Roman symbol. Then I found this:

http://www.gq.com/story/gladiator-movie-maximus-armor-costum...

It's pretty interesting. From the linked Reddit thread: "Although he just got his armor and hasn't fought in Rome yet he has already added two figurines to his new armor to symbolize the two fights he has won as a slave. The first, as he explains, are his horses Argento and Scarto."

The two opposing horses were used as a coat of arms long before the Gladiator movie, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Nigeria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_and_coat_of_arms_of_Penns...

They were even part of Amstel's logo for a long time, before they were replaced by lions:
http://www.jerseyfarmhotel.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/...

Perhaps Bethesda drew their inspiration from Amstel? Who knows what those guys are drinking.

Edit: Don't know who's downvoted me here, but let me clarify myself: that last comment was a joke. Just providing some background info on the symbol, is all.

I'm pretty sure the horses were a Gladiator ripoff, but one of our former concept artists made a version with more lore-friendly symbolism, that I was quite fond of. Still looks fitting, but it's ancestor moths, saltrice and Imperial dragon.


 

Cesare wrote:

HomoPuerRobustus wrote:

Does that mean no scale or lamellar, either?

It does. Not on any part that streches: abdomen, articulations, parts that will behave using cloth-simulation.

Here's what Smartinius made based on my concept:



It's in game and playing with it I haven't noticed any bad looking stretching.
There's also this in Skyrim:



I get that it's more time consuming and hard to make, and I'm all for making it easier on the modeller where possible. I just don't think we have to shit our pants from a few scales on the cuirass when this stuff works. I have no idea where this scale paranoia came from, but if every armor in the game is either metal plate armor or leather plate armor... Well, that's not a great variation to say the least.

Double post, sorry about that.

I'll add that I like Gothic's idea for the pauldrons, would be a good way to show that Imperials aren't just Romans, and would also be consistent with the direction of Morrowind's legion style.

Also, I haven't seen this here, another early stage of the Templar armor with what appears to be the Elder font (which are the same characters that appear on imbued ancestor silk) on the helmet, as well as moth symbolism on the chestplate.

According to Michael Kirkbride, "The Red Dome Templars were psycho-crusaders who drank the blood of Talos to get short-term martial shouting powers. The rest of the Army hated them (and much of the Elder Council wanted them dispersed), which is mainly why they were shoved off to places like Morrowind."

Of the latest set posted by Nexos, I prefer the length of leather armor #2, because the point is to protect the thighs rather than to show off how shapely they are. I like the style of leather pauldrons #2–4 more than #1 because they are more interesting, and #3 & #4 more than #2 because of the added width (again, upper arm protection). Helmet #1 looks like a sapper's helmet, which I wouldn't expect to see outside of Caldera or Gnisis, and #3 looks best for dealing with dust and blight storms.

As for metal armors, the #1 pauldrons look more Morrowind-like, but I think the leather-flaps under #2 add a nice touch. I think I like all the pauldrons other than #4 & #5, in part because I don't know what function that notch serves. I think the addition of the cut-outs on the #1 cuirass is nice without looking gaudy or nobleman-level ornate.

For both leather and metal armor, I wonder what the buckles are doing down the middle of each cuirass. That is where I would most want a solid piece of thick leather or metal rather than a seam. I'd put the seams under the arms.

I like very design of leather variants. I hope full metal cuirasses will be dispersed only on high officers.
I am not sure that guard would use metal armor everyday.
They live in pretty peaceful (to legion) country, where combatants are Six House, random bandits and Wild Nature only.

Nice work indeed, people. Once again I completely agree with Praefect's comments and changes. The leather flap + pointy pauldrons combo, the baggy pants and darker (boiled) leather. Whatever kind of realism you're going for, guards shouldn't look like skinny archers. Two buckles instead of three = good as well.

I also like how Nexos added the skirt diamond as cut-outs. Perhaps it's an idea to use those on the leather armor, since it's easier to punch holes in leather and it'll make them look a bit less ornamental.

And I want to second everything HomoPuerRobustus said. Long skirts are of no use if they're not made of/covered with protective material, and they make the guards look a bit too effeminate.

Dragomir wrote:

Also, many armours throughout history didn't offer much protection for legs or upper arm, simply because these parts are hard to protect without either limiting the movement, or plate pieces that are shaped for the measurements of the person. Hell, Roman armor didn't do that at all most of the time.

...

3, 4, 5 and 6 just seem unnecessarily complicated to me.

I don't know anything about armour, but searching for Roman pauldrons gives you this: link. Heaps of pauldrons similar to no. 3, 4, 5 and 6. I don't like them either, but they might be historically accurate.

Witchhunter wrote:

I don't know anything about armour, but searching for Roman pauldrons gives you this: link. Heaps of pauldrons similar to no. 3, 4, 5 and 6. I don't like them either, but they might be historically accurate.

Smitehammer wrote:

So sure, the Empire could get by loosely based after the Romans at first, but that was centuries ago.  In the real world the Roman style armors went by the wayside as humans developed new techniques which were better for the type of warfare they were engaging in. Armors of the middle ages. Play Oblivion (which takes place 4 years after Morrowind) there's nothing Roman-looking. The segmented Roman armor was never a thing in the ES Universe, as far as I know. The armors from the Knights of the Nine expansion looked like something straight out of King Arthur, and he was trouncing around in the first era (though he may have been a time-traveling cyborg... nevermind). Don't tell me ours looks too 'medieval'. That's the type of period we're working with.

Nexos wrote:

In fact, it's only the steel and the templar armor that look roman.

Helmet, gauntlets and boots are shared between both armors, medium and steel. And these are clearly roman

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I am not against keeping the idea of the muscled/linen cuirass. But having such an ornate armor for the basic guards is not a good idea. We could use Severin's idea (moth, saltrice, etc) on richer ones.

I hope so :) All the basic melee soldiers, not guards, of the Legion use these cuirasses.

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I agree on that, they shouldn't. But a basic version of a muscular cuirass, maybe even with some dirt could totally work here 

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Copy-pasting from a movie to a game is not what i call creative. But we're not discussing that either.

same argument goes for medieval styled helmets/armor though. What matters is how you adjust your inspiration in the end, not where it comes from.
 

I vote for 

leather armor 2, helmet 5, shoulder 2

metal armor 1 (love the boots), shoulder 6

It's not leather, but ebony. Based after this. 

Alright, you're the lore guys. It was simply a suggestion. But I'd classify chainmail as medium armor if anything.

I'm with Mace here, the concept looks like dark leather for the chest piece due to the stitching. A more solid and slightly more bulky chest piece would look sturdier and more intimidating and "heavy", right now it looks akin to elven armour in skyrim or even lighter (minus the heavy plated helmet). I think an alternative take would be worthwhile doing a quick paint-over of the chest.