[COMPLETED - ARMOR CONCEPT] Iron shield

Looks promising, all I'll say is keep in mind to keep any design/iconography generic enough a bandit or a noble member of house redoran would use it. Bringing in some simple dunmeri decorative shapes/angles would be a good way to round out the style while keeping in mind the look of the existing armour set.

Edit: might make sense to ignore the tower shield design from morrowind as it looks imperial in design and our imperial stuff will have their own shields.

I think you have good refs.

I would agree with Taerkalith and say that the tower shield should not look like the one in vanilla Morrowind, 'cause too imperial. But the refs you found are interesting. It just needs to fit with the armour, so nothing too fancy.

Keep up the good work ! :)

I think they look great, and i'm also glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't want to get rid of the Imperial Influence of morrowind.

Tower shield example 1 looks very nice! Maybe could be used as reference for an unique shield or some special guard armour (imperial dukes armor perhaps)?

Don't forget that the Imperial influence is because of the long-time Imperial occupation of Vvardenfel.

Maybe 1-2 variations would be a good idea to break the designs up into different cultures

 

I'm eager to see the progress, keep it up!

This shield just looks like a scavenged imperial shield. I think we are looking for something more home-made. If we need a decayed imperial shield, it will be made after the imperial shields are done.
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Something like a reinforced wicker shield, or a somewhat rotten wooden shield.

You could have them with holes, filled with leather, chainmail, or another kind of wood.
Like Denial, in diablo 3

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Nexos

Welp, I did this for iron shields a long time ago: [External image]

Both are wood with lots of iron components. I'm very much against big plates of metal, especially with low tier shields. Mainly for the reason of realism and practicality, but also for more complexity in its looks. Not to mention that iron even though it's cheap, with really cheap makeshift armor and weapons it wouldn't be used in abundance. Ebony shield can be made fully out of metal, but iron I wouldn't say so.

The tower shield here is based on medieval pavises, with addition of more metal. I'd be happy to lose it, but people were arguing that it looked too much like "wooden" and not enough like iron. To me, the name should imply what the main component is made of, not the predominant material - so iron shield would be wooden with an iron shield boss and perhaps rim. Same way iron spear doesn't need an iron shaft. it's covered at the front with netch hide, as it's the most common leather found in Morrowind, and having a shield with bare planks at the front is a really, really bad idea (even with all these iron reinforcements).

The non-tower shield I thought best shape would be round, and convex. That somewhat calls back to Morrowind, but making it whole metal is really a silly idea. Even as an 11 year old when playing Morrowind for the first time I thought it looked ridiculously heavy. I'd be happy with replacing wood for something else, wicker tied with silk strands would be great, like turkish kalkan:
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Perhaps still covered with netch hide.

A thing to note: center grip is the way to go. That's how Skyrim shields are and what animations will be suited for. They won't support the double forearm strap, and thank Gods for that, because it's a really sill leftover misconception from 80's fantasy. Pretty much all dedicated infantry shields ever (scuto, dark age barbaric shields, viking age shields, pavises, bucklers - exclude greek hoplons) had a central grip. And for a good reason, it's more comfortable especially with round shields, allows for more manouverability, lets you put it far in front of you to give more coverage. But of course, Skyrim couldn't just have it right. See, that metal thing in the middle isn't there for decoration. Skyrim shields had a flat shield boss, and the handle that made it look like a trash bin cover. That'd be beyond uncomfortable to manouver. You need your hand in the very center of gravity, which is why they'd make a round hole in the shield, put a handle to it, and cover your hand with a shield boss. That makes most sense and frankly looks best, and should work with Skyrim animations.

Anyway, I'd be happy to have something more crudely made and damaged, to go better with the armor, but I think a pavise and a round shield, both center grip, wicker or wood covered with netch hide and iron fittings would fit well.

EDIT: Some reference photos

How a shield is held:
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As I was describing, the handle is in line with the shield, allowing the hand to be in the very center of gravity, and the metal boss protects it.

This grip allows for:
Much more manouverability, and defense reach, but I covered that in above.

Proper shield bash with good reach, with a rim, and not with a flat like they do it in game (totally useless irl)
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Concealed weapons :D

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Why not make shields out of bare planks?
Shield with no cover, that was hit two times:
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Shield with leather cover, hit 5 times:
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As you can see, the hits still went through, but the rawhide stretched and glued on the front still keeps it together, and therefore, useful.

Shields with double straps, the cushion for forearm and all that were used indeed. But almost never by infantry - by mounted warriors. Knightly kite shield easily loses to a round center grip shield in a fight on the ground, I tested it myself :P Same for norman kite shields, and even convex round shield with double straps. All these are designed for usage on horseback. Even looking at the shape of them at the bottom - it fits a horse's side. In high middle ages the main infantry shield was pavise, which again, has a center grip.

Right, this is all historical ramblings now, doesn't necessarily apply to fantasy, game engine will let you have a fully functional shield made of meatloaf in tomato sauce, but it might be useful as reference to at least understand how these things work in reality, and go away from it as a conscious decision for good reasons, and not just out of ignorance.
 

I like how the materials feel in 2nd image top left corner. You could keep the rim of 2nd image 1st row middle, while having it partially destroyed, rusty, or badly fixed. 3rd column has a cool shape. 

I wouldn't have the Moon and Star emblem. I wouldn't have any emblem at all, to be honest. It's a rather common shield, and i doubt we'll be able to afford more than one texture map. Having all these people wearing the same emblem would feel weird. 

I like how the middle one from the second image looks, I'd just give it a proper convex shield boss sticking out, and a slightly narrower rim. The iron fittings are far from overdone, but they give the shield a touch more "heavy" identity, and they seem like they'd add quite a bit of structural strength.

All of them are way too complex in shape. These shields should be the simplest stuff we show, 1 and 10 kind of work with just being an oval, but then the way they're faced with hide seems a little bit pointless.

When all other weapons in iron set are re-purposed peasant's tools,
i expected to see as iron shield a wooden cave door with some rusty riveting/coating on it.

Yeah, the iron shields should be very crude and simplistic. A basic, rough, improvised shield, just like the weapon and armour sets.

Some Celtic shield designs for inspiration; in some of these the iron boss is quite large, which might satisfy some of the people wanting to see more iron in the iron shield.

Given that the direction this is going in is that this is the shield to match iron-tier armor rather than a shield made of iron (which is good), we may want to give it a different name in game.

I like 1 and 3 for a tower shield, but I think the shields still look too clean and 'professional'. To match the armour set, they need to look rough, weathered, and improvised. Less straight lines and symmetry, basically.

2 looks the cheapest and simplest to craft. Judging from the armor, I think that is what you should be going for. 

What about leather covering with metal bracing on wooden construction connected with these shapes?

you can make it much more primitive.
imagine shield made by goblin pack with deficient of wood and iron
it could be basically chipped barrel.

 

I agree that the shield needs to be way more damaged and rusted, with missing pieces  chipped parts and multiple reinforcements visible to fix damages. These look almost like new, even the wood looks new, wood when exposed to the elements changes color to grey (today we have lacquers that allow us to keep same fresh color indefinatly, but in medieval times you either have new fresh wood, grey wood or painted wood). Leather covering can cover part of the wood, to show how cheaply it is made. IMO, the cool factor of iron shields doesn't come from the form of the shield, but from damage and that layered look old equipment gets after changing hands half a dozen times, since each owner adds something/fixes something, etc

A good technique would be to take shapes and other elements directly from the armour itself. Check out Chaos Child's ebony armour shield concept, I'm just passing on the same idea she used. 
As a (really quick) example you could do something like:
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Of course, it would need something other than iron so it wouldn't weigh a ton. You can do a much better job than I can lol. But you can also take into account the types of materials the armour itself uses (scraps of leather/stitched leather, cloth, etc. 

But I think the main idea is that it's something a bandit could build in a cave... with a box of scraps, rather than made by a professional armorer at a smithy. Alysander's 'half of a barrel' or 'wooden cave door with some rusty riveting' idea is pretty cool too: 

Another example I made

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Just some ideas.. 
But you've done a really great job so far, man. Keep it up





 

These designs are already much better, keep it up!

One thing I can suggest - the iron armor's base is a netch leather suit. That's how it was actually modelled, and it was the intention behind it. Using netch leather as a cover, with its characteristic crude stiching would be a good idea I think. Look at these (sorry, I'm short on time and can't find good frontal pics, if anyone could provide it'd be really helpful):

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With different silhouette for the tower one and some more iron fittings they'd work perfectly as iron shields, especially since for the actual netch leather shields we have much better designs already in the works.

That's great references, Praefect.
That would be nice to depict some caves in BC as contrabands' iron_mines/forges producing tools of this quality
(should be anyway much better than chitine).

It doesnt take an entire month to design 2 shields
Stop listening to noobs and just design it yourself, listen only to drago and Nexos, and compromise between them.

Need final design within 2-3 days plz, got a guy waiting to make this, and the rest of the weapon set.

Stop listening to noobs and just design it yourself, listen only to drago and Nexos, and compromise between them.

No.
Get your guy started on the weapon set, if you want. The iron weapons don't need to look the same as the shield, which is an armour piece. 

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The best shapes you have so far, in my opinion. The round shields are mostly here for texture. You need a bit of iron, but your tower shields look too professional. 

I've allowed myself to make a patchwork with your stuff.

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I don't think we have the luxury of waiting for concepts if the modelers are there, unfortunately. It's just how we have to work because of our situation.

There are 3-4 most ideal concepts with lot of diversity in category.
I wonder if anyone could want more.

That would be great to have them all in 3d, or at least set of: tower shield, small shield, custom shield (made by player for example);

I go with that. The second is perfect for shield and tower would be 3. 1 is very cool but too overpowered for first shield ingame. Can be used for some bandits to add diversity in loot.

That's not 1st shield ingame, i presume.
Rating is close to chitin (but maybe it would have sense to make chitin less powered) and have rating 2x of Netch Leather shield.

But anyway, there could be diversity of shields, made from same materials.

Nexos, I like your design in isolation, but aren't we in danger of having too many tower shields with that asymmetrical cut-out look? The armun-an tower, netch leather tower and possibly the steel tower are all headed in that direction. My vote goes towards something looking like a patched-up half of a barrel or something. And maybe the square side of a crate for the small shield?

Coherent style doesn't bother me, no ^^

But it's the artist's call, not mine.

 

I don't see why a shield cobbled together by a bandit in a cave would be in a consistent style with tribal ashlander netch shields and Hlaalu guards shields :P I agree that we can go for more variety in here.

Here's something simplistic, with iron fittings and some destruction:

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Because you tend to copy the shapes around you. But do what you want, i don't care that much.

Geez, so much debating about one shield. It reminds me old good times. Anyway there is a lot of good stuff to use. Cool is that now modeler has great freedom to choose.

I think Nexos is right about why there would be certain styles that would be shared among inhabitants who do not share a culture. But I think the wood boards showing through in both Nexos's and Dragomir's version is a bit too unique: these things will be lying all over the place and the player is likely to see hundreds of identically worn shields over the course of a play-through. I think age and low quality should come across in terms of color and scratches rather than outright missing pieces.

^agreed, other than that though dragomir's example looks great IMO

Looks great. Shitty yet believable. The perfect tier 0 shield.

CrustyCroissant approves. [External image]

really digging the old boards look for this shield

I agree, perfect lowbie shield option that offers minimal protection.

Put that umbo lower down, right now it looks unbalanced af. Not that a bandit in a cave would be able to make it balanced, but it will look really, really wonky with Skyrim animations.

Other than that ready to be modelled.

Methinks that's too good crafted. It have some design and excessive materials to be made.
Drago's odd job from wood, iron details and leather looks more suitable for thing made in cave.

Look on central part of this thing - that's better (and uses more iron) than iron helm/cap itself!
 

 

I like it, it´s normal enough for crappy bandits but much more interesting than early loot shields in skyrim or many others fantasy-rpgs. Great!!!