Morroblivion

Historically, as steel plate armours became more prevalent, knights began to use smaller shields or none at all as they were unnecessary due to the excellent protection afforded by the armour [citation needed]. Therefore I think a small steel buckler, as suggested by dragomir, is best for the small shield, as this fits with the knightly function and also fills a niche not explored by other shield types. I really like the central example provided by dragomir, and the one in the picture, they have a lot of character. For the larger shield, my first thought is of the pavise shield used by crossbowmen, mainly to protect from arrows (pic attached). This is actually one of the few examples in history I can think of of an actual 'tower shield' being used, outside of antiquity. Missile protection seems like a good excuse for such a large shield, if the wearer is using steel armour. I agree that a solid steel tower shield would be as useful as a chocolate kettle, but the large wooden/leather space on a pavise-like shield could allow for some interesting motifs to reflect the Cyrodiilian origin.

My general idea usually is that the higher tier the armor/weapon is, the less realistic (and more awsum) it can afford to be. It does make a bit of sense if you think about it - a person clad in ebony armor that is super durable but twice the weight of steel is usually suited for combat challenges that were never a thing in the real world - supernatural opponents. And also, at the time they get to that armor and these opponents in their development, they're usually pretty supernaturally strong themselves already.

But that logic is pretty irrelevant for most people, thing is - what it adds to the game experience though. It simply makes you FEEL that you're becoming supernaturally powerful as you progress and upgrade your gear to more and more fabulous stuff.

Therefore iron, steel, leather etc. I like to have a bit more realism with, just so that they seem to make sense when used by an average Joe.

I wouldn't mind changing the shapes to be more fluid, or seeing some painted ideas for multi-material steel shields, but I still like the idea of it being an extended buckler. It just seems right to me. And bucklers historically didn't develop for knights, they started off as a civil shield for personal defense, because they were really easy to carry around, which makes great sense for an adventurer too.

All these shapes would make pretty amazing shields so it's hard to pick just one. You've done very well so far and these designs look like you have put a lot of thought into them. If I had to pick my favourites though I would go for 8 for the normal shield and 14 for the tower shield.

You're pumping these put like crazy, awesome!. I'm leaning towards 9 and 14 as they maintain some sight when you hold them up. The other look really good too, but these two have something practical to them. And I like a-symmetrical stuff. :) Overall, really nice ideas!

Tower shield #9 looks really interesting, same as #14.
Noice job 

I like 11 for normal and 5 for tower shield.

Tower shield #9 looks very unique, I love it!

This isn't the final texture for steel armor by the way, at least it's different from what I saw from Ravanna. The battle damage is too heavy on this one.

The general direction of this armor in comparison to iron, was that while iron is just bits and bobs cobbled together by a bandit in a cave - this one is the first PROFFESSIONAL equipment you can lay your hands upon. Too heavy battle damage would suggest otherwise, but it needs to look very worn and used. So many tiny surface scratches, but avoid big dents and ESPECIALLY cuts. You can't cut though steel, and adding deep cut marks make it look like leather.

I also don't like the idea of giving it chains and scales - it's basically like having a floppy sword made of scales, or a car made of rubber ducks.

As it is a proffessional armor, but still rather simple and practical in design - shield should follow the same direction. With what it is, a regular shield needs to have its up and down somewhat similar, so that the grip is in the middle of weight. It'd also make it look less like the horrible Skyrim imperial shields, and less generic.

This seems a bit more balanced I think.

Maybe not as deep as the boat, but I'd be fine with it being convex and having a ridge instead of an umbo (as long as the hand will fit inside it).

Zdenatz takes a break from Skywind for his studies, so I will finish the steel shields for him. Depending on his great work, I´ld like to finish the detailed form for the normal shield, before we create the tower shield in detail. Therefore I drawed this:

I worked with the second shape from Zdenatz last post. I didn´t remove the shield boss (can still be done, of course) because I think, the shield will fit better to more different armors with it; besides the steel armour of course :P. I mind the steel shield as a base item, recently dropped ingame by stronger bandits or worn by adventurers/ mercenaries. 

We have a light and handy, but also well-crafted shield now. A wooden base with a bulge to the front, the edges and the boss are smithed of the typical blackened steel. The front is covered with leather, the rough stitches remind on other dunmer-crafted shields (swipers Netch leather shield for example).

What do you think?

 

Looks way too D&D and knightly in shape for my tastes. Not only following a generic knight shield pattern that is in every fantasy RPG ever, but it's also very unrealistic due to misconceptions about its function.

The rim kind of feels the same way, due to how wide it is it seems way oversized, which again is a typical fantasy stuff - oversized rims to highilight EVERY plate, resulting in World of Warcraft look. Not to mention if you're adding a boss, at least make it functional - the hand goes INSIDE it, not behind it.

Objectively it's a well done concept and it would be fitting for many other games, it just goes against everything I had in mind for this armor, drawing it closer to the fantasy knight cliché. I still think some sort of an expanded buckler would fit it much better, and then more materials could be used for the tower shield.




Something that seems to be meant for active parrying as opposed to static blocking, and easy to carry around. Rectangular would be good too, and somewhat more reminiscent of the original (even though original was utter rubbish). Sorry for being so negative, but that's just my opinion, and I'm a bit touchy about that particular set.

I'm glad to hear that, and I'd have to live with it if everyone else disagrees, I just have a terrible urge to speak my mind on different topics :P

Sablestone did. You were the only one to critique it, and you critiqued parts that could easily be changed to suit the armor while keeping it still as a bigger buckler.

I've never seen one shape approved, at least 4 were.

I'm not pushing for the buckler idea again, I'm explaining why the current one doesn't work for me, and how it could be changed to not resemble the awful generic fantasy heater shields so much.

aim for pure metal, similar dark painting versions too, so we can show off our new environment map reflection and shaders.
wood is meh.
shapes are all good so far

Considering the shape of the armour set, I think C works best. They're all cool, though.

I like them all, and the C shape seems better in all metal. I like B especially, but maybe a touch too alien this time? Could be just a matter of texturing, and adding rivets for at least the grip inside.

Here's a slightly simplified blend of all of them, little bit less alien, I think it would fit well.


Sorry for the roughness of this drawing, I'm short on time right now.

Any critiques for tower sketches? If not, I´ld prefer D...

Small shield looks awesome, great work! For the tower shield, I like the overall shape but to me they all look a bit too complex and quirky, although perhaps this is just from not seeing them in colour and not being able to tell what's made of what material. I'd say though that perhaps a simpler design with just a leather cover and perhaps a generic emblem, perhaps just some basic colouration would work well.

I strongly oppose tower shields being mainly steel, that's another generic fantasy cliche I'd really like to avoid - huge slabs of metal. I'm happy with how the small shield looks, but for the tower ones I'd also go a bit simpler. The main focus of this set is to look proffessional, in contrast to iron, which is similar material but just cobbled together. So same shape, wood covered with leather, steel rims and mayb some fittings would be enough for me to do the job. In that sense A is my favourite, but I'd still mayhaps make it a touch more like some reality example. It's just fitting for this set.

Would you be so kind to bring in these examples? Only ones I could think of are Greek hoplons which weren't really that big, and usually wooden with not so thick bronze sheet on the surface. Note that bronze is also considerably lighter than steel and can be worked to much thinner sheets since it's softer.

Other examples I know of are some high medieval pavises - these shouldn't really be ever categorized as shields though, and rather as siege equipment. They would be way too heavy to use in combat, especially melee, and they were deployed with a stand to give cover to crossbowmen.

It'd be really interesting to know about any other ones ;)

And really, I don't like the idea that a "steel" shield has to be mainly steel. Do you also want steel spears and arrows to have steel shafts? I think it will be enough if the main material is simply the most noticeable thing, doesn't mean it has to be the most of the shield, but it should be the main reinforcement in crucial points.

Dragomir wrote:

Do you also want steel spears and arrows to have steel shafts?

That's an excellent point, and I don't disagree.

Dragomir wrote:

Would you be so kind to bring in these examples?

I had in mind medieval heater shields / smaller kite shields, which were sometimes plated in thin metal and are arguably the archetypal medieval shield. I can't seem to actually find any museum photos of such shields, though. Was also thinking about European bucklers/rodelas and Greek aspis (as you mentioned). That said, none of these would be the size of a Morrowind tower shield.

 

They look great! F, I, and J are my favourites of those. The top row all seem a little too decorative for a fairly standard shield, and G and H feel like they have the steel in the wrong place, as the majority of the attacks would be shoulder height slashes to the sides or chops down on the top (although I guess that they would be weighted well).

Maybe you could mix I and J; take the base of J, and add the centre piece from I. Then you have the main areas of attack enforced, a boss-type-thing for shield bashes, and a counter weight at the bottom.

E for me. Looks more fun ;)