» Wed Jul 06, 2011 8:08 am 3) Is armor handled like in Oblivion (with each body part being welded together) or in Morrowind (with each body part separate)? Will you be able to wear both clothes and armor at the same time?
Matt: The armor system is very similar to Oblivion’s. The main difference is that the upper and lower body armors, the cuirass and greaves, have been combined into one piece. This helps create armor styles that have the look we needed for Skyrim. In most of the Nordic designs we created, the upper armor would completely cover the lower armor, making it unnecessary. We get much better visual results combining those pieces, and it renders a lot faster too, so we can put more people on screen, so that was an easy tradeoff for us. We can also make a lot more armors now, so the number and variation types are more than we’ve ever had.
Matt: The armor system is very similar to Oblivion’s. The main difference is that the upper and lower body armors, the cuirass and greaves, have been combined into one piece. This helps create armor styles that have the look we needed for Skyrim. In most of the Nordic designs we created, the upper armor would completely cover the lower armor, making it unnecessary. We get much better visual results combining those pieces, and it renders a lot faster too, so we can put more people on screen, so that was an easy tradeoff for us. We can also make a lot more armors now, so the number and variation types are more than we’ve ever had.
Note that he completely evaded addressing the clothes question at all. The closest thing to that is "very similar to Oblivion's." That, to me, makes it pretty much certain that being able to layer clothing and armor is entirely out (not that I ever really expected it to be in, but I did have some vague hope). In addition, he said simply that "the cuirass and greaves have been combined into one piece." No exceptions - no "in some cases" - nothing like that. Just a flat statement. That, to me, strongly implies that they'll be combined in ALL cases, which means that it will also be impossible to wear pants with a cuirass or greaves with a shirt (or with a bare chest, as two of my characters in Oblivion do).
And I'd even go so far as to say that the justification for the combination also makes it unlikely that clothing will be split - that the only things available will be the "outfits" in Oblivion, in order to "get much better visual results" and "render a lot faster." That last though is merely conjecture.
Something to chew on.....
