If you thought all mix-match armour looked like [CENSORED] in Morrowind then: http://s1090.photobucket.com/albums/i372/ncb417/?action=view¤t=IHATEFULLARMOURSETS.jpg&t=1314987644964
In my opinion that looks great, and there are several of other goodlooking armours to mix-match with each other, (fx: snow bear armour with stalrhim left pauldron, gaunlet, and shield)...

Another good reason to have mix-match armour is if they had made a few kinds of armour like Bonemold in Morrowind, several different styles of the same type, allowing for amazing customation within the individual sets.

A likely BS reason for the armour combining is that it allows for more NPC's on the screen: For as others have pointed out if this was really an issue than my PS3 would crash whenever I brought two trolls and five bandits into town and tried to gather ever npc there by hitting 'em and running... if this was really a that bad issue I am certain Bethesda would have waited 'till nextgen of consoles came out... and besides how can an extra armour slot (with the exact same amount of verticles as it would have if combined) really add that much more? (I ain't that knowledgable about this but it really doesn't make sense to me.

Another crappy reason for the greave-cuirass merge is that "most cuirass cover most of the legs." I mean seriously? so what if I'm just wearing a shirt, or if I'm not wearing a shirt I'll be forced into underwear...
and that even would make more sence merging boots than cuirass? (which I'm also against) I mean then I'd atleast be able to not wear a shirt but still have pants.

And the final reason was that it allowed for more freedom to the designer... which neither merging pauldrons 'nor greaves do, Seen that elven armour? this one: http://www.elderscrolls.com/skyrim/media/screenshots/cave/ you can even see that its a vest underneath those clavicles, if seperated the designer would simply have to finish the vest, and then once you equip pauldrons the clavicles would go ontop... I doupt even Daedric armour would stick out so much that it would go through the clavicles, after all there is no reason to make it thicker as both are plate... sure they'd have to make it less spicky at the top... which according to this concept art: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8613775/Skyrim/LedererPics/DaedricArmor.jpg is infact only part of the pauldrons.
And this is infact the only (slightly) proper reason for the merge.

EDIT: And people please try to keep a civil discution.
EDIT: And when quoting whole long posts like mine, please remove the text (makes it alot more nice scrolling through.

I think it would have made more sense to merge greaves with boots tbh. I would have preferred that too. Then it would have been like an upper and lower body slot.

You speak the truth!

so wld you have rather waited till nexgen consoles come out to play the next TES game :confused: ?

Because thats what your making it sound like an id rly hate this seeing as the last time I checked theres no new consoles coming out and probably wont be coming out for a very long time. :facepalm:

Get over it, it's happening and it's still going to be awesome. The pros of having more armour variants, more NPCs, less clipping and whatever outweighs "MORE SLOTS DERPPP".

And Lol@Civil discussion you sound angrier than a bird who's had it's eggs stolen.

What is with this next-gen console crap? If Morrowind can do this on whatever it was designed to run on, nothing, and I mean nothing, stops either current-generation "powerhouse" console from doing the same except possibly Bethesda's own decisions on what takes precedence. It's just a few more meshes to render at any given time and one could duplicate that same effect by simply dropping a few items in the middle of a settlement.

even a broken clock is right twice a day

I never have to worry about the amount of armor slots because I have a PC and know how to use blender, at least bethesda offers modding

Hey, I'm not happy either but it will still be a great game nonetheless.

Same here... then I could rid myself of a shirt, without having to forsake pants as well.

I guess the people of Skyrim will just have to get used to being saved by a functionally-naked khajiit warrior. Fortunately, Khajiit fur looks absolutely awesome this time around, so I guess that's actually a win for everyone.

Did you read my entire post? My explanation is almost identical to the other guy bellows... Sorry if I didn't make it clear enough... its quite late over here and I'm tired.

I am in no way disagreeing with you... can't wait! 11. 11. 11.!!!

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 they needed for Skyrim. In most of the Nordic designs they created, the upper armor would completely cover the lower armor, making it unnecessary. They get much better visual results combining those pieces, and it renders a lot faster too, so they can put more people on screen, so that was an easy tradeoff for them. They can also make a lot more armors now, so the number and variation types are more than they've ever had.

not the most impressive display of mixing and matching I've seen but your point is noted.

The only extra strain put on any platform by separating a few armor pieces is that the given platform simply needs to recognize that the meshes are separate... but said platform wouldn't need to render any extra polygons or textures and when the armor is on an NPC or the PC, it wouldn't even need to render phsyics for it... so dropping a few physics based items in town or luring a few AI-controlled enemies that do constitute more textures and polygons on screen would actually have a greater impact than simply separating an existing mesh into separate parts.

The flaw in this line of reasoning is the assumption of an upper part.

no big deal

I'm sorry but all I'm seeing here is "whine, whine, whine". They merged the armour, so what? They said there will be more variants this time around. Maybe you can toggle the top on and off like the helmets in Mass Effect? Bethesda has their reasons and I'm sure that they are good ones. If it is really that much of an issue to you, get it on PC and mod it. Don't say "oh but I only play it on console" or "my PC won't be able to run it" if it really mattered to you then you would source a PC good enough. Otherwise it's "tough [censored]" and you'll have to deal with a minor detraction from armour slots for the benefit of better looking armour, no clipping issues and more NPCs/creatures/physics enabled items on screen. Since enchanting is now a skill we might be able to have better and/or more enchantments on a single piece.

The flaw in this comment is the fact you don't know what you're talking about. My comment was word for word a dev response. I just swapped out "we" for "they"

You're arguing is flawed and unreasonable.

whats done is done.

make a racket when TES VI is being produced

Well if you read the OP before deciding it was whine, whine, whine then you'd know that I responded to every single reason they've posted... And I play on a PC, but last I checked it was IMPOSSIBLE to mod in more armor slots... (Morrowind)
And your reply was TWICE as whining as mine...

is that the actual design for daedic armor? I hope it is, looks sick

I'm pretty sure.

Yay haha, looks much better than oblivions version, it looks more constructive and doesn't look as random, if u get me

Definatly agree here!

Modding community, here is an issue worth tackling. Console owners, better luck next time.