Most peoples idea of armour is medieval european armour which is basically full body armour and roman centurions didn't even wear that much. But considering that your average Celt went into battle wearing nothing at all it was probably sufficient...

Celts used armor, they invented mail.Not all of them used it since it was expensive, but still not nvde and those that actually went into combat nvde were a small minority.

Nor would the roman legionary.And you wouldn't wear the plate armor when marching .

Well LARP armor is usually heavier than real armor.Espcially the plate armor which is often terrible fitted.

You guys missed the point - after that kind of a workout carrying that much weight (and not even close to 150 lbs.), you're pretty spent and not in a good position for a hand-to-hand battle.

They did... I didn't. As I said before weight is relative to what you are doing and how. I used to back-pack quiet a bit...packing was a very careful thing... to heavy and you can't walk far, to light and you might have forgotten something you need.... point is, at the end of the day, hiking, your tired. I could not imagine hiking at my best pace for the majority of the day, then fighting with a weighted weapon with the pack's weight...which would probably be less than most "metal" armors.

In Oblivion I made a combat mod that requires you to drop your "back pack" of inventory to the ground for a fight otherwise you would lose stamina very quickly. I like anything that makes the game more believable, But there is also a thing called "quality of life" in games as well. Some things can be considered to be done automatically by your actor and not NEED to be done by the player, less it becomes so real that you do not have enough time in the day to play the game.

For example I would not be able to play any game that did not have fast travel, otherwise I would have to either give up making mods or give up my job. I do not want to stop making mods and I cannot give up my job.

However you should not get a lot of unbelievable advantage (an advantage that would work against immersion) from this "quality of life" game conveniences. For example if say you are allowed to drink a potion in combat your should have to play a drink animation that would also make you vulnerable to attacks.

(drink animation is in my oblivion and skyrim combat mod)

^ True, armor being like real life just wouldn't be practical in a game.