I was just thinking about the un-realistic use of heavy armor in Oblivion and Morrowind. What are your thoughts?

I think you should be able to swim in Heavy Armour (even though I said 'no'), just make swimming speed slower. Make mounts a bit slower, too.

Just make it limit or slow down movement and actions partially.

There needs to be more disadvantages to heavy armor otherwise there is no real reason besides roleplaying a character type to use light armor or no armor over heavy armor.

How about instead of just heavy armor, you just make it overall weight. If someone is wearing leather and 300lbs of stuff, they're going to sink and slow things down just like that guy wearing 300lbs of daedric armor

Sorry, i worded it wrong. I did mean that it would slow you down but not completely stop all together :rolleyes:

I would want swimming to be possible in heavy armour, but slowed down. Moving on mounts while wearing heavy armour should be slowed down a little too. However, I think jumping should not be affected by armour just for convenience so that armour would not have to be stripped off when trying to get to the other side of a broken bridge, etc.

I think it should be slower, but can improve based on strength. For example, let's say there are two characters, one with light armor and one with heavy. They have the same strength. The heavy armor guy goes slower. Let's say his strength is now 2 higher than the light armor guy's. Now they can move at the same speed.

Light Armor is much lighter. Better armor for carrying more stuff, or being able to drop all the stuff you collected and fight with more speed and agility than someone in heavy armor. Plus, armor types has never really changed my choice of armor in the first place. Hell, I've got a mage-stealth character in MW that wears NO armor, and he kicks all sorts of butt.

Perfect

Yes to all. Swimming, running and horseriding can be slower /w Heavy Armor.

This I also voted for "No" for the swimming, don't know why though

The Elder Scrolls isn't meant to be "realistic," so I've never had a problem with swimming in heavy armor. The thing of it is this: if the defensive point difference of light and heavy armor was SO high, then I'd totally agree to all of those limitations. But the truth is that light armor will always come out to be around the same value of defense as heavy armor if its skill is trained high enough, so why nerf heavy armor when it's already heavier by encumbrance and slow us down in agility and movement enough as it is? Not to mention that the heavy armors of the game are not so cumbersome that they'd slow down any horse, and your hero is supposed to be pretty epic - I think he can handle swimming or jumping in whatever he's wearing.

Heavy armor's biggest disadvantage is its excessive amount of weight. In Morrowind, if you had a full set of daedric armor, you wouldn't be picking up much of anything, especially if your strength wasn't topped at 100. Oblivion was a little more lenient, but both had restrictions. Also, it's the weight that you're carrying that makes you unable to jump as high or run as fast, and I don't believe that it should be the armor type.

No to slowing down mounts. A horse is not going to be encumbered by just a little bit more weight.

So you think it is more realistic to take off the heavy armor - put on light armor and carry the heavy armor along with everything else in your inventory to be able to swim or jump better ?? -- you're still carrying it with you whether equipped or not - so I'd agree any effects should be tied to the total weight you are carrying rather than what specific category they arbitrarily place on it (ie. think of glass armor in OB being classified as light armor !)

yes a more realistic approach would be nice as of oblivion heavy armor was a must, light armor was useless

Heavy armor should:

Weight more
Protect significally more than light armor
-but not making light armor [censored]!
Have effects on your movement speed, jumping speed and ability to swin.

Ehum: taking of and on armors should take some time, depending on how many armor pieces you put on. So jumping into the water in full heavy armor might get you killed-before your character is able to take away the armor.

How about making it based on strength or endurance, and/or skill (ie. armor skill, swimming skill, jumping skill)

Basically, a low-level character with higher-level heavy armor might not be able to swim/jump as well (or at all)

But, a beefy, high level Nord with high strength/endurance, would be able to move much, much more freely in heavy armor.

There would still be the weight disadvantage to heavy armor..... But also, this would be only beneficial to a character that invested in strength and strength-related skills. A mage or thief character that invested in speed in dexterity or magic, would not be able to successfully wield heavy armor, but would receive other benefits related to those attributes.

Mounts should be more or less unaffected by it, as their strength is extremely high (perhaps a small penalty?)