Beth only suffered backlash from a fair number of TES fans who played Morrowind. Morrowind was released in early 2000, about a decade ago. They are catering to the new generation of gamer's with Oblivion and Skyrim by catering to what has been found to be successful in other games. They are doing this to increase sales (which is definitely not a bad thing). The issue becomes whether or not it is possible to cater to both types of players. Those who loved the feel of Morrowind when it comes to quests/exploration/armor-matching/mismatching and those who would rather focus on grinding through quests as quickly as possible to get faster combat with less downtime and faster story-line. Could Bethesda cater to both forms of players? Absolutely, optional quest markers/location markers with quest givers giving you journal entries to make up for the lack of direction. The armor issue is still up in the air, do not think you can cater to both styles of play with what seems to be the current route. Very sad days ahead.

I really couldn't care less about the removal of an armor slot, but I know that when this tiny little point of negativity is the source of so much whining about a game that is shaping up to be a GOTY contender, then everyone is going to live.

*Sigh* This is why I'm taking a break from here after the Fan Q/A is released. People are concerned about a game series they love. There is no logical reason to go from 5 to 4 armor slots. People are intelligent enough to be able to handle at least 5, and more. Its not "whining" when your trying to make improvements to the game and give criticism to things you don't like. Vsions has even said community feedback has changed a few things, so stop with all of this "Quit whining there is no way this game will svck LOL" nonsense.

Has anyone ever thought that the reason we are having a merged armour piece is that they want it so we can customise the pauldrons and greaves through smithing. In the interview with Ashley Cheng? People were saying he was dodging the question, I think this is because they have a new more customisable system that they aren't allowed to talk about yet which would also make the smithing skill even more important.


EDIT* I know this isn't a new theory.

As long as I can hire a smith to do this for me, thats fine with me.

That's a longshot.

Yeah this isn't a new theory.

Yeah I know it's just I'd like to address the issue again instead of complaining about.

I think you're being very optimistic.

I honestly think the only reason they've merged parts of the armour together is because they feel it's more convenient that way, in keeping with their streamlined approach.

Whether smithing will provide a sufficient substitute for people who love as much customization as possible remains to be seen.

You mean making pauldrons & greaves from scratch? Just with raw materials?
This would sound a bit unrealistic if you are the only one who makes that.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1202145-armor-crafting-in-skyrim/page__p__17912749__fromsearch__1#entry17912749

I'm hoping it's just because they have a lot more variety in armor than they did in Oblivion as well as customization options. You couldn't exactly mix and match Daedric with, say, Fur. Now it seems that any helmet with horns in the game can be applied to any armor at all and still look awesome. No worries on this end.

right sorry i searched and yours was halfway down the page and i thought you were just talking about crafting whole pieces of armour from the title.

Has anyone ever thought that the reason we are having a merged armour piece is that they want it so we can customise the pauldrons and greaves through smithing. In the interview with Ashley Cheng? People were saying he was dodging the question, I think this is because they have a new more customisable system that they aren't allowed to talk about yet which would also make the smithing skill even more important.


EDIT* I know this isn't a new theory.

I guess just for the looks of it. I say that if I want to run around with a steel curaiss and leather greaves I should be able to, no matter how stupid it looks. But I guess (assuming they do merge them) that its just like the character creation: they take out what isn't necessary and what doesn't go together.

Why are you posting that again?

If you're talking to me. Maybe because i'm an arsehole who knows...

Sorry if this doesn't belong here, but if greaves and cuirasses were merged, does this mean skyrim has the same exact number of equipment slots as Diablo 2?

meh :shrug:

even IF this is true (Which I am far from convinced of) It'll still only take 4 items to complete a set, which is a damn joke.

I'm hoping that the slots have been combined because the game includes body shaping that is so robust that separate armor pieces couldn't keep up with it and armor that's so complex and finely detailed that mixing and matching any piece with any other piece would inevitably cause clipping.

I suspect that the slots have been combined because it's easier and cheaper to have one slot in place of two and the target audience doesn't care about what their characters wear so long as it looks badass.