There is a lot of subtle variety.
This is what I understood so far it has:
Every level armor changes colour pattern.
Also every upgrade adds subtle changes to the armor as well (green, blue, purple, etc)
they are noticeable, yet they don't change the armor design, ALSO this is for every race, each getting not only their own style but their unique upgrade path as well.(10 races, 3 types of armor, 5 upgrade types, each with every 2 level upgrade on top of it)
Unable to say, but just to clarify though, the styles may be different for every race (along with their upgrade patterns), but the item itself is the same in terms of stats, it just differs from the race style you want to craft it in (you can learn them all, need luck finding "crafting style books", you start with only your race pattern).
So visually there is a lot to choose from, you can make a set of heavy armor where chest is orcish, hands are dunmer, head is nord, etc.
I would be down for all of those, save the last two, which are too 'asian-MMO' for my tastes. Dear god, if I could get a dunmer mage in some of those...
Light armor = robes
Sadly, you have to get used to it
I'm making a spell caster and I'm going with heavy armor because heavy armor just looks too awesome and I can't stand robes, wheter my character is male or female.
I'm not a power gamer so too bad if I lose some stuff from light armor skill line, I just don't want to fight in clothings.
At least, I'll be tougher to kill.
Yeah yawn the robe for mages deal was old back in the 90's. Not sure why it is still pushed so hard.
Compared to say, heavy armor which definitely does experiment more.
I'm just glad I at least have some control with the different crafting styles.
Take a look at this video. They show a low and high level for all racial armors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq_u75I6ugM
I think some of the light armor chestpieces would actually look pretty good without the lower part, if it was only some kind of shirt. It's just that every time I start running in a robe, I'm just like............... really, I didn't fall?
Yeah at first I thought those "jacks" were light armor variants. I think there are a few from random drops. But the crafted ones I think all fall under medium.
If I don't like any of the robes, I may use a medium armor piece for the chest.
Also it isn't so much I don't like robes, I think my thoughts are the same as TRoc's, if I understand correctly. The whole "idea" behind light armor, other than balance reasons, was it didn't interfere with spellcasting allowing for greater concentration. Pretty sure I'd prefer something cut differently to allow greater movement of legs.
I liked the college robes from Skyrim.
yea I really like the heavy and mediums for some races but not the lower part of the light armors..I'm with TRoclodyte on that one..would rather wear the lights as some kind of shirt too haha
Since i'm going full light armor that is a bit of an issue for me
There are 'outfits' you could equip in order to change your overall appearance. Though not ideal there may be some people love
Sadly it seems light armour in this is aimed at robes...you could always equip a different chest and go for a 5-2 gear split if aesthetics bother you, allowing more passive benefits.