I think they should create some armors such as orc armor with a more violent look to match their warrior nature. EDIT: In my opinion most of the armors in Oblivion looked really fruity.

Well in the ES universe they still have regular glass like we do too. Maybe they just named it glass because it looks like glass. :shrug:

I don't want to see bonemold, unless it makes sense. I don't want to see nordic stuff, unless it makes sense. The only armor I want to see is something that would make sense. Imperial held/influenced areas should contain imperial style armor. Same with other races.

Example: If the next game is in Skyrim, I expect nordic armor, and some normal stuff. If there are areas that have dunmer influence, I expect some dunmer influenced armor. Probably not netch armor, as that comes from netch, which are animals native to Morrowind.

You do realize the dunmer are from morrowind right?

Yeah, I know and I should, as I did play MW a hell of a lot.

What I am saying is if there are dunmer refugees in Skyrim, I expect them to have dunmer influenced armor in that town/area, but nothing from MW exactly, like actual netch leather. I would expect leather armor to have netch leather style, but not exactly netch. Also, since bonemold is actually insect chitin, it is unlikely it'll be seen for a while, due to what happened during and after the Red Year. The only way, I see, we would be seeing bonemold is if a bunch of dunmer brought their personal bits of bonemold with them.

Or special shops that sell foreign wears or somethin.

Unless the survivors brought their Netches.

I'd expect a lot of Western Skyrim to have much more Dunmer influence, unless they all went to Solstheim and stayed there. However, that would probably mean one of two things happened with the Nords:

They got mad and competed for land.
They worked together in peace and harmony.

I can't remember what happened in the book though, so sorry if I'm wrong and it was explained.

But didn't the Nords start to take Solstheim from the Dunmer? And then the Dunmer went to Solstheim? So there are probably a lot more Dunmer civilians in Skyrim.

Voted for everything except for Dwemer Armor from Morrowind. Dwarven Armor in Oblivion looked much better.


I think you mean eastern.

Isn't Ebony actually more like our Obsidian? The cooled magma from Red Mountain creates the Ebony, Obsidian in our world is very strong but brittle, like ceramic, and flints off to razor-sharp edges naturally. Aztecs made formidable weapons with obsidian.

Of course, while Elder Scrolls Ebony shares creation method with obsidian, it doesn't share material characteristics, being a good at absorbing shock (high item hp) really is the only key difference. A more "Realistic" Ebony armor would be incredibly strong, even bullet-stopping strong, but very ablative, meaning it would become damaged fast, though ablation has the added effect of directing energy (In a sword impact or bullet impact's case, kinetic energy) away from the body, resulting in great protection up to the point of total failure.

Anyway, enough of that.

More is always better, but it's better to not make armor a direct linear progression. Using glass armor against say, dwarven steel. Glass has much higher damage resistance, but is very brittle. It can protect the user from a few extremely powerful blows, and then breaks and fails. This would suit an ambush combantant, who isn't going to be in direct combat, but maybe needs high levels of protection from say, a straw crossbow bolt, or a lucky strike from behind. Dwarven steel on the other hand, doesn't reduce damage as much as glass, but would hold it's shape and protective qualities even in vigorous combat. Suitable for the barbarian or man-at-arms, expecting to take a warhammer blow every few seconds.

That was just a very broad example, and there's a myriad of ways to make most of the armor sets useful, as opposed to a direct linear progression like Oblivion. Some factors include

Cost (Some materials and sets can be prohibitively expensive to buy and maintain, Ebony, Glass and Daedric for example)

Durability (Steel and Iron can hold their form well under pressure, studden leather or Chainmail are more likely to break and fail)

Damage mitigation (Base defense)

Critical mitigation (Reduces damage specifically from critical strikes, for example, Chainmail would have a low value, full plate, or the aforementioned glass, a high value)

Weight (self explanatory, but can also extend to things you'd see in a D&D ruleset involving evasion or mobility)

Damage Threshold (Something I really like in New Vegas, more complicated than just "Defense" it effects offensive choice more than defensive choice, and Damage Threshold would be an excellent addition to shields, not so much Armor)

Allure (Wouldn't it be cool if highwaymen would indentify someone wearing extravagent clothes/armor and attack because of the potential gain, and perhaps even ignore someone in simple garb or thrashed armor, as the risk-reward is too low? Adding another dynamic to progression, curbing the desire to stand out in attention gathering apparel when your combat skills leave something to be desired)

Damage Resistance (Certain types of armor resist certain types of Damage. Chainmail resists slashing well, but has a weakness to piercing, plate resists piercing strikes that slide off the plates, but blunt strikes cause greater shock-trauma as the plate transfers most of the energy directly into the body)

These are just a few examples, but the point is made that there's so many ways to diversify, that even a handful of options can really do wonders for the player's experience of individuality in their experience.



I think I speak for most everyone when I say that Oblivion's armor was lackluster and uninspired, much like the rest of the game (Though unispired of the highest quality, the game is still amazing, just feels as though it lacks the care and detail we saw in Morrowind, and are even seeing now in Fallout 3 and New Vegas). Right now, looking at New Vegas, I'd say that game hit the "Happy middle" part of progression. The game's challenges progress, but also there are many opportunities to step away from the linear path like Oblivion. You can find a Riot Shotgun at level 5, there's level 25 Deathclaws just north of where the player starts, that can even one-shot level 15+ characters. As mentioned before, the Damage Threshold mechanic is an amazing artificial and bypassable progression block. A skilled player can take out Giant Radscorpions (Which to this point, will resist all damage for the most part) by knowing the world well enough, that they put some Silver-Sting poison on a few throwing knives, lay some mines down at a choke point, and lure the scorpion into the ambush, crippling the legs with the mines (Prevent the devastating charging sting attack) and finishing it off with the poisoned knives. (I did this at very Hard difficulty, hardcoe mode, and trust me, it's as satisfying as it sounds, out in scorpion gulch southeast of Hidden Valley). But with all that said, it's inadvisable to kill the Giant Scorpions, because of the prohibitive cost and risk. But the option is there, and that's what Bethesda's games should be about, Options.

Anyway, I think that's enough of a long-winded example.

TL;DR-> Oblivion Progression: BAD. Morrowind Progression: Better, but weak in Challenge. Fallout 3 Progression: Slightly Better than Oblivion, more Restrictive than Morrowind, but more Challenging. Fallout: New Vegas: Just Right! (though there is always room for improvement)

Possible, yet, because Tamriel is pretty much torn up into separate countries that do not really like each other, I would not expect much intratrading going on. Pretty much, every country is now in isolation mode, with Skyrim invading Daggerfall and High Rock, the Aldmeri Domain (Summerset and Valenwood) taking pot shots at Cyrodiil, Cyrodiil is trying to becoming a cohesive country again, Black Marsh not only cut off imperial influence, but a Hist drove off any semblance of imperial influence. Elswyer is under anarchy once the Mane was assassinated. For Daggerfall, Orsinium, and High Rock, nothing is really known.


I'm not sure netches like the cold.


fix'd. Even then, already mentioned (leather armor in the style of netch leather as my example)


MK dropped a hint that the nords of Solstheim will be helping the dunmer refugees. Should be noted that Solstheim is not part of Skyrim rule; it's pretty much it's own mini-country.


As far as I know, the nords always held Solstheim. But yes, all evidence point to the dunmer moving to Solstheim after the Red Year and the argonian invasion. But you also have to remember, Solstheim is not part of Skyrim. The only communication Skyrim has with Solstheim is, from what has been said in BM, exporting mead to Thirsk.

I think they should have as many as possible, using a non-tier system like Morrowind did. Oblivion had too few armors and they were basically in a simple tier system based on your level. At the same time, I did prefer the look of the armors in Oblivion, many of them looked more believable than their Morrowind counterparts (with the exception of glass armor). I do have a few things in particular, however, that I'll go into.

Depending on where TES V takes place, it should have "local" styles of armor along with foreign styles, like how Nordic and Imperial armors were in Morrowind along with Dunmer styled armors. I'd like to see a different varieties of fur, chainmail, leather, iron, and steel armors.

Dwemer armor definitely looked more interesting in Morrowind, although I felt that it didn't look very practical, like you had just gutted a Steam Centurion and put on its plating. I personally liked the Oblivion variant, as while not as "exotic-looking", it actually looked like something that was meant to be worn as armor.

As for Daedric armor, it should be rare, but not as rare as in Morrowind; it should be around as rare as Daedric weapons are, perhaps a bit rarer. In other words, they should both be very hard to find lying around, but abundant if you're constantly fighting top-ranking Dremora. I also would prefer if they were on par with artifacts, like in Oblivion. Full Daedric looks much better, in my opinion, than a bunch of mix-and-matched artifacts. One other thing I should mention regarding Daedric armor is that I much preferred the style in Oblivion, as it was menacing and intimidating, yet very intricate. Plus it glowed in the dark, and the helmet was an excellent balance between faceless and otherwise (AKA every closed helmet in Morrowind stronger than Ebony). Also, its high visibility even in total darkness should be taken into account. It would also be cool if you could be mistaken for a Dremora at a distance if fully clad.

Glass equipment was definitely handled better in Morrowind. Largely because clear that it wasn't the most durable material, evident in both glass armors (which incorporated other materials to make up for it) and weapons (which wore down relatively easily), and not just a tier above Elven equipment in every respect.

The ebony armor in Oblivion looked girly.

I dunno. I liked OB's ebony armor, except for the helmet. Beth needs to junk that style, as it just looks...dumb. I know that style of helmet was used in real life, but it looks silly.

EXACTLY I didn't much care for the rest of it either it just didn't make me feel fierce but the helmet was the worst part.

It's not, the real version would be made out of iron. High quality chainmail is even heavier etc. Also, would you call this light cavalry? http://newwars.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/ancient_sasanid_cataphract_uther_oxford_2003_06_21.jpg
My point isn't that chainmail is light or heavy anyway. My point is that the light/heavy armor distinction is silly and armors shouldn't get better with higher armor "skill".
A cool thing would be having armors in individual pieces. That way we could wear for example a plate cuirass or lamellar vest without covering the intire upper body automatically.

I think they should bring back the medium class of armor either way.

Regarding foreign armors, its true that they should be more rare, but both in Morrowind and in Cyrodiil, about half the population seems to be foreigners. I do hope they will reduce that greatly in the next game, making some races very rare. Why would any large number of Argonians be in Skyrim for example?

Placement of armors might need to be a bit less random, with races favoring armor of their own race a bit more. If the armor was designed by their race, it would make sense that it would be more comforteable and appealing to them in general.

But to get back at foreign armors, through the black market some armors could be around. Extremely rare items should be brought back, just like how Daedric was extremely rare in Morrowind.
An official diplomatic party from Morrowind could contain one or two Ordinator bodyguards for example. And those two suits of Ordinator armor could be the only ones you could find in the entire game.

It could also be interesting if you find a full suit of very worn and degraded armor, and that a master blacksmith would be capable of restoring it to full glory. That could be Chitin armor for example. Once repaired it could be useable, but when found it could be broken and require a blacksmith skill of 90+ to fix it.

Through the black market orcish, redguard, breton, elven and mithril armor could be found, to give some examples. Such suits could also be found on their respective races here and there.

Could also be interesting if clothes/armor was a new topic to talk about. Some people could brag about their suit of armor or fancy clothes, and others might complain about their appearal. In that case you could fetch them something they request and trade it for what they are wearing, which could offer some unique rewards. Under this topic they could also comment on the player's appearal and possibly ask if a specific equipped item is for sale, or even point and laugh at you when they think you look rediculous.

I honestly feel like there was nothing wrong with the art styles of previous armor sets (morrowind) that were completely redone for Oblivion. I feel like the only armor that looks better in Oblivion is Ebony and dwemer.

Perhaps the old daedric armor could make a reappearance as "ancient daedric" armor or something.

It's just as smart as ceramic armor used by infantry today. If you want something totally insane remember that many tanks use explosive armor, compared to that using a live mudcrab as shield sounds like a good idea.

We use it to stop small mass high impact objects, and those usually break the ceramic armor to the degree that the plate must be replaced after every hit. If we had to replace the glass armor every time you took any damage and you had to pay a high cost for repairing it every time, I'd be ok with having glass armor.

You know, going through that poll, I realised that I'd had enough of the Imperial Legion. They've been there forever, and they're so uninteresting... I think they should be scrapped.

I want to be nice, but theres really no point to this poll. Every fan wants every type of armor possible for the game. The more the merrier, and armor/character customization is the best part of the games aside from exploration.

I wouldn't mind a return of adamantium armor.

Not to mention glass armor is even used today. A lot of kevlar type materials have glass and other materials woven into the fabric. Not to mention "bullet proof" glass (lexand) is used everyday and can withstand high impacts.

Oh yes that's a wonderful idea, lets take an integral part of the empire and just throw it away because you're tired of it....

The empire collapsed after Oblivion's events, so...