Armor Rework Wishlist

[Balduranne]

Hey folks, I got the go-ahead to announce our upcoming armor rework project (We're aiming this for 1.23, but we'll see): The plan is to change how armor is made to hopefully make it more interesting than hammering out a million holes in plates for chainmail.
More pertinent to this devlog, the plan is to make armor more modular to allow for more customization and make crafting more flexible depending on available materials. 
We're also hoping to make the system modular so modders can easily add their own model variants into the pool.

With that in mind, I've been hard at work drawing armor concepts, and I'd like to take an opportunity to ask folks for suggestions/requests for armor styles they'd like to see, be they from mods, history or fiction. Just post them here! If you already did this in the Discord thread, you don't have to do it here - This is just the forum version. 

 
Please note that I'm not guaranteeing that all suggestions will make it in, but I will consider them. 

You will still have 3 armor slots (Head, Torso, Legs), but the armor will be built out of layers, so you'll have your padding layer, a mail layer, a plate layer and a decoration layer. 
In the image, padding layer ideas are from 97-105, middle layers are 121-131, with plate layer ideas 146-167. Decoration layer is 169-183. Everything else is just random free floating ideas; 
Image 132 should give you an idea of how the construction sections will be set up. 
73-80 shows you the idea of your padding layer affecting above layers (Stat multiplier & possibly visuals)

Note - Colours are largely arbitrary to show material distribution.

Above is subject to change.

EDIT:
I included some extra behind-the-scenes preview images to show it off better. Keep in mind that none of these are final, and these were just part of the pitching it to Tyron.

 

Edited Thursday at 09:27 PM by Balduranne
Added new stuff

[Perdido Street]

Bronze age armor (particularly Greek/Mycenaean) is so uniquely archaic, it would make a great model in and of itself.

Besides that, having the option to add modular-helmet crests or an ecranche (shoulder shield) onto armor sets (like the kinds that Medieval jousters wore) would be amazing if it were possible. 

    

 

Edited Tuesday at 10:07 PM by Perdido Street
grammar + found a better example picture

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Well I'll be.... I had floated this idea and even considered making a mod for it. Glad to see it getting done right and by the actual dev team.

[LadyWYT]

41 minutes ago, Balduranne said:

With that in mind, I've been hard at work drawing armor concepts, and I'd like to take an opportunity to ask folks for suggestions/requests for armor styles they'd like to see, be they from mods, history or fiction.

I think overall, I'd like to see designs focused on realism and practicality, as well as those appropriate for the general time period the setting is meant to be. That doesn't mean that there can't be some fantastical designs--it is a videogame after all, and extravagance did exist--but a lot of videogame/movie armor and weapons don't actually account for the jobs the equipment is supposed to do. Skyrim is a pretty well-known offender here, as while some armor sets look practical, many are just random bits of metal or furs strapped together and not something that would even be very protective, let alone something that a craftsman or warrior would be proud of. World of Warcraft is another title notorious for ridiculous designs, though in fairness it's not meant to be remotely realistic.

Sightsmith on YouTube is a really good example of what I'm talking about. He's done redesigns of some popular fictional creatures and armor to make them more grounded in reality, such as Ezio and Connor from the Assassin's Creed franchise(more authentic designs for the era) and the Nords and Altmer from the Elder Scrolls(more practical designs for available resources). https://www.youtube.com/@sight_smith

The original Lord of the Rings movies also did a fairly good job with costume design, with armor that is clearly fantasy but also clearly putting real world knowledge to use in the design. Decorations tend to be embedded gems, engraving, or embroidered belts/undergarments, or perhaps helmet tassles, and not giant pauldrons or spiky armor or extravagant decorations that will hinder movement. There are a few exceptions, like Sauron, but these also tend to be supernatural creatures.

Also...COLORS! I would love to see some bright colors for the decorative options!  Medieval people loved bright colors(the more garish the better in many cases), and having some bright colors would also contrast against the grittier areas of the game, in addition to standing out from other titles that rely a little too heavily on the "make everything covered in dirt and grime" trope.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

I think something that would be beneficial would be incorporate Jonas tech into existing armor, since we can make cupronickel rods and plates, I think it would be a good idea to have some sort of Jonas Armor that combines the protection of regular armor with Jonas tech. Most players won't be able to craft a full suit of it, but if they do, I think it should have the same futuristic vibe/feel that the current Jonas tech does.

[coolAlias]

5 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I think something that would be beneficial would be incorporate Jonas tech into existing armor, since we can make cupronickel rods and plates, I think it would be a good idea to have some sort of Jonas Armor that combines the protection of regular armor with Jonas tech. Most players won't be able to craft a full suit of it, but if they do, I think it should have the same futuristic vibe/feel that the current Jonas tech does.

I'm not sure piloting a mech should be in vanilla VS, but I also can't deny it would be hilariously awesome and might be necessary to take down whatever horrors await us in future story chapters.

[LadyWYT]

5 minutes ago, coolAlias said:

I'm not sure piloting a mech should be in vanilla VS, but I also can't deny it would be hilariously awesome and might be necessary to take down whatever horrors await us in future story chapters.

I dunno, I could see it working. Plate armor is already an exoskeleton, after a fashion, so adding some Jonas tech to it isn't too much of a stretch for a late game/story item. The main drawback to such would be just acquiring the parts to actually build the thing and then keeping it powered and maintained.

Back to armor design stuff though...would love to incorporate pelts as decoration. Imagine wearing a bear or wolf pelt draped over your shoulders!

I think the armor design for NPCs is also a prime opportunity for storytelling too. Do they lack skill and make the most of whatever they have? Did survivors of certain locations descend from a particular Old World region, and perhaps retain some of their old knowledge and traditions? Perhaps they mixed with survivors from a different region and combined the best of their knowledge to forge new equipment(like fusing European and Japanese armors)? Or perhaps the changes in the world caused the survivors to adopt new traditions and assign special significance to certain designs that may otherwise be a little impractical.

[Perdido Street]

Also, quilted armor doesn't get nearly enough love. There are some especially stunning examples from Africa:

  

Edited Tuesday at 10:43 PM by Perdido Street

[williams_482]

Regarding realism in armor design, I don't know if the devs are familiar with Brett Deveroux's blog (acoup.blog), but he's got some excellent posts on there about what realistic armor should look like, how it functions, and how well various media franchises did at creating realistic armor kits. I'd particularly recommend his Order in Armor post for a general overview or what armor parts are most important, The Problem with Sci-Fi Body Armor for a more detailed drilldown into many of the standard problems and solutions in armoring a person historically, and The Gap in the Armor of Baldur’s Gate and 5e for a detailed look at the successes and failures of Dungeons & Dragons generally and Baldur's Gate III specifically in portraying armors. 

Regarding specific armors I'd like to see in the game, I've always loved the classic imperial Roman "lorica segmentata" banded plate armor. Some of the drawings shown might be an attempt at showing banded plate, but I don't see the distinctive articulated shoulder pauldrons. For various reasons this armor didn't actually stick around for very long so it's presence in a 12th-14th century setting is dubious, but it undoubtedly looks cool. 

[MKMoose]

 I'm gonna start off by saying that I really like having a dedicated post for a community wishlist, because especially for a rework as significant as armor, it does seem great to have something that the devs will presumably read with a clear purpose in mind instead of small ideas scattered across a multitude of other conversations that almost never get any dev interaction.

 

If I were to point to one thing that I would love to see in the armor rework, it's in-world crafting, possibly on an armor stand instead of the crafting grid, which I originally saw mentioned in this Discord suggestion. Regardless of what exactly gets implemented, I have pretty high hopes for an engaging in-world crafting system.

 

On the progression side, which also impacts visuals quite strongly, I would like to see more historically accurate types of armor with improvements that don't boil down to better metals. Many important milestones in historical armor came from weaving, quilting, leather crafting, fitting, and other aspects of armor design that focused on iterating on the basics, and many of these improvements were largely independent of the metal used in armor - if only because they often dealt with elements of armor that didn't have metal in the first place or served as the backing, padding or attachment system to metal components.

Granted, this could be tricky to implement in a satisfying way without first integrating new crafting processes into the broader game, but I do think it would produce a much deeper system with meaningful progression, where improvement doesn't devolve into just getting the next metal tier. Additionally, I think that several armor types like chain, brigandine and plate should be only available starting from iron, maybe even only in steel in the case of plate - besides better historical accuracy, it would mainly serve to streamline early-game armor and avoid overwhelming new players, and only in the mid to late game naturally expand the variety.

 

And in terms of visuals, echoing what @LadyWYT has mentioned, colors and decorations! Arguably much more important for visuals than the underlying armor in many cases, although typically influenced strongly by it. Alwite armor (plate with nothing on top) is cool, but it's just one style of armor, only seriously popular once full articulated plate became common in the 15th century. There's way too many options to comprehensively list for visual variety and decoration in armor, but it's the general direction that counts.

  

Left/top - brigandine with decorated (but also functional) fabric and rivets; middle - mail with a surcoat on top; right/bottom - Ming dynasty statue with highly decorated mountain pattern armour (very extravagant, mostly just to show the high end of what decorated lamellar could look like).

 

Left/top - landsknechte and cavalry in a tapestry of the battle of Pavia, quite suitable for late Steel Age; right/bottom - Japanese doumaru (made of a type of lamellar for the most part, which was dominant in Japan for a long time).

 

5 hours ago, williams_482 said:

Regarding realism in armor design, I don't know if the devs are familiar with Brett Deveroux's blog (acoup.blog), but he's got some excellent posts on there about what realistic armor should look like, how it functions, and how well various media franchises did at creating realistic armor kits. I'd particularly recommend his Order in Armor post for a general overview or what armor parts are most important, The Problem with Sci-Fi Body Armor for a more detailed drilldown into many of the standard problems and solutions in armoring a person historically, and The Gap in the Armor of Baldur’s Gate and 5e for a detailed look at the successes and failures of Dungeons & Dragons generally and Baldur's Gate III specifically in portraying armors. 

You know some nice blogs, I have to say. The Armor in Order post seems to be arguably the most important one from a design perspective, because (as discussed recently in this topic, for example), the current armor system kind of has its priorities backwards, with the helmet favoring as light armor as possible. Some of the realistic priorities could shift due to the supernatural threats that we have in the game, but either way, the importance of different armor segments should be a valuable consideration when balancing their protection and downsides.

[ifoz]

Echoing what LadyWYT said, more colours would be awesome. Even if that's just stuff like being able to colour non-tailored gambeson by throwing it into a barrel of dye. Motley or checkered gambesons would also be fun, having more than one colour.

I also think for another set of scrap armour, it would be fun if there was a torso piece made of locust legs that formed a 'ribcage', and a bell for a helmet with eye slits cut out. Very clearly the work of someone making do with what materials they have available.

Also, though I already posted it on the Discord version of this thread, I might just put it here as well so it doesn't get buried under a ton of messages;
Mockup 'scavenger' set I drew earlier, mainly as an excuse to pitch the idea of a metal mask shaped like a wolf skull. Traders can already wear wolf skulls strapped to their faces, and I just thought it'd look cool. 


(This version is slightly different from the version I posted on the Discord - I added more of a harness to the metal plates that is implied to go over the shoulders underneath the fur wrap. I just thought that made it look a little better held together).

Sidenote, I wonder if the drifter padded layer means that drifters will now drop a unique type of ragged cloth as opposed to flax fibres like they currently do.

Edited Wednesday at 08:40 AM by ifoz

[MKMoose]

On 5/19/2026 at 10:53 PM, Balduranne said:

You will still have 3 armor slots (Head, Torso, Legs), but the armor will be built out of layers, so you'll have your padding layer, a mail layer, a plate layer and a decoration layer. 

One thing I'd like to mention as well is that I would like to see less armor sets, and more armor pieces. Something like instead of "iron plate armor", instead do "iron helmet", "iron breastplate", "iron brigandine" and "iron greaves". Thinking of armor as individual components and not self-contained sets allows to create a much richer and arguably intuitive system that better reflects realistic and historical armor.

So for example, I really don't like this "brigandine":

simply because brigandine is not some sort of generic material that can be applied to the whole body (certainly not the helmet), and instead it's only a jacket which can be worn with various limb armor and any helmet of choice. And this concept is also probably not what brigandine should look like, because it often wouldn't have any metal on the outer side.

Similar nuances apply to almost all other types of armor, but this "brigandine" strikes me as the worst by far, while the majority of other stuff is acceptable even if not ideal.

 

And maybe I'm just misinterpreting something, but of all of these middle layers:

only really the mail and gambeson make perfect sense as an underlayer to plate (usually all three worn together - gambeson, then chain, then plate), while the rest should be the top layer for the most part.

And lastly, grass, fur, hide, pelt, leather, studded leather and bone (and maybe also something else) don't seem to make much realistic sense at all [more appropriately, they could be used, but were rarely used as the primary armor material], except fur as decoration [or rather for warmth], hides in certain cases but almost always as the top layer, and leather mostly as backing for scale, structural component, or decoration, only very rarely as the primary component of armor and even then more commonly probably in the form of leather lamellar. Some were probably used sometimes, but they were certainly not common. If this is purely just concept work, then fair enough, but I would prefer only a couple streamlined, meaningfully distinct and historically common choices, rather than a dozen options that serve more to overwhelm a new player than offer meaningful depth. Serious gameplay variety should be reserved for iron and steel in the late game, while visual variety is ultimately the purpose of decorations.

 

But, I quite like stuff like these:

 

because although they can be considered a bit odd with these individual plates, specific shapes (especially the second one looks kinda fictional or modern) and potentially some overuse of leather, they do use clearly identifiable armor components with purpose - the shirt ends below the hips, the chestpiece ends around the waist, limbs and head are protected separately, rigid elements don't impede anything, it all just makes sense and looks good.

This one is also really fun:

and the couple small caveats are that it seems somewhat anachronistic, could use different greaves and vambraces, and should have some neck protection. Something very similar with earlier lamellar armor would be absolutely perfect.

 

On 5/20/2026 at 12:09 AM, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I think something that would be beneficial would be incorporate Jonas tech into existing armor, since we can make cupronickel rods and plates, I think it would be a good idea to have some sort of Jonas Armor that combines the protection of regular armor with Jonas tech. Most players won't be able to craft a full suit of it, but if they do, I think it should have the same futuristic vibe/feel that the current Jonas tech does.

There's this set, among the concepts, possibly hinting at something that at least matches Jonas tech visually, even if it doesn't end up having significant special functionality:

Edited Thursday at 11:18 AM by MKMoose

[redram]

13 hours ago, MKMoose said:

If I were to point to one thing that I would love to see in the armor rework, it's in-world crafting, possibly on an armor stand instead of the crafting grid, which I originally saw mentioned in this Discord suggestion. Regardless of what exactly gets implemented, I have pretty high hopes for an engaging in-world crafting system.

This is the plan. Armor will no longer be grid-crafted.  You'll assemble it on a mannequin, using parts that are in some cases more specific, in some cases more generic.  Chain will just use pieces of generic chain.  However if you want a breastplate in your armor, that breastplate will be a discrete smithing recipe.  Other plates will likely be a mixture of somewhat generic but also somewhat specific.  Beyond these generalities, a lot will depend on what tyron has time, and allows.  I am asking for more smithing processes, anvils, and tools, but it's unclear if I'll get them. Repair will (if time allows) take place in the same way as construction - on the mannequin.

Helmets will likewise be a mixture of highly specific smithing recipes for some, and an assemblage of more generic parts for others.  We do hope to have flip-able visors, and decorative elements like horns and feathers. but those are other things that may fall by the wayside depending on time.

What we will *not* be doing is dozens of individual armor locations in the style of combat overhaul.  You will assemble your entire torso armor as one wearable piece, layer by layer.  There is the outside *possibility* of adding up to two more wear locations, because we have space in the gui for those, between the other 3 locations.  But overall we're keeping the locations simple, and within the existing gui.

This has been a snapshot to give a clearer picture and tamp down mechanical discussion, but please no discussion about these methods here going forward ok?  This is a thread for Anna to get stylistic suggestions.  If you want to discuss nuts and bolts stuff, start a new thread.  As always, details laid out here are not guaranteed, and subject to change.

[Balduranne]

3 hours ago, MKMoose said:

One thing I'd like to mention as well is that I would like to see less armor sets, and more armor pieces. Something like instead of "iron plate armor", instead do "iron helmet", "iron breastplate", "iron brigandine" and "iron greaves". Thinking of armor as individual components and not self-contained sets allows to create a much richer and arguably intuitive system that better reflects realistic and historical armor.

To add to what RedRam said, this is the exact aim of the system - We were  initially looking at doing a visual overhaul of existing armors, but in the end couldn't agree on a specific look for them, so I ended up pitching this freeform system instead. 

[ifoz]

10 minutes ago, Balduranne said:

To add to what RedRam said, this is the exact aim of the system - We were  initially looking at doing a visual overhaul of existing armors, but in the end couldn't agree on a specific look for them, so I ended up pitching this freeform system instead. 

By the way, just a quick question about the new system if that's alright for the topic of this thread.
Since there's now plans for all the cool new scrap armours, does that mean that certain clutter items will drop and be used as parts in the process, it'll just be the generic scrap metal item, or there will be special pieces found in ruins specifically for making armour with?
Just kind of wondering how modular scrap armour is planned to work, though very excited to see it ingame. 

[MKMoose]

3 hours ago, redram said:

This has been a snapshot to give a clearer picture and tamp down mechanical discussion, but please no discussion about these methods here going forward ok?  This is a thread for Anna to get stylistic suggestions.  If you want to discuss nuts and bolts stuff, start a new thread.  As always, details laid out here are not guaranteed, and subject to change.

Thank you for clarifying the mechanical side of it! My thought is that it seems impossible to fully disentangle the gameplay design direction from visuals, but either way, really appreciate you chiming in. I'll stop myself from commenting on the mechanics, beyond a small note: I have to say, it does seem like the system aligns very well with my expectations, and I'm glad you're aiming for something more manageable than CO's 3x8 slots.

 

2 hours ago, Balduranne said:

To add to what RedRam said, this is the exact aim of the system - We were  initially looking at doing a visual overhaul of existing armors, but in the end couldn't agree on a specific look for them, so I ended up pitching this freeform system instead.

And hearing this makes me very happy, thank you. Just to clarify, though, the reason why I was saying to think about armor pieces and not sets is that real armor was often mixed and developed unevenly due to a variety of factors, for example:

• even poor early-medieval troops who couldn't afford mail would often wear metal helmets due to the importance of head protection, many centuries before proper plate armor became a thing,
• more mobile and layered armor on the torso like lamellar or scale was frequently worn together with rigid metal greaves, vambraces and similar pieces, because they were comparatively small, easy to shape and unobstructive, both before and after the advent of full plate harness,
• armor worn on the torso tends to have the largest variety of designs and distinct types, because it's the largest, central area of the body that can be easily protected with a mostly rigid structure and can bear most of the armor weight without sacrificing mobility.

I'm mentioning this simply because I'm not seeing it reflected as much as I'd personally deem appropriate in the concept art. The biggest offender, as I've mentioned, is probably the brigandine layer, which realistically should be just a jacket worn typically on gambeson and mail, and together with partial or full rigid plate on limbs and a helmet, much like in this image:

7 hours ago, MKMoose said:

Part of it is just a stylistic choice, and it's probably fair to say that a more set-oriented approach might be more intuitive to someone unfamiliar with historical armor, so I'm not expecting full historical accuracy, but I'm kind of at least expecting armor terms which have a very specific meaning to be used more appropriately.

The current iron brigandine set in the game has a quite spot-on torso, an appropriate rigid helmet (which is not part of the actual brigandine - it's just a generic metal helmet, almost the same as in the chain and scale sets), and pretty odd limbs which largely evade my classification but look kind of like they're splinted. Transferring that to the new system would realistically require to keep torso armor as the only piece in the brigandine "set", which could then be supplemented with a helmet (almost always rigid plate) and limb armor (rigid, splinted, or some other types, or nothing at all except for the gambeson and mail layers). Or at least a helmet and leg armor, if the three current slots are kept exactly as they are.

Edited Wednesday at 03:30 PM by MKMoose
Minor corrections.

[LadyWYT]

5 hours ago, MKMoose said:

And lastly, grass, fur, hide, pelt, leather, studded leather and bone (and maybe also something else) don't seem to make much realistic sense at all, except fur as decoration, hides in certain cases but almost always as the top layer, and leather mostly as backing for scale, structural component, or decoration, only very rarely as the primary component of armor and even then more commonly probably in the form of leather lamellar.

Bonepipe armor is a great real world example of bone armor. Pulling from fantasy, the dunmer from Elder Scrolls seem to have a process of combining bonemeal with some kind of resin or other glue to create a paste/slurry that can then be poured into molds or otherwise sculpted into shape. There's also the classic "scavenged" look, where the bones provide some very basic, limited protection but otherwise aren't something to be relied upon long-term.

Grass, fur, hides, and pelts are likely to be padded layers, if anything, or perhaps serving as improvised armor types for the early game. For hides and pelts specifically, rawhide can be pretty tough in the right circumstances, and pelts sometimes had mystical beliefs or traditions associated with them, for lack of a better way to put it, in addition to being a heavy layer that a bladed weapon would have to cut through. Scandinavian berserkers or Aztec jaguar warriors, anyone?

Studded leather is the only one I agree should be pretty much an absolute no. It looks cool in videogames and movies, but that's really about all it does--look cool. Typically what happens with "studded leather" is that someone looked at brigandine armor and got a little confused about the construction, since from the outside brigandine often looks like cloth or leather that's been covered in metal studs. To be fair, it's not a crime to have "rule of cool" armor in fictional media, but for a game that tries to lean heavily into realism I don't think it would be a very good fit. A better option, I think, would be to remove studded leather in favor of an alternate design for brigandine--perhaps one that the player can dye.

5 hours ago, MKMoose said:

simply because brigandine is not some sort of generic material that can be applied to the whole body (certainly not the helmet), and instead it's only a jacket which can be worn with various limb armor and any helmet of choice. And this concept is also probably not what brigandine should look like, because it often wouldn't have any metal on the outer side.

I think for the example this refers to, it's more of a splinted or lamellar design rather than brigandine. Brigandine was typically limited to the chestpiece, but I don't think it's entirely out of the question that one could use the technique to make smaller pieces of armor to cover the limbs and head. For an individual without much armorsmithing experience or one that intends to be in the field a lot, that might even be more advised than trying for full plate, since brigandine is probably a little more flexible on measurements and it's easier to replace a tiny metal plate than a large one when it comes to repairs.

 

7 hours ago, MKMoose said:

Additionally, I think that several armor types like chain, brigandine and plate should be only available starting from iron, maybe even only in steel in the case of plate - besides better historical accuracy, it would mainly serve to streamline early-game armor and avoid overwhelming new players, and only in the mid to late game naturally expand the variety.

I partially agree here, though I would note that I think it's fair to have some limited plate options for copper and bronze, with iron and steel offering much better options(keeping in mind the Blackguard armor, which is plate, is made from iron). Having a copper/bronze helmet, breastplate, or shinguards isn't really out of the question, and is in keeping with that classical Greek style that is so popular in media.

The limited options also push the player to experiment a little more with the designs to achieve their intended result, as well as tip a nod to the reality that not every material is well-suited to the same designs.

1 hour ago, MKMoose said:

My thought is that it seems impossible to fully disentangle the gameplay design direction from visuals, but either way, really appreciate you chiming in.

The way I typically handle things of this nature when designing equipment for characters, is I try to focus a little more on the visuals and worry less about how the stuff is actually made. Basically, I don't need the design to actually be something that can be recreated in real life; I just need a design that looks believably functional as well as something the character could realistically acquire and maintain.

To cite one of my favorite mod armors as an example:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7493

Obviously, putting "bear claws" on the boots like that is just asking for trouble, and the shoulders are a little over-designed. However, it's also made for a character that can afford such extravagance, and the design is otherwise heavily grounded in reality. So a couple of small "cheats" like that here and there aren't really a big deal. Sometimes including "bad" design choices can aid with the storytelling. For example, having ridiculous decorations on one shoulder, to the point that vision/movement is limited, leaves a weak spot for that character to work around, but could have been a deliberate decision in order to showcase their status or provide extra protection from a particular type of attack.

Edited Wednesday at 03:32 PM by LadyWYT

[Perdido Street]

17 hours ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I think it would be a good idea to have some sort of Jonas Armor that combines the protection of regular armor with Jonas tech.

I like the idea; It probably could look something like the "British Interplanetary Society's Lunar Spacesuit," which was one of the first ever attempts at making a space suit in the 1940s, and is basically just !Science! armor:

Edited Wednesday at 03:40 PM by Perdido Street

[LadyWYT]

Another design common in fictional media, that I don't want to see: the "boobplate" armor design for women. For ceremonial armor, it's fine, since that kind of armor is meant to be more decorative than functional. For armor that's meant to withstand actual combat though, it's a horrible design since it winds up transferring more force into the wearer's sternum rather than transferring said forces away from such a critical area. Basically, it's an easy way to wind up with a broken ribcage, if not worse.

[coolAlias]

Agree with most of your post.

8 hours ago, MKMoose said:

Serious gameplay variety should be reserved for iron and steel in the late game, while visual variety is ultimately the purpose of decorations.

This I disagree with. Bronze in particular was very commonly used for a variety of armors in antiquity, so I don't see why we should restrict scale, lamellar, and plate to only iron and steel. Chain mail was probably iron or better only in real life, but again it's a game, so I wouldn't be bothered if it were available in bronze.

8 hours ago, MKMoose said:

leather mostly as backing for scale, structural component, or decoration, only very rarely as the primary component of armor and even then more commonly probably in the form of leather lamellar.

Cured leather was definitely used for breastplates, too. I think cured leather would be a good form of early/cheap(non-metal) outer plate layer, which could be larger plates such as a breastplate or smaller plates such as lamellar.

[Heegrim]

23 hours ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I think something that would be beneficial would be incorporate Jonas tech into existing armor, since we can make cupronickel rods and plates, I think it would be a good idea to have some sort of Jonas Armor that combines the protection of regular armor with Jonas tech. Most players won't be able to craft a full suit of it, but if they do, I think it should have the same futuristic vibe/feel that the current Jonas tech does.

I would love to see some Jonas tech armour modifications. Maybe a weaker version of the night vision mask that can be inserted into a helmet. Something like fall damage dampeners or movement speed bonus contraptions for the legs. A temporal stabilizer in the chestpiece that reduces the rate of temporal stability loss.

We already have a glider so I don’t think these would be too far-fetched.

I think a good tradeoff would be reducing armour durability when these are installed, and requiring Jonas parts to repair them. 

[Perdido Street]

Anything looks better with a cape on it

   

Edited Wednesday at 10:09 PM by Perdido Street

[PrincessCrystal]

On 5/19/2026 at 6:38 PM, Perdido Street said:

Also, quilted armor doesn't get nearly enough love. There are some especially stunning examples from Africa:

  

Let's continue the trend with non-European armors. I'd love to see some Chinese Armor put into the game! From left to right, top to bottom

Song Armor, Song Armor, Self-Explanatory, Han Dynasty Armor, Ming Brigandine, Ming chainmail, Ming Plate

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:52 PM by PrincessCrystal

[Nathan Flaminio]

Even though it's unrealistic, I'd love to see studded leather. It was always my go-to in D&D. 

[ifoz]

3 minutes ago, Nathan Flaminio said:

Even though it's unrealistic, I'd love to see studded leather. It was always my go-to in D&D. 

I mean, you could just have brigandine in the visual style of 'studded leather' without changing the overall appearance or impacting the realism much.