Mod edit: title changed for merge into Megathread. Previous title; "I think armor (and weapon) designs look atrocious"I don't know if I'm the only one that thinks this, but recently I came across a post on reddit with datamined images of all equipment that is in the game, and I have some thoughts about them. Now, I understand that it's hard to make the models and designs, and I genuinely think that the models are of very high quality, my problem is with the designs itself.
Weapons: I don't have a problem with the weapon design, for the most part, there's some nitpicks I have with stuff like the length of the longsword's handle size, but nothing major. Except for the design for the
+2 Greatsword, I don't know who thought that guard looked good, I'm all for outlandish designs in fantasy games that are impractical when they look good, but not only does this look impractical, it just doesn't look good, and it's not something I'd like to see my character wield.
Light Armor: it looks good for the most part, I think the designs are well done, my only "problem" is how regular leather armor looks so thin, kinda looks more like an apron, but it's nothing major that makes it look bad
Medium Armor: this is where I start having some thoughts, and I'll go through them one by one
-Hide armor: I think it looks good, you can't really go wrong with this
-Chain shirt: I wasn't sure how they could make a visual design for an improvement of chain armor, but I was pleasantly surprised, the designs are good and show how the armor progresses, except for the +2 female version, as it doesn't seem to have any chain for some weird reason?
-Scale mal: I have mixed feelings about this one because it's not really a bad design, but I just don't like it, if you're making scale armor, I want to see the metal scales all around the body, to me this looks like leather armor with some scales on it
-Breastplate: this armor looks fine, my only problem with it is that the base version looks just as fine and detailed as the upgraded versions, I think a more simplistic design, at least for the base version, would look a lot better, and maybe make the breastplate a bit larger
-Half plate: I'll be 100% honest, I absolutely hate this, and I can't even say it has a good design, at least for the female version. First off, I'll get the nitpicks out of the way, as I understand it, half plate is supposed to be just like full plate, but without the lower body, this just looks like a breastplate with kneepads. Now for the actual problems with this armor, the female version is literally just a metal bra; who in their right mind thought this was a good idea? There shouldn't be a change in design depending on gender, at least not one as big as this, and the worst part is that Larian didn't do this before, is DOS2 they had revealing armor, but it was the same for both genders, so it stayed consistent and made sense culturally, but here it doesn't make sense to have the male version be this badass looking guy that looks ready for battle, while the female version looks like a dress with a steel bra. This looks terrible and I hope they change it before early access ends.
Heavy Armor-Ringmail: there's not much to say here, the armor looks great, the female +1 version doesn't have pants, but I'm guessing this is a bug of sorts so it's fine
-Chain mail: Again, I don't have any complaints about this one, the design is good and the progression between the different versions is done well
-Splint mail: Not how I would've imagined it, but this still looks good, my only "complaint" is the fact that the base armor is as detailed as its upgrades, a more simplistic version would do the trick
-Plate: Just like splint armor, I think this armor looks good and the designs are well done, I still think there should be a simpler version for the base armor, and the designs should be a bit more consistent between male and female versions.
So yeah, besides the few nitpicks I had, the two main problems these designs have is that some don't stay consistent for male and female versions, and some are ironically far too detailed, there's nothing wrong with simplicity, some people just want plain old plate armor, with no outlandish designs and engravings on it. I know it takes work to make designs of this quality, but better to get these complaints out of the way while the game is still in early access.
