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Best and Worst armor design in RPGs. -- Please use spoiler tags for large images or strings of them

Harthwain

Magister
Joined
Dec 13, 2019
Messages
4,774
Fallout 4 combat armour
42dc2dd151ca5c0e70b6b5758feb1249.png
Nowhere near as bad as the Fallout 4 ceramic toilet seat armor.
JQyVFZA.png
You guys call this bad? Look up Brewster Body Shield. A lot of designs for WW1 body armor look like a joke.
 

SharkClub

Prophet
Patron
Joined
May 27, 2010
Messages
1,536
Strap Yourselves In
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Was pretty happy to see it return in NV.

Much better than Fallout 3's raggedy ass junky looking combat armor. All of Fallout 3's art design is way more junky than Fallout 1&2 ever were.
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curds

Magister
Joined
Nov 24, 2019
Messages
1,098
Some of the armour on the classic Everquest server, Project 1999, is pretty cool.

Banded.jpg

In general, this is my favourite style for arms and armour in video games: fairly practical and realistic but with a noticeable element of fantasy.
 

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,626
The best armor design is where you have to make a tradeoff regarding what situations it protects you from, without any of the options reducing your movement speed. (Due to movement speed/action points/etc. having a much higher value than any defense disparity.)

The worst armor design is found in games like Final Fantasy XII, where changing your armor does not change your appearance.

Not sure why people are posting pictures.
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
13,026
You sure those aren't just breast massages as she's horny?
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A lot of my fav games don't have armor visuals and is just text. I guess I could dig up some box art to see if anything matches.
XYPHUS had an interesting slow build to defense that cost a lot. I always loved selling the armor in Wizard's Crown. Phantasie arms/armor could take some damn high str scores to wield. Weird shit in Realms of Darkness. And the Questron/Legacy series you have to but dozens of sets.
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The cover depicts that building armor is pricy. Be a hobo/primitive

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Those people are just idiots. ARMOR does exist.

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The black Knights clearly sport the best in the game.

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What is it with 80s box art? No pants or leg armor and nearly no torso protection.

14519-the-bard-s-tale-ii-the-destiny-knight-amiga-front-cover.jpg

I guess they didn't pose in heavy armor for their portraits to be painted.

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It the desert so pants & vest with shields snd magic rings it is!
 
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Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,179
Fortuitous algorithm calculation, this video popped back into my feed just earlier:



If anyone's interested in historical armour, I really recommend the channel. He hasn't had new content in ages, but what's already there is best in class. Bonus points for the quip around 9 minutes in:
I really enjoyed Dragon Age... well, the first one.

And he's right about The Witcher 3, too. It's no KCD, that came later, but it did a pretty fine job with armour designs overall.
 

Rieser

Scholar
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Messages
285
As for worst, Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem (what a stupid fucking name) takes the shoulder pad gore to the next level and dare even use it as promo art.

Wolcen:%20Lords%20of%20Mayhem.jpg


Motherfucker has a castle on his shoulders.
 

Cugel

Novice
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
16
The best armor designs are the ones that make you look like a shitty Power Rangers villain.
ghZ3W0e.png

cSypVSC.png
 

deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,388
Location
Flowery Land
Here's one I haven't seen mentioned yet
Worst: Pillars of Eternity
It tries for a down to earth mundane looking armor style without actually knowing how armor (or human anatomy) works. Everyone's waistline is at their hips, so they have no articulation in their torso and shouldn't be able to fight. Since the armor is so low detail, you quickly notice all these issues as steel bends to accommodate animations.


You'll notice good action figures have a point of articulation mid-torso, since if they didn't, they couldn't actually do action poses.
d29b57a6-740a-42a3-8a8c-3d7c7ea8315e_1.3bee3768f3de21a90876d39312e5cc92.jpeg
 

gurugeorge

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Messages
7,498
Location
London, UK
Strap Yourselves In
It's not really big shoulder pads as such that are the problem, it's big spikey shoulder pads that are the bane of armor design.
 

Tacgnol

Shitlord
Patron
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
1,871,746
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It's not really big shoulder pads as such that are the problem, it's big spikey shoulder pads that are the bane of armor design.

I always find armour design hilarious when it puts big protuberances on armour to get caught on the environment or give your enemy a convenient grappling hold.
 

Aemar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 18, 2018
Messages
6,067
As for worst, Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem (what a stupid fucking name) takes the shoulder pad gore to the next level and dare even use it as promo art.

Wolcen:%20Lords%20of%20Mayhem.jpg


Motherfucker has a castle on his shoulders.
The legacy of Warcraft is alive and well. And here I was thinking it couldn't get worse than that.
 
Self-Ejected

Netch

Self-Ejected
Joined
Jul 22, 2021
Messages
92
Personally I'm really fond of the daedric armor in Morrowind; it seems very samurai inspired to me and it's incredibly striking.

MW-item-Daedric_Armor.jpg
 

Deadyawn

Learned
Joined
Dec 1, 2019
Messages
111
Location
Argentina
latest


I've always loved this armor. Very practical yet aesthetically pleasing

Edit: I'm a retard I guess. It's the Shadow armor from Gothic
 
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