Armor is mostly just painted on

craybest · October 2020

I mean the old ones are already made, but I really hope for newer sets we get something more than 90% painted on armor with just some small details, like hip pads, shoulderpads, and gloves/boots that stick out, it makes too many sets look way too similar.
this is especially evident when there's details that should be actual 3d and instead are just painted on, like scarves, small pouches, or fur details.
the newer sets are somewhat better but still could be improved. and please get some better tech for hanging parts, like dresses,tunics, or coats. stop them from hanging the back of our legs, it looks ridiculous! older games with older engines can do it, why can't this game?

mairwen85 · October 2020

Polys are already so badly optimised in this game. I think textured parts are probably the choice to avoid adding yet more.

Elvenheart · October 2020

Hehe, I switched the personality of my Legion Zero character wearing their Legion Zero armor to furious, and I noticed the pattern on the “metal” chest plate expanding and contracting with his furious heaving breaths. It broke my immersion! 😂

Elvenheart · October 2020

The developers must have grown up in the eighties...”she walked by me in painted on jeans...”.

starkerealm · October 2020

The last painted on armor added to the game was Glass, I think. The original 2014 motifs (whether they were available the crafting interface back then or not) had no unique mesh data. (At least not for the chest and legs. They obviously had head, bracer, shoulder, belt, and boot meshes. Though some of those may have been reused.) I've never been sure if this was actually a limitation of the tools the team was working with or what. (Incidentally, this includes a few surprising inclusions, like Outlaw and Yokudan. There's even a few of those 2014 motifs we still don't have. Nedic for example.)

The first motifs that broke away from that (Malacath, Trinimac, and Thieves Guild) were criticized by the community for being too bulky (especially Thieves Guild), and ZOS course corrected to slimming down most of the armor.

So, what we're getting now is a compromise. Armor tends to be pretty sleek and close to the body, though the truly "painted on" armor is a rarity now.

Danikat · October 2020

starkerealm wrote: »

The last painted on armor added to the game was Glass, I think. The original 2014 motifs (whether they were available the crafting interface back then or not) had no unique mesh data. (At least not for the chest and legs. They obviously had head, bracer, shoulder, belt, and boot meshes. Though some of those may have been reused.) I've never been sure if this was actually a limitation of the tools the team was working with or what. (Incidentally, this includes a few surprising inclusions, like Outlaw and Yokudan. There's even a few of those 2014 motifs we still don't have. Nedic for example.)

The first motifs that broke away from that (Malacath, Trinimac, and Thieves Guild) were criticized by the community for being too bulky (especially Thieves Guild), and ZOS course corrected to slimming down most of the armor.

So, what we're getting now is a compromise. Armor tends to be pretty sleek and close to the body, though the truly "painted on" armor is a rarity now.

I'm not sure but it may have been the result of changes in the art style during development. Originally the game was going to have a slightly more cartoony style, closer to WoW. After the success of Skyrim ESO was re-worked to be much more similar to that style, which affected a lot of things but especially the artwork. (This is also when they decided to make it fully voiced.)

I suspect doing that meant they had to re-do a lot of things in a relatively short space of time so there probably wasn't time for things like unique meshes for each armour set. (I suspect they were also trying to avoid overly bulky armour, to keep more normal proportions on all the characters as part of the more realistic style - painted on armour is an easy way of doing that.)

starkerealm · October 2020

Danikat wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

The last painted on armor added to the game was Glass, I think. The original 2014 motifs (whether they were available the crafting interface back then or not) had no unique mesh data. (At least not for the chest and legs. They obviously had head, bracer, shoulder, belt, and boot meshes. Though some of those may have been reused.) I've never been sure if this was actually a limitation of the tools the team was working with or what. (Incidentally, this includes a few surprising inclusions, like Outlaw and Yokudan. There's even a few of those 2014 motifs we still don't have. Nedic for example.)

The first motifs that broke away from that (Malacath, Trinimac, and Thieves Guild) were criticized by the community for being too bulky (especially Thieves Guild), and ZOS course corrected to slimming down most of the armor.

So, what we're getting now is a compromise. Armor tends to be pretty sleek and close to the body, though the truly "painted on" armor is a rarity now.

I'm not sure but it may have been the result of changes in the art style during development. Originally the game was going to have a slightly more cartoony style, closer to WoW. After the success of Skyrim ESO was re-worked to be much more similar to that style, which affected a lot of things but especially the artwork. (This is also when they decided to make it fully voiced.)

I suspect doing that meant they had to re-do a lot of things in a relatively short space of time so there probably wasn't time for things like unique meshes for each armour set. (I suspect they were also trying to avoid overly bulky armour, to keep more normal proportions on all the characters as part of the more realistic style - painted on armour is an easy way of doing that.)

I actually regret not getting a photo of one of the concept art pieces they had in the offices when I was there. It had a bunch of the very early armor designs on it from before the art style change.

From what I remember, the art style change would have been ~2012 or so. By the time they were showing off the game seriously, the art style had changed to be what we'd recognize today.