It's to keep a certain aesthetic to the TES franchise. Also a while ago some orc female armour had a boob window and the community forced ZOS to change it and thus we can never have old art or assets changed again RIP.

Other than that it's just people being afraid the game would turn into a JRPG or something of the sorts.

UGotBenched91 wrote: »

But, why is it ok for this game to have fantasy themed mounts and weapons but not armor?

Oh I hate the Mounts too. And the pets.

Brightly colored armor?

Giant Shoulder Pads?

Flashy magical Mounts?



Yeah, these things just don't belong in the Elder Scrolls games.

Of course, that also depend on what you mean by "fantasy armor."

Are we talking ESO?



Or are we talking WOW?



Five minutes later, finally getting a decent picture! Its basically the same armor look...but with clear stylistic differences.

Actually I think there were capes at some point. They got taken out though.

I am very happy with the armor design, those huge shoulder stuff is not just highly unrealistic but highly impractical too. Also if we go that route on male armor there tends to be a revealing approach on female versions, which I personally hate so much in fantasy.

TES aaesthetics as a whole were ruined when they allowed senches to just about anyone and even more after all the glowing, flashy mounts and weapons that have a glow effect and glowin shoulders and all that sort of stuff..

The armor aesthetics were pretty good in general at first, though the ugly tassets and hipflaps and all that made them look odd... All those pieces floating and so on...

That being said, the TES aesthetics have been pretty boring in general in the single player games as well as in ESO. Basically they are all just a slight variations of one model and thats all. Almost every subgle piece has those ugly floating flaps called tassets i think that clip with weapons not to mention the "Modesty apron" to hide your crotch that clips with every single dress and also with some pants not to mention it also clips in most robes. Noyt a very intuitive design.

From distance everyone looks pretty much the same if you dont sount colors.
Costumes have nice pieces but they are few. Feels like they could use some professional designer that knows how to make beautiful clothes in real world as well because those too lack imagination.

At this point, i would welcome more fantasy armor with some more beauty to them especially for my spellcaster characters that dont get to close range and use shields instead of armor.

As i said, TES armors have always been pretty boring since Oblivion. Morrowind had some great options due being able to mix and ,match various pieces, but especially Skyrim had very little of anything that pleased me, so i just use Nexus for armors that still are armor, not the x-rated teenage boy dream skimpy stuff. Armor that has more beauty to them than what the so called "Professionals" from the developer made for the players.

I hate hate hate everything about the outlandish cartoon WoW aesthetic, and, like the above poster, that was by itself enough to prevent me from ever giving it a chance.

I also dislike the flashy Apex mounts but I will take that every day of the week if it prevents WoW and/or JRPG design aesthetics from invading the Elder Scrolls franchise.

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

I hate hate hate everything about the outlandish cartoon WoW aesthetic, and, like the above poster, that was by itself enough to prevent me from ever giving it a chance.

I also dislike the flashy Apex mounts but I will take that every day of the week if it prevents WoW and/or JRPG design aesthetics from invading the Elder Scrolls franchise.

I have little tolerance for people that lack tolerance and spread their hate!

I never minded wow aesthetics. I also like the "real" look too. But original Elder Scrolls did not look real. A woman's "breastplate" armor was literally tiny triangle pasties.

https://images.app.goo.gl/g6axy1gX3a8QLq6j8

Fuzzybrick wrote: »

Mmmm I remember past games being more aligned with anime levels of skimpyness.

Yeah...it was there, kinda. Higher tier armors were usually pretty covered up, though.



Mods were definitely the way to go if you wanted skimpy armor all over.

I feel the mounts and skins with particle effects were a big mistake.

Fuzzybrick wrote: »

I'm on my phone at work so I can't post the pic in this URL.

https://images.app.goo.gl/g6axy1gX3a8QLq6j8

Bethesda's first game in the series.

Wow, I’m certainly glad they’ve evolved beyond that (my first and favorite TES game was Morrowind). That depiction on Arena is just offensive. I’m no prude and wouldn’t mind some sexy costume options or even nudity in the game. But that picture for Arena is clearly nothing more than eye candy for a certain demographic. One of the things I didn’t like about the Guild Wars franchise is if you want to play a human female the options are basically doll, sexpot or BDSM sexpot. I’m told other games are much worse, but I’m glad that ESO is much better.

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Fuzzybrick wrote: »

I'm on my phone at work so I can't post the pic in this URL.

https://images.app.goo.gl/g6axy1gX3a8QLq6j8

Bethesda's first game in the series.

Wow, I’m certainly glad they’ve evolved beyond that (my first and favorite TES game was Morrowind). That depiction on Arena is just offensive. I’m no prude and wouldn’t mind some sexy costume options or even nudity in the game. But that picture for Arena is clearly nothing more than eye candy for a certain demographic. One of the things I din’t like about the Guild Wars franchise is if you want to play a human female the options are basically doll, sexpot or BDSM sexpot. I’m told other games are much worse, but I’m glad that ESO is much better.

That image is definitely in the Boris Vallejo style of late 70s - early 90s "Sword and Sorcery" (see also: dragon playing chess with a wizard and/or smoking long pipes on the side of an Econoline van...) fantasy - probably best depicted in the original Conan movie (or in vintage comics).

On the one hand, I kind of like Boris Vallejo for the sheer audacity and ridiculousness of his paintings but on the other hand that era was basically exclusively geared toward satisfying the male gaze and power fantasies and the aesthetics of that era can be described as "wish fulfillment" at best and downright exploitative/regressive at worst.

As you say, I'm happy that we've generally advanced beyond that.

Fuzzybrick wrote: »

Mmmm I remember past games being more aligned with anime levels of skimpyness.

As others have mentioned, it's standard Western "fantasy" style, of the 50's thru 90's. Frazetta, Vallejo, many of the 80's stable of TSR artists (Parkinson, Elmore, etc), damn near every fantasy novel cover, Heavy Metal magazine...

Nothing "anime" about it.

---

That said, that's the kind of stuff I grew up with. So I'm happy that I can mod it into Oblivon or Skyrim if I'd like. It wouldn't fit in ESO's overall style, nor would WoW-like Giant Glowing Swords. I ride a basic black horse in ESO, because I think all the 'flashy' mounts are ugly. Even though I had all sorts of goofy stuff when I played WoW. Different game, different style.

I always laugh when people want "realism" in a fantasy setting.

There is no such thing, except what is dictated by the fantasy world itself.

UGotBenched91 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for sharing your opinions and keeping it civil!

It’s been an interesting read. At the end of the day I’d prefer more “fantasy” armor since weapons and mounts went that route but I understand why others don’t. Atleast fix the magical floating shoulder and other armor pieces

TES is a franchise that started in the early 90s, and thus many visuals are based on previous versions. It would be a different game if you would have flashy armors like in WoW or Asian MMOs. I think they made a compromise with glowing mounts for financial reasons.

But I agree that many outfits are boring. I dislike the floating hip flaps, many people said repeatedly they don't like them, but the devs keep adding motifs with weird floating flaps, even for robes. Other motifs have crotch rags which is also annoying. I mean I do not mind these, if there were some variation, enough chest pieces with no flaps.

Some time ago I proposed to move the floating flaps and rags to belts, but who knows, maybe it is a lot of work to change.

Ah, and regarding shoulders, I still wait for a hidden shoulder piece, because not all my chars are brawlers or need oversized shoulder pads.