[Armor Request to Devs] A Heavy Set with A Non-Booby Torso and Visored Helmet.

[ConstantlyBrooding.2901]

# A polite request to the talented modelers and concept artists at Arenanet for genuine knight armor.

 

(Advance apologies to the community and devs for long armor nerd post)

 

Don't get me wrong, Anet's whole team of artists and modelers are wonderful and talented people. The vast majority of players are perfectly content with all the torso heavy armor options currently available; and the texture work on everything, regardless of armor class, is gorgeous. But since guardians fill a classic paladin-type role (barring, of course, specializations); it's always bummed me that I can't make a female PC look like a badass knight; at least not entirely. I can get full torso coverage, but even on otherwise cool sets like Mistward, everything is as formfitting as a leotard and has needless breast cups in the metal.

 

Having some cheesecake sexy armor is fine, just look at the muscle cuirasses of some Roman Emperors; but having the only female torso armor that is designed to be just armor (for example, the Forgeman breastplate) also make your character look fat is frustrating. Making a player character one hundred percent badass and zero percent princess is not something I should have to make an Asura or Charr lady just to be able to do.

 

**The alluring, impractical sets for female PCs are fine, not to mention a big part of the fun for many lads and ladies among players, and I'm not complaining about their presence**; but them being the only options when male characters sometimes get way cooler skins, like the Nazgul-ish ribcage-style armor on the male Grasping Dead Breastplate's model, is kind of dumb.

 

That's not to say real armor wasn't fitted to the body, it was; but not that ridiculously tight. After all, armor is at its core safety equipment, and it doesn't really make sense to make a "lady" hardhat anymore than it does to only have breastplate options that are.... ...well, taking the term quite literally. Convex shapes, and inward curves of only about 45 degree arcs, are what you want when shaping metal for armor; the glancing surfaces work in the same way as how the slope of a roof makes rain run down it.

 

It's perfectly possible to make armor that is shaped to the form, elegant, and light without it being literally skin tight. One of many armors commissioned in the late middle ages by the Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol is a great example of this; a suit belonging to the German "Gothic" style. Have a look:

 


 

Still flattering to the figure, regardless of sex; and it looks badass without being as clunky and borderline rotund as the Leystone, Studded Plate, or Forgeman breastplates. This is what I'm talking about, and this is what I'm looking for in my frustrating quest to make my tree lady a fantasy hero instead of eye candy.

 

That said, I have seven extra provisos for the design, should such a set ever be added to the game.

 

A. That something like this be an _actual armor set_, and not an outfit, with the skins individual divided between six pieces, as it should be; since some people might want to mix-and-match bits even if they don't want the full set; and frankly fashion is endgame in any MMO. Someone's angry human peasant dude deserves to make their ranger in that character slot look like a farmer with incongruous gauntlets; just as much as my sylvari guardian deserves something less... ...stripper-like on her torso.

 

B. Pretty as the majority of its components are, Gothic plate has two genuinely ridiculous and silly elements: the pointy _sabatons_ (foot armor) that make the wearer look like the Grinch gone out for a walk, and the bucket-with-an-overbite _sallet_; which though an effective and widely mass-produced helmet, looked and still looks dorky as all hell. These components can be substituted with something less preposterous.

 

C. For the change in Close Helmet design, I suggest something more like 15th century _armet_, the visored helmet design that sprung up later in medieval times; and every west European nation promptly plagiarized each other ruthlessly in the manufacture and design of this neat new cranium case. Specifically, an armet more like this specimen from Augsburg, Germany; many other armets had exaggerated skull going to the back or a medial ridge so big it became a sort of preposterous metal Mohawk. This specimen, though, is an armet that looks _cool_. Observe: 

This would give a genuinely knightly look; and in-game there's a sore lack of any Heavy helmet that isn't a _barbute_ (Cheek enclosing, Boba Fett-style, like the Council Guard Helmet from Caudecus' Mansion).

 

D. For the sabatons, just use a simpler affair; like the feet of this modern reproduction armor, worn by Dr. Peter Capwell: ![] (https://i.imgur.com/WsDL0Im.jpg"")

Looks much less ridiculous than the Grinch-kicks of an actual Gothic armature; just take the spurs off, since this is a "field armor" a character will wear fighting on foot; and we don't want to be mean and kick spurs into our raptors because **they are good boys who deserve only love, damn it. Those idle animations are adorable**.

 

E. I would like to state that this one in particular is really, truly, especially, extra important; keep the pauldrons **the exact proportions you see in the first photo**. All those little segments are what let the armor's wearer actually move their shoulder and upper arm to begin with; and if you make them five foot wide clown shoulders; let alone the featureless, one-piece half-domes Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000 suffer from; **then the knight is now dead because they can't move their arm above a 90 degree angle to chop downward, or pull that small dude attacking them with a dagger off of their back**. Nice job, blacksmith. NO MELON SHOULDERS.

 

F. To make sure that the pieces taken from less dorky-looking real world armor styles still look consistent with the Gothic-inspired pieces; remember to add _fluting_ on the helmet and sabatons. _Flutes_ are those little ridges all over the Archduke's armor in the first photo; they are used to lighten and strengthen metal, and medieval blacksmiths are believed to have gotten the idea from observing the natural fluting in the shells of scallops.

 

##Last but not least##

1. If you do feel inclined to make a set like this, make it _an actual armor set with individual pieces_ , as aforementioned; so a player who wants, for example, to make a Warrior character based off Sandor Clegane from A Song of Ice and Fire can use transmutation charges to only use the skins of specific parts.

2. Make the set both a random drop in the vein of everything from Tempered Scale to Draconic, effected by Magic Find like any other loot; but also craftable for those players with Armorsmithing that find or purchase the recipes. This should be obtainable even by causal players who mainly PvE, **and not** locked behind some competitive reward track. Some people have jobs, I am not yet one of those people; but I still want to be fair to those players.

 

Have a wondeful day/night, and thanks for your consideration. A man can hope. (Pretty please, though).

 

Have the Zweihander of Grutte Pier the Friesian pirate; as a way of telling you guys that your greatsword designs are only slightly more extreme then some of the real artifacts; and thanks to you as staff/other players for actually reading all this crap. I kinda hyper-fixate on the subject. ![] (https://i.imgur.com/LNVtS19.jpg"")

"In genuine awe at the size of this lad. Absolute unit."

[Brother.1504]

You should write for the wiki.

[Liewec.2896]

(I must confess that i didn't read it in its entirety, but i did read quite a lot and skim through!)

 

there are already plenty of options for a heavier more practical look,

this for example:


has a helmet similar to a traditional knight and no "boob-forming"

 

i do agree that we need way more armours though!

i'd like to see more focus on armours in the future with a wide variety, everything from Red Sonja to walking tank!

[Gorani.7205]

I see your pain mate.

There are a lot of historical (European) armours that are not in the game, which would be nice to have for both male and female heavy armour classes. You have already mentioned German style gothic armour, but you could also pick Italian style Milanese armour (which fits the asymmetrical look of many GW2 armours perfectly). I am not sure if there is a true coat of plates armour in game, or jack-chains as vambraces.

There is no"Schaller", no "Kettlehelmet / Eisenhut", no true "basinet".

PS: Don't get me started on weapons that are actually wield-able by a human

[starlinvf.1358]

Play Asura or Charr...... no boobs at all

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

Great post! I agree, I'd love to see some more realistically designed heavy armour.

 

> @"Liewec.2896" said:

> there are already plenty of options for a heavier more practical look,

> this for example:

> has a helmet similar to a traditional knight and no "boob-forming"

Looks good! Actually, Council Guard armour does have a little boob-forming (more noticeable from the side I think), just not a full-on boobplate.

 

There's also the [Royal Guard outfit](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Royal_Guard_Outfit "Royal Guard outfit") which doesn't have a boobplate... but it does have shoulder cathedrals, and since it's an outfit you can't change that or combine it with another helmet.

[CptAurellian.9537]

An excellent post and one that I fully agree with. Reminds me a bit of an article/blog post I read a few years ago, in which someone with actual experience in armorsmithing tore apart the design of many female MMO armors. It's a shame that I can't find it anymore.

 

Anyway, while I don't mind all that more or less "sexy" armor that's available, I wouldn't mind some more sets that are closer to reality. Even among the non-revealing heavy sets, those boob plates we find everywhere are rather ridiculous - I mean, it's nice that they direct an incoming blade towards the heart, but I'm not entirely sure whether that should be the purpose of ... you know, armor.

[Chasind.3128]

You mean something practical? Something that a woman/ man in heavy armored would actually wear?

Yes. take my money. But anet wont do it. All of their outfit designs are really silly looking. They ruined the pretty elona armor and changed it to a canthan outfit.

[Khisanth.2948]

There are multiple chain/scale armor pieces like that already.

 

Not using any of those but this is my key farmers' armor.


 

If there is a major issue with armor from a practical standpoint it would probably be the lack of neck protection from the back for most helms. The only one that address that is the illustrious/wurmslayer helm.

 

We also go swimming in these person shaped anchors so ....

[Galactic.6453]

I think the Phalanx armor is the closest and best to an aesthetically pleasing but also practical looking armor but only on the males.

[RoseofGilead.8907]

> @"Galactic.6453" said:

> I think the Phalanx armor is the closest and best to an aesthetically pleasing but also practical looking armor but only on the males.

 

Why do you t hink the thigh-high boots with stiletto heels and the mini skirt with garters (and stockings) aren't practical?! ;)

[Ardid.7203]

Full plate armor was not meant to swim. (No, Jaime, no).

With the proper training, it was perfectly possible to dodge roll in it, though.

Also armor were made specifically for its wearer, taking on account the user's proportions, strength and mobility ranges, so (again, with the proper training) a woman in armor should be able to lift her own without any problem.

A real medieeval armor weighted between 20-30 kg (without tyrian magic or technology to make it better). I'm a 30kg overweight old dude right now, and I can do most things more athletic people can do (just not so long). I don't see how a healthy warrior woman with all the powers from a magical world could have any problem using full plate armor.

[Mazed.2645]

Don't feed the troll.

 

OP, I love everything about your post and I hope Anet actually takes suggestions.

[Plautze.6290]

Especially in the heavy department, GW2 would do well to draw some inspiration from a series of games where you need to git gud... dat Alva armor.

[Blocki.4931]

There are already a ton of armor sets that don't have the annoying boob plate or don't show too much skin. My favorite is the Forgeman armor

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

Lindybeige is that you?

[joneirikb.7506]

+1 Been thinking about posting this kind of post myself, but honestly your post summed everything I wanted to say anyways. :)

 

My Norn Guard wants realistic plate armor, and especially helmets without titanic horns that would get stuck in every bush, tree, weapon, and randomly stab birds to death.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

We need gender.neutral amor overhaul so all have same body type and no one will hate i think it would be great and easier for anet only have to fit it to one body.type of each race and change all amor too full cowering male model(wich i noticed most gender neutral amors uses) this is refered to all amor classes remove revealing stuff and bring fully cowered amors without any gender seperating shapes ore curves. Wich would make a improvement on content overall since 1 model for all amors per race would take half the time to make.

 

 

[KurokawaKazuma.8641]

I agree with making making the heavy torso's for female human,norn and sylvari more plated than just constant skin-revealing and booby "armor". I've been hoping for a long time for them to make an armorset (or even outfit) that looks more bulky, tanky, non-skinrevealing and non-body strapped like the Heavy aetherblade pants in the gemstore....they look so awkward to call it "heavy" in my opinion.

 

An argument against more practical, tanky armorsets for female human, norn, sylvari is that they don't look like they are intended to dodge, swim or have fast mobility with it....

BUT the thing is...why should that be confused with reality? Getting hit with a Greatsword or a dagger while wearing Norn cultural T3 heavy armor for female with the horrible, vulnerable looking pants and body or Grasping Dead armor will receive the same amount of damage as a female character who is wearing armor that is DESIGNED to protect the wearer (on all sides...not just 1 or 2). That already breaks the "reality" sphere. So shorty said, this "but you can't dodge with full plated armor", "you can't swim with it" or "it's too heavy for female characters" is pretty much hypocritical when it comes to damage being the same for practical plated armor and vulnerable armor.

 

Although back to the topic about the torso's, i am all for making torso's more plated in general. I've seen enough of these boob-plates referred to "heavy".

 

 

> @"Dowanohee.9528" said:

 

> Need MORE cleavage and skin on heavy, not less!!!

I'm sorry, but have even you seen the 75% skin revealing "armor" in TERA, blade and soul and black desert online (dark knight or something). I myself am really happy that guild wars has followed a different direction of armor making (and hoping it stays this way or even make tankier armor) when it covers up skin and protects it rather than following the meta in MMO's in general of "more skin and lingerie reveal, the higher quality of "armor" looks it has!"

 

 

 

> @"Dowanohee.9528" said:

 

 

> Dear Anet, can I get a sexy thong armor? I'm tired of wearing bulky granny-panties on my female characters! After all, in real life beautiful women have historically worn thongs far more often than bulky crusader armors they couldn't even have lifted, let alone dodge rolled, swam or glided in...

Look...I understand that everyone has different opinions and suggestions/requests when it comes to armor in general. But...Thong armor....really? I really do not want to see a battlefield and raids full of halfnaked female warriors/guardians\revenants wearing nothing but a bra and an underwear. Norn T3 is for me as far as it gets. And historically speaking i'm pretty sure that's not even armor.

 

**TL DR** : More bulkier, tankier and practical armor for females than more booby-torso armor, lingerie or skinrevealing heavy armor

 

 

 

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

> @"RoseofGilead.8907" said:

> > @"Galactic.6453" said:

> > I think the Phalanx armor is the closest and best to an aesthetically pleasing but also practical looking armor but only on the males.

>

> Why do you t hink the thigh-high boots with stiletto heels and the mini skirt with garters (and stockings) aren't practical?! ;)

 

Context is everything, isn't it? That is definitely practical for many things, but ... I just imagine what my ankles would do if I tried those boots out in the swampy wilds of Tequatl-ville, or the sand of the desert, and it isn't pretty. Also, ticks, in the jungle and forest. *shudder*. ;)

 

Seriously, though, I agree with the OP, because every time I look at boob-plate I remember just how effectively that would guide every attack right into your heart, making it strike so much more solidly and easily over it. Kinda spoils the effect for me. Choice is definitely a solid thing here. :)

 

(and I recognize your comment as not, uh, fully serious.)

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

> @"KurokawaKazuma.8641" said:

> So shorty said, this "but you can't dodge with full plated armor", "you can't swim with it" or "it's too heavy for female characters" is pretty much hypocritical when it comes to damage being the same for practical plated armor and vulnerable armor.

 

Shorty is also completely, horribly, totally wrong to say that. The reality is that you totally can:

 

 

So, yeah, this is the same "reality" argument that shows up every time the reality of things conflicts with the imaginary past that some folks love to hold. I mean, you tell someone that nipple rings were a huge thing for both genders in Victorian England, and they out and out refuse to believe it, because it isn't "realistic" in the imaginary Victorian England they have in their head.

[Alga.6498]

I agree, I would love to have more unisex armorsets and not only these 100% oversexual female sets while males get half or less the sexyness.

I mean, sexyness is good, :) I love to dress out my characters sexy and bad but if you're going to übersexy things up, atleast design for both male and female sets.

And for ''realistic'' armorsets, design as many said above me and as I do too, unisex armorset, both gender can equip it without looking different to another. The boobformed plates along with a nice cleavage looks so.. sex-market selling, of course.

 

Whenever I see a female character dressed in a battle armor bikini I keep thinking to myself, ''_oh that kitten will die first of all, bimbo! :lol:_''

[Laila Lightness.8742]

> @"Alga.6498" said:

> I agree, I would love to have more unisex armorsets and not only these 100% oversexual female sets while males get half or less the sexyness.

> I mean, sexyness is good, :) I love to dress out my characters sexy and bad but if you're going to übersexy things up, atleast design for both male and female sets.

> And for ''realistic'' armorsets, design as many said above me and as I do too, unisex armorset, both gender can equip it without looking different to another. The boobformed plates along with a nice cleavage looks so.. sex-market selling, of course.

>

> Whenever I see a female character dressed in a battle armor bikini I keep thinking to myself, ''_oh that kitten will die first of all, bimbo! :lol:_''

 

I meant all amor.overhauled too use same model i want all too use male body full covered and you cant determine gender

[Alga.6498]

> @"Laila Lightness.8742" said:

> > @"Alga.6498" said:

> > I agree, I would love to have more unisex armorsets and not only these 100% oversexual female sets while males get half or less the sexyness.

> > I mean, sexyness is good, :) I love to dress out my characters sexy and bad but if you're going to übersexy things up, atleast design for both male and female sets.

> > And for ''realistic'' armorsets, design as many said above me and as I do too, unisex armorset, both gender can equip it without looking different to another. The boobformed plates along with a nice cleavage looks so.. sex-market selling, of course.

> >

> > Whenever I see a female character dressed in a battle armor bikini I keep thinking to myself, ''_oh that kitten will die first of all, bimbo! :lol:_''

>

> I meant all amor.overhauled too use same model i want all too use male body full covered and you cant determine gender

 

yeah I hear you. A good example for an awesome warrior-looking armor who's already in-game is the Balthazar Zaishen Soldiers, they're wearing unisex armor and you can't tell if that NPC is a female or male until you look up really close.

 

Edit: Hmmmh… well, never mind what I said about the Zaishen armor, they do look abit different versions but yeah, still unisex armor.


 

[KurokawaKazuma.8641]

> @"Alga.6498" said:

 

> yeah I hear you. A good example for an awesome warrior-looking armor who's already in-game is the Balthazar Zaishen Soldiers, they're wearing unisex armor and you can't tell if that NPC is a female or male until you look up really close.

>

> Edit: Hmmmh… well, never mind what I said about the Zaishen armor, they do look abit different versions but yeah, still unisex armor.

>

The armor looks pretty cool to me. Not really much difference between the left one and the right one. Kinda sad it isn't in the game for characters to wear :'(.