When you think of armor in Starmourn, what do you imagine?

Steve

Hello! I've been thinking about ways that the armor system's mechanics and balance could be improved, but first I think a poll to understand what people think of armor's aesthetic aspects generally may be helpful.

I'm sure there's a lot of nuance in how people imagine characters, so please select the poll choice that most closely comports with how you think about armor's aesthetics in Starmourn and comment if you need to make an important distinction.

eel

As a side note when imagining armor - it's pretty tough to really imagine it unless you've seen the desc for it, since all we get for the most part is the name of the armor piece. And that is usually not very descriptive, not in the way clothing is.

Poet

It's always stuck me as odd. If I have armor that's like clothing, why do I have clothing? If someone has no clothing, we all presume they are naked. If the armor is visible, it should be more visible so that you can actually look at it. But then why have clothing and crafting for clothes?

Cause you could customize each and every piece of armor you wear to be a clothing like item, or whatever. Head armor that's a tiara, or waist armor that's a belt (some of which exists). But hardly anyone would look at it, and everyone would assume you were naked.

So in my head Poet's armor is some kind of near field nanite defense layer that's really not visible.

gravithicc

The way I see it, light armor fits like a bodyglove:

Medium armor fits like form-fitting plate armor:

And heavy armor is essentially a BEAST suit.

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Bob_Kimmel

I actually think the light armour is a bit hard to imagine and doesn't fit what I think of when I think 'Scoundrel' class. I often don't think of it and it bugs me a bit to think that its a bodysuit my character can't take off.

Squeakums

I always pictured armor as an invisible nanothin layer right on top of your skin. Many of the armors I probed early on seemed to support this. 

It was only recently that I noticed that some of my armors were actually described as armor, like the New Dikamazi or Safari themed stuff. But it often conflicts with clothing (am I wearing my faded jeans or my Safari cargo pants? Both??) so I just decided to ignore armor 100% and focus just on clothing. 

Sazabi

Being B.E.A.S.T.(ly), I see the armor as technical upgrades that get integrated into the suit, but the shell and outer look is of my own design. I'm just using those pieces to create a damned sturdy (and sexy) B.E.A.S.T.

Ikchor

Apparently I voted to this and never deigned to explain my view on armor, should fix that lol.
Bear in mind, I'm playing a scoundrel and haven't really given any thought to other professions handling of armor (aside from BEASTs, but that's cause their armor is typically really obvious)


For me, I've always viewed Zarrach's armor as his clothes being reinforced by his armor, kind of merging the two. Granted this viewpoint kinda breaks down when he's not wearing clothes for some reason.
Another alternative I've thought about for light armor anyway is an energy shield, and the armor bits you get are less "armor" and more power source and damage modifiers for the shield.

Armor being invisible is just... weird cause if the armor is invisible, so are you? Unless it's more like a chameleon thing.