[Suggestion] More practical Options for Female Armour

[binidj.5734]

I was having a chat with a guildmate the other night about the lamentable state of women's armour in the game, some items are practical but most buy into the more juvenile boob plate or bare midriff tropes. Might it not be possible to allow characters to wear armour of either style, regardless of gender? Failing that, perhaps your art department could take a look through this link for future inspiration: https://imgur.com/t/female/xDIuM

[Dawdler.8521]

There is plenty of armor in the game that look exactly like in your pic.

Why do you call it juvenile though? If your high end armorers had the capability of basicly making wearable Chobham armor 0.2 inches thick along with literal magical forcefields protecting any "bare midriff" and absorbing kinetic energy would not warriors want something as skintight and mobile as possible? Its like... Level 10 blue is Iron Man 1 level of armor. Level 80 Exotic and higher is Infinity War Iron Man.

[GDchiaScrub.3241]

Play a heavy class?

D:

[Emberheart.8426]

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Human_female_heavy_armorhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Human_female_medium_armorhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Human_female_light_armor

Most armor in the game is fairly practical. I don't know what gave you the impression that it was not. Did you look at the wardrobe at all or did you only draw your conclusions from what you saw other players wearing?

[Westenev.5289]

Pictures of what you dislike would be nice - although I do question if you have been to the bank to see some options. There are modest options... they just don't seem all that popular.

Personally, I find it more impressive Heavy Fem Commanders can fight in heels.

[Dragon Priestess.9760]

We JUST got a practical armour set with the newest release. In fact, we have had several recent additions to the wardrobe that are already quite conservative.

In my personal opinion, I'd rather see some new, more revealing armour styles now.

A great thing about GW is that we are offered a lot of variety in styles. No one's forcing you to wear skimpy armour, because there are already many practical and functional alternatives to choose from.

Ps: It's really offensive to call the more revealing armour 'juvenile' as you have just implied that you think that people who enjoy that style are immature. We are allowed to enjoy different things. You may not like what I like, but I am not 'juvenile' for liking what I do.

[Tyncale.1629]

Guilty of putting my female characters in the skimpiest apparel. Sorry! Gotta love Feathered and Winged armor.

[castlemanic.3198]

@"Dragon Priestess.9760" said:We JUST got a practical armour set with the newest release.

In what world is a bare stomach practical armour? (elbow windows also don't help)

This is more practical but some of the bare skin area around the collarbone is, again, impractical.

and the situation is actually worse for the blossoming variant

on top of the bare stomach we now have extra thigh vision (which is more impractical).

And we have a leg window shown here and a bit more of the chest area showing too.

while the set is more practical than some of the other impractical armour variants in the game, it is still impractical armour (as any armour that has bare areas of the torso region).

[Vyrulisse.1246]

Practicality is a non-starter in a game with magic, meteors, giant ancient creatures and weird bugs that consume you from within. I think it's the opposite, we need MORE sexy and revealing armor than we have. Dismissing people who enjoy revealing outfits and armor as "juvenile" is not the way either.

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

The only armour category that mostly has revealing outfits is light armour, both medium and heavy armour are literally the same as the images on that gallery you posted outside of a few thematic appearances.

[Balsa.3951]

i m just so glad they slowly dropping butt capes. Im in support for more revealing armor as well. Im not a tin can Im a fire breathing Guardian. My skin is fire and stab proof.

Its not affecting me but its kinda a sad thing Norn cannot show off their Tattoos

[Celeste.9135]

I think what has been released is the perfect way to please both aesthetic style preferences between practical and impractical. Mist shard is the only non practical armour in the season with some skin showing and heels on all weights. While there has been both Elegy/Mosaic and Corsair sets which are fully covered and practical and in flat shoes. They all even take away from the buttcape/trenchcoat complaints that tend to come with the different weight fashions. If you want to expand the criteria to path of fire overall? Bounty hunter, elonian/spearmarshal, funerary and warbeast are all varying levels of practical and conservative. In the whole game it's still the vast majority of armour sets are practical/non skimpy.

I don't understand how two out of three or armour sets can be practical and people are complaining about impracticality. This is a non issue unless your issue is any existence of skimpy armour at all. I think it's good to have as many different options available for Fashion Wars 2 and tbf to anet, that's exactly what's been provided. The only critique I would levy at the impractical mist shard set is that there is no skin showing on the male version.

[Obtena.7952]

These complaints get less relevant the more armor and outfits become available. If you want to cover up ... you have lots of options to do so. Same if you don't.

[Heibi.4251]

There's plenty of armor that looks really good and is, in your terms, practical. Please don't bring political correctness into the game either. I can almost see where you want this to go. Please go play another game instead of trying to impose your standards on others if that is your goal. And remember, this is a fantasy mmorpg. Practicality is not practical. Repeating flintlocks, great swords that no person can truly wield, back pieces that would make movement impossible, etc....

As far as armor that don't show midriff - do more research instead of trying to force others to comply with your standards. Everyone can customize their toon how they want and there are plenty of choices. And a side note - I've seen armor like your link shows in the game.

[Hashberry.4510]

They apparently do not approve of other people's choices. C'est la guerre.

[VDAC.2137]

@"Dedicant.6820" said:The only critique I would levy at the impractical mist shard set is that there is no skin showing on the male version.

True! The options to make a male character sexy are much more limited! :anguished: I would have bought the Strider armor if the male version was more fitted (as is the female version) and didn’t hide the rear or make it totally flat as all existing options I know of for males.

The other thing regarding both practicality and aesthetics for both male and female armor — there are so many with huge shoulders and spikes or blades coming from everywhere! I’m all for options, and I’d like some sleek fitted gear (without random holes) for a more traditional thief/assassin look for both male and female characters! =)

[Danikat.8537]

"To be able to picture the terrible battle which now took place there is one thing which ought to be known. A knight in his full armour of those days was generally carrying as much or more than his own weight in metal. This meant that his horse had to be a slow and enormous weight carrier, like the farm horse of today and that his own movements were so hampered by his burden of iron and padding that they were toned down into slow motion, as on the cinema."

"They turned round and swayed backward and forward once or twice to get the weight on their toes. When they leaned forward they had to run forward, to keep up with their weight, and if they leaned too far backwards they fell down. So even walking was complicated."

Both exerts from The Once and Future King by T.H. White which goes to great lengths to repeatedly emphasise that full plate mail was never especially practical. It was, for a relatively brief period of time, the best defence we could manage but it was also expensive, heavy, hot, restrictive and usually needed two or more people to get on and off. Throughout most of history metal armour has only had metal on the most vulnerable parts (not necessarily the ones where the most damage would be done if you were hit, but the parts where an attack was most likely to hit) and not on joints because otherwise your movement was severely restricted and you couldn't fight. So I don't think practicality is a valid argument against having gaps in armour, of any weight.

Having said that if you want heavy armour for a female character where you are fully covered (not necessarily with metal, there's a lot of leather and even cloth involved) and which don't have "boob plate" there's lots of options. For example

The various scale armours are my personal favourite, especially Tempered Scale and Reinforced Scale. But Ascalonian, Council Guard (CM armour), Militia, most of the Chain sets, Studded Plate, Leystone, Elegy, Luminous (6th anniversary, not luminescent) and Bounty Hunters would also work. Not all of those are particularly realistic of course, so they may be impractical for other reasons but they do give full coverage without being 'form fitting' on the chest.

Of course if you go by what you see most people wearing in-game rather than the total range of what's available you've got to remember that's filtered through other people's preferences and many players (women as well as men) won't feel any need to restrict themselves to realistic looking armour in a game where you're throwing magical swords at gigantic elemental dragons.

[Dragon Priestess.9760]

idk why people still make these posts. There should be a sticky put up.

[Dawdler.8521]

@"Danikat.8537" said:"To be able to picture the terrible battle which now took place there is one thing which ought to be known. A knight in his full armour of those days was generally carrying as much or more than his own weight in metal. This meant that his horse had to be a slow and enormous weight carrier, like the farm horse of today and that his own movements were so hampered by his burden of iron and padding that they were toned down into slow motion, as on the cinema."

"They turned round and swayed backward and forward once or twice to get the weight on their toes. When they leaned forward they had to run forward, to keep up with their weight, and if they leaned too far backwards they fell down. So even walking was complicated."

Both exerts from The Once and Future King by T.H. White which goes to great lengths to repeatedly emphasise that full plate mail was never especially practical. It was, for a relatively brief period of time, the best defence we could manage but it was also expensive, heavy, hot, restrictive and usually needed two or more people to get on and off. Throughout most of history metal armour has only had metal on the most vulnerable parts (not necessarily the ones where the most damage would be done if you were hit, but the parts where an attack was most likely to hit) and not on joints because otherwise your movement was severely restricted and you couldn't fight. So I don't think practicality is a valid argument against having gaps in armour, of any weight.

Well... I call that notion false. People in plate reproduction armor can literally dodge roll in it, do handstands, get up easily from laying down, run at full speed and of course get up on horses by themselves. And thats with people which hasnt trained for it their entire life.

[Donari.5237]

I agree with Dawdler -- unusual for me to disagree with you, Danikat! The super heavy armor myth that White propagated there came, among other things, from the fact that armor that actually got used for anything but show mostly ended up too mangled to preserve. (Similarly, the idea that medieval people were universally shorter -- they did tend to it for nutrition reasons, but the smaller suits of armor surviving were the ones for rich kids). Source: Many years in reenactment groups, watching friends in authentic full plate do impressive amounts of rolling around and springing to their feet, and research done some time back for which I do not currently have citations.

So I also prefer practical full coverage in fighting gear, with no boob plates to guide blades into my sternum or giant shoulders lifted up to point blades to my neck or heels to trip me up or lodge me in the muck. But sometimes I'm ok with my characters showing skin -- my male guardian, for instance, is terrible at guarding anyone but himself, the schmuck, but when his own hide is on the line his magic blue shield wraps him so safely that he really hates the irrelevancy of binding metal armor. My female norn revenant is in a few cross straps on her chest, essentially -- magic removes the need for physical gear.

I still wish there was more realistic armor and weaponry in the game. I like to don things people would actually wear and use. But although the game doesn't have enough to match my taste, it does have some, as well as gear to match the tastes of people that like big and flashy and costumey. Having a wider mix to match a wider spectrum of taste is probably better for player retention.

[Vision.7265]

Revealing armor? Nope. Guild Wars 2 has the largest selection of wrestling boots in any MMO. I know only one set of female shoes that look like shoes that don't cover the ankles whatsoever (Aurora?). All the "heels" are wrestling boots with heels, not something you'd want with a dress. There's only a handful of skirts and most bottoms come with a butt cape so that they're less revealing. Compare this MMO to a typical Korean one and you'll see a VAST difference.

[Khisanth.2948]

Heh but boob plates are realistic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_cuirass#/media/File:Museo_archeologico_regionale_paolo_orsi,_corazza_in_bronzo,_da_tomba_5_necropoli_della_fossa,_370-340_ac._01.JPG this one even includes nipples

Then there is https://www.pinterest.com/serhiihunkov/armor-codpiece/

In a setting where men and women are equal on the battlefield the boob plates would essentially be the female version of those.

@Dawdler.8521 said:There is plenty of armor in the game that look exactly like in your pic.

Why do you call it juvenile though? If your high end armorers had the capability of basicly making wearable Chobham armor 0.2 inches thick along with literal magical forcefields protecting any "bare midriff" and absorbing kinetic energy would not warriors want something as skintight and mobile as possible? Its like... Level 10 blue is Iron Man 1 level of armor. Level 80 Exotic and higher is Infinity War Iron Man.

If you have a shield and using it properly that should be an issue anyway. Still not a great idea since you might lose your shield or the enemy gains control of it and moves it aside.

@"Dragon Priestess.9760" said:We JUST got a practical armour set with the newest release. In fact, we have had several recent additions to the wardrobe that are already quite conservative.

Although the mist shard set does have "holes in stupid places" issue on medium and heavy.

At least on the medium it could be considered a style factor if we ignore the armor part but on the heavy set, why the are there two holes near the hip?

@"Vyrulisse.1246" said:Practicality is a non-starter in a game with magic, meteors, giant ancient creatures and weird bugs that consume you from within. I think it's the opposite, we need MORE sexy and revealing armor than we have. Dismissing people who enjoy revealing outfits and armor as "juvenile" is not the way either.

To a certain degree yes but even with magic and stuff people still need to sit. With some pieces it would be a miracle if anyone can sit or stand back up without getting stuck in their chair.

@Dawdler.8521 said:Well... I call that notion false. People in plate reproduction armor can literally dodge roll in it, do handstands, get up easily from laying down, run at full speed and of course get up on horses by themselves. And thats with people which hasnt trained for it their entire life.

In fact none of that matters. In game we can see how light stuff is based on the fact that we can go swimming in them without turning into an anchor.

[Thornwolf.9721]

Ok to counter I want more sexy armors, I want males to be able to go topless as a cosmetic option. I want Women to have like Old-school norse boob plates from back when everyone thought they ran around naked (Also jora's concept art has her wearing just that! https://artfiles.alphacoders.com/165/16552.jpg ).I want Kilts, fur tassets and hide with bone as a viking should wear from fantasy tropes. I want barbarian armor like conan or diablo maybe even the druids armor for the love of odin. Im tired of these human-esq conservative armors and I want to run around full on beast-mode and have as much skin showing as possible. And we CAN'T yet you sit here and complain there are too many? Yea there are some cock-tail dress's and frilly things for ladies here and there but none that really suite my taste. I don't come on here complaining about it because I understand the frothing masses who probably sit in your corner would loose their minds if stuff like this was added.

It's fantasy and it doesn't need to make sense, or be practical we use magic and slay dragons/gods and fight demons from some inter-dimensional sentient living echo(The mists) and we also bounce through space and time. We even have portions of the gods realms within our world now thanks to the big lizard kralk himself, I should be able to wear whatever I want and they should give us some more barbarian/Savage looking armor. For-honor's vikings could be a good start, heck I'd be ok if they added more plate-mail too because alot of this armor looks bad as is.

~ Sincerely a Norn Main.

[Blocki.4931]

Boob plate has been debunked countless times and generally can be summed up by: If more women wore that type of armor boob plates would have actually existed in real life.

That being said, some armor looks bad because of proportions in general, which get exaggerated on the chest (female flame legion armor for example is a big offender). My main is a Norn female and I have to say there is enough good looking armor that isn't ridiculous.

[ixora.3569]

Damn these fantasy games with there fantasy armors with all these fantastical creatures! I say damn them all I want a game more realistic! Tired of these boob plates and dragons. Its time for a change Arenanet wake up!