Unrealistic Armor - Help me Suspend Disbelief
BelgarathMTH
Member Posts: 5,653
in Off-Topic
Hello, so, I just this week got into trying Heroes of Might and Magic 6 campaigns I haven't tried before. After replaying Duke Slava's tutorial Haven campaign (paladins, in this setting both good or lawful evil-ish depending on the leadership), I decided to go to Sandor's Stronghold campaign (orcs and barbarians, "noble savage" chaotic good-ish types), to continue exploring Duke Slava's friendship with "the Horde" that was established in the tutorial campaign. ( @jjstraka34 , There are great WoW inspired elements to the story here, and the story in Ubisoft's MM games is actually pretty well-written.)
So, I got into Sandor's campaign (He's one of five children of Duke Slava, each of whom wound up as a leader of a different faction - religious humans, noble barbarian orcs, necromancers, demons, or an aquatic naga faction - for different reasons based on Slava's decisions in the tutorial campaign.)
Sandor is obviously supposed to be your basic, stock-standard, shirtless Conan the Barbarian type hero. But, he's wearing this ridiculously impractical looking shoulder armor, which is what I want help with.
I mean, the basic aesthetic is obviously supposed to be shirtless, athletic, muscular male. But, he's wearing some stuff. He's got a loincloth with a bit of metal over his privates. Okay, sure, good so far. Then he's got a waist contraption resembling a weight-lifter's belt that extends up to cover his abdominal area with a metal plate. Okay, so far I'm with them, support and protect his gut for great feats of physical strength,and it could be all held on with a good, thick leather belt and some straps.
He's got leather and metal guarding his hands, wrists, ankles, and feet. Okay, sure.
But where I am baffled is his shoulder gear. I get the totemic or symbolic nature of the enlarged shoulder image, and the apparent protection to shoulders and neck from downward chops, but what in the world is holding those things on? I thought about leather straps encircling the underarms, but that would be very restrictive to fighting movements, not to mention uncomfortable and chafing as heck. Leather straps involving the neck would be suicide in combat, I think.
So, is this just yet another hopelessly bad game trope aesthetic design? Male bikini armor? Or is there some rationalization that could help me suspend disbelief here?
I wish Lady Rhian were still around, because she'd love this topic, I think. I miss her.
So, I got into Sandor's campaign (He's one of five children of Duke Slava, each of whom wound up as a leader of a different faction - religious humans, noble barbarian orcs, necromancers, demons, or an aquatic naga faction - for different reasons based on Slava's decisions in the tutorial campaign.)
Sandor is obviously supposed to be your basic, stock-standard, shirtless Conan the Barbarian type hero. But, he's wearing this ridiculously impractical looking shoulder armor, which is what I want help with.
I mean, the basic aesthetic is obviously supposed to be shirtless, athletic, muscular male. But, he's wearing some stuff. He's got a loincloth with a bit of metal over his privates. Okay, sure, good so far. Then he's got a waist contraption resembling a weight-lifter's belt that extends up to cover his abdominal area with a metal plate. Okay, so far I'm with them, support and protect his gut for great feats of physical strength,and it could be all held on with a good, thick leather belt and some straps.
He's got leather and metal guarding his hands, wrists, ankles, and feet. Okay, sure.
But where I am baffled is his shoulder gear. I get the totemic or symbolic nature of the enlarged shoulder image, and the apparent protection to shoulders and neck from downward chops, but what in the world is holding those things on? I thought about leather straps encircling the underarms, but that would be very restrictive to fighting movements, not to mention uncomfortable and chafing as heck. Leather straps involving the neck would be suicide in combat, I think.
So, is this just yet another hopelessly bad game trope aesthetic design? Male bikini armor? Or is there some rationalization that could help me suspend disbelief here?
I wish Lady Rhian were still around, because she'd love this topic, I think. I miss her.
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And, now, OMG, this MMH6 campaign is so full of "gay as heck if you want to see it that way" lines and images that I'm delighted beyond description.
First, the first Haven hero I had to defeat with Sandor said, "I see the orcs haven't taught you to wear clothes" or something like that.
Then, when I unlocked goblins, who are ranged units who can place a trap once per combat, Kraal (the orc hero we were introduced to way back when Duke Slava, the tutorial hero was still alive), said "The goblins were wizard experiments that "failed" before they created orcs to fight the demons. Too weak. But we orcs know they are baby teeth with potential to be strong, very cunning."
Then, when I took the first goblin stack into my army, the goblin leader called me some gobbledygook goblin word and thanked me for inviting them.
After which, Kraal said, "That word means "handsome" in goblin."
I thought I would die laughing, as a gay man.
MMH6 just won about 100 points from me on my original impression of it. Some writer and some artist somewhere on the Stronghold campaign was either a gay male or unusually gay male sympatico.
ROFLMAO
I guess soft fantasy porn is soft fantasy porn. The tropes are the tropes. It is what it is. Mixed fantasy types. This is the way.
i think usually in RPG type games graphic designers want to make their characters to look more "cool" than conventional
just as you said; is this just yet another hopelessly bad game trope aesthetic design?
and im going to go with; yes
infact i sometimes find it annoying, especially with shoulder pieces especially in 3d games, where they are always lop sided ( same thing happens in NWN 2 ) i dont get that, is it supposed to be so you can "should check " someone in combat? or is that the idea behind it? and then the other piece isn't so bulky so you can swing your weapon better? bleh
sometimes i noticed they do it on leg pieces as well, where there is more spikes or so one side, or its better protected on the one side, to me is just looks like some hipster tried dressing them up in the latest fashion because if your fashion isn't top notch, then how can you have top protection?
bring back the days, when armor was even on both sides and looked "cool" at the same time i say
It seems that he'd either be unable to lift his arms above shoulder level or smack the plates into his neck or head every time. Both possibilities would require a really imaginative fighting style, especially considering that he's carrying a two-hander.
By the way: shoulder pieces are usually either fixed with straps to whatever you're wearing to protect your torso, or separately with straps that cross over your chest and go under your armpits. And that would be *really* unpleasant on naked skin.
Also, yes. Conan style, barbarian fantasy is VERY homoerotic.
In this world, I would say Sandor has broad shoulders and totemic stuff on his clothes. That bulky stuff on his shoulders is merely a representation of what he's actually wearing.
"Because NANOBOTS!"
If I actually met Sandor, then, he'd look like any picture of Conan. Shirtless and no armor, wearing a loincloth, with a few totemic magic items like necklaces, headbands, wristbands, ankle bands, and belt.
Since I had to replay this campaign from the beginning when I "fell to the Dark Side" after playing as a power-gamer, and realizing I was in way more of an RP game than I realized, I had a chance to review the initial dialogues between the main hero, the orc hero, and the goblin hero.
The goblin's name means "handsome", so he was calling himself that. One of the paladin dukes did comment on my character's state of relative undress. The name the goblin called me turned out just to mean something like "little hero to the goblinoids."
Anyhoo, I guess I heard what I wanted to hear. My bad.