I think that the fact that this subject keeps occurring means that it is of concern to people. However, many people in this thread are caught-up in the word “skimpy”.
I think that all of the currently-available armor should stay because I don’t care if some people like to dress their characters in a more “social” rather than “practical” manner.
But just as characters should be able to dress socially, some people would like to dress their characters more practically. There are currently very few armor sets that are something you would actually wear into battle or adventuring. I’m not saying the armor should be dirty or banged-up. You can have chest and leg pieces that are nice-looking but also provide good coverage for adventuring. And don’t have a skirt (which is highly impractical)!
You will have to define what you mean by practical.
i mean light armor really has no part in practicality, they just call it light armor by convention, it is clothes, and is primarily defined by not being armor. I suppose one could say it should be like jeans and a tshirt, but thats only really more practical from a cleaning standpoint, skirts, or jeans, neither will stop a sword or a bullet or fire spell.
First, I said battle or adventuring. When I go hiking I don’t wear thigh-highs and a mini-skirt. I wear long pants and sleeves so I can go through brush without getting scratched-up and ticks. Etc.
Second, cloth “armor” was used in medieval times by the peasantry who could not afford leather or metal (lookup “padded” or “quilted” armor). Of course it wasn’t as protective but it was also more maneuverable. Look at Ninja costumes, etc.
medium armor, is basically “light armor” its clothes that considers some for of defense, but not necessarily uniform i its standard. just putting mettle plates onto clothes in key areas/chosen areas amounts to medium armor. Its main function would be to provide some protection with minimal effect on movement.
but how would you define a practical armor?
No, you think of “leather armor” as being the kind of soft leather that modern leather pants are made out of. In medieval times, leather armor was very hard and much thicker. So medium armor is definitely medium armor. And medium armor can also include a certain amount of metal.
So for “practical” medium and heavy armor, I would like to see armor that looks nice but doesn’t have frills or skirts, etc.
well i get that you think of things a certain way, because there is light armor irl, but in these games, it is not armor.
light armor is the class of clothing that people who dont wear armor use. Like mages. In other games its things like robes. Its not really meant to be armor really. While cloth armor did exist, it generally would fit into the idea of medium armor in these types of games.
like this
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Studded_armor
im not saying you are wrong in real life, im saying the semantics are different in these type of games,
think of light armor as no armor
think of medium armor as a range from light armor to what you think of as medium armor
and think of heavy armor as what you think of as high medium, to heavy.
and looking at the medium armor, while there is tons of trenchcoats and skirt like things, its pretty consistent between male and female, and not very frilly.
For heavy, by and large, not too many frills.
I will say there is a ton of inefficient gear, but it generally has little to do with skimpy. I think the problem is extremely practical gear is generally a lot more boring. A lot of the armor that you might be talking about is low level armor. High level stuff in games is usually tied to intricacy, and ostentation.