It’s hard to figure out how I want to preface this post. I love the idea of padded armor for those classes that might not want to wear the heavier armor for whatever the reason or for those whose “vision” for their characters precludes walking around in heavier armor, but it seems to me to be mostly under-utilized. From talking to other players, it seems most shy away from it due to the … clunkiness of it, and I agree, as that is exactly why I don’t use it myself.
Some of the threads wishing more for padded armor can be seen here, several of which with suggestions that I’d like to expand upon:
viewtopic.php?p=8797&hilit=padded#p8797
viewtopic.php?p=8352&hilit=padded#p8352
viewtopic.php?p=3770&hilit=hood#p3770
Now, out of the two years since padded armor has been released, I’ve only been around for a little over 9 months. I have not seen many wearing padded armor in that time nor anyone really offering to make it, as compared to leather workers who fairly regularly post their crafts. There was a slight resurgence during the Plate Armor Craze of April and May, but that has, mostly, died down. The inclusion of plate is, partly, to blame for this suggestion with padded armor serving a dual purpose – the other part is my own selfishness in wanting an armored duster because I just don’t like how padded jackets “look” (and can’t come up with a restring for one that I’m happy with).
With that preface, I introduce to you a handful of suggestions:
Firstly, I’d like to see about reinforcing current casual wear with padded armor underneath, dependent on slots. For instance:
Padded coif (head) could be added to caps, bonnets, and the like.
Padded gorget (neck) could be added to scarves, neckerchiefs (this might be difficult as it can cover face or neck)
Padded jackets (back, chest, abdomen) could be added to tailorable outwear such as dusters, jackets, longcoats, coats, overcoats, vests, aprons and tabards.
Padded pants (legs) could be added to loose fitting leg-worn items such as trousers and skirts (explain this by having leggings under them), but I don’t see them working well with the other leg-worn options.
Padded gloves seem fine as they are, honestly. I can’t come up with anything that would specifically use Padded Sleeves, so I’d like to suggest that these are renamed to “padded bracers” or similar, though I get where Rias was coming from by naming them such.
Since I’m already asking for the moon, I figure I might as well try and jump over it by changing the adjective “padded” to “quilted”. Should this be a thing, I’d like to see the newly armored clothing have “quilted” added to the short description to denote that they have been armored, i.e. a rust-brown quilted oilcloth duster, an aubergine quilted linen cap … well. I guess it’d be funky with the wide-brimmed hats, but those are leatherworking and weaving anyways.
Secondly, I’d like to see this being a new ability for Tailoring, tentatively labeled as “Casual Reinforcement”. I feel it’d give tailors something to look forward to beyond just grinding to fine quality.
New Ability: Casual Reinforcement
An experienced tailor, both of keen eye and steady hands, can modify clothing with a protective, padded armor underneath. All one needs is a base product to work with, an appropriate padded armor, and a great deal of thread to make this happen. Due to the increased thickness of the material, an awl is suggested to have handy, else one bloodies their hands!
That is all I’ve got for now. Suggestions and critiques are welcome.
Tailoring: Padded Armor Suggestion and Ability
Re: Tailoring: Padded Armor Suggestion and Ability
I am a very large fan of this. As mentioned variously throughout the last two years, I don't like the way padded pants/brigandine pants, padded jackets or padded sleeves read. I've long wanted armor in general to better fit in with clothing, like the cuirass slot conflicting with the vest slot and thus being part of that stack, and I feel like something like this would work much better for allowing people to have all their clothing, and all their padded armor without scrolling my screen eight ways from Sunday.
