A Land Far Away

I'd like to gauge feelings on making use of armour size restrictions for NWN2. Currently, I know some servers make some use of Racial restrictions on armour. I would like the approach taken in the ABR to be followed across ALFA; if we do not use size-restrictions, then no-one ought to use them, while if we do, then every server team ought to follow them.

So: do we want to follow this path in the ABR and servers?

I am not interested in feasibility, only desirability. Please:

• Do not comment on how much time and effort this will take.
• Do not vote on how much time and effort this will take.
• Do not comment on non-PC race armour and creature-dropped armour
• Do add any useful comments, particularly builders.

The poll is not binding, but indicative; most weight will be given to the views of those people actually building servers.

There are three basic approaches:

Do not use racial restrictions.
While this has the merit of simplicity, it also seems rather unrealistic; half-orcs ought not to be able to squeeze into full-plate made for hin.

Use size restrictions.
Armour would be made in Small- and Medium-sized variations, matched to creature size, i.e.:
( 1 ) Small (Gnome, Halfling, Svirfneblin)
( 2 ) Medium (Rest)

Use racial restrictions.
Armour would be made in racial sizes, along the following lines:
( 1 ) Halfling
( 2 ) Gnome, Svirfneblin
( 3 ) Duergar, Dwarf,
( 4 ) Dhaerow
( 5 ) Half Elf, Moon Elf, Sun Elf, Wild Elf, Wood El
( 6 ) Aasimar, Half Elf, Half Orc, Human, Tiefling

And a fourth approach:

Composite approach.
Light armour would have no restrictions, Medium armour would be by size, and Heavy armour by race.

I reckon the most realistic proposition is the composite of size for medium and race for heavy, I don't think a 5'5" human could fit into a 5'5" elf's plate

I voted size only.....



Although size and race based differentiation is more realistic, I think it would wind up being a bit burdensome on non-human PCs unless there was scripted "commissioning" of items.

This is a place where I'd be just as happy to let expedience trump realism.

I voted "composite" in lieu of an option for both size and race. Otherwise, I'd opt for restrictions by size.

Sorry, missed the explanation of #4. Please move my 'other' to 'composite'.

"Other"
By size, yes.
By race, yes.
By gender, yes.
NPC armorsmiths that can alter by one category for a reasonable fee, yes.

I voted no, after all this is one detail i dont need or want to worry about.

I'm with Mulu (!) size, race and gender seems best to me.

I voted for size. While restricting by size, race and sex is more realistic, i voted for a comprimise that adds a bit of realism and keeps things a bit more simple for builders and those who work with the toolset.



~S

Well, I don't expect to see a *lot* of Full Plate running about. What I do see I expect isn't the off-the-rack variety ;) So, not that this is a poll about implentation, but I'd expect that adding race to heavy armors only won't be a huge burden to builders.

I voted size and race. Dont see gender needing to play into the mix.

I vote for size and gender.

Now, is this actually doable without making the restricted armors still usable by PCs with high Use Magic Device? This is supposed to be a physical size/shape restriction, but as in NWN, will PCs with high UMD be able to squeeze into halfling armor, or can this be coded otherwise?

Spider Jones wrote:Now, is this actually doable without making the restricted armors still usable by PCs with high Use Magic Device? This is supposed to be a physical size/shape restriction, but as in NWN, will PCs with high UMD be able to squeeze into halfling armor, or can this be coded otherwise?

Hmm, thats a good point. It can be coded otherwise, though.

Rusty wrote:Use racial restrictions.
Armour would be made in racial sizes, along the following lines:
( 1 ) Halfling
( 2 ) Gnome, Svirfneblin
( 3 ) Duergar, Dwarf,
( 4 ) Dhaerow
( 5 ) Half Elf, Moon Elf, Sun Elf, Wild Elf, Wood El
( 6 ) Aasimar, Half Elf, Half Orc, Human, Tiefling

I'd really prefer something more like,
( 1 ) Halfling, Gnome, Svirfneblin
( 2 ) All Dwarves
( 3 ) All elves, half-elves, humans, planetouched
( 4 ) Half-orc

Toril's Elves are only 30lbs lighter than humans on average, it doesn't seem worth it to me to restrict them that way racially. Also, drow are 5" shorter, I'm not sure thats worth it either, but it may be. Half-orcs are taller and larger than the PH half-orcs.

And yes, I've adjusted all the scaling of the races properly in my test haks. NWN2 had them all at PH sizes, not FR sizes.