I am currently dissatisfied with all armor and armor mods, and I wanted to try and write down some of how I would like things to be.

First... I like regular armor and I like skimpy armor and I like in-between armor, and I even like the occasional nude or near-nude armor. (Nude armor, by the way, is historically accurate, for some regions and for some periods of history. But skyrim is considerably colder...)

So, how can I have all of these?

Let's take skyrim, where we have heavy armor, light armor and cloth. (These correspond roughly to the heavy/medium/light armor of other elder scrolls games).

I think heavy armor should mostly cover most of the body. The game has some exceptions (like some that leaves the back mostly exposed), but skimpy or ridiculous armor needs this for contrast. (For example, if I want my character to be attractive, I do not want tons of competition. Or, if everyone else is nude, I might want to wear this kind of armor to stand out.) Maybe heavy armor should have "no underwear" options, to contribute to the fantasy aspect of things, but I think it should mostly cater to relatively modern understandings of good armor ("within the last thousand years", is my idea of "relatively modern").

I think "light" or "medium" armor should cater to leather fetish styles.

I also think that any "stripperiffic" armor should be high level gear. I like the idea of having that kind of progression available to me (or, perhaps, forced on me, if I have made a character design choice where that's the best available armor). Specifically, I think that magical armor should rely on magic rather than physical coverage - and that there should be some kind of conflict here, where increased magic displaces the cloth. This can also follow some classic fetish designs (artists seem to love certain styles), but might also need some particle effects (maybe mostly only in combat, or maybe even mostly only when hit?) to give the right impression.

Also, the social reactions to magic in skyrim sort of resembles the social treatment of people wearing non-uniform clothing (or standing out in other ways...).

Also, for skyrim, I would like some kind of "heat shimmer" particle effect for nude characters. The skyrim protagonist has fire magic, so something gentler should be within the realm of possibilities. For a realistic needs game, this could drain magicka when the weather is harshly cold...

(All of this would of course need modding, to make it work...)

(I am also a fan of non-obese proportions, though I understand of course that other people have other preferences... but with bodyslide support presumably everyone can get proportions they like?)

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I have other ideas and issues, also, but this is enough for now...