Shield Graphics

[Kagetora]

So, yet again I wasted my time scrolling through the 100+ shield graphics (in this case for Tower Shields).  It staggers the imagination that there are a dozen different "orc tribal" shields (planks strapped together with scary faces painted on), a dozen "elf" shields (in configurations/shapes that only work in Fantasy), and a kite or heater shield with every graphic from every known bit of AD&D fiction seemingly ever published (Greyhawk kingdoms, FR Deities, etc. etc. etc.) each of which may be useful for all of one PC on the entire server (maybe, if they even use a shield...."Look!  A Furyondian Wizard!")...

Not to mention all the glowing, magical, see-through, gold-plated, crystal, super-shiny, colors of the rainbow coalition shields...

But, out of 100+, not ONE simple round shield.  Not ONE actual realistic, round, wooden, metal-edged shield.  Not one shield that could be considered to have come from a Norse (lindiskjodr), Greek (hoplon), Roman (parma, not a scutum), or any other culture that used such things.  Along with the absolutely ludicrous and bizarre helmet selections, this is one of the things that annoys me most about the graphics/aesthetics of the game (and, seriously...the programmer who added those helmets has obviously never even seen a helmet IRL.  Seriously?).

Any chance we could get some more, and more realistic, shield graphics added to the tower shield rotation?  Even if it were just some of the large shield graphics copied over?  I know there are at least a few semi-realistic round shields in that group.  Seriously.  Anything.  Please.  Something round, wooden, edged in non-super-shiny metal, maybe with some simple graphics (or none at all) on them, or simply covered in bronze or leather?  Pretty please?

Thanks.  

[Aahz]

A lot of the shields in CEP do not show up in the rotation when crafting shield appearance.

[Kagetora]

A lot of the shields in CEP do not show up in the rotation when crafting shield appearance.

Ok...

So, is there a way around this then?

[Nemien Callishan]

But, out of 100+, not ONE simple round shield.  Not ONE actual realistic, round, wooden, metal-edged shield.

Large shield. Not tower shield. Large shields have 2 or 3 rather good wooden shields with metal bosses and rims.

[Kagetora]

But, out of 100+, not ONE simple round shield.  Not ONE actual realistic, round, wooden, metal-edged shield.

Large shield. Not tower shield. Large shields have 2 or 3 rather good wooden shields with metal bosses and rims.

Yes, I know, I mentioned that.  However, the character in question owns a very, very nice tower shield that someone made for her and I would prefer to keep using.  Downgrading to a large shield seems self-defeating when it should be possible to either enable the CEP shields (haven't seen them), add the large shield graphics to the tower shield inventory (and vice-versa...have you seen some of the tower shields?  They are half the size of some of the large shields, so "cheesing" shouldn't be an issue), or create a few new shields to add to the rotation.

[Threefold]

Curious thought...

How hard is it to take a model made in 3ds Max and import it into NWN?

[Knas]

Actually a tower shield wouldn't be a tower shield if it was round. Then it would be a large shield and offer less protection but with lower weight and less armor penalty.

It's like saying why aren't there any good axe appearances for long swords

[HellsPanda]

Well allot of the Tower Shields don't look like tower shields

[Kagetora]

Well allot of the Tower Shields don't look like tower shields

Only the "Orc" shields, really.  Which is sort of the point.  If none of them look like tower shields, can I have some graphics that don't look like a magical cartoon?  Or fit some of the cultures people are attempting to portray in the game?  Thats all I'm asking for.

Pretty please?   

[Emomina]

Tower shields are silly, most of them look like carrying a door.  I always use large shields because imagining carrying around a door breaks my immersion.

[Purist]

Most of the shields are extremely ugly. Apart the "plain" looking ones and a few others... It's all pretty much impracticable in immersion terms. As someone pointed, cartoon colors, really? Damnit.

[Kagetora]

Most of the shields are extremely ugly. Apart the "plain" looking ones and a few others... It's all pretty much impracticable in immersion terms. As someone pointed, cartoon colors, really? Damnit.

Its not JUST the shields, its also the helmets and the vast majority of the armor as well.  Almost none of it has any basis in reality.  Its as if the person coding these into the original game had never actually seen anything except fantasy artwork.  They had certainly never looked through any decent "Arms and Armor of the World" type books, much less had any inkling of what actual armor looks like, weighs, or anything else.

BUT...the Shields are probably one of the more egregious parts of the whole mess, since they are so large and obvious.  Maybe we could start here with some new, more realistic additions, wherever they come from (CEP, entirely new, mixing large/tower together, whatever).

[ethinos]

Tower shields are silly, most of them look like carrying a door.  I always use large shields because imagining carrying around a door breaks my immersion.

Yeah, they are a bit silly. But that's because in history the large door style of shields were mostly used by folks whose sole purpose was to create a shield wall.

Btw, here's a bit from the SRD that folks don't seem to realize that we luckily don't suffer from:

When employing a tower shield in combat, you take a –2 penalty on attack rolls because of the shield’s encumbrance.

These shields are pretty much doors and are about as unwieldy as such.

[Kagetora]

So, I'm going to take the absolute silence from the Devs/DMs on this thread as a "go away, please...this isn't important/going to happen?"

Which I suppose is better than a "Moron!  Go &$%# yourself!"   

Seriously...any chance of this being changed?

[Jay]

So, I'm going to take the absolute silence from the Devs/DMs on this thread as a "go away, please...this isn't important/going to happen?"

Which I suppose is better than a "Moron!  Go &$%# yourself!"   

Seriously...any chance of this being changed?

I would imagine they have higher priorities then re-designing an entire sheild set. Like... a tower a lich lives in for instance?

[Bato]

Yeah those MS Paint shields are uuuuuggglllyyyy. But at this point there's better things to work on.
Eventually something will be done but you know, baby steps. We have worlds to build!

[Kagetora]

I'm cool with that.  "Eventually" is an answer.   

I'll just necrobump this from time to time in order to remind you.   

And, as was mentioned...it may not be required to redesign everything from scratch.  "A lot of the shields in CEP do not show up in the rotation when crafting shield appearance."  It may only require enabling these, or using the already-made graphics in some sort of "swap-out" with the current ones.

[Purist]

I've tested clothes offline and I did find a few stuff that are not included in the rotations. Among them a nice peansant shirt, it was so nice that it's worthy of note here

[Kagetora]

How do you test them offline?

[Purist]

toolset.exe    Found in the game installation folder.

[Kagetora]

Thanks.  I'll play around.   

[Kagetora]

Thanks to the staff for adding in the rest of the CEP shields.   

Still not perfect, as far as my particular character goes, but I at least found a semi-suitable round shield in the rotation now!  I appreciate it.

[APorg]

Can someone point me to the thread with the Ezrite pattern for shields? I can't seem to find it. :/

[ethinos]

Can someone point me to the thread with the Ezrite pattern for shields? I can't seem to find it. :/

Search 'Ezrite shield' and you'll find more than a few threads. Here's a pic of said shield: