Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-30615368-20170220001215/@comment-26239454-20170220232544

@ the OP

If you look at the actual armor textures for things that have been coming out in the last few updates Gruk has been working on making things have more chain rather than solid elements. A lot of initial textures were more influenced by the movies because they are recognizable as such, as things have progressed he and I (myself being a history major with several medieval history classes including one specifically about warfare completed) have worked to make more realistic armors for the factions getting new or updated armor textures. As for the idea of specifically crafting chain to craft into armor, the spirit of the idea is good but it would do nothing but drag on the gameplay for no discernible benefit. And the spear suggestion doesn't really make sense, plenty of spears are short that are not also javelins, and the distances you can strike things at are already huge.

@ the discussion

No, chain mail is not as good as proper plate armor. It is by no means bad and for many centuries was easily the best most reliable option available, the advent of actual proper plate armor made of proper steel drastically changed the economics and battlefield applications of armor. That being said, ACCESS to *actual* plate armor would be hard and frankly not something we see in any books written by Tolkien. The assumption that anyone could develop it is flat out wrong, plate armor is not basic by any means. Ithilion's point about there only ever being mentions of chain is from what I've seen completely correct, and in a setting where people don't really invent things very often (keep in mind dwarves first invented chain in the Blue Mountains THOUSANDS of years before the Third Age) I don't think the assumption that they would have developed plate stands up. All knowledge about how to craft things comes from the Valar, everything that seems like a cool technological invention is in the past (such as Numenorean "steel bows" for instance). If Aule figured out that plate armor could be a thing he seems to not have given anyone else that knowledge.