but it's a dry heat

[amoeba]

Ok this is probably more of a comment than anything.  I actually live in the desert, as many
others here also probably do.  The hottest I have personally experienced was a 124 degree
day.  Unlless you count the time I was on a roof in Lake Havasu City, AZ during the summer
working on an antenna.  It was probably much hotter up there, and I could only work for
10 min. at a stretch.  My point as it relates to Arm is that I have slowly started to build up
some coin.  I play an outdoors type and I was looking for some armour.  As I was looking
at heavy leather collars, and thick leather wrist guards, my feeling was "ya right"  if I was
wearing these things I would be dead in a matter of hours from heat stroke.  

Currently I wear little in the way of heavy armour when I am about in the wilds.  I just think
back to how nasty uncomfortable those hot days were and I can't bring myself to wear
that stuff.  If you think of nomadic heat dwelling peoples around the world, I can't
think of one case where they lay on the leathers.  Now I can understand why people
want the goods, notwithstanding the heat stroke factor, but what is bothering me is
when people encounter me out there in the desert they look at me like I'm the
crazy one.  I have even been lectured to this effect.   Comments anyone? How do you
RP the layers of stuff?

[Delirium]

Personally, I share your opinion, though I usually compromise by having my characters wear a mixture of light leathers and sandcloth. I figure that it can probably be explained by way of Zalanthan people being built and bred for hot, hot desert temperatures, and therefore have a much higher tolerance than us weak ol' Earth humans do.

Frankly, I would love to see the people that deck themselves out in solid bone and chitin from head to toe have to drink 3 times as much water when they're out there tromping around in that desert.. but there's really no easy way to code that that I'm aware of, so it all boils down to roleplay, I suppose. <shrug>

If they're mainly city guards and the like, yeah, it'd still be brutally hot and I shudder to think about it, but at least they're probably not jogging around the dunes very often, heh.

Wear whatever suits your character's lifestyle I say, and screw the naysayers that are more worried about 1337 gear than they are about paying attention to the gameworld. :p

[Miee]

I've had two fighter-types thus far, one of whom spent much time outdoors. neither who was very burly.

I rather made it a point to keep them in leather or sandcloth for armour.  They were poor, they were outdoors working hard, and they were lightweights.  It seemed to make sense to me.

I'd imagine that the average Zalanthan has a higher tolerance for such things than we.  If any of PCs had been in downtown L.A. experiencing the 101 degree weather I've been bitching about all day, they'd probably complain how cold it was.

[X-D]

Well, first, it's not earth, reason for mentioning that is that well, these are not earth humans, these are zalanthian humans, and as has been stated over and over through the years, an uncounted number of times even on the old gdb, they are much tougher then earth humans. A staff member once said, on the old GDB that if an earth human was dropped into zalanthas, he would die, and very quickly, from the elements alone, even if from one of our desert dwelling cultures.


And thats just talking about humans, near the lowest in toughness.

And we know nothing about how they, or especialy the non-humans deal with heat biologicly nor is it likly that the staff will ever tell us.

What IS realistic, is to wear what items are around, IF these items were unrealistic for the people making and using them, they would not exist in the first place.

[wizturbo]

Humans have developed psionic abilities to adapt to Zalanthas...i think adapting to deal with extreme heat was even higher up on the priority list of evolution.

[X-D]

Oh, and to the people who say they live in a desert, 99% of the time, I doubt that very much.

Now, sure, you may live in say, arizona, but you do not live -in the desert- unless you are extremly poor or something. Much of my family live there, I have before also, 99% of the people live in ac, go to a car with ac to go to work in ac  (air conditioning, not angela christine). Hell, they even have ICE delivered to thier pools.
Most of them never really acclimate to the area they are living.

Now, as an ex-roofer (14 years journeyman) I have been acclimated to high temperaters as a normal earth human, if you are on a roof on a 120 degree day in full sun, the temp is around 150-160, but We did =Work= up there dressed, sure, damm hot and miserable, but if late in the year when you are used to 120-130 degree roof temps...still survivable, shirt, pants, boots, hat, alot of water...but thats for a normal earth human.

[amoeba]

Oh, and to the people who say they live in a desert, 99% of the time, I doubt that very much.

My how these topics deteriorate quickly...

This is a circular argument.  I'm asking how others reconcile thier "role playing"  considering
the nature of the climate.   It dosen't take much of an imagination stretch to state that
they are uber compared to earthlings, although there are places that do compare
to the stated temeratures of Zalanthius on earth, (ex. Iraq, Death Valley Nevada, etc.)
and as far as I know there is no explosion of carru and exotic carpice boutiques on
every corner.  It's a fantasy world, I get that, but "roleplay" works best when it is grounded
some degree of reality.   Take the recent addition of the webpage on how to play a
Ranger effectivlly.  

BTW it's picking at semantics when you point out that people do not live "-in the desert-".
I too have had my share of "hot" work.  I also have extremly poor relatives across town
who work outside, don't own an air conditioned car, nor had working AC in thier home
last year.  Yes they survived, but I have not to date seen them wearing thier trench
coat while working in the yard.  I would comment on this more but I hear the doorbell.
It's probably the iceman making a delivery to my pool.

[Tamarin]

I get sandcloth and lots of it.  And anyone who says you need heavy-ish armor to survive is full of shit.  I took down a silt-horror solo, and i think the heaviest piece of armor i was wearing was maybe a gurth-shell collar or the like.  Everything else was either sandcloth clothing, or leather reinforced sandcloth.

[Anonymous]

Yep, one can get by just fine with wearing mostly sandcloth.

[jhunter]

That last one was me...sigh.

[Comrade Canadia]

This bothers me as well.  Leather, chitin, bone, whatever... it's HEAVY.  People in every desert climate I've ever heard of either wear very little, or a lot of very loose, flowy things like abas and the like, even when in battle.  The fact that you're likely to die of heatstroke if you're wearing a greenhouse on your body really detracts from the fact it can turn aside weapons.

The standard excuse I've heard for this is that Zalanthians are tougher than earth humans... but seriously, how tough ARE they?  It's not a bad idea to cover yourself in heavy, solid armour when wandering through the desert for any length of time, it's suicide.  If it was just a bad idea, I might be accept the idea more, but as it stands, I don't see why heavy armour should have came into place on Zalanthas in the first place.  Yeah, Zalanthian materials are lighter than steel, but silt-horror shell doesn't strike me as being a very good thing to wear in 130 degree weather.

The only reason I can think of as to why this exists in the game in the first place is, well it's a fantasy game.  Fantasy games have fantasy conventions, and the big buff warrior who saves the princess has to be wearing a lot of big heavy armour, right?  It's not the most flattering reason I can think of, but it's the only one.  If there is a better justification for all the heavy armour on Zalanthas, I'd love to hear it.

-Der Comrade

[Gilvar]

From what I understand, at least in real life, bone and chitin actually work better at keeping heat out then adding heat. Like certain animals retreat into their shells to avoid the heat even if they are sitting in the sweltering sun and it helps.

Leather would be hot, and thats why its only worn in the relatively cooler, non-deserty north. (only one or two animals produce leather in the south).

[Agent_137]

they can, it protects good, so they do.

Oh, you wanted an IC logical explanation?
shit. I'm gonna have to work on that. Hang on. . .


It can't be that bad. Then again, maybe it is. Have YOU ever worn chitin in hot weather? I played football in full pads in 100 degree heat, I didn't die. Sure, it isn't the same, but how can you compare?

Personally, this is such a fine tiny little point, that I don't care to justify it. It's not worth it. Just play. Would the game be any better off without heavier armors? Not likely. Just go with the flow. Just like you go with the flow about all the impossibly big animals. Don't make me go into how much heat is generated by a living body and how quickly it goes up as size increases.

[Tamarin]

From what I understand, at least in real life, bone and chitin actually work better at keeping heat out then adding heat. Like certain animals retreat into their shells to avoid the heat even if they are sitting in the sweltering sun and it helps.

Leather would be hot, and thats why its only worn in the relatively cooler, non-deserty north. (only one or two animals produce leather in the south).

Yes, but animal shell is part of their body, and is thus connected to their internal cooling system.  It actually shades their entire body.  It can't possibly work the same way for us, if we take their shells or bone and strap it to our chests.

[jmordetsky]

I had a D-elf once...who only wore sandcloth. Then a tembo snapped out at him in a storm and cleaved his head to the bone with the first blow. Something like 70% of his hitpoints as I recall it.

He started wearing bone helmets after that. He (nor I as the player) noted a huge difference in his ability outdoors.

Call it what you will.

[X-D]

Yes, but animal shell is part of their body, and is thus connected to their internal cooling system. It actually shades their entire body. It can't possibly work the same way for us, if we take their shells or bone and strap it to our chests.

Thats like saying That wool is part of it's body...It can't possibly work to shelter us from hot and cold if we weave it into a different less fluffy shape and drape it over our bodies.



So, I'm sitting here look looking over the shell and bone gear, and most of it has something between it and the wearer, which would add more to the cooling insulation value.

[Forest Junkie]

I did have a long drawn out post to refute amoeba's ideas, but I think this short rebuttal shall do:

It is a game muthas, let's keep it at that.

[amoeba]

Thanks you all for the input. The comments were useful.  I think using the chiten type
of stuff works best for my character.  I'll just leave the carru and tandu leathers for the
city folks.  I know I need some protection, I found out the hard way a bite from a
Bahament is quite harsh.  Lost 80% in one bite.  and no I wasn't fighting it on pupose  :wink:
Time to shop.. too bad the leathers are cheaper than the chiten stuff.

[Gorobei]

I did have a long drawn out post to refute amoeba's ideas, but I think this short rebuttal shall do:

It is a game muthas, let's keep it at that.

I think we all know very well that you realize this is a game, FJ.

[Forest Junkie]

I did have a long drawn out post to refute amoeba's ideas, but I think this short rebuttal shall do:

It is a game muthas, let's keep it at that.

I think we all know very well that you realize this is a game, FJ.

Kickass. Fight smartassness with smartassnessesqueness. I like you buddy. Let's make out.