My Favorite Things, Part III: Gauntlets!

So, one cosmetics-nerd fact about me is that I’m addicted to gauntlets and gloves.  Those are often the pieces I spend a good long time fretting about:  I want them to be right.  And, of all the items in-game, gauntlets and boots seem to suffer from the most clipping issues — that is, when I put a great pair of gauntlets on a character, and the pixels from their hauberk or robe still show through.  Vexing!  Anyway, fashion’s in the details, I suppose.

So here are a few of the gauntlets that I default to, time and time again.  How about you?

The Gloves of the Eorlingas and its identical items in the other Rise of Isengard pre-order armour sets are fantastic items for Rohirrim characters, and given that I am ALL ABOUT ROHAN, I use them a lot.  I love how the one gauntlet is fingerless and has its white-horse motif.  They’re fantastic gauntlets that can be used with a lot more than just the outfit of which they’re a part.

My Favorite Things, Part II: Robes!

Ah, robes.  I forget you exist all the time.  I don’t know WHY; there are some lovely robes in game, and I even equip a few.  But they flee from my mind with ease.  So, let’s follow up my first Favorite Things post with one specifically dedicated to Robes I Like.

First up is the Robe of Viisaus, though I have to make a caveat here:  I think it looks so much better undyed.  When it’s dyed, it takes on a nearly monochromatic appearance, and that doesn’t do much for me.  I like high contrast.  Also, happy (belated) Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday!  Alerac, our model, is simultaneously fascinated by the infamous Baggins’ adventures and rather glad to be a home-loving, well-rooted sort of fellow.

Try to ignore that he’s surrounded by tools and/or torture devices.

My Favorite Things, Part I

Holy overtime, Frodo!  I miss you folks!  So today, we’re going to do a fun little post about the cosmetics I love the absolute most.  This will not be comprehensive because I desperately need sleep, but it will absolutely be Part I!  All links lead to source information.

May I note, as a cosmetics blogger, that whenever I have a super-awesome idea and log in to show it off, the game is invariably in nighttime mode.

First up is the Jacket of the Shade-finder, a chest-piece with fantastic detail and gorgeous use of dye.

Awww, yeah.

The Spider-hunter

Or, as I’d like to call it:  Winflaed vs. the Spiders.

I am crazy enamored of some of the Moria ceremonial items, so when my extra pre-order TP came in, I hopped quick like a bunny to the store to buy the Ceremonial Breastplate and Leggings of the Brazen Call.  Given that I’ve also been trying to use Elrond’s Exquisite Cloak for a few months now in outfits to no avail, black seemed like a perfect theme color.  The sienna and gold in the cloak echo the small leather elements in the leggings and breastplate.  Ragged Leather Shoulderpads, Reinforced Leather Dunlending Boots, and the crafted Vibrant Calenard Battle Gauntlets helped reinforce this fierce look.

Poll by Request: Likes and Dislikes

Yes, I’m taking requests!  Anyway, a friend of mine was curious about what sort of items people really like wearing in game, and what sort of item they really don’t.

Let me explain:  I dislike a number of the festival tunics (a couple are fantastic, though!).  Some people feel that there are too many dresses in-game.  Some think hauberks are dull dull dull.  Some really want to see more separates!  More cloaks!  More hats!

So I’m doing TWO polls today, count them, two.  They feature the exact same categories of items.  But the first is for you to click on all the categories you like the most, and wish you could see more of in-game.  Hauberk-lover?  Let me know!  Circlet fan?  Yay!

The second poll is for you to tell me which categories of item make you go ‘meh.’  Are you all, “Dresses, meh”?  Are tunics just not your thing?  Tell me!

In both polls, choose as many as you like, and feel free to expand in comments.  And I promise; this’ll be the last poll for a while.  We’ve had such an information-gathering sort of week!

I’ll share:  I love skirts, I love circlets, I love cloaks, I love dresses.  I am ‘meh’ about shoes, rather than boots, and about the tunic/trouser combinations.  How about you?

Autumn is Coming

…I realized after typing that title that it sounds fairly grim, in a Game of Thrones sort of way.  AUTUMN. IS. COMING.  But I love autumn, every bit of it.  Pumpkin this, harvest that, the smell of woodsmoke spiraling up from chimneys, the skitter of leaves on sidewalks.  All of it.  All I want to do is wear cowl-neck sweaters and cook root vegetables (and destroy things on horseback in Rohan).

This outfit began with the Robe of the Stone-hewer with its crimson and gold and purple accents.  I must have tried twenty cloaks with it in an attempt to balance the colors, and settled on the Cloak of the Autumn Wood.  I’m not entirely happy; that said, the theme sure remains intact.  With neutral, simple gloves and shoulder pads, the cloak and robe work together in the same basic color family, and suit my love of crazysauce pattern and color.  If Hobbits wore boots, there would be some purple and gold.

Another Poll!

First, thank you all sooo much for responding to my last post, about why you use the cosmetic clothing system.  Fascinating answers; keep them coming!

Second, I was switching clothing and items around in one of my house chests and had an idea for a rather tongue-in-cheek poll.  So let’s DO it.

 

Multiple choices are fine.  And I will confess:  I have multiple accounts, which means multiple houses.  And a kinhall.  And maxed out wardrobes on everyone.  And maxed out vaults on nearly all characters.  “There is not enough TP in the world”  — that’s me.

 

Pixel-clothes Philosophy

OKAY.  I have a DAY OFF.  So today I may actually go around and catch up on all the awesome outfits posted lately by the creative, talented people in my blogroll.  I’m excited!

I’m also excited to make a little change in the personal kin I run for my own cosmetic storage use.  If you see a kin member running around Landroval with “Landroval Style” as a kin tag — that’s me!  Feel free to run up to me, tell me about your outfit, ask to be on the blog, or just say hi!

I’m also woefully late in submitting an article to the fantastic group blog I Rez Therefore I Am, and after thinking and thinking (and blanking and blanking) about what to write, I realized I want a few more perspectives before I start talking about cosmetic pixel-clothing and identity.  So, if you good people don’t mind, here’s where you can help me out.

Answer me this:  Why do you care about cosmetic clothing?  

I know, that’s waaay open-ended, and it’s meant to be.  Here’s my answer.

I care because in a virtual world, without body language, without the context of the “real,” without the details of voice and smile and attitude, visuals are what we get.  Emotes and says and how a player conducts herself while questing, rp’ing, and pvmp’ing — those all matter.  But in the end, when someone sees a character from across a crowded Pony square or in the Stangard mead hall or on a flet in Caras Galadhon, the visual is the message.  It’s a character’s outward expression of identity.

Also, I like the pretty.  And those two reasons can exist side-by-side without a speck of conflict.

But how about you?

A Sage of the Blue Mountains

I do love Dwarves.  And I love scholar-types, and someday – someday! – I will do a Dwarven scholar outfit up at Nar’s Peak, with all the books in the woooorld!

But for right now, Dwarven model Gundri Gladstone has other ideas.  He’s taking a tour of Eriador’s halls of records.  This post, he’s starting at the Dwarf-fortress of Gondamon and then traveling across the Shire and Bree-land to reach the Archives at Bree-town.  He’s formally dressed, of course; it doesn’t do to be rude to the locals, or to not show his home halls off to their most splendid and noble effect.

Starring items in this outfit are the Hauberk of Rhun, available in the LOTRO Store, and the Hat of the Concerned Elf, which is a Great River epic quest reward.  I know it’s an Elfy sort of hat, but Gundri travels far, works with Elves and Men and Hobbits alike…and if he finds a practical hat that keeps the sun off his increasingly bald pate, he’s going to use it.  Supporting players include the Sturdy West-guard Shoulder Guards of Strength and the Rusted Boots of the Dunland Beserker.  I did not realize until after that I gave him a rather patriotic red-white-and-blue look, but the blue is for his home mountains, the red was in the hauberk already, and …it just looks classy!