Hey, thanks for working on this! I've been waiting for a mod that'd address the ridiculous boobplate Ash and Liara have; it's so impractical. I hope you eventually make a full mod out of this--I'll keep an eye out. Thanks again! :)
Not entirely impractical actually. Ballistic plating needs curvature. Although it is exaggerated in-game. If these plates were used as, tight as it looks to be. It'd cause serious trauma on impact. More so than if the original padding/plating was used. Not to mention breathability and support.
If the curvature is inward it defeats the purpose as you're the deflecting the shell into the chest. A single curve rather than two boobs, aka brasserie in space, is more practical.
It is though? Actual body armor needs to rest with solid support, and the nature of the curve supports the strength of the plate as long as the backside of the cleavage is rounded as well. Try wearing a steel body plate without support like the one's in Mass Effect. It's uncomfortable as hell, it's in fact MORE deadly. The breast account might be exaggerated but neither of us can say unless we know the specs of the armor and the bra size of the female crew members and the type of materials bracing the armor plating.
Stop taking into account the standards men set for armor, and actually understand that when armor is made for women, it is going to look, like it was made for women.
If it is an armor plate, similar to the ones we have now, and one designed specifically for females. As we have to design them differently or account for more weight, due to the dimorphic state of our sexes. The armor plate is likely rounded behind the cleavage (actual technical term for catches in structures), at the sternum. The armor is fine, and is actually more protective than the one modified. Not because "boob adds more armor" but because taking into account the fact that you have to plan for larger than A cup breasts in body armor IS A FACTOR. Coming from a woman, body armor not shaped for you is worse than looking like a girl. They're just now designing sports bras for soldiers to fit with duty plates and carriers. I would've killed for a SAPI plate like that in training.
While we can't know exactly how much of a buffer is needed between the outermost plates and the body... I think it's pretty safe to say that the boob plates on that particular model ARE probably excessive? If the rest of the armor were that padded and voluminous all over, making allowances for curves all over the rest of the body (including in the areas not traditionally thought of as "feminine" in modern Western society, such as the abdomen), then what you say would be 100% correct.
But I think it's quite fair for fans to read sexist intent into the design of a suit of armor that is slim-and-tight-fitting over the rest of the body (including what looks like a very thin, flexible system of interlocking plates over the area of the abdomen, which... houses a LOT of your body's vital organs not to mention your biggest unprotected blood vessels) but has giant birthday party balloons strapped to the chest and the chest alone.
That being said, I would be pretty interested in a mesh mod where the idea was similar to this but the execution was less extreme. I do like the cupped shape of the original even if I don't like how extreme the dimensions are, and do agree with you that there are likely some practical elements of it (as a big-chested girl myself, I imagine having sternal support built into the chestplate itself would help a LOT with both protection and comfort, though I have never worn body armor).
PS: And at any rate "sexual dimorphism is a thing, female combatants actually find this thing more comfortable than unisex armor" is an argument I find a LOT more compelling coming from an actual woman who has actually undergone military training, rather than the million times I've heard it from male game developers who often trot it out as an excuse to justify mystifying design choices. So thank you for speaking up.
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Stop taking into account the standards men set for armor, and actually understand that when armor is made for women, it is going to look, like it was made for women.
But I think it's quite fair for fans to read sexist intent into the design of a suit of armor that is slim-and-tight-fitting over the rest of the body (including what looks like a very thin, flexible system of interlocking plates over the area of the abdomen, which... houses a LOT of your body's vital organs not to mention your biggest unprotected blood vessels) but has giant birthday party balloons strapped to the chest and the chest alone.
That being said, I would be pretty interested in a mesh mod where the idea was similar to this but the execution was less extreme. I do like the cupped shape of the original even if I don't like how extreme the dimensions are, and do agree with you that there are likely some practical elements of it (as a big-chested girl myself, I imagine having sternal support built into the chestplate itself would help a LOT with both protection and comfort, though I have never worn body armor).
PS: And at any rate "sexual dimorphism is a thing, female combatants actually find this thing more comfortable than unisex armor" is an argument I find a LOT more compelling coming from an actual woman who has actually undergone military training, rather than the million times I've heard it from male game developers who often trot it out as an excuse to justify mystifying design choices. So thank you for speaking up.