Okay, so when I sat down to work on the design today, I just thought "Yeh know, the pauldron just really, really needs a complete re-design. There's no way in heck I'll be able to function with a silly fantasy shield-arm pauldron with spikes jabbing me all the time on my fightin' arm."
So now I'm just going all-out at trying different designs that will deflect attacks, be comfortable, adjust to human movement quickly and efficiently, and look good (to me). It also has to be completely original. I think that's what the armorers of old would have wanted anyway; to not only have their names and works preserved, but for innovation to continue. I'd bet they would be shocked/horrified to see the advancements in today's weaponry, and disappointed by the lack of artistic effort on ballistic vests, haha.
Actually, I think it would be just be really fun if weapons and armor would continue to be improved as if gunpowder and firearms were not invented.
Just imagine what could have been accomplished! The epic plate armor and weapons war would continue. Different melee/ranged weapons for different sorts of plate armor. Special alloys, oils, and heat-treatment. all finely crafted with etchings, embossings, and perhaps even new ways for decorating steel armor. There probably would have been major advancements in chainmail, leather treatment and cloth, too.
Or what if firearms were overlooked in favor of advancements in engineering? Pneumatic warhammers, beautifully elaborate clockwork automatons that walk cobbled kingdom streets, crossbow bolts that unfold into thousands of poisoned needles mid-air, rapid-fire trebuchets, and the armor/forces to stop those. Or how about tesla coils? Advanced research in ball lightning phenomenon, walls made of crackling electricity, weather manipulation, lightning swords, taser arrows, and soon after, plate armor that is made without iron as a base element.
I think this is where reality blends with fantasy. That's what I'm aiming for in my own armorwork, anyway.
Here's my new pauldron design.
I woke up late and was busy for the rest of the day with a Chinese holiday of sorts, so I only got a few hours to design several pauldrons until settling with this design.
I basically took the shoulder lames and flipped them vertically. The lames will be slightly wider than normal, and there will be a lot of overlapping steel, particularly at the bottom of the pauldrons, so when I raise my arm, the plates will spread like wings. They'll be articulated only by leather straps (unless I find locations to place sliding rivets). These pauldrons aren't connected to my arm in any way, but connected to my cuirass via two holes (for each pauldron) in my cloak collar.
The downside is that they'll be heavier than a normal shield-arm pauldron. That can be fixed though, I'm still designing it.
On the upside, I really cannot see how a sword or other bladed weapon can get past it. Even if a sword does manage to get past my dodging, parrying, my shield, the pauldron collar, fluting, sliding rivets and wedge between the plates, the angle will be completely wrong and the blade will glance off the chainmail covering my shoulder underneath. And then if they manage to pry the plates apart, they still have the chainmail and a layer of leather, cloth, and other armor accessories to stab through, and that's only to get at my shoulder.
By that time, I would have already poked 'em in the belly, lol. Another benefit is that the larger plate on the very end will give me an enormous amount of artistic freedom in forging something interesting.
face is where I might do a bit of decorative forging. Although it might look better with just etching and brasswork, and maybe a bit of gilding.