More Armour Patterns

​This is admittedly more for people like me, who prefer the older stuff.

For those whose first foray into 40k is this game, you may not realize it, but space marines didn't always look like what we see in the game. In fact, up until 7 or 8 years ago, the "firstborn" as they're called--basically what Titus was during the Deathwatch intro--were just called Space Marines, as Primaris marines weren't even a concept. And back then, Space Marines wore different suits of armour. The Mk VII (the Mk VIII in-game looks similar to it, but only at a glance. Some of the Chaos Marines in PvP have corrupted and damaged suits of it. Play the first game and you'll see proper suits of Mk VII) was the most widespread look to them, with the Mk VI coming in at a close second. Mk VIII was actually pretty rare, and was only observed to be worn piecemeal with the other two due to Imperial economics being in a far worse state back then. Everything from Mk I to V was Pre-Heresy to Heresy-era--Horus Heresy novels--though did have concept art to begin with, along with a few display models showcasing them, and even rare cases of continued combat utilization such as the Red Scorpions still producing suits of Mk IV. In Space Marine 2, after the tutorial we universally see the Space Marines wear full suits of Mk X and its three main configurations, which is the direction GW has taken since 2017, though to a mixed response.

For this, I would want to see the rest of the armour have access to older patterns of power armour, not just the helmets. Because yes indeed, there are several differences between Mk X Tacticus and the Mk VI, VII, and VIII, and the older patterns (I'd even go so far as to say the Mk IV has more in common with the Mk VII than it does with the Mk X contrary to what's popularly said). We've already got the Mk VI pauldrons of course, but that's not really going very far, and besides, not even particularly accurate to the Mk VI which had a studded left pauldron, with the legion/chapter emblem on the right pauldron. We then got a studded pauldron in the most recent update, but only on the right pauldron, and it has a trim. Space Marine pauldrons usually tend to look very similar anyways--Mk II and III had the exact same pauldrons which themselves look pretty similar to later pauldrons, Mk IV just had a thin trim, Mk V and VI have the same pauldrons, and Mk VII, VIII, and X Tacticus all have the same pauldron design. The Mk I was the most unique pauldron design out of all of them for its segmented appearance, and that practically never saw active combat use after the Great Crusade began. Mk VIII nearly had a unique pauldron design, but then someone at GW decided "nah, let's just call that Curadh-pattern", which was apparently a subpattern of Mk VII for some ungodly reason rather than the Mk VIII, and despite the fact that the Curadh had literally every distinctly Mk VIII feature on it, including the large prominent gorget; it just had a unique helmet and pauldron design on top of those, and that's it (I'm still salty about that one).

The "official" Mk VIII is already in the game as the armour that Titus wears in the tutorial (along with the versions worn by his killteam members). Faithfully modeled and animated. Honestly, you could just take it straight from the tutorial and plop it into the game as-is. In fact, some modders have already done just that.

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The Chaos Space Marines in this game--Anvilus-pattern power packs aside--wear the older patterns, with a seeming favouritism for corrupted, battered, and worn suits of Mk VII (Tactical (I'm not checking the Assault after having tried too long to get into a winning game with it for an achievement), Vanguard, and Sniper), though the Bulwark and Heavy are wearing Mk III armour and Mk II helmets. Cleaning up the Chaos elements and tidying up the armour could make it viable as another pick. It should work out mostly well animations-wise. The Rubric Marines are suits of Mk IV power armour (specifically the Achean subpattern originating from Prospero), but they have a very different animation set from the player characters, and I can see it taking time to adapt those Mk IV elements onto pre-existing armour patterns.

Even some Primaris armour isn't present in the game, such as the Infiltrator and Suppressor helmets, and the Eradicator Gravis plate only has a highly ornate variant in the game, though it deserves plainer variants as well (Also check out this post). [EDIT] I am adding multiple sub-patterns to the tables. Naturally, I wouldn't expect all of these Sub-Patterns to show up in the game, let alone all the basic patterns. What I'm more aiming for with this is showcasing the visual diversity that having strictly Mk X armour lacks, as well just putting them on the radar.

Helmets

Pattern/Variant	Primaris?	Status
Mk II "Crusade"	No	CSM only
Mk II "Achaean" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk II "Decimator" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk II "Paravane" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk II "Qayan" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk II "Sarum" Sub-Pattern	No	CSM only(?)
Mk II "Stygian" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk III "Iron"	No	Not available
Mk III Breacher variant	No	Not available
Mk III Death Guard Helm (I got no name here)	No	Not available
Mk III Unnamed Death Guard Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk IV "Maximus"	No	See "Achean" Sub-Pattern
Mk IV "Achean" Sub-Pattern	No	Rubric Marines Only
Mk IV "Cthonian" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk IV Unnamed Deathwing Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk IV "Hanael" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk IV "Kepharel" Sub-Pattern	No (arguably has more of a resemblance to Mk X Tacticus than base pattern)	Not available
Mk IV "Praetor" Sub-Pattern Variant A	No	Not available
Mk IV "Praetor Sub-Pattern Variant B	No*	Not available (Tactical's Relic Secundus helmet sppears to be inspired by this helmet)
Mk IV "Renissum" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk IV "Seeker" Sub-Pattern	No	CSM only (CSM Sniper seems to wear this helmet under his hood)
Mk V "Heresy"	No	Not Available
Mk VI "Corvus"	No	Available (Mk X elements have been added, most noticeably the ear hoods)
Mk VI "Cthonian" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk VI Unnamed Space Wolves Sub-Pattern	No	Space Wolves Champion Skin only
Mk VII "Aquilla/Imperator"	No	CSM only(?)
Mk VII "Curadh"	No	Not available (Bladeguard helmets as worn by Bulwark appear to be inspired by this)
Mk VIII "Errant"	No	Available*
Mk VIII Unnamed Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk X "Phobos" Infiltrator	Yes	Not available
Mk X "Omnis"	Yes	Not Available

Breastplates

Pattern/Variant	Primaris?	Status
Mk II "Crusade"	No	Not available
Mk II "Decimator" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk II "Paravane" Sub-Pattern	No	Not available
Mk III "Iron"	No	CSM only
Mk IV "Maximus"	No	Rubric Marines only
Mk IV "Renissum" Sub-Pattern	No	Not Available
Mk IV "Seeker" Sub-Pattern	No	Not avalable (CSM Sniper seems to be wearing a modified Mk VII with parts from this armour)
Mk V "Heresy"	No	Not available
Mk VI "Corvus"	No	Not available
Mk VII "Aquila/Imperator"	No	CSM only
Mk VIII "Errant"	No	Tutorial only
Mk X "Gravis" Eradicator	Yes	Available (Baroque only)

Power Packs

Pattern/Variants	Primaris?	Status
Mk II "Crusade"/Mk III "Iron"	No	CSM only
Mk IV "Maximus"	No	Not available
Mk V "Heresy"/Mk VI "Corvus"	No	Not available
Mk VII "Aquilla/Imperator"	No	Not available
Mk VIII "Errant"	No	Tutorial only

Pauldrons

Pattern/Variant	Primaris?	Status
Mk II "Crusade"	No	Available
Mk III "Iron"	No	CSM only
Mk IV "Maximus"	No	Rubric Marines only (Achean subpattern only)
Mk IV	No	CSM only
Mk V "Heresy"/Mk VI "Corvus"	No	Available*
Mk VII "Aquilla/Imperator"/Mk VIII "Errant"	No	Available
Mk VII "Curadh"/Mk VIII "Errant"	No	Not available

Arms

Patterns/Variants	Primaris?	Status
Mk II "Crusade"	No	Not available
Mk III "Iron"	No	CSM only
Mk IV "Maximus"	No	Rubric Marines only
Mk V "Heresy"/Mk VI "Corvus"	No	Not available
Mk VII "Aquilla/Imperator"/Mk VIII "Errant"	No	CSM only

Legs

Pattern/Variant	Primaris?	Status
Mk II "Crusade"	No	Not available
Mk III "Iron"	No	CSM only
Mk IV "Maximus"	No	Rubric Marines only
Mk V "Heresy"	No	Not available
Mk VI "Corvus"	No	Not available
Mk VII "Aquilla/Imperator"	No	CSM only
Mk VIII "Errant"	No	Tutorial only