Armor Appearance Choice (NOT Dyes)

[quasigenx]

I understand that dyes have been shot down in numerous threads. There are a bunch of technical reasons why it can't be done, supposedly. It's not for us to speculate on the veracity of those assertions. However, if it's just the technical problem in play, I have a non-technical solution. Just allow us to pick from any armor that shares the same model as our piece where only the color differs. For example, Cobalt versus Ebon plate armor. There are a million other examples, due to the very limited number of armor models in the game currently. Want to make players work for uber armor? Only allow us to choose items we currently have in our inventory or bank. Granted, these items may not be tied to each other with any meta-data currently, but that's data that a few summer interns could enter in a day or two. IIRC - That leaves only their philosophical decision that "we should know where your armor comes from by looking at it". However, the player consensus seems to be that having matching armor (as apposed to clown armor) is more important, and more fun, than knowing what someone's gear is without inspecting them. The two objections to dyes I see the most are that in eq1 it was fugly, and that it's impossible. I don't think anyone can say that this is not technically feasible, and it would not allow for retina searing options like the hot pink plate tank.

[Winter]

<p><span style="color: #ff66ff">Definitely more feasible than full-on armor dyes, however I think that may take away from the uniqueness of each piece. Perhaps multiples color options for certain pieces. Granted, I want hot pink plate. LOL. You're mean to say hot pink plate tanks shouldn't be allowed. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> jk</span></p>

[Chay]

I've said something similar in other threads as have others. It would nice to have some options in style and color so that we don't look mixed matched and can create a "personality" for our characters. The supposed "uniqueness" and "recognition" of armor as a means of status/achievement is kind of pointless these days. SOE has made it so by making some bad artistic, technical, and implementation choices. The look of an armor should reflect the character of the class, race, and even gender of the wearer more than "iconize" the look of a given piece or set. I really don't care what someone is wearing unless I like the look of it (which is very very rare). Having an option to have a piece of armor take the standard look, or a racial look, or a class look, or no look (turned off for certain pieces), or even a gender would give the game even more appeal. The biggest issues would be implementing a system that allows pieces to have multiple appearances and more so creating those multiple textures. My biggest issue with the current armor is that a lot of the pieces look terrible (Illusionist EoF Fabled anyone?) and need to be improved. Sometimes it seems to me that SOE is laughing at their customers: "If you want to wear the best armor you have to look like fools". I'd much rather wear T1 player crafter than T7 mastercraft. I know there are thousands of pieces and they try to give as many as possible a unique look but I really don't know what they were thinking on a lot of the pieces.

[Novusod]

I really like the idea of choosing what type of armor appearance you would like to like have out of the given graphics already in the game. It would be easy to make happen in a userfriendly way by simply adding a third button to the  fitting room window called "Apply." This would copy over whatever your toon looked like in the fitting room to your adventure toon. This is pretty much exactly how costume selection works in City of Heros and a few other games. There is really no reason at all why we still have to dress like clowns.

[Seraki]

<p>I was thinking an interesting idea would be to have an armor customize merchant in game where you could pay him/her to swap out your armor appearance.   No stat change but you get to choose an armor model that is more appealing to you.   </p><p>Along these lines if they do decide to make more armor models I was thinking that racial styles could be available through the same method to characters for their race.</p>

[Armawk]

<p>I know its not going to go down well but I would throw my hat in the ring against all these ideas. I see zero problem with wearing what you are wearing. and not wearing what you are not wearing. The idea of options to replace any art in the game you dont like with any other bit of art you do like doesnt make any sense to me. I fundamentally support the right/obligation of the developer to decide the games art style.</p><p>I know the hat exception is going to get mentioned here, but given that is simply to allow people to show their faces I see it as a bit different, just that, an exception.</p>

[Chay]

I don't think everyone should have unlimited choices on making changes to armor appearances but I think there needs to be some options as I don't believe that the developer has the right/obligation to decide to make everyone look like clowns. Odd colors, odd styles, and so forth detract from the game aesthetic as much has dyes ever would. That and I think that a majority of people would like at least some options for choosing the appearance of their character's armor. If all the armor had an appealing appearance it wouldn't be necessary, but there are are just too many BAD looking pieces especially in T7. To me it looks like the developers just ran out of good ideas. It could be that if they add textures to the game after the skeletal revamp is implemented that the T7 and T8 items will get a makeover in the first pass. But hop into the dressing room and have someone link you all the different class fabled gear and tell me all of it looks good and that the developers did an outstanding job in creating pieces that fit the lore or the class. They don't. And I do see that as a problem. Most of the sets look like half hearted attempts to recycle previously used pieces. And unless they implement a lot more designs with or before RoK its just going to get even more ludicrous. There are plenty of reasons to make changes, not enough reasons to not make changes. If they don't implement more styles, more customization, and more effort into creating pieces that immerse rather than repulse I would say they have given up and they are just riding out the subscriptions till all interest dies.

[Novusod]

<cite>Chayna wrote:</cite><blockquote>There are plenty of reasons to make changes, not enough reasons to not make changes. If they don't implement more styles, more customization, and more effort into creating pieces that immerse rather than repulse I would say they have given up and they are just riding out the subscriptions till all interest dies. </blockquote>To the contrary I think the devs have been pouring an inordinate amount of time into making new styles and new pieces it is just that the way they have been going about it is so inefficient I liken it to counting grains of sand on the beach. To the players all we really care about are the high end legendary and fabled because that is what we wear but that only represents a very small portion of the loot in this game. For every piece of fabled there are dozens of treasured items or even lesser gear out there all of which has a graphic and a unique texture. The devs have moved heaven and earth making this stuff but it all goes to waste because players would never even dream of equiping an item labled uncommon. When you take into account that there are 7 tiers of loot in this game and most are players are in T7 we are looking at maybe only 2% or 3% of the total graphics in the game. Of course players are going think the game limits graphical variety if they are only looking 2% of the game's textures. The whole skeletal revamp ordeal is just mind boggling to me how much resource is being poured into this. The devs could have coded an entire new game within this two year long project. The devs simply need let go and stop killing themselves over graphics. There nothing really wrong with the graphics here. I wouldn't be playing this game if something didn't catch my eye in first place. The problem is that we can't wear what we think looks because it is tied to certain items and in the end whole concept is entirely subjective anyhow. Just let the players choose what they want to look like and there wouldn't be a need for skeletal revamps or masive graphical overhauls.

[Chay]

I will respectfully disagree with just about everything you said. From quasi stats, to hyperbole on time spend on the revamp. I think the revamp was planned prelaunch because they character and armor designs weren't up to the expectations of the devs. I think THEY want the revamp as much as some players do. Now, I should say that I'm not entirely confident that the revamp will result in any substantial changes (I hope that it will), nor am I confident that it wont create more problems (like some races looking even more homogenized). I think the choices of looks for a given piece should be limited though. Especially on lower quality and lower tier items. I think there are lots of viable directions they could go to make the experience more enjoyable and allow more player input in how their character ultimately looks without degrading the abilities.

[Lord Montague]

<cite>Winter wrote:</cite><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff66ff">Definitely more feasible than full-on armor dyes, however I think that may take away from the uniqueness of each piece. Perhaps multiples color options for certain pieces. Granted, I want hot pink plate. LOL. You're mean to say hot pink plate tanks shouldn't be allowed. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> jk</span></p></blockquote> <span style="color: #00ff00">I think hot pink would be very functional as a tank.  It would be such an offense to the monster's eyes that they would be more inclined to want to kill you first (hate buff..muhaha).</span>

[Aurumn]

<cite>Novusod wrote:</cite><blockquote>When you take into account that there are 7 tiers of loot in this game and <b>most are players are in T7</b> we are looking at maybe only 2% or 3% of the total graphics in the game. </blockquote><p>I was curious about the assumption that the T7 community the so large, since I've gotten the impression from various boards that the T7 crowd is very well represented here and I hear lots of stuff about high level raiding. I did a quick EQ2Players survey of the population on Unrest (my home server). Not that I dispute that there are a huge amount of folks with at least 1 toon in T7, I thought it would be interesting to introduce a little perspective.</p><ul><li>Level 1-10:     28224</li><li>Level 11-20:   12499</li><li>Level 21-30:     8708</li><li>Level 31-40:     4627</li><li>Level 41-50:     2997</li><li>Level 51-60:     2394</li><li>Level 61-70:     5112</li></ul><p>I'm a casual player and my highest toon is in his 30's so I don't presume to know much about the higher tiers. I've been in a raid group exactly twice, mainly for named kills, not instances, so "raid gear" is irrelevant to my own situation. However I believe the ability to have your toon at least be able to select between one or two color/style options on purchased or crafted gear would be sensible at any level of play. If you can't get something to perfectly match your looted gear, at least you could avoid wearing orange boots with green leggings. </p><p>Despite my relative newbie-ness, I've already seen enough gear in game that I wouldn't want to go back and recolor everything as a dev... that would be insane! But, if they've got a compromise or some sort of automation that could make it happen, or even something along those lines, I think it would enhance gameplay and enjoyment for more than a few people.</p>

[Emerok]

<p>Like Chayna wrote I think that if players put stat's aside there is a huge array of armor choices available to make your character look good and to top it off the new preview option allows you to match your whole set before buying off the broker without accidently buying a rainbow. </p><p> I myself care less about stats than looks so at least i can breathe easy.</p>

[Novusod]

<cite>Mendou wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Novusod wrote:</cite><blockquote>When you take into account that there are 7 tiers of loot in this game and <b>most are players are in T7</b> we are looking at maybe only 2% or 3% of the total graphics in the game. </blockquote><p>I was curious about the assumption that the T7 community the so large, since I've gotten the impression from various boards that the T7 crowd is very well represented here and I hear lots of stuff about high level raiding. I did a quick EQ2Players survey of the population on Unrest (my home server). Not that I dispute that there are a huge amount of folks with at least 1 toon in T7, I thought it would be interesting to introduce a little perspective.</p><ul><li>Level 1-10:     28224</li><li>Level 11-20:   12499</li><li>Level 21-30:     8708</li><li>Level 31-40:     4627</li><li>Level 41-50:     2997</li><li>Level 51-60:     2394</li><li>Level 61-70:     5112</li></ul><p>I'm a casual player and my highest toon is in his 30's so I don't presume to know much about the higher tiers. I've been in a raid group exactly twice, mainly for named kills, not instances, so "raid gear" is irrelevant to my own situation. However I believe the ability to have your toon at least be able to select between one or two color/style options on purchased or crafted gear would be sensible at any level of play. If you can't get something to perfectly match your looted gear, at least you could avoid wearing orange boots with green leggings. </p><p>Despite my relative newbie-ness, I've already seen enough gear in game that I wouldn't want to go back and recolor everything as a dev... that would be insane! But, if they've got a compromise or some sort of automation that could make it happen, or even something along those lines, I think it would enhance gameplay and enjoyment for more than a few people.</p></blockquote>I am not asking them to recolor everything. I just want to wear the graphic of my old armor. Seriously my raid gear is so ugly it makes me wish I never leveled up. <img src="http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e38/Novuso/EverQuest/Not_A_Bruiser.jpg" border="0">

[Chay]

<cite>Novusod wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am not asking them to recolor everything. I just want to wear the graphic of my old armor. Seriously my raid gear is so ugly it makes me wish I never leveled up. <img src="http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e38/Novuso/EverQuest/Not_A_Bruiser.jpg" border="0"> </blockquote> OMG!!! How is someone suppose to feel pride wearing something like that? SOE? Do you see this?? It's laughable (no offense to anyone weaing it though). This is why I spend so much time in LOOK AND FEEL trying to get changes made so that a player can wear something they've worked hard for with pride. It grates more than a chain link bikini ever would.

[Wildmage]

<cite>Chayna wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Novusod wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am not asking them to recolor everything. I just want to wear the graphic of my old armor. Seriously my raid gear is so ugly it makes me wish I never leveled up. <img src="http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e38/Novuso/EverQuest/Not_A_Bruiser.jpg" border="0"> </blockquote> OMG!!! How is someone suppose to feel pride wearing something like that? SOE? Do you see this?? It's laughable (no offense to anyone weaing it though). This is why I spend so much time in LOOK AND FEEL trying to get changes made so that a player can wear something they've worked hard for with pride. It grates more than a chain link bikini ever would. </blockquote>being in soga and not having cloth animation turned on are not helping that image in the slightest.

[Wyrmypops]

<p>Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it ain't the cloth or SOGA making them looks like a broken traffic light. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Novusod]

Let's not turn this into a SOGA debate. This is about armor choice and how as you level up into the higher tiers you are forced into wearing whatever has the best stats for each slot. The result of doing this means you end up looking like a clown. It is just not the colours, the textures don't match and some pieces are just plain ugly like those huge [Removed for Content] pants that are 8 sizes too large and are pulled half way up my toon's chest. The way armor stats, resists, and raiding work is it's either put on the clown suit or don't attend the raid and kicked from the guild. We are asking for armor choice here because right now there is no choice.