Armor Tinting

[Ka'gor]

Iam an eq1 vet and iam really surpised wtih all the advanced graphics and skins in eq2 that they dont have some form of armor tinting.  Does anyone know if they are even thinking about doing something like this?  I like the status gear and the detail on it is great but i dont really like looking like a chrome bumper.  Some form of color tinting would be great.  Anyway thought I woudl ask if its been brought up or they ahve said anything about it.

Thanks

[Calthine]

The devs have stated often and repeatedly we're not getting armor tinting.  However, you have a second tab on your inventory window called the Appearance tab.  Drop anything you like in there, and it will override the appearance of the gear you're wearing without bothering the stats! 

[Condar Tarsonia]

As Calthine noted, the devs don't want people with poor color coordination running loose ruining the 'feel' of the game with their wild neon pink and green armor.

I would suggest checking out Daine's thread here for new armor recipes - http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=387603 .  To be honest, I think that's the closest we'll ever see to 'armor tinting' and think hers is a good idea.  I'm sure after the release of the RoK expansion, we'll get some feedback from Domino!

[janmystique]

Condar Tarsonia wrote:

As Calthine noted, the devs don't want people with poor color coordination running loose ruining the 'feel' of the game with their wild neon pink and green armor.

Well of course, the developers could avoid neon colours etc by putting only "acceptable" colours in the game.

A previous online game that I played had bottles of dye as drops. Black was really rare and cost a lot to buy from other players. You could buy a dye remover from the merchant and revert to the original colour if you preferred. Colours could be mixed so you could get some individuality in your looks. In this way, all your armour could be roughly the same colour even if it hadn't started out as a matching set. Players tried very hard to get a gold colour by mixing yellows and white. You could mix various quantities of the colours like two yellow and one white or one yellow and two white.

As well as the black, you could get orange, red, blue, green, white and maybe others; I can't remember. I never saw anyone going around looking like a rainbow or even anything like a primary colour! I get the feeling that the game developers had programmed things so that the colours didn't come out as bright colours on the armour even though you might start off with a bright dye.

Until the "Appearance" tab came in to being in EQII, I was very unhappy about how my armour looked. It is a mixture of reddish, yellowish and even a hint of greenish - but perhaps the latter was down to my huge dislike of red and yellow together - like tomato sauce on my egg! Yukky! Now I wear a dress - and not one with slits up to my neck either! So I am content.

EQII is, in my not so humble opinion, a far better game!

[Spyderbite]

Apsenniel@Splitpaw wrote:

A previous online game that I played had bottles of dye as drops.

OMG.. please don't even mention Tokuno Dyes.. I don't even want a dev to consider such a thing.. or we'll have peeps running around in Rum Red armor while wearing their jack-o-lantern masks and/or frostfell headwear. gah.. the visual.. /shudders

[janmystique]

Spyderbite@Venekor wrote:

Apsenniel@Splitpaw wrote:

A previous online game that I played had bottles of dye as drops.

OMG.. please don't even mention Tokuno Dyes.. I don't even want a dev to consider such a thing.. or we'll have peeps running around in Rum Red armor while wearing their jack-o-lantern masks and/or frostfell headwear. gah.. the visual.. /shudders

Well I don't know what game you are thinking of. The point that I was making was that no-one had horrible colour armour. Not when I played anyway!

[Wyrmypops]

Hehe, the devs ain't actually had to put down the dyes/tints ideas, as enough people are aware of the devs infrequent and irregular remarks they can dole out the "ain't happening" instead.  The reasons against were ever subjective rather than absolute truths, and to be honest they invariably came across to me as cowpoo.

It was put out there that the devs considered it important that a person could tell what a person was wearing from looking at them. A bit of a shame that, given that it's either a lie or at least naive, a person couldn't tell what a person was wearing by looking at them, couldn't tell what the item was a glance, the mob it came from or the zone, unless they'd been there, whacked the mob, and got the item themselves. Regardless, who cares eh, who not rather look the way they wanted over noticing that X on the docks has got some shiny shoulders, could inspect them or even ask them if really interested.

Seems the devs realised that was a load of old toot anyway, what with the addition of the appearance tab.

The other common excuse against is just as bogus as the alleged visual heads up. That of a desire to avoid the neons, the noisome colours some people may choose. Bogus, in that many dev created items are already like that, but worse in that it ain't a few players that adjusted their armour to look that way, everyone that wanted to wear it had to put those visuals out there. Honesly, one has to despair of an art team that puts out pink plate armour eh.

I'd rather the dev's had just 'fessed up. "We ain't got a clue how to implement dyes or tints. We didn't think it through initially, and coded the game in a way that couldn't support them. Daft really eh, we should have picked up on the options and its popularity from EQ1. Doh! Sorry."

But with the skeletal revamp incoming it's reported that'll make creation of new armours a lot easier. Instead of having to make one graphic for each races gender, they can knock some out that'll scale to fit the skeleton.

With the appearance tab having to address al these visual concerns, I'm expecting we'll see more attractive armours/clothes making it into the game. Quested reward sets, like the Misthides/Emerald Hides and such. But more than the same tired graphics being used with the colour tint being applied by the devs (or the cleaning staff that muck around on the devs computers after hours) -  Actual new graphics.

We could perhaps see ranges of armour/clothes as purchasable options, or rewards from questlines. A bunch of new furred clothes, with kilt leggings from Everfrost. Some lava designs from the Drednevers of Soluseks Eye. Some far-eastern designs from the Island of Mara (so monks could finally wear a gi rather than a bondage suit).

There's a thread in the crafting forum about the possibility of armourers getting some recipes to make a range of armours that are all about appealing visuals. Tailors have some, kinda - it's the same graphics with several different colour options. It's be nice if armourers got that at least, they could fill a gap while addressing the lack of recipes some outfitters get.

I made one about the possibility of adornments for the appearance tab items, having visual effects. Tints, and also illumination. Quest reward adornments or funky recipe rewards, or something.

There's other threads too, so I guess, look around - see the threads already there on various aspects of the look and feel of our characters. /Feedback what you like to feedback, as these boards are less likely to gain the attention of a dev than /feedback - the boards are more for us to see if others share a point of view or we're a single frotthing nutter.

[Calthine]

Wyrmypops wrote:

Hehe, the devs ain't actually had to put down the dyes/tints ideas, as enough people are aware of the devs infrequent and irregular remarks they can dole out the "ain't happening" instead.  The reasons against were ever subjective rather than absolute truths, and to be honest they invariably came across to me as cowpoo.

I'd rather the dev's had just 'fessed up. "We ain't got a clue how to implement dyes or tints. We didn't think it through initially, and coded the game in a way that couldn't support them. Daft really eh, we should have picked up on the options and its popularity from EQ1. Doh! Sorry."

I'm know there has been more than one dev statement on exactly why we coudln't have tints.  I'd swear there was one at Fan Faire, but I can't find it atm.

[Condar Tarsonia]

Wyrmypops wrote:

Hehe, the devs ain't actually had to put down the dyes/tints ideas, as enough people are aware of the devs infrequent and irregular remarks they can dole out the "ain't happening" instead.  The reasons against were ever subjective rather than absolute truths, and to be honest they invariably came across to me as cowpoo.

It was put out there that the devs considered it important that a person could tell what a person was wearing from looking at them. A bit of a shame that, given that it's either a lie or at least naive, a person couldn't tell what a person was wearing by looking at them, couldn't tell what the item was a glance, the mob it came from or the zone, unless they'd been there, whacked the mob, and got the item themselves. Regardless, who cares eh, who not rather look the way they wanted over noticing that X on the docks has got some shiny shoulders, could inspect them or even ask them if really interested.

This was one reason they wanted to leave out armor tinting/dyes, yes - I specifically remember this as one of the developer responses and also thought it was pretty stupid at the time.

Seems the devs realised that was a load of old toot anyway, what with the addition of the appearance tab.

The other common excuse against is just as bogus as the alleged visual heads up. That of a desire to avoid the neons, the noisome colours some people may choose. Bogus, in that many dev created items are already like that, but worse in that it ain't a few players that adjusted their armour to look that way, everyone that wanted to wear it had to put those visuals out there. Honesly, one has to despair of an art team that puts out pink plate armour eh.

I'd rather the dev's had just 'fessed up. "We ain't got a clue how to implement dyes or tints. We didn't think it through initially, and coded the game in a way that couldn't support them. Daft really eh, we should have picked up on the options and its popularity from EQ1. Doh! Sorry."

Er, I don't agree with you on this one.  I'm sure I remember waaaay back in the day that dyes and tints were being asked for and they (read: devs) repeatedly stated they didn't want to see the neons/dayglo color schemes - consequently I doubt it has anything to do with them not 'knowing' how to implement it, it was a choice they made, and that's why you see the community give that as a reason.

As Calthine said, I specifically remember dev responses along those lines, but I'm sure they were back in the day of the old forums and most of those posts have been lost.  Iirc, Lotus was one of those devs who was really against such changes.

Sadly, the best I could find was a thread by Domino in September about Appearances.  Quote (3rd bullet point): "totally day-glo colours may not be possible (or if they are, may be vetoed by Lotus on the grounds of good taste)" So I think that would confirm my suspicions about Lotus being one of the devs who didn't want dyes/tints because of "day-glo" colors.  I tried doing a search for posts by Lotus, btw, but only a handful show up - again, I assume this is because of the forum change.

But with the skeletal revamp incoming it's reported that'll make creation of new armours a lot easier. Instead of having to make one graphic for each races gender, they can knock some out that'll scale to fit the skeleton.

With the appearance tab having to address al these visual concerns, I'm expecting we'll see more attractive armours/clothes making it into the game. Quested reward sets, like the Misthides/Emerald Hides and such. But more than the same tired graphics being used with the colour tint being applied by the devs (or the cleaning staff that muck around on the devs computers after hours) -  Actual new graphics.

Lets hope

We could perhaps see ranges of armour/clothes as purchasable options, or rewards from questlines. A bunch of new furred clothes, with kilt leggings from Everfrost. Some lava designs from the Drednevers of Soluseks Eye. Some far-eastern designs from the Island of Mara (so monks could finally wear a gi rather than a bondage suit).

There's a thread in the crafting forum about the possibility of armourers getting some recipes to make a range of armours that are all about appealing visuals. Tailors have some, kinda - it's the same graphics with several different colour options. It's be nice if armourers got that at least, they could fill a gap while addressing the lack of recipes some outfitters get.

That's a great suggestion by Daine, and I'm assuming Domino already has similar ideas for something like that based on the link above.

I made one about the possibility of adornments for the appearance tab items, having visual effects. Tints, and also illumination. Quest reward adornments or funky recipe rewards, or something.

There's other threads too, so I guess, look around - see the threads already there on various aspects of the look and feel of our characters. /Feedback what you like to feedback, as these boards are less likely to gain the attention of a dev than /feedback - the boards are more for us to see if others share a point of view or we're a single frotthing nutter.

Another point I don't agree with - nothing I've ever done feedback on has ever seemed to garner much feedback at all, whereas many threads in this forum get responses from Domino.  I'm pretty sure /feedback just goes to the (more) evil devs who watch me play the Gigglegibber lottery and taunt me with 5 number wins, which is why nothing comes of it.

Edit: Eeek, initial color choice was hard on the eyes.  Hope this is a bit better.

[Talz]

The appearance tab is probably as good as it will get.  I think it's a reasonable compromise but I don't expect all to agree.The one thing I always love about dye threads are that the worst case scenarios people give already exist in EQ2 and the art team obviously thought they were good ideas.  You know... because they made them and stuff.

[janmystique]

Talzar wrote:

The appearance tab is probably as good as it will get.  I think it's a reasonable compromise but I don't expect all to agree.The one thing I always love about dye threads are that the worst case scenarios people give already exist in EQ2 and the art team obviously thought they were good ideas.  You know... because they made them and stuff.

I was thinking exactly like you about some of the colours already in the game. The appearance tab is OK with me as it allows me to wear something other than the skin tight leather that the devs think is nice for a female warden! It's all a question of taste!

[NANEEJE]

agreed, if i am making armor, and someone wants it blue brown gold green silver, ( a very basic color) i wouldnt mind throwing a dye in to do it. question: what is the black face paint for? just got that out of a treasure chest today, thought of this post from last night.

[ke'la]

What we are dealing with in EQ2 was a Design Desistion made probly around 2003, when they where first building the EQ2 Engine, the devs AT THAT TIME desided that they wanted people to tell where you got the armor piece from just by looking at it, and being that being able to dye armor prevented this, they desided not to include armor dyes. Fast forward to today, now in order for the devs to add armor dyes to the game they would basicly have to redesign the whole armor displaying system, consitering the huge amount of work that would intel, and the limited number of people that really care about armor dyes(now that we can match with the apperance tab) they have desided that any benifit they would get from dyes would be out weighed by the cost of doing it.