IDEA: Use add-on store item as Skin to crafted armor.

The idea is to add "skin" slot to a crafting scheme and use add-on/rewards clothes and armors as skins to crafted items - purely cosmetic, with no changes to crafted items stats.

When crafted item wears off, destructs or is lost, skin just moves to inventory and can be applied to another crafted item of the same armor class.

Avatar who loots other player in PvP receives crafted item without skin.

Cosmetic skin must be the same armor type as crafted item.

In PvP players should have hotkey or option to see stats of real armor equipped on other PvP player.

I created this topic because all my purchased add-on clothes and armors are stored on dusty shelf for a long time since I equipped much better crafted armor.
I think that adding "skin" functionality would return these beautiful pieces of art in circulation to add more diversity in avatar's outfits,
It will also add more reasons to fund game by buying wearable add-ons.

 

We all expect this to happen at some point. Or - even better - to just have cosmetic gear slots which over write the gear.

 

I think this has been addressed in that we will see different molds for styles of weapons. Example: A katana mold, but still a sword in mechanics.

 

I'm not a fan of cosmetic reskinning of armor. Cloth dyes (and hopefully leather and plate dyes in the future) are enough customization in my opinion, but changing the actual 3D model/look of the piece you are wearing altogether isn't my cup o'tea. (I mainly mean WoW type transmogrification. I'm all for crafting different looking gear. Just not into magically changing the look of a pre-made piece.)

Don't get me wrong though, I really do like the look of all the Founder's gear. But I would rather see an Armor Stand type deco item for displaying armor in homes/shoppes rather than find a way to actually wear them. The pieces really are collectors' items... and maybe I'm just a total noob for it, but I still wear my Founder's plate since I'm too cheap to get any crafted gear as of yet and it's enough protection for me to get by.

 

No thank you

Im not a fan of cosmetic skins.

I just imagine fighting some guy wearing emperors new clothes, but really he is wearing full plate. Or really any cloth shirt but really there is a fully enchanted/masterworks set of armor under it.

Id much rather see dev time spent on expanding and making more sets of armor.

 

I would like to be able to die armor, or better yet parts of armor. It it very limiting not to be able to change the color of armor sets. Sure you can change the base materials to achieve a different color, but at the cost of armor stats.

 

As someone who had suggested that the devs make a few truly unique, one of a kind items (which was understandably not done because of the intensive dev time involved), I'm a proponent of skins. Even better, I would love an in-game program that would allow you to make cosmetic alterations to weapons, armor and whatnot. It may give the appearance of an engraving.. or maybe adding jewels or other additions to items. That way, we could craft truly one of a kind items.

 

This. I'm totally OK with this. Outside of PVP.

 

WARNING: Blatant, shameless thread-jack below!

I have made a couple of other suggestions for addressing this problem.

I also think this is a case where more is better--I'd like to see both of my ideas implemented, as well as this:

 

This could easily be mitigated by restricting the cosmetic cover-up to gear of the same category: you can make cloth armor look like other cloth armor, leather look like other leather, plate like other plate, etc. but you can't make plate look like cloth, etc.

 

I hope never to see cosmetic slots, or transmogrification. You should actually be wearing what it looks like you are wearing.

The Add-On Store gear is all starter stuff anyway. Having the same styles (not exact pieces, but styles) available in-game for enchanting/masterworking would solve the same issues.

 

I can't find the post now, but I recently read that laquer will be coming for the types of armor which can't dyed. Maybe it was in a hangout...

 

This concern is only true for PvP. Adding a hotkey showing complete stats below the name of avatar would be solution. Also it won't allow using Cloth skin for Heavy armor.

We are talking about just cosmetic functionality that will make more sense in buying add-on items or participate in events with purpose to get rare items and then wear it in game instead of storing in a bank.

 

I'm all about there being more clothing and appearance items. But if you want to wear them, they are for appearance, not for fighting in. You can already link armor to a deck and swap them out (for some reason, without LOOKING like you are changing clothes...). There is no reason for you to look like you are in your Sunday best while out slaying wolves. Make a choice.

 

The only real objection to it would be for PvP purposes, which I think is a legitimate objection.
Other games handle this by having cosmetic overrides disabled in pvp areas - simple enough, no?

 

Since you can flag yourself for Open PvP in this game, everywhere is a PvP area. Unless you mean that cosmetics would be disabled for everyone flagged for PvP, in which case it seems unfair to those players.

 

Yeah but the argument gets a bit circular at this point.
PvPers dont want cosmetic overrides because it will diminish their ability to evaluate their opponent by his appearance (cloth wearer, plate wearer, etc).
So if you make such things not work in PvP, then PvPers say it isn't fair that they can't use cosmetic overrides and look cool in Pvp?

I mean, I don't really care either way, I don't think it necessarily gives you that much of an 'edge' - but disabling it is a potential solution to that problem.
If it creates another problem of "PvPers can't look cool while fighting too!" then the only thing that remains is what is more important to you - being able to size up opponent, or look cool fighting?
Decide and implement accordingly.

 

I have no problem with skins for armor and weapons, but I think they should be type specific. Fancy plate styles that only work on plate armor. Fancy Cloth items for cloth armor. Fancy styled swords for swords.. etc.

 

If they do go skins, I'd rather they be something like the Pure White Dye is. You apply it once, and its done. They need $1 items in the Add-On Store; micro-transactions are one of the best ways to make money in these types of games.

That said, I still think it makes more sense to just craft real items in-game. Provide unlimited appearance sets that you can change between, but they are NOT armor. If you want to be protected, wear your armor. If you want to do crafting, wear your craft gear. If you want to look cool, wear your clothing. No reason these need to cross over.

 

My natural inclination is to agree with you on this, but I can also see that a lot of other people (apparently a solid majority, based on an admittedly small sampling) would like to be able to get the benefits from one set of gear while enjoying the appearance of another set of gear. I personally think that's a bit hokey, but (outside of PVP), I can't think of any good reason to tell other people that they shouldn't be able to enjoy the game the way they want to, especially when those people paid real money to enjoy this game. As long as effective restrictions are put in place to prevent people from gaining an unfair advantage in PVP, this should be a "live and let live" issue.

There is also a significant up-side to allowing this: making money to keep this game going for all of us. A lot of the add-on store merchandise consists of cosmetic equipment, but people are going to be less and less inclined to keep buying new outfits if they know they'll never wear them. I want all of the fashionistas out there to have as much motivation as possible to keep buying new clothes, and everyone else here should want the same.