Transmogrification

So; I used to play world of warcraft; and I noticed that a lot of people (myself included) where talking about weapon customization, and I thought I might as well share this idea.

Transmogrification is obtaining a piece of equipment with a model you like; then applying that model onto your current corresponding piece of gear. So no swords shaped like axes; but axes with different models.

Transmogrification was a favorite thing of mine; as it allowed players to customize there gear; while keeping stats; but for a fee. What do you guys think? of course; this could just be a feature stacked onto all the other customization options people have recommended, (my favorite being https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?topic=craft-system-brainstorm ). Tell me your opinion!

 

I like it. Maybe as some sort of spell might be appropriate if you're just going for a visual change. It does give me a new idea of crafting too. lol Something I'll have to think about.

 

I think this is a good idea. Particularly when you are getting armor from quest rewards rather than from a crafter, it's easy to end up with a hideous combination of mismatched crap. Lord of the Rings Online has the concept of cosmetic clothing. You equip stuff for it's attributes, but if you are looking for a particular style (barbarian, for example, or chivalrous knight) you can display a different set of armor. You still get the attributes from the armor you have equipped, but you display a different style so you don't look like you got dressed out of a junk yard.

Of course, one way around this is to make crafted gear much better than the junk you get from drops, which is useful to sell for coin or scrap for raw materials, but not much else. That way, have your friendly neighborhood crafter make you a set that is not only functional, but good looking.

 

It would be great for RPing; but I think that it would be a lot better if you could transmute/cosmetic any armor; instead of crafting it to look like that. I like the idea of transmute because you CAN get a fairly good sword from a dungeon; but looks absolutely horrible, and then MAKE a sword that you like; and transmute the model of the crafted sword onto the looted sword; while keeping all the looted swords stats; as long as they're in the same weapon class.

 

What if, instead of mobs dropping all the good equipment, they dropped runes that you could apply to your crafter made item. So, the blacksmith could make the sword, but the mob dropped the +10 speed rune that the blacksmith could apply to the sword... Just a thought.

 

Go read Bowen's post (linked above), I think it covers every other subject fairly well.

 

GW2 has a feature like this and it's cool. It allows for the design of lower level items to be applied to higher level items where you want the stats of the higher but the look of the lower.

Good idea Bayien!

 

Thanks; I havn't seen this topic come up recently and and I'd love to hear more opinions on it.

 

I'd love to see that feature !

 

From a gameplay perspective, I liked RIFT's system much better. You just had one wardrobe tab for looks which would over write your actual gear. So you didn't need to go through the mess of 'moging anything.

But for this game I'd rather not see stats on gear. So there's nothing to transmog. It all has the same stats.

 

@Montesquieu Perhaps you missunderstood me. Greatswords could only transmog with greatswords; leather only with leather; plate only with plate; ect. This would mean if you had a good set of armor but it looked like solidified poo to you; you could make it a shiny amber armor fit for a king; without sacrificing stats. Ofcourse that means you would occasionally get a person in heavy armor that looks like he is wearing a low crafted armor; but actually wearing a higher one. But I think that wont be an issue; as this game focuses more on skill then armor ratings and dps. A well placed backstab should ALWAYS kill a player target; not knock down half his health. Unless the man is wearing solid plate armor with no openings, ofcourse.

 

As in wow this would have to be added later. If added now all the low lvl items that have the "look" will just b farmed and the new players who could actually use the item would not be able to afford it just cause of the high price placed on the item for looks.

 

It was argued in one of the Markee Dragon videos that you should be able to tell what kind of fight your getting into by the weapon they have in their hand.

I'm guessing like in Age Of Empires some soldiers/weapons worked better against others.
But you know by looking at them what would be best to fight them with.

So lets say you have a ice sword, but you put a fire spell on it instead.
It still looks like ice but instead it is fire.

Do we want to know what were up against in a fight?
Or should we have no clue because of all the tweaks to the weapon?

 

Wow, how did I miss this thread?

I like the idea of item customization. In NWN, there was something similar with user content but it was clunky. I did have a certain outfit I loved to create for my female characters (and no it wasn't that skimpy ). However, I understand the point of recognizing the object.

In NWN, I would take plate armor and pretty much make it look like cloth. They tried to limit what models could be use for certain item and hence no swords that looked like Axes. However, you could have normal swords and shields that had fire affects or such.

I think the best way to handle this is to have the look forced on creation by the crafter. Crafters could also alter an item as well. Certain properties or models would be limited to those items and affects (as recommended by others - i.e. no swords looking like axes or adding flames to weapons that don't actually have a flame property). I also think that certain items (named, intelligent, etc.) should never be able to be customized at all.

I think this allows people to customize, but since it requires a crafter it will not be rampant. Also by limited properties and models you should still be able to recognize plate armor or a flame sword. And for powerful or special items their look will be fixed, so you could recognize those as well.

Of course, this also makes assumption on how loot will work in game. They have talked about the ability to upload images to be used on banners and shields, so providing a limited amount of customization to items seems in-line with that vision if it is limited and controlled.

I think there is some good, reality, reasons for being able to recognize a certain weapon or armor, but it you could make modifications to those items in real-life and you have some risks (like breakage or long term damage on attempt) I am not sure this presents any harm. However, this might make a better feature for Episode 2 rather than Episode 1, but maybe I am just in too much of a hurry to play the game.

 

I'd rather see a robust visual customization system rather than simply swapping models with other items. While it seems the itemization will be shallow enough that we wouldn't have to worry about somebody disguising their +7 Vorpal Blade as a broken wood sword, players should still be able to get an idea of the quality of another player's gear by sight.

It would be great if colors, shininess, emblems and other visual cues could be changed on gear, but I think the models should stay the same. Though temporary and failure prone spells to disguise yourself as a peasant or a an uber-knight could be fun.

 

I'm in love with this idea. If I could "like" this 18 times, I would (because, you know, 19 times would be garish).

I remember a few months after UO's launch, everyone was pretty much running around with Heaters (if they used a shield). I think the Virtue shields came a bit later (hard to recall...). So many shield options and everyone using the same one...such a waste.

And throw in colorization and I'm a VERY happy camper. Sometimes I've felt like a sad colorful clown running around in a few RPG's. A very lethal sad colorful clown....but a clown nonetheless. And sad. And colorful...reluctantly colorful...

Transmogrification and colorization....it's all about player individualism, expressionism and just plain looking good. I just don't see a downside.