Well this sucks... [blue post]

[shokter]

Maybe they can fix tabards so they don't look so fucko on people who wear robes...

That would actually be a good goal to shoot for...unless the tabard happens to match the robe colorwise the toon looks he's wearing one of those cheesy jerseys they made us wear back in gym class to mark out teams.

[placeholdername]

So what, is what I say. So they don't want to put in a feature that we have never had before and they deem not fit for WoW. How is that disappointing?

It's the same as saying it blows that they won't implement a better flight model for mounted travel. It's just not in their radar scope of future projects.

Also look at it this way, your idea is not the solution to the problem you have outlined here.

The solution would be actually adding differing sets of gear, more choices. Not the ability to turn a plate breastplate into a bikini top.

But on the other hand, that type of customization is the only type from here on out that you would probably be lucky enough to see. The current state of WoW and Ghostcrawler with his iron grip on balance says so. The days of actual, meaningful gameplay affecting customization is shrinking as a result!

Sek

It's disappointing because the kind of customization this blue post said they are avoiding is exactly what WoW needs, in this sea of cloned players wearing uniforms rather than their own style. This wouldn't stop players from wearing new armor sets, definitely not (new is better, right?) especially if the quality of model design continues to go up.

Your example is poor. No one cares about flight paths models. Anyone who uses them are likely AFK, and most people will be using their own flying mounts now besides.

here's my example: Imagine if you will, Blizzard announced that they have no plan of ever updating the old player character models (i know they ARE planning on it, but that's not the point). The playerbase would go up in a flaming wall of rage. It's a feature we've never had, updated old-world models, but it's something the game needs to feel more complete.

[Archer]

That would actually be a good goal to shoot for...unless the tabard happens to match the robe colorwise the toon looks he's wearing one of those cheesy jerseys they made us wear back in gym class to mark out teams.

Agreed.
Honestly they should just allow you to change the color. Maybe not the model, just the color would be fine honestly.

[Deleted]

That would actually be a good goal to shoot for...unless the tabard happens to match the robe colorwise the toon looks he's wearing one of those cheesy jerseys they made us wear back in gym class to mark out teams.

Urg, god, yes. I can't stand seeing my warlock with a tabard on, it's just horrid.

[Deleted]

I would still like to see the customization armor from Lotro (one of the perks of that game). It simple lets you allow a second set of gear, that does not apply stats. The second gear gives you your cosmetic appearance.

That way you will always look nice; rather than the clown costumes of all colors of the rainbow you often wear while leveling. And it also helps with making end game look different, as you can always equip a different set in your customization equipment.

As for the argument that blizzard gives regarding the artists that put so many work in it; what about the artists that put so much work in previous tiers? (or previous random items in general).

As for the argument against pvp influence; make it so that customization armor does not apply in Arena, World pvp areas (such as Wintergrasp). The only way it may have influence than is in World PVP; but that is mainly dead anyway; and you can always look at the HP bar to judge what type of armor the player likely has.

[Baz]

I see why they did this, the poster earlier was right when he said almost everybody would wear just black.
àrthasdk and whoever else would just wear black plate gear, going DUR DUR DUR, and doing 942 dps.

Overcloaks scrapped makes me a sad panda though.

[shokter]

They WANT to give us more customization. The problem lies in the fact that (as stated above) gear is the quickest and easiest way to determine a players class and approximate skill level at a glance. This is particularly important in PvP. Can you imagine running into a BG and not knowing what class anyone was at a glance? There's a huge difference in how you'd fight a warrior vs a DK, we need to be able to tell them apart.

.

hrm...might be because I use xperl but its pretty easy for me to differentiate class...warrior brown, DK red, lock purple, hunter green etc...

[Archer]

It's disappointing because the kind of customization this blue post said they are avoiding is exactly what WoW needs, in this sea of cloned players wearing uniforms rather than their own style. This wouldn't stop players from wearing new armor sets, definitely not (new is better, right?) especially if the quality of model design continues to go up.

Your example is poor. No one cares about flight paths models. Anyone who uses them are likely AFK, and most people will be using their own flying mounts now besides.

here's my example: Imagine if you will, Blizzard announced that they have no plan of ever updating the old player character models (i know they ARE planning on it, but that's not the point). The playerbase would go up in a flaming wall of rage. It's a feature we've never had, updated old-world models, but it's something the game needs to feel more complete.

There is an even easier way to make us feel "epic" and different without changing our own armor sets. Give everyone a different model for their spec. I think some one else had this idea once.
For instance your tanks would obviously be covered in head to toe.
Or take hunters, your BM hunters could have teeth hanging off his or something, give the MM hunter fingerless gloves and a targeting system in their helm, have survival hunters have traps hanging off their belts.
That would eliminate some of the clone feeling imo.

[placeholdername]

I would still like to see the customization armor from Lotro (one of the perks of that game). It simple lets you allow a second set of gear, that does not apply stats. The second gear gives you your cosmetic appearance.

That way you will always look nice; rather than the clown costumes of all colors of the rainbow you often wear while leveling. And it also helps with making end game look different, as you can always equip a different set in your customization equipment.

As for the argument that blizzard gives regarding the artists that put so many work in it; what about the artists that put so much work in previous tiers? (or previous random items in general).

As for the argument against pvp influence; make it so that customization armor does not apply in Arena, World pvp areas (such as Wintergrasp). The only way it may have influence than is in World PVP; but that is mainly dead anyway; and you can always look at the HP bar to judge what type of armor the player likely has.

This man knows his stuff. This is an excellent idea others have had. One that I've been an advocate of since I first saw it on the official forums.

[bluetech]

Even if they DID allow an entire reforging of looks, I got an idea for an easy fix:

Make your gear's "true" appearance always display for the opposite faction.

This is not an original idea. This is exactly what Warhammer Online does.

In Warhammer, you have an 'alternate appearance' for every piece of gear you wear. When you click the button on your character screen, it changes to a second inventory where you can 'equip' any other item in the game you've acquired to your original item's 'alternate appearance' slot. This allows you to visibly show any combination of gear from the entire game you like.

However, it only appears this way for your own faction, the enemy sees your true gear.

In War you can also dye every piece of gear you own different colors, with most items having a primary and secondary color.


WoW is very much behind the times when it comes to character and item customization, and their attitude going forward judging by this blue post kind of sucks. There are so many ways to add customization and keep everyone happy, from both the dev and player sides. Oh well.

[placeholdername]

Yes, bluetech, I know, and that is exactly the kind of system WoW needs implemented. I mean, come on, Blizzard steals (and improves, doing it better) ideas from pretty much every mmo on the market. Why not this one?

[Overmind the 3rd]

Yes, I can totally understand why they would be against implementing a bog-standard feature that the game is lacking.

/sigh

[Joodoc]

What blizz should do is allow you to customize certain things, but make it a huge pain to be able to change one little thing, and then not carry over as you change gear. either a really long quest line, or a gauntlet of creatures that are scaling based on the greatness of the item, or only being allowed one change per expansion or something like that

[Einzweidrei]

You wanna stand out? Roll a female dwarf, and then never show your helmet.

People will notice.

[Peacemaker65]

As I stated in a previous post I think they should allow some limited for of customization for the role playing aspect of the game.

1. Make the factions have different PvP sets like it use to be.

2. Allow some minor visual customizations in the reforging process where you can select from a small set of pre-made variations for each piece. This way, you don't have processor intensive rendering but each item has its own database ID so as not to task WoW's processors or the client machines.

[Stonebald]

I'd wear red with just a touch of black and gold.

I wanna see a Tauren Warrior charging into battle in pink plate. I would giggle, all I'm sayin.

[Shmo]

Doesn't bother me one bit.

Time and effort in game development should be spent primarily on gameplay, story, content, and seamlessness in playability (immersion, as Blizzard likes to call it). Not necessarily all of these categories have been hit on the head in WoW's history, and every major expansion/content patch has been in an effort to improve these features. (despite the fact that they may not have succeeded..)

WoW's success stems from the immense amount of attention to detail in these areas, rival MMOs have failed primarily due to lack of recurrent playability... Maintaining communication with the fan base, and continually evolving the game play to match the changes among the players.

In contrast to these characteristics, Blizzard games have not taken advantage of cutting edge graphic enhancements (HD lighting, core hyper threading, DirectX10, collision physics, etc. etc.) Stemming back to the beginning, Blizzard has ALWAYS favored Game play over Aesthetics.

To this end, (and i don't blame them), character appearance, avatar differences, and uniqueness among player models has also not been a prime factor in game development. Aesthetics of this nature (similar to water effects..lighting etc.) do not severely impact game play (though they CAN help, yes... they don't make your melee swings hit harder, your heals bigger, or your survivability any better. Nor do they make quests easier, achievments easier to get, or story-lore more relevant).

I would not argue that Diablo 1 was a terrible game because it's lack of polygon count, similarly i would not state that WoW is a bad game because it's lack of armor colors, or appearance enhancements.

If your argument is that enhancing these asthetic features is "easy" from a game development standpoint you couldn't be farther from the truth, and you should do your homework.

I'de rather my subscription money go to development of better quest lines, better content, and better lore LONG before i would ever pay to have off color shoulder pads.

Besides, if blizzard DID include all these enhancements you guys are talking about, people would then complain "Why would blizzard spend so much time giving people optional armor colors when they could have been developing new raid content, and more companion pets for my collection.....etc."

[Soyuz]

Quick question. What stops you from farming lower level items and wearing those when not in a dungeon/raid/(daily)quest/farmrun?

I walk around in Stormwind with T2 on my paladin and I stand out a lot! A guildie has a gnome RP set with goggles, wrench and overalls. Also stands out!
Its not that people see your gear when you are sitting on your mammoth anyways. :P

[Doylez]

Go play Aion then. I hope to god they don't waste their time to script armor reskinning.

Aion's armor reskinning is AMAZING and it's really a shame that they don't want to do this for WoW.
And honestly I don't understand why.

Aion armor remodel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l4K2k1H534

[Overmind the 3rd]

Quick question. What stops you from farming lower level items and wearing those when not in a dungeon/raid/(daily)quest/farmrun?

People do that regularly.

What people are asking for is the option to not have to switch out their (visual) gear set in order to accomplish anything.