Time to update/enhance the cloaks?

[Highlord Hanibuhl]

For 16 years now, we've had the same static cloak model that just drapes from your back in a straight plank from your back.
Back in vanilla, it matched the style, but now, with more armor-fidelity, weapon diversity and even flail weapons or weapons/armor that has elements hanging/dangling, can we FINALLY update the cloaks a bit more?

With things like:
- More subdivisions (With more subdivisions, the cloaks will move more smooth)
- Making it move independant of the character (like the new armor and weapons, cloaks will now move more realistic)
- The addition of optional alpha-maps (An alpha map is a seperate texture that can be placed on any existing cloak, making it 'weathered', adding holes)

What do you think?

[loras]

Can I have one like in Journey, that gets longer with my iLevel so I can show off my massive really small ePeen?

Best suggestion, calling it right now.

[Chonar]

I mean, they've been doing that gradually over time...

And now they're adding other stuff to fit the cloak slot that are aesthetically pleasing and different, ontop of that.

[VinceVega]

For 16 years now, we've had the same static cloak model that just drapes from your back in a straight plank from your back.
Back in vanilla, it matched the style, but now, with more armor-fidelity, weapon diversity and even flail weapons or weapons/armor that has elements hanging/dangling, can we FINALLY update the cloaks a bit more?

With things like:
- More subdivisions (With more subdivisions, the cloaks will move more smooth)
- Making it move independant of the character (like the new armor and weapons, cloaks will now move more realistic)
- The addition of optional alpha-maps (An alpha map is a seperate texture that can be placed on any existing cloak, making it 'weathered', adding holes)

What do you think?

Not so easy to implement as many people think. The problem with collision between pieces e.g.
The only part where i can think of collision on character is with some weapons.

Also cloaks as a concept doesn't really work with most of wows armor. Shoulders more specifically.

The biggest problem with more elaborate cloaks is the clipping. For nearly everything else it is ok as it is minimal and you do not really see it. If you ave a cloak it will be 90% of your character you see all the time. So if there is any clipping it would be really bad to look at.

[Eazy]

Bonus items instead of cloaks, such as poison vials for rogues, quiver for hunters, holy books for paladins etc. Would be really cool to have. Or at least t-mog versions of them. Just as they did with the Wrathion backpack.

[Grimbold21]

Bonus items instead of cloaks, such as poison vials for rogues, quiver for hunters, holy books for paladins etc. Would be really cool to have. Or at least t-mog versions of them. Just as they did with the Wrathion backpack.

Well, technically we have that with one of those with Book/tome looking off hands. My Priest's offhand is a book from vanilla (or tbc) and just hangs on the hip when holstered.

On topic, I'd like to see cloaks with hoods. SImilar to the old option of "Show helm" you could have cloaks with hoods that you can choose to show or not in a separate option

[Loveliest]

Yes please. We're getting those new back things like backpacks and whatnot, but more diversity and better meshes are always welcome.
But if I had to choose one thing to get different models for, I'd choose robes. It's the one skirt that never changed, the cloaks at least had some variety and transparent bits, but the skirts are the same. Give me a robe like Khadgar has.

[Restors]

I would be happy if we could get a wide cloak, like the Lich King. Im not really fond of having a cloak that hangs like a drape from my neck. But having it instead hanging from left and right shoulder armor would look so much better.

[Eurhetemec]

Not so easy to implement as many people think. The problem with collision between pieces e.g.
The only part where i can think of collision on character is with some weapons.

Also cloaks as a concept doesn't really work with most of wows armor. Shoulders more specifically.

The biggest problem with more elaborate cloaks is the clipping. For nearly everything else it is ok as it is minimal and you do not really see it. If you ave a cloak it will be 90% of your character you see all the time. So if there is any clipping it would be really bad to look at.

This is all correct.

WoW is in a slightly unfortunate situation here. When WoW came out, cloaks in fantasy MMORPGs were a must, and WoW's ones were pretty bad and much-mocked, but WoW's armour was very much designed around looking good with a cloak - indeed a lot of it looks goofy AF if you don't cover the back/butt, especially stuff from Vanilla-Wrath (but some later stuff too - the most recent stuff less often does). So cloaks are very much a part of WoW, though it looks like this expansion they're trying to see if they can move away (they did in BfA a bit too, only a little but still). Shoulders often look dumb without some kind of cloak to give them visual balance too (of course plenty just look dumb period, esp. on the poor races where they magically levitate).

Cloaks, however, are a nightmare to make look good unless you have a very modern animation/interaction system on a character. Hell, they're not great even if you do (hence very few AAA games involve characters with significant cloaks, and fewer still where they can change that up - it's not none, but it's few, and the cloaks are often capes, not cloaks). You can't just randomly make them more complex and apply physics unless you have a model or how they interact with the rest of the model, and I can assure you that WoW does not have that. And adding it would be quite a thing.

WoW already has massive clipping problems, too, and this sort of thing would inevitably make that much worse.

Hence instead of more complex cloaks, we're going to be getting a whole bunch of non-cloaks which serve a similar function - making your character not look dumb when seen from behind.

[Powerogue]

We got some coats in BFA which were pretty nice looking, and we were promised over the shoulder cloaks. Clipping be damned!

I'd say better cloaks and more accurate hair in partially-covering helmets are my two big wishes for transmog. My pandaren has wonderful hair but turns bald and has her ears disappear with almost every helmet, so it's almost always hidden.

- - - Updated - - -

Bonus items instead of cloaks, such as poison vials for rogues, quiver for hunters, holy books for paladins etc. Would be really cool to have. Or at least t-mog versions of them. Just as they did with the Wrathion backpack.

We are getting quivers and belt tomes for hunters and paladins respectively with the artifact transmog restriction lifting, which I'm hyped for, and a fair few belts now have daggers and bottles on them.