GW2: Dye System - a Compromise & your opinion

[Maarius]

Hi guys & girls

for all of you who don't know the dye system in GW2 yet, here a short info from the wiki:

Players begin the game with access to a set of starter colors, which vary between each race. As players progress through the game, dye can be acquired in the following ways:

• Purchasing a Dye Pack from the Gem Store for 200Gem.
• Placing four dyes into the Mystic Forge to create a new account bound dye. (1)
• Sometimes Unidentified Dye drops from gathering or mobs which when used become a random account bound dye.

There are 390 different colors of dye. All acquired dye can be viewed via the equipment tab on the hero panel interface.

During the first beta weekend event players acquired Colorful Dye Seeds which drop a soulbound unidentified dye, which itself can be used to drop a random dye that can be used to unlock a new set of colors. These seeds no longer dropped in the second beta event.

so there is something official about (1) - Mystic forge:

We are working on a a way for you to make the exact color of dye you want using the Mystic Forge. You will need to get a specific crafting material for each color but you will get the exact color you want.

We really don’t want dyes to be a Gem Store only feature, we understand that some people would be willing to pay more to get exact dyes or all the dyes but we want to keep some aspects of the dyes system in the game.

source.

• In an older build dyes were account bound: if you get a certain dye this specific one is unlocked for all of your characters. So once you have all 400 dyes, there are no dyes for you to collect anymore... forever. All of them are available to you.
• Currently in the new build (BWE2) dyes are account bound & can be crafted (through the mystic forge). I really like this system, because as I understand this, we will have to find certain materials in the world in order to unlock specific colors from the set. Sounds great, brings a bit of exploration along.

BUT I certainly see that some people don't feel that this design-change is how they want it to be. This shouldn't get a debate because it's, as most things, highly subjective.


Well, I have a suggestion to make, a compromise.

-) common dyes are account bound: once a common dye is unlocked, you can use it with every character.
-) rare dyes are character bound: you have to unlock a rare dye for each and every one of your characters... they are rare and more special that way.

(uncommon dyes... leave those out for the moment, or what do you think? How do they fit in my compromise?)


Now I want to see your opinions:
1.) Do you like the system as it is now: Dyes are not accountbound but character-bound. Each character starts from 0?
2.) Do you like the system as it was before: Dyes are accountbound?
3.) Do you like my compromise - only rare dyes are character-bound?
4.) or: it doesn't matter to you.

[Lusitan]

first @P

voted 1

Reason: because its a cosmetic item, and we all know that Anet needs to make some money with cosmetic items, and this way i can actually help them with some cash shop buys, also after a month or so we will have in the interweb some wiki that will tell us what stuff to put in the MF to create that special dye we want as well, so its a win-win for all i think

[Maarius]

first @P

voted 1

Reason: because its a cosmetic item, and we all know that Anet needs to make some money with cosmetic items, and this way i can actually help them with some cash shop buys, also after a month or so we will have in the interweb some wiki that will tell us what stuff to put in the MF to create that special dye we want as well, so its a win-win for all i think

wow this was fast, did you get my suggestion?

[Spl4sh3r]

I hate multiple choice polls where they don't make sense....

As for the question, it's good as they are now. I mean the game is about aesthetic and dyes are aesthetic so it makes completely sense for them to be character bound. Armor is not accountwide so why should dyes be?

[Maarius]

I hate multiple choice polls where they don't make sense....

As for the question, it's good as they are now. I mean the game is about aesthetic and dyes are aesthetic so it makes completely sense for them to be character bound. Armor is not accountwide so why should dyes be?

why do you think the poll makes no sense?

Armor is not accountwide so why should dyes be?

sPvP armor is, look at the bank-tabs

[Lusitan]

wow this was fast, did you get my suggestion?

yes, but i am not personally bothered in getting them all, being them uncommon or rare or exotic, all i want is pure white and a black that as shades of blue at certain lightning :P


but if anet actually goes for a compromise it shows they really care about what we say more than making money, at the end of the day a satisfied costumer is a costumer that will stay with the company

[Mif]

I think if you make rare dyes account bound you take away the incentive to gather dyes, because not many people will be inclined to farm common dyes.

[Maarius]

I think if you make rare dyes account bound you take away the incentive to gather dyes, because not many people will be inclined to farm common dyes.

my suggestion was to make rare dyes character bound

[Spl4sh3r]

why do you think the poll makes no sense?


sPvP armor is, look at the bank-tabs

I said I didn't like multiple choice poll, not the poll itself :P As in we can choose more than one answer which is weird.

And by Armor I mean PvE which is a bigger part of the game than sPvP. Even WvW is included in PvE because you use the same armor there, plus there are more different aesthetics on Armor in PvE than sPvP aswell.

[Zilong]

I voted for "I dont care" and "Its good as it is now"

It helps Anet, and therefore helps us. And its vanity so I think its all good no stress. I think its nice to have each character with their set of colors, at least for me make me feel different for every one of them. And people who really care about it, will either pay/collect them and enjoy the thrill of the randomness xD

[Mif]

my suggestion was to make rare dyes character bound

I read real good

[Maarius]

I said I didn't like multiple choice poll, not the poll itself :P As in we can choose more than one answer which is weird.

And by Armor I mean PvE which is a bigger part of the game than sPvP. Even WvW is included in PvE because you use the same armor there, plus there are more different aesthetics on Armor in PvE than sPvP aswell.

now I get it

well, I could start with crafting material... account-bound and you can make all sorts of armor with it

---------- Post added 2012-06-26 at 01:49 PM ----------

here a clip, you can see: dyes are still account-bound before you double-click on them. You can see the name of the dye, not a preview of the color though. Once you double-click it, it gets bound to that character. But you can send it to one of your other characters before you double-click and use it on them.




this way you can, for example, send all brown dyes to your ranger, all metal-colored dyes to your warrior etc.

---------- Post added 2012-06-26 at 02:07 PM ----------

the description said that the guy purchased all those colors for 15copper, anyone an idea how? Tradingpost? Who puts up colors so cheap? I'm confused.

[Drakhar]

I don't think that compromise addresses the real problem with it. In all my feedback on the official forums, this was the one issue that I really got invested on - IMO the current system is bullshit. I don't resort to the amazingly overused and groundless "but you said 2 years ago that they were account-bound zomg y u change it!!" and I'm not someone who wants the incentives gone completely either. I just want them to change something, and I don't really care what it is. Let us sell/trade them, let us buy specific colors, let us Mystic Forge them for specific colors instead of random ones, let us only obtain ones we don't currently own, or make them account-wide. Honestly, any one thing in that list would be enough for me to be content. What I really want - but don't expect - is for them to be account-bound so the completionist in me will actually find it worthwhile to collect all of them, even if I won't use 90% of them. Right now it's "meh, another dye" and I will never in a million years spend real money to get a random assortment of dyes that I likely won't need/use. The incentives just aren't there, being account-wide would make collecting them far more meaningful.

[Maarius]

let us Mystic Forge them for specific colors instead of random ones.

who says mystic forge is random?? It isn't for some parts, was totally possible to find certain "recipes" for weapons, why shouldn't it possible to find such for dyes.
+ in the quote above:

We are working on a a way for you to make the exact color of dye you want using the Mystic Forge. You will need to get a specific crafting material for each color but you will get the exact color you want.

We really don’t want dyes to be a Gem Store only feature, we understand that some people would be willing to pay more to get exact dyes or all the dyes but we want to keep some aspects of the dyes system in the game.

have you seen that?

[grandpab]

I voted I don't care. I don't mind how the current system is, but I just really don't care. I'm not one to try and be a backseat developer and try to get things fixed to my liking. Whatever system is in place is something I'll accept, and this isn't just because it's ArenaNet, I've been like this for 12 years now.

Haven't they already came out and said they'll be changing it so it's easier to get the colors you want?

let us Mystic Forge them for specific colors instead of random ones

This is something they've addressed too. It won't be random, it will be a recipe. We just need to learn what those recipes are.

[Maarius]

This is something they've addressed too. It won't be random, it will be a recipe. We just need to learn what those recipes are.

you forgot the fun part: finding the ingredient in the world. Who knows, could be a rare flower spawning somewhere

[Fencers]

I like the OP's compromise. Though I do think it is obvious a lot of the design limits are factored around the cash shop.

Cash shops do not bother me. So either way, eeehh.

[AmusingMoniker]

I went with keep it as it is.
At first I thought your compromise might work but the more I thought about it the less I liked it. It will devalue common colors even more and turn into complaining about the color tiers and if some why not all. I have yet to hear a good explanation (it's right for our game is pretty vague) as to why Anet changed it to what it is now, perhaps there is something we didn't take into account. And quite frankly I don't care as long as it remains dye drops instead of that grow-a-dye thing which was irritating as sin. I won't be spending real money on dye packs either way or trying to collect all 400, I'm not that much of a completionist.

[Wynnyelle]

I don't really care what happens with dyes. Either way, it gives me one more thing to do and collect, so I'm happy either way.

[Drakhar]

have you seen that?

Hmm guess I missed that one, the people I was discussing it with were just going by throw 4 dyes in the forge get 1 random one. This is by far the least desirable fix to the system to me, but it's something at least.