Stats are by far the most important detail of the armour. However if I had a choice between a gordy bracer and a colour matching bracer where both sets of stats were similar, then I would go with the matching colour.
I wouldnt mind having some kind of in game tinting mechanism and would certainly prefer that over visual only sets of armour (wardrobe). The look should be kept as much to the lore as possible imo, and the armour visuals should reflect the armour worn that gives you the stats.
At lower levels when I replace pieces halfway often, I don't worry about it at all. Once I get to where I find or craft better than average pieces that I expect to wear longer than plain loot drop stuff, then I try to keep my armor all the same color by dyeing the pieces (assuming that is in the game). If I make it to very high levels - or cap - then appearance will be important, and a piece will have to be very much better for me to swap in a seriously contrasting look/color.
snocap said:70/30 stats/looks.
I liked how in the old EQ days, mostly everything was kind of just thrown together looking until you worked to get your Velious class armor sets. Most people (except twinks sometimes) looked pretty bad until those higher crests of gear. As a halfling druid, I looked terrible until my first class set. But when I finally did get that emerald green beauty, it felt and looked amazing to get both stats AND looks.
I really don't like the dyes that were put in during Luclin. Suddenly you had full pink/bright green colored platemail ogres running around. The crazy colors you'd see sometimes were one thing, but what really was the core of the issue for me was that I couldn't always tell at a glance what people were wearing. I like to see someone in elite gear and know how hard they worked to get it... but as soon as you dye everything a crazy color well most of the time if I don't inspect you I have no idea what you are wearing. Gear isn't unique anymore. It doesn't matter what item you get because you're just going to dye it anyway.
The same thing is especially true with the WoW transmog stuff. I get that a lot of people like the fashonista aspect of it, however to me it completely ruins the immersion and RP aspect of a game. Hey, you transmogged yourself to look like some Power Ranger/Pirate hybrid by soloing old raid content for hours just to get the pixels. Stats have gone completely out the window in that game. Just make all the numbers big who cares as long as I can make myself look cool.
The game I want to play has balance between stats/looks. You get armor sets that are both cool looking and powerful after a lot of work. Velious EQ did a good job at this. Vanilla/early WoW with tier sets did a good job at this. Dyes/transmogs destroy immersion for me and devalue uniqueness and stats in the items themselves.
I absolutely agree regarding transmog, I really can't stand that feature, it truly destroys the hard work and effort put into obtaining iconic items. I've advocated this in the past, but I've also advocated my affection for the dye system implemented in Dark Age of Camelot. Reading your post, I think you've changed my mind, in that, I don't think I'd actually like to see dyes in Pantheon now, you're correct, it does take away the impact an item has, and not being able to tell what someone is wearing from a distance diminishes the hard work the designers / artists put into creating it in the first place.
Personally, I think that, in low to mid levels you pretty much should be a walking patchwork quilt, using anything you stumble upon as you adventure. However, still looking like that at max level wouldn't be particularly enjoyable, and it wouldn't give lower levels anything to aspire to, either. I will always take stats over cosmetic appearance, but it also drives me nuts having a patchwork toon after putting in a lot of time to obtain decent loot for it.
Epic armour / weapon quests can remedy this kind of problem, but they have the potential to make everything else obsolete / undersirable once you obtain them.
Agree with all about transmog And dyes...I don’t like changing armor and weapons often, but when I do it’s all stats. If something was to be modified with a visual configuration option, imo it should be a crafted version of an item with the proper ingredients
flea said:Aaand... Cue Minus with the transmog conversation! :)
I'll jump in for Minus! Hehe. Transmog does not damage the 'iconic item game' it could even enhance it as long as you don't allow people to use the look of items they haven't 'earned' or shouldn't wear.
Appearance slots, cosmetic items, even, as long as you have earned them (and they aren't over-the-top, ridiculous or inappropriate) would be just as prestigeous as an actually worn item.
Appearance slot items would even lead people to do *more* prestigeous adventuring as they hunt for items that they wouldn't ordinarily wear for the stats, but will wear for the look.
I won't try and counter the "I must see your true gear!" crowd. It's been done so many times in these forums.
For those that like to be 'inspired' by seeing amazing iconic items: You will still see them. You will see an even greater variety, in fact, unrestricted by what tends to be best-in-slot for stats.
For those who think transmog = ridiculous cash shop looks: It doesn't. Simple as that. It could be, like most things, done very well, and just because other games did it badly doesn't mean VR would.
It doesn't have to match "at all costs", but I guess I'd prefer it. Bottom line is stats are king, short of having to wear a tutu or some other silly garment.
I do, however, prefer that armor pieces have distinct appearances. I don't have any interest in being able to change the models or transmogrify armor. I like to be able to look at what I or someone else is wearing and identify the individual pieces.