Critique on Robes: the Return!!

Discussion in 'Look and Feel' started by ARCHIVED-Mirander_1, Feb 12, 2007.

  1. ARCHIVED-Mirander_1 Guest

    I first posted this in the old art forums around half a year ago. The reason I decided to bring this back is twofold. First, I think it's still a subject worth discussing; and second, someday the Art Team are going to complete the changes to the character models and be ready to make new armor models and change old ones, and when that happens, I want this thread someplace where I can reference it as a suggestion to them. For the first part of this post, I want to suggest ways that the single robe model we have can be improved upon. Basically, I would like to see robes look like traditional fantasy/wizard robes, rather than the robes that EQ2 currently has, and thus improve the overall appearance IMO. Here are the specific things I think would make robes look better: The 'Skirt'- The way it is now in-game, the skirt portion of the robe is made up of five strips of cloth that hang down from the character's waist. The typical robe's skirt is made of one, maybe two, solid pieces of cloth that wrap all the way around the legs. While this is the most obvious thing to point out for improvement, it is also the hardest one to get to work right. The cloth in the game have no form of collision detection with regards to the character model, meaning that the cloth just passes through the character's legs as if it wasn't there, this is why the current robe models are made the way they are. Even so, I mention it in the hope that the devs have worked out some way that it would work. Update note: Since the release of EoF, progress on this has been made. When on foot, at least, they seem to have done away with a physics system for the skirt. Now it looks to be hand animated. There’s still some clipping, but it looks much better than it did, and gives me hope of seeing other changes being made. The Fit and Size- This is in reference to just about everything above the waist. Basically, everything just looks a bit too tight. This may be fine on the female characters, I'm not really going to argue that one way or the other, but it looks off on the male characters. There's no hint of bagginess on the torso, the sleeves are so tight that they get tucked into the gloves, and I recall someone once describing the hood on the robes as looking like a condom. If the robe could be made to look a bit more baggy on the chest, make the sleeves at least big enough to go over the top of gloves, and perhaps switch the current hood model on robes to the cowl model that rangers have, it would look a lot better The Tube Pants- This is a rather conditional suggestion. If the changes to the skirt portion were to happen as I mentioned earlier, there would be no need for the pants that are part of the robe. It could just be made so whatever the character has equipped on their legs would appear when you can see their legs. However, I think it may not look right if this was done without making changes to the skirt Cloth Armor- This technically doesn't have anything to do with robes, but it does effect the appearance of robe-wearers. At the moment, the majority of cloth armor in-game looks just like that; armor made out of cloth, perhaps similar to what fencers wear for protection. I think it would look a lot better if cloth armor was made to look more like clothing, rather than armor. The Hood- This is one of those things that has been niggling the back of my brain since launch. The robe models have a hood that hangs down on the character's shoulders. If you're not wearing the hood on your head, it appears on your shoulders (this is good, by the way,) if you are wearing the hood, there's still a second one on your shoulders (this is bad,) and there are some robes that don't even have a hood option, and the robe still has a hood on the shoulders (this is even worse.) It would be nice if the 'down hood' was made a separate part from the rest of the robe. This way it can be added or taken away as needed. [size="small"][face=""Times New Roman""] [/face][/size][size="x-small"] [size="small">Another thing I brought up in the original post was some ideas for new styles of robes that could be added to the game. Here's what I came up with:[/size] Standard Style- This is the robe we currently have in-game (including the changes I mentioned in the first post, of course.) Nothing else really has to be said about it. 'Bathrobe' Style- A subtle difference. The robe is set up like a bathrobe; it's open at the front but is held shut with a belt. The base model wouldn't look that different from the standard one, but the opening at the front would change the way that patterns/skins look when applied to the model. 'Jedi' Style- If you've watched the Star Wars movies (and I'm sure you all have) then you know what I'm talking about. The robe hangs completely open, almost like a coat, and underneath the character wears some sort of long tunic or shirt. Sleeveless Style- A robe that has no sleeves on it, perhaps have what you have equipped as arm armor appear. If any of you go to either the EoF or Lore forums, if you've seen the new artwork of Solusek Ro, what he's wearing is fairly close to I'm picturing. Tabard Style- A standard robe, but over the top of it the character wears some sort of tabard, vest, or long tunic. Making the skins for the robe and the tunic be separate would allow a lot of mixing and matching and create many different looks Double Robe Style- The cloth physics could make this one difficult. Basically this is a combination of the standard and Jedi styles. The character wears a standard robe with the open Jedi robe over the top. As with the tabard style, there would be a lot of potential looks with the combinations of skins.
  2. ARCHIVED-Mirander_1 Guest

    *sighs* this is what happens when you can't preview posts. I'll try to fix it when editing is added to the forums.
  3. ARCHIVED-Kulssin Guest

    My suggestion would be to augment them after they've been crafted or picked up from a drop. Please forgive me if this is already possible. I've been searching the forums (the old forums of course) for two weeks now to see if there was a way to dye the robes. Seems every robe I pick up is exactly the same style and color with the exception of a robe I purchased for my new necro. :(
  4. ARCHIVED-Josgar Guest

    I thought of a way to implement this. Each robe could start how it is now (except with the improvements), and then you could comission a tailor to tailor it into the tabbard style, the jedi/bathroab style or the others styles you have. Allowing you to be able to get whatever kind of robe shape you want, while still using the same robe. When a talior is crafting a robe, they should be able to pick what style they want then, by picking the robe, and then a menu asking what style. Then there should be something in the item's info saying what style it is.
  5. ARCHIVED-HairyDustBall Guest

    This could never be implimented I mean they would have to make a new robe pattern for each of the 5 existing textures! /sarcasm off
  6. ARCHIVED-Mirander_1 Guest

    That is a possibility; but what I was thinking of was simply making it that certain robes have a certain model, such as some plate armors being vaguard style and some are normal plate, or certain chain armors (mostly Swashy armor) having the appearance of clothing.
  7. ARCHIVED-Mirander_1 Guest

    Woot!! And the power of edit prevails :lol:.
  8. ARCHIVED-HairyDustBall Guest

    Just watned to post that this would enhance my gameplay experience 500% and that someone at SOE please impliment as many of the above sugestions as possible,
  9. ARCHIVED-Transen Guest

    I would like to see a system implemented for armor types (from cloth all the way to plate) much like the system for customizing the heraldy (all the patterns and colors, and border types, ect.) for cloaks. I'm not saying that a person regardless of what they are wearing should be able to customize their look thou I'm sure a lot of people would like that idea. I'm saying that player made gear should be customizable by the person making the particular piece. Also like the cloaks, a person could under "options" decide not to allow any customizations of the armor pieces to show thus sticking to the default versions... Or under "Persona", an individual could choose not to show the customized look of their own characters armor pieces and go to the default version showing up when others view them. Just a thought.