Rijacki wrote: Ah very sad, was hoping they had just renamed it but kept the appearance on that item. Never had heard of it before this thread but it looks interesting. Would be cool if they brought it back somehow.
When this appearance was removed, the devs said that they didn't intend for it to go live in the first place. According to them, the graphics were not up to quality standards and it was supposed to have been scrapped before launch. The straps on it are painted awkwardly on the torso of the models, and tended to stretch and distort during animation for some races. I believe it was first discovered as the Bruiser AQ armor, but was replaced a few months after that. I wouldn't hold your breath on that ever coming back in its current form, though it's possible that SOE could produce a similar design using their current "snap-on" tech.
The_Cheeseman wrote: I don't think this is entirely accurate. Yes, the bruiser AQ armor had the same graphic. It was called the Chainweave Gi from beta until it was removed in LU13. A few LU later when the Qeynos Caves were revamped the graphic returned to the game as the Blissfull Awareness armor which was equipable by all scouts, fighters, and priests. This is when the graphic became the most popular as it was not just a bruiser only item. It was common to see level 60s and later 70s wearing it even though it was a level 12 item. Also in this time frame the SOGA models had been released for which it also had a graphic. See the SOGA gnome picture I posted before. The Blissful awareness was not changed again until sometime well into the KoS expansion. The idea that the graphic was to be scrapped before launch is patentently false. SOGA models did not exist at launch and were only added over a year later yet the dev team took the time to fit the graphic to all the SOGA models. This does not add up. Why update a model graphic to SOGA when it was supposed to be scapped? For all the speculation and theories I have heard over the years nobody really knows why a popular item had its' graphic removed. All we know is that it happened and some of us have been waiting patiently for 5 years for it to be returned.
The Chainweave armor set was the monk AQ armor, not the bruiser set. The Chainweave set has always used the same armor model (though it was a terrible pea-green color at first). I know this for a fact because I still wear the Chainweave Gi in my appearance slot. I honestly don't recall exactly when the graphic for that armor was removed, but I do remember SOE saying that it was a mistake and was removed because they thought it was too ugly. ***EDIT*** Found it. From the patch notes for Live Update #1 on Jan. 6th 2005: "- The appearance of the level 20 bruiser quest armor has been changed." Also, quote from Moorgard in the Thread, "SOE, what's wrong with this picture?" dated 1/19/2005: "The original graphic used for the bruiser quest armor had some issues that didn't get fixed before launch. While the basic concept of that suit was nice, it was buggy and needed to be replaced."
That may explain what happened to the bruiser AQ Gi but it still does not answer the question of why the Blissful Awareness entered the game at a much later stage and then was removed after it was updated for SOGAs. The thing that really gets me is that the Blissful Awareness was actually a popular item when it was removed while the bruiser AQ Gi was not. Doubly perplexing was that it was removed at a time when eq2 was being bashed for having boring armor designs. Either way I will continue to push for the graphic to be returned to the players.
Novusod wrote: As I recall, it was removed due to 'graphics problems' and 'clipping issues'. Considering how often these problems are raised on these forums concerning all sorts of gear...and backgrounds...and mounts...it's a wonder half the bloody game hasn't been removed and not returned. I doubt we have many (if any) folks left who were responsible for the theft. But it would be nice for those who are picking up the pieces to return this one particular piece to those who earned it.
Check out the Bruiser class boards. The vast majority of the posts regarding that bruiser AQ armor were negative, complaining about how bad the chest piece looked. It was off-center on most female models, it had really bad clipping issues, and its textures were far below the normal resolution. It looked bad, SOE said that it was never finished and therefore shouldn't have been released, so it was replaced. Personally, I'd love to see a new armor model with a similar design but that actually worked and looked good. I liked the concept of that armor, but the way it was implemented back then was just bad. Again, I would not expect to see that graphic show back up in-game, it was removed for a reason.
The_Cheeseman wrote: I won't dispute what was on the bruiser boards, and they may have been perfectly legitimate critiques of the articles in question. I can remember a wood elf bruiser in Longshadow in her class armor, and thinking how different it was. But... The plain truth of the matter is, they did put it back in the game, as a quest reward that any non-mage could wear. Whether they meant to or not is irrelevant. People were coming to the Caves from every player-inhabited nook and cranny in Norrath to do the quest that would get them this garment, and that's hardly a coincidence. Multiple level 60's (the cap at the time) came to get this article, and there were stories of players who did not wear anything else in that armor slot. Would they have bothered had they known that someone would purloin what they had earned and replace it with a baggy potato sack, and then treat them like mushroom farm crop when the protests rang out? I say no. People indicated that the problems that existed could be overlooked, and given that the game still has graphics issues from day One that are just as bad, removing just this one piece and then not turning the attention to any of the others was not only sloppy, it was deceitful. None of this can be pinned on the current staff, and everyone should realize that. But it's an issue that has sat for too long without any resolution. Heck, making it a cloth garment and selling it on the Station Market would make oodles of cash for SOE, so the reason to not assign someone to 'make it so' is incomprehensible. The graphics team we have now are veritable demigods at their craft, and I am immensely puzzled as to why a fix hasn't already been done.
Calling them deceitful because they made a mistake is a bit harsh, I think. It should be pretty obvious to anybody who plays EQ2 today that the devs don't always communicate well, they're understaffed, and sometimes non-critical issues don't get fixed for a while. Seems obvious to me that somebody created an item using that graphic without knowing it wasn't meant to be used anymore, and it just took them a while to fix it. That's not deceit, it's just ineptitude. Like I said, I'd love to see armor with that style added to the game, I just don't want to see THAT specific graphic returned, because it looked bad. It wasn't just something I personally found not to my taste, it was technically, definitively substandard. If the current art department made a new version that actually looked good and worked correctly with all the races and both genders, I'd be happy to buy it!
I do agree that Half Elf's need some kind of heritage armor and this piece for a top has the perfect punky style to it that half elf's exude. The problem is putting together an entire suit of armor that matches it perfectly.
Yes, it sure would be great if the idea for this piece were remodeled and put into the game. Here's my male halflings wearing it
You're welcome Novusod illaria wrote: I would prefer simple versions as non-SC items, then maybe sparkly, glowy, animated versions for SC like the griffons and pegasi
I remember that bp, and whatever the devs said about why they took it out, it doesnt matter. i want it back as much as all of you but frankly the textures on that bp are hideous. they are poorly aligned and stretched and very low res. All we are telling the devs when we whine and yelp for this to be returned to us is that we dont care about the quality and craftsmanship of the stuff we will pay SC for. I agree heartily, give us sexy armor of the same caliber as the blissful awareness one, especially for the half-elf heritage armor, but please please please DONT recycle this particular mesh, I am content to wait for a well put together, beautifully textured sexy armor set. I think all the heritage armors up till no whave been very very cool, so keep up the lovely work!
