Illusions changed with GU54????

This change is worse for everyone (who cares much about appearance) you can't set the illusion by adjusting your "real" race's options, you also can't recast the random until you get one you like.

I do hope this problem gets fixed soon. I just checked out what my ogre who is fond of wearing a high elf illusion cloak looks like now, and I'm very disappointed. The frowning male high elf I'm now apparently stuck with is not representative of my ogre's fun-loving personality in any way. I'd prefer to be able to click through several options and select one, rather than having to look at this poor sadsack high elf.

Lets get some sort of response.. i don't want this to fall by the way side.... illusions OFFICIALLY suck now.. they need to be fixed

NViDiaFReaK wrote:

I like it much better this way. But I wouldn't mind being able to select how my perma-illusion looked. But this is waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the randomness

I didnt like the randomness at all, so im glad its gone, i like it if the illusion is set to a permanent one, ofcourse if its a good one i like hehe
yes ofcourse it would be best if we could choose how our illusions looks like

NViDiaFReaK wrote:

Still can't see any official word on this anywhere:

1. is this unintended?
2. is it a temporary reversal and we can get recast to get an acceptible look back?
3. will it be possible to adjus your illusion by adjusting your base race looks at some point?
4. is there an illusion manager coming that would let people define their illusion looks for different races indidivudally, and if so when?
5. can any dev say "we are aware of this issue"?

Here's what I was told: GMs hadn't heard back from the other teams on whether this was intentional or not. Someone speculated that if I was told by the devs (which I was) that there was an item that allowed you to set your appearance in illusions, that this move was probably in anticipation for its release. In either case, this issue was escalated to the dev team and a fix was expected in the next hotfix.
Fantastic--based on what the devs told me, this item was already tested and ready for release, so I was excited. Problem is, there was a hotfix the very next day, and nothing happened. No replies here on the board (something I've told everyone I've talked to about the illusion problems was a HUGE issue, no communication, period). A GM did attempt to contact me in-game...but it was at the wrong time of day for me. My petition was closed becuse the GMS had nothing else they could do about it.
So, again, I'm sort of left wondering what outlet we're supposed to use to communicate with, especially when looks like the GMS can't even answer questions. Even a "we're working on it" from someone would be nice.

Sharazhad@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Yea I have come to the conclusion that we are being totally ignored. I have Pm'd a GM on this who has previously answered questions in PM's for me but have been totally ignored on this matter. Seeing that we not have not gotten any feed back on this at all, even after posting this in the GU 54 feedback forum as well I can tell you its pretty safe to assume we are being ignored.

This isn't going away guys.. its not like you can just sweep it under the rug.

bump...

Nathdorl wrote:

This...
I really enjoyed randoming through the illusions with my gnome to create a suiting half elf alter ego. Now he looks perma ugly. Silver/golden hair and nasty piercings. I need a fix. Either that mirror or back to random... Please dev's; a comment?

After several months of dealing with SOE on this issue I recieve this from the GMs (who until this point have generally been apologetic for their lack of being able to help further). The highlights I added for emphasis:

As was previously stated, the Development Team is very busy right now and and I'm quite sure that at this point, with the expansion release imminent, game changes are being made on a triage basis. That does not mean that bugs are not being looked into, however, I would imagine that bugs that are game -breaking- (not changing) would be receiving higher priority at this point in time. There is nothing physically preventing you from logging in and playing your character. There is no bug effecting your character that would prevent you from being able to engage in combat, or use your tradeskills, or journey through the game as you normally would. I understand that you're upset about how your character currently looks, but there isn't anything further we can do to help you with this at this time. We have provided players other ways to change their appearance, in the form of a race change potion that can be purchased in the Station Marketplace. I realize we have recommended that option to you in the past, and have no other choice but to reiterate that recommendation. I regret to see your severe dissatisfaction, but we simply can not help further.

In my petition I have stated several times that I will not spend more money than I have (LoN illusion item that I could at least cycle through appearances for free prior to this latest change) to fix something they broke. I'm happy with my stats, why should I change them? It's something that I believe to be easily reversable that's the issue, here, and without any other voice to explain things, I am forced to assume this is not something they care about, period. GMs keep insisting that since the dev team hasn't responded to their requests for an update on this, that illusions must be "working as intended".

I am disappointed to say the least.
Also, I'm gonna call it now. If there IS such an item released that will let people set illusion preferences, it's going to be in the marketplace, so we may as well buy a race change potion, because we will end up paying either way. Just a gut feeling I'm getting from all the silence.

Gee SOE, I'm sorry, but I do not want to change my race! However I do sometimes like to look like another one for RP reasons and I would much prefer that when I do I look the same each time. It would also be nice if I could choose how that particular illusion looked when I did.
This should not be a hard concept, we have illusions, we use them, we care about what they look like when we do.
KIARA!! Please poke someone, or bonk them, or something. If not a red name then a nice orange one will do.

I think we are just going to have to live with SOE on this issue... one they have been avoiding long before they nerfed the randomness.
For 4 long years I was happy with the guise of the deceiver illusion. When my swashie had it on she looked like a dark elf model but kept most of the colouring of the base wood elf toon. She looked like the product of some nasty wood/dark elf 'hybrid' mating programme and it was fine... fine for 4 long years.
Then the randomness came, the complaint thread was far longer and far more passionate than this one asking for them to just turn it back to how it was.
Instead they nerfed the randomness to be a single static 'normal' illusion which pretty much pleased no one.

Nayawk wrote:

Or ... maybe they'll ignore this thread but silently fix it. Say, today, for example.

I told you guys so, should listen to me.

I owe the devs an apology for my apprently unwarranted cynicism. Thanks for this change.

Today's patchnotes:
ITEMS

• Appearance customization items have been changed! This affects these items:
  • - Shave and a Cut, Makeover (combined into the same item)
  • - Nalana's All-Natural Cosmetic Balsam

• When used, these items now open a window that allows you to customize your appearance in-game instead of returning to the character select screen.
• In addition, Shave and a Cut and Nalana's All-Natural Cosmetic Balsam now affect your current illusion if it is that of a player race (such as Erudite or Dark Elf). If an illusion is active, then the item will affect the appearance customization settings for that race. Once done, these will be saved and activated whenever you activate that illusion! In this way, you can create customizations for each of your player-race illusions!

My question (and forgive me for not being in game and tired) just where are these things found?

Same places you could purchase makeovers before. They're now clickable items that open up a window in-game as opposed to logging to selection screen. This = win.
However, and I know I'm going to get labeled as overly critical for this but don't really care at this point, there's no options for the base race's colors in the management window. Sorry, but no green skinned elves. Neither can my girl get the black hair that she could before all this mess began. Part of the point in keeping my elf the race she is was for the black hair unavailable to the race I play her as. This = dumb. Personal feeling, as I had another toon I played a very similar way and have since deleted because I can't play him the way I intended him on creation. It could be because of mechanics, whatever. I think it sucks.
So...yay, nifty management window and no more logging to change things. Boo, lack of more color options that had been available before all the tinkering around with things to begin with. Also, devs fail for not getting at least a freaking sticky note to the GMs I spoke to over the last few months.
(afterthought) Also, I don't think cynicism is unwarranted when you have no other information available to you and those with it are unwilling to share it.
(AFTER afterthought) And the new management window is apparently bugged. It doesn't want to save hairstyles even after 'locking'. Keeps reverting back to what I had since the previous illusion change. /bug reported.

The hairstyle issue, for me at least, seems to only affect alternate models. I was able to completely customize original models including hairstyle, with no issues. /bugged in-game.