To what degree should players be able to change the appearance of armor?

Why do people need to see 'high end' armor to know that a player is skilled or not? Why not play with them and determine that for yourself by the way they play? I like the idea of Yoda - he wears humble robes and looks rather unassuming. But he's incredibly skilled and could defeat most adversaries. Why not have highly skilled players who choose to wear humble looking clothes? It just seems like some players want others to know they're great by wearing armor that is difficult to obtain - seems like they have ego problems. Want people to know you're a good player? Prove it. Gear doesn't do it for me, I'd rather see you in action.

Its not a case of ego, its the accomplishment of going from a character wearing nothing but rags and fighting and earning your new weapons and armour and wearing them with pride at what you have achieved in your time playing that game. Why wouldn't you want to see what you have spent your time doing to be viable to others?

I wanted to go off topic for a sec.. Everyone here is just sharing their opinions and feelings and nothing is directed towards one a nother.. Yet these forums have a negative thumbs down voting system.. Why would anyone vote someone down just for their opinion and feedback that the devs are asking for? Why would the devs allow for a voting system when they want our opinion? On top of that it shows who is voting you down in alerts.. All that does is make you want to vote that person down to get back at them..

I dont mind the voting up with things you agree with but there is no need for the negative thumbs down unless someone is just being a jerk to others and in that case we have report.. The people that vote me down do not even reply to my post and say why.. Just my thoughts.. Its annoying..

I think in the case of these forums its a way for people to agree or disagree with what you say.

You should reply to that person and say why you disagree and let others vote your opinion up.. Its just opinions and there so be no negative actions that are allowed like thumbs down..

A very good idea, so who is not a crafter, will be able to customize their armor on some level, but for those who spend their time creating and modifying also be rewarded with "different" customization options and probably gold.

It was said that each weapon would give different abilities for the classes, so I assume that a short sword for a warrior will give different abilities in the same weapon to a rogue. And we'll probably have a certain item restrictions that a class can use, and even if we do not have these restrictions, if each weapon will give different abilities for a class, then I believe it will also give the armor. A rogue using armor plates, will have much defense, but will probably have movement speed and attack reduced.
We also have to remember that there will be multi-class in EQN, then it is possible to find a Warrior / Ninja using armor plates.

I also think it does not cause anything negative ... like a mute on the forums for hosting many negatives, I really believe that the negative is just to show that you do not agree with what was said, and yes, I negative and explain why I did not like the idea.

I would prefer that only crafters can change colors and minor effects on armors and weapons. The ability to take a rusty sword, go into options and make it look like an epic weapon with a few SC item is a huge immersion killer. Now if said crafter took a rusty sword and "fixed" it to a blessed (Etc) swork with better dps, cleaned up, blue aura etc. that would be amazing. Heck even make the obtainable "epic" weapons in the game able to be crafted into stronger damage, stats, etc but only by the best of crafters. ~ win

@Kaitona
I don’t need to see the armor, but when I do I will be impressed by the fact of their accomplishments or lack thereof. Yoda did carry his light saber like all the other Jedi It’s not an ego problem it has to do with player accomplishment. When I see someone wielding “The Sword of Thousand Truths” I will feel the following; I am not worthy in their presence, I know what trials they had to do to obtain said item and can relate to them, they get a bit respect from me if it is a highly sought after item that few people have. It brings the specialness back into the equation. No, offence to EQ2, but I feel everyone is the same. EQ1 you knew someone was special by visibly seeing their items cause you knew what that item was, and how near impossible some items were to obtain. Do you really expect to see every character in action on the field or more likely in a common area for buying and selling where you can can marvel at their accomplishments more frequently? That’s fine that gear isn’t your thing, but I am fan of it and I believe others are in the same boat with me.
@Softheart
I think it’s more of a balancing act than anything else. People are going to be jerks/trolls and this is way to balance it up or down cause the majority of the community don’t like re-re’s. If I whole heartedly disagree with you I will do a vote down, but that is just me personally.

Perhaps an appearance tab could be of use. I like the idea of being able to toggle on and off your helm, and I think this should always be an option, but for the rest of your armor and jewelry, there could be a separate paper doll set up that you could equip your already discovered but not necessarily retained armor in. This would afford you the ability to keep armor with superior stats equipped, but not necessarily at the expense of appearance. I also like this idea because you only have the ability to wear the skins of things that you yourself had in your possession at some point.

This... a thousand times THIS.

In thinking about this subject more. I think, that if they are going to have a social armor tab, as many games have, that "armor" can be 100% alterable to anything the player wants.
Adventure gear should be very very restricted as to what is possible.
I mean there are games out there where you can change your weapon to a fish or wear a tank top and shorts and swing a surfboard. That would completely ruin the immersion of the game and the gameplay experience.
Futhermore weapons (I know this is an armor discussion) should not be alterable in anyway. Having a weapon glow isn't bad but an epic weapon is your class defining item, again it is immersion

I think the shoulder pads, gauntlets, loin cloths, and leggings (under robes) should be ultimately customizable. Let them have their chain mail bikini or let them have their absurdly large shoulder pads.

I don't think that anyone wanted to completely alter the feel of the game. They just want the option to express themselves through their character's avatar a bit more than current MMO's. It's been clear stated that weapons alter abilities so I don't think we'll be swinging surfboards around. However, clothing can say a lot about a person in real life. What about in game? Some warriors wear cloth, but others chose to wear leather... it adds to storyline... it doesn't take away from it.

I'm not a fan of transmorg either, I like to know what someone has, its like wearing ones accomplishments.

I think I have a different idea of what gear should be. I think everything should break after it's been used for a while. This would add more value to crafting because gear would be created, used, and replaced more frequently. Gear shouldn't be something you get once and keep forever. Make it expendable.

I know the lot of you like to debate about this whole visually seeing a player's level and all of that, but frankly, the entire thing seems outdated.
If any of you are keeping up with modern titles, and have been paying attention to the videos, they most likely aren't even going the route you guys(and girls) are even discussing.

They are placing emphasis on expanding horizontally, not up. The focus isn't going be on who can get to level 100 and wear that fancy armor set. It's going to be about collection, customization, and personalization.

This game is still in development but if they intend to play this whole theme out, and it looks like they are, all of you are wasting your breath with this argument. They are going to have racial sets, class sets, dungeon sets, pvp sets, quest sets, faction sets, public quest sets, holiday sets, city sets, flavor sets, etc.. The list goes on.

In the end, it's going to come down to balance and personal preference. With crafting yet to be explained and since they are suppose to be playing such a large role, the variety and options to do what you want will increase exponentially. The only people that are going to get wrapped up on this and stay wrapped up on it are the small few that aren't really putting that much effort into actually playing the game.

Keep arguing about whether or not the option for transmogrification will be an option, even up until launch time. The majority of us are probably going to be too busy swapping pieces out ever day and not even feel that much attachment to sets anyways.

So I watched the Class panel online and I have 1 question: Is there a weapon / armor combo for each possible instance? If not then please consider separating the weapon class and armor class.

As far as I can tell, as per usual there are really three camps of thought on this.

1. "I want to customize everything" These are the guys that collect armor as vanity pieces. They want all types of armor and they want to able to use any armor that they have collected.

2. "I want to mark my progress with armor" These people want a clearly identifiable look to say "I have been X place and achieved X".

3. "I don't care what I look like, give me numbers" They are really not that interested in how they look as much as what the item they got does for them.

Most people of course are really a mixture of all three, depending on what they do.

I think that the best approach going forward would actually be contextual armor instead. What I mean by this is instead of limiting people to one look that it should be more about where they are and who they are with.

For example, when you are doing PvP, most people are going to want to clearly be able to identify what a person is. Now this can be done partially by stance but also having common armor types makes it clear as well. This obviously is not the case when you are in town and you may want to have a specific gear that you can wear (e.g. Town Clothes) which shows what you have achieved and so on.

Also instead of forcing each player to setup their gear for each context have the player who is observing them change what they see instead.