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

Also, all the "I don't want my PvP ruined because some high end guy unassumingly shanks me over and over and I was silly enough to go near him because he looked like he was dressed as a noob!!" is nonsense. That's really honestly part of what a very living and breathing organic world SHOULD have. A person player killing for the fun of destroying the weak can do so with all the flash and flair that screams 'I AM HIGHER LEVEL' or they can quietly sneak right up and shank you then and there. How people look won't change how that happens and how they allow it to happen in this game.

Customization needs to happen and while it may be VERY cool to show off some very rare and powerful item at all times... it can sometimes have such a conflicting and terrible look for what YOU envision for your character that you kinda feel bad even equipping it. Prior to Transmogrification there were many weapons I was highly thankful for being able to hide as a Druid on WoW, simply because the all leather/bark/flower/nature look of a Druid just didn't mesh well with the icy death of a spear laden with skulls with a sinister glow about it. On the one hand the item shows just how much you have achieved, but on the other hand it just clashes with your look and forces details onto your character that a "real" adventurer would have likely adjusted and altered to their liking. The item might be somewhat corroded and dented upon acquisition... why would I want to keep that look if the rest of me is shiny and pristine? That same death spear on WoW could have been prettied up such that the deathly aura is removed, the metal nicely polished up, the skulls covered, and the blue hues replaced with simple greens and browns. The item would still be highly recognizable but would no longer look like I'm one step away from going full-blown corrupt wielding some very different weapon just because the stats are so good.

Even the most legendary of items can get some sprucing up here and there to make them tailored and look like they are YOUR legendary items and not just A legendary item you happen to own. I'm not talking about changing them so much that they are utterly different, just a bit of this or a bit of that altered to make them highly personalized if so desired.

a armor with kilt for the dwarves, please!

I like the idea of armor customization a lot. I would love to hunt some plagued ice mammoths to collect their Ivory, which everyone knows is one of the strongest white materials in Norrath. I will use the Ivory to reinforce my Thorny Vine armor, which will not only increase the armor on the set, but give it a splash of white, making me look dead sexy =)

If they are planning to do with armor what they are doing with weapons, I can't see this as being an issue and if they actually do what they say, you should expect this.

I anticipate they will have this level of customization along with set pieces, depending on the content, at the very least.. They haven't said anything in detail but crafting is suppose to have a big role and players should definitely enjoy it.

You've put into words what I've been thinking but not sure how to express. This is a FANTASY game and if my fantasy is to be a warrior whose skin is hard as plate and thus can wear cloth over it, then I should be able to do that.
Some people need to get over this sense of entitlement that they should get to determine what my character looks like just for the sake of their convenience.

Can't tell what my class is? It's NOT MY PROBLEM! I don't care if it doesn't fit your idea of what my character should look like, it's MY CHARACTER.

The addition of appearance slots in was a vast improvement in EQ2 and never did a lick of harm to the game. I never saw anything that "Broke Immersion", in fact my immersion improved when my character looked the way I wanted and I started seeing less miss-matched clown suits.

The idea of losing armor / weapons is not very attractive to most players, it can even be an option on a hardcore server. At least I did not want to spend 5 days doing raid and taking a good armor set and run into any boss event and it breaks the armor in 1 hit = x

You have just changed my mind from 'some' to "as much as possible." Being able to make it MY legendary item...everyone has a different vision on what specific legendary lore items look like, why not have your own interpretation on it? Good job broseph

Patterns, colours and all sorts of item modifications should earnable like everything else. Then everyone is happy. Extreme levels of modification with extent to which you can do it based on the level of investment in the same way as you invest in gaining an epic weapon or such like.

Personally I want to be a rogue wearing drab, practical gear. Looking like a member of the YMCA, with 80's girly shoulder pads and a massive sword that looks like a cheap child's toy covered in fireworks isn't my thing.

I would personally like to only see color changes and or theme changes such as from knight to barbarian, etc. I believe armor should keep it's general shape as to make it easy to tell which class you are or at least the level of armor you are wearing. I believe slight personal touches such as spikes or fur or something will not ruin this but mages being able to make their armor look like heavy plate even though they are wearing cloth armor doesnt fit to me in an immersion or PvP sense. I know many agree and disagree with me on this issue but I thought I would just throw out my piece.

Personally I'd like items and weapons to have their own appearance, with limited crafter modification and a couple of wardrobe slots for personal flair (that they never add stats to).

I'd also like amor and weapons not to look remotely like what that Kerran is wearing or Firiona's bow. I'm pretty resigned to disappointment on both counts here, though.

Worst part of what they've shown so far is the equipment, IMO.. big step backwards while the rest of the game is forging ahead.

I tought the vote was for "change the appearance of armor" and not stats. Do it like Rift do it with wardrobe slots but let us change the wardrobe items more. And be able to hide any armor part you dont want to show from appearance.

From Reddit:

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In others words, if you haven't tried it yet, do so again. <3

I thought about this a bit more. While I don't necessarily agree, I understand the desire to customize armor to be more fitting to your personality.

However, I also feel as though the choices should fit within the scope of the character. (No plate wearing pure casters.)

I do have an idea to balance the two. The customizations should have real world consequences. A plate wearing caster should suffer from the extra weight and restricted mobility. A rogue with bells and feathers should suffer in the ability to move about discreetly. A tank class wearing goassamer suffers a bit in AC.

This would allow players to have customization, while still enforcing some accountability.

Seriously?

All that work to reinforce Thorny Vine?

I guess it all boils down to how important it is to know what your enemy (in pvp at least) is wearing. If its not terribly important, then I say give us plenty of customization. If it is important, however, we gotta find some middle ground. I just hope we don't see 1000 people standing near eachother looking identical.

EQN is advertising itself as the ultimate sandbox.. so in relation to this question, adjusting colour on armour is just not quite... "ultimate"..Perhaps armour with different enhancement slot items that are visible in game will add diversity.

I hate emersion breaking stuff. Each race should have different looks like EQ 1...hated everything looking the same in EQ2. The armor a Halfling has on should not be a miniature version of what an Ogre is wearing. Please put some love into it and make sure the races are distinct with options but do not give free reign.

Armor modification to make it personal is a must.
Personally, I wish there was something like a Class Mark for each piece of armor. For example, as a Rogue once you earn your Mark (after a quest, or quests) you gain the ability to endow any chain mail chest piece with rogue-like stats. The quests you do set the stats for the Mark. (example:you do 3 Dexterity quests, 1 Strength quests, and 1 Charisma, then earn your Mark. Or 2 Strength, 3 Wisdom, etc.). This would allow you to make it Very personal on how you wanted YOUR rogue to be.
Kinda like you have a favorite patch, and can sew it on any chestpiece, and remove it to put on the next piece.

I think it is about more than PvP. For me, it is about suspension of disbelief. I can go with the fantasy pretty far. Heck, I even made it through Gates of Discord and Omens. But, there is a point where the race to make the most gaudy armor gets ridiculous. I appreciate the artistic skills, but when someone looks like a circus float, it just gets annoying.

I don't want to hold back anyone else's creativity, I just don't want to fry my graphics card trying to draw that monstrosity of a helm.

I choose "As much as possible" mostly to lead open for discussion on what all could be done if you gave players free reign. While I do think that there could be awesome possibilities to have complete customization armor I think that it should also come at cost.
5.00 irl money could get you "blueprints" to download your 3D skin that you had built in an armor building program that would also be needed to go along side the game.

3.00 irl money could then maybe give you the ability to download the "blueprints" of your current armor and take them into Photoshop/sai/painter/etc and color them by your own hand.

I'm just using the above costs sort of willy nilly. I have no idea what would be a good cost to cover what it would take to either build a 3D armor building room to mold around a character. I am however very appreciative that this is even coming up on a discussion board.