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

I half to agree with the video on this post, knowing that someone killed that boss for that weapon is nice. I agree tho maybe color change of the item would be nice, but personally just able to use that weapon like the dragon sword with high stats way down the road would also be cool. And as far as graphics to the above post I feel this game is def on the right track, with that said, I just wish races like the Darkelf male we have all seen did no look so pretty. When things look so computery lol it looks bad, (and yes I made up a word). The artwork on the hand that we have all seen is amazing to bad I guess there is no way to follow something like that. Take Swtor for example: it holds a computer style graphic trying go for realization, and clunky character models, wow on the other hand is really cartoonist, finding the balance in between is where people will love the characters they play and I think Everquest next has already found that from what we seen so far.

Color customization has always been a big one with me, but I have never been a fan of changing shapes of armor.

I feel like what was talked about in the accompanying video for this poll is 100% how I feel about things. I want to be able to tell a plate wearing class is a plate wearing class (no robe appearance stuff), 2 handed weapons change to other 2 handed weapons, bows to bows, shields to shields etc.... you can dual wield shields, or change a sword and board build into a 2 hander appearance especially since skills are weapon based. this would make PVP difficult to size up. But, if you have earned gear, you should always be able to keep it and if you liked it, take it's appearance onto other (similar and appropriate gearing types).

Dual wield shields lol? I do not know why someone would want 2 shields but it would be a funny option to see, pretty much a punch bag?

rofl yea i mistyped it, haha should have been "can't"

If switching multi-class can be done out of combat (which is what they stated) someone could still fool you in PvP with their armor. The whole sizing up is rather silly in PvP. In real PvP you don't have the time to size someone up appearance wise. It is the skills, strategy and tactics of your opponent which will matter the most.

right, but if I see someone with a 2 hander, I will know they have weaker defense, if I see someone in cloth I know they will prolly have magic to back them up. Sizing up is crucial to know how to take advantage of their weaknesses and what their weaknesses may be.

edit: Especially since the tactics they will use are integrally dependent on their weapon choice.

Is it Tuesday or Wednesday when something new is normally released...

the pattern has been Wednesdays

I feel like a lot of these responses are in regards to PvP play. As a RP player I like being able to have complete control of my wardrobe. If I want my paladin to wear a robe, why shouldn't I be able to? I can understand traditionally not allowing someone like a mage to wear plate armor, but if we can truly have a plate wearing fighter throw fireballs as one of his auxiliary skills, what difference does it really make?

I do like having dungeon specific gear and don't think we should be able to modify a piece of armor to look like a dropped piece, but being able to "wear" that piece (original color or dyed) even if it isn't applying benefits to my stats would make sense to me.

Crafted armor should be able to have added special ornament design.. design drops.. or truly signature items. Well I just assume in a sandbox world.. why would the armor and weapons not be crafted mostly? Specialization in the altering of found magical armor could be found to be very unrealistic even in a fantasy lore environment.

If people want a customizable armor route I'd suggest something like warhammer tabletop game not that I play.

i.e. can pick colours/add badges/awards/tokens

Lootable armor items should be like gems/extra slots that you can add to you suit, and you can buy suits(skin only) via SOE store like League of Legends offers skins for its champions. Think that would be awesome.

Definitely have not had a chance to read 225 pages of this... but i was wondering if anyone could just jump in and shed some light on Character Appearance. Was that mentioned anywhere? Like actual facial or body modifications to make each character unique to yourself. Armor obviously discussed in depth here...but what about character?

Zmanisninja,

Character appearances are a bit unknown as far as I know, but the SOE announcement did shed some light on things like dwarven beards, and some example faces for humans, dark elves, and other races.

I like to make my character look as nice as possible, but when some of the armor looks so hideously ugly that's hard to do. I do not min/max anymore but if a piece is a lot better then another piece ill switch it out regardless of looks. I have actually stopped playing a few characters because I just couldn't stand how they looked.

My character design is very important to me. I either would like an appearance tab that is what everyone sees but isn't the gear I am actually getting my gear stats from. Or a way to convert one piece of gear to look like another piece of gear. I am fine with keeping the type the same, as in plate staying plate, etc.

For me, I think that weapons and armor picked up from loot drops should be essentially fixed in appearance, although dying armor is an exception to that. On the other hand, when smithing/crafting your own armor or weapons it should be as customizable as humanly possible, although my "iron sword +1" should never look identical to the "indestructible rapier of infinite doom" dropped by some end-game boss. In fact, I think boss drop items should all be entirely unique, and perhaps add some unique options to crafting as well. Although I want very varied customization, I do support the "within the same category" idea for immersion's sake. (you're telling me that 5-inch steel breastplate is the strength of cloth, and that loincloth is as strong as a stone wall? no.)

I like the idea of appearance armor in eq2. Dyes in eq1 were fun but i prefer to collect certain armor just for looks and have appearance only armor. Variety is good but it still would be nice to be able to get an idea of what class someone is by looking at them.

it never made sense to me how crafters couldn't customize the look of what they are making. I'd prefer to buy a weapon off someone who made it look more like how i envision my character using as opposed to the same thing that looks different. It would set crafters apart

All armor should have indexed colors.

For those who don't know what that is, it basically breaks up a texture into 3 parts (trim, buttons, metal, leather, etc) to each of the RGB channels so that you can adjust the colors of them individually such as in the example below:



This is more than sufficient for editing the look of your gear...

Well, it would be a bonus to switch between different specular/normal maps for leather, chainmail, cloth, matte, gloss and perhaps a few others?

color changeable like EQ and helm/cape hide like WoW.