Curse

ducktape · Jul 05, 2005, 08:42 AM // 08:42

I read through tons of the posts for game enhancement ideas (lots of good stuff!), and haven't really seen much of this topic...it's not a gameplay issue but it still seems like it would make a lot of people happy.

UPDATE: ANet has added a Dye Preview interface, and new dye colors. Yay! Thank you a million times over, ANet!!!

First: Armor Preview [The Fitting Room]
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to "try on" armor and see what it looks like before you go scavenge the crafting materials it requires and pay tons of money for it? Sure, you can get a very general idea of what a piece of armor would look like by checking out the larger icon that is displayed when you click on it at the crafting menu, but that doesn't tell you what it's going to look like on you. I know many of us would hate to buy a set of armor that looked cool in the armorer's crafting window and then have it turn out to look really hideous on our character. I know not everyone cares about what their character looks like, but many for many players, aesthetics are important. I can especially see it becoming more of an issue as expansions arrive and there are even more types of armor and customizations available.

Current Situation
I have read dozens of posts from people who have farmed their fingers off for an expensive set of armor and then can't stand the way their new armor looks and wish they bought a different set or even kept their old armor, anything to get away from the set they just bought. I've had that happen with non-uber pieces of armor, and even though it was only 700 gold apiece it still made me mad that I spent money on what turned out to be ugly armor. Regardless of how much money you have, imagine spending 75 platinum on a set of something that ...surprise!!... ends up not being what you expected it to look like. People spend their money on the 15k armor pieces and fissure armor as a status symbol, or to look different, so why not know what you're getting into before you click Buy?

The Suggestion:
Even if the Fitting Room character display was just a smaller, simple view of your character, like the view of your character and equipment that's on the Inventory screen right now, that would be a big help. Then you could see what new armor would look like and see how it works with your skin, any tattoos, your haircut, your hair color, your equipped weapon and shield, etc. Of course, this would only work for whatever items the armorer you are visiting has in stock, so if you are in Ascalon you can't try on the Dragon Armor there. Plus, since the items you try on are on the 2D inventory screen and not being put on the 3D model of your character that has to be drawn for everyone in town, it theoretically should not lag the server. I think more players would be excited about buying expensive armor if they knew exactly what it would look like on their character ahead of time and didn't have to worry about throwing their money away.

How to Keep Away the Lag [Fitting Room and Dye Preview]
Add the Fitting Room as a tab at the Armorer. Add the Dye Preview as a tab at the Dye Trader. Charge gold to access the Fitting Room or to play with the Dye Preview. If it's something we have to pay for, people won't go and play with it 40 times a day and lag the server.

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There is now a Dye Preview in the game, but I will leave my original Dye Preview section of the post here for reference.

Next: Dye Previews
Everyone loves dye. It helps you stand out or blend in. There's thousands of ways to wear it. Unfortunately, dye costs a lot. Even if you're only buying 1 vial of dye at a reasonable price (400 gold) it still costs 2 platinum to buy enough of that color of dye for your entire set of armor. Imagine buying expensive dye (1 platinum or more apiece), and having it not mix with another color as expected, or using expensive dye alone and not liking the way it looks on the armor you are wearing. Anger, man. Anger.

The Suggestion:
It would be infinitely helpful to have some sort of Dye Chart built into the game, and even more helpful to be able to use said Dye Chart to preview what an available color would look like on your current equipment. If the character model from the Inventory screen is used, and the color is not changed on the character model until you hit Preview, it should minimize lag. As an example, if you try to make a custom color for your desktop background in Windows, you can click an area on the color chart and drag the cursor around until you get the shade you're looking for; maybe there could be something similar with the in-game dye chart, but with the 4000 or so Guild Wars dye colors instead of 16000 available colors in Windows. If you drag the cursor around and find a nice color, you can Preview it and the dye chart could display it on the armor you select, and list how to create the color you chose. For example: [Current Selection is Blue 408 - Blue+Black,Silver]. Then you go buy all the dyes you need from the Dye trader and pay whatever the market price is. Just another way for players to efficiently spend their money.
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Interface Examples (screenshots)
Here is a picture of the Fitting Room idea. In the example, the warrior has just tried on the Ascalon Cuirass from the armorer.

Here is also a picture of the Dye Preview idea. In the example, our warrior pal likes purple and tried on shade purple 206. If he likes purple 206, it points out that he will need to mix Purple+Black and Purple+Blue to get it. (Note: please don't actually waste any dye doing that, I just used plain purple dye on the armor for the example)

crazy diamond · Jul 05, 2005, 08:44 AM // 08:44

Something similar to how you preview the guild cape before purchase could probably work nicely.

Myodato · Jul 05, 2005, 09:01 AM // 09:01

I definitely second the fitting room suggestion.

I'm undecided on the dye thing, as I think that mixing dyes is something people have had some fun with, and that wouldn't benefit from being made less mysterious. On the other hand though, I have been annoyed more than once to discover that dying armour either dyed a different part than I expected or made little to no difference. To be honest though, only black and silver are expensive enough to be a real concern.

Calnaion Blackhawk · Jul 05, 2005, 09:28 AM // 09:28

good ideas, i would like to see what certain armour looks like with certain dyes without the expensive smack in the face if it goes wrong

Thomasuwoo · Jul 05, 2005, 03:02 PM // 15:02

I agree too. I have a post on the dyes here but i never thought about fitting rooms. That would be awsome. We'd also start to see alot more PvE cahracetrs in PvP. Looks do account for alot but it's just so risky trying to find a look that's right for you.

Kashrlyyk · Jul 05, 2005, 03:06 PM // 15:06

Very good idea! Especially when buying the 15k armors a preview would be great!

psykadelic224 · Jul 05, 2005, 03:08 PM // 15:08

Yeah dude.... i could see if my ele was sexy in armor or not!

i used to spend ages to buy other armor just to see which looked the best >< and trust me it did my head in i wish for this fitting room too!

Dark Splitter · Jul 05, 2005, 04:49 PM // 16:49

that would be a bit stupid if u think about it cuz sum n00b comes along trys on the best armor with a amazing dye and then takes a screeny and shows everybody the armor he has ¬_¬

johnnylange · Jul 05, 2005, 05:03 PM // 17:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Splitter

that would be a bit stupid if u think about it cuz sum n00b comes along trys on the best armor with a amazing dye and then takes a screeny and shows everybody the armor he has ¬_¬

Lol, would happen to be that "noob" that trys on the best armor and takes a screen shot of it?

These are great ideas. Right now, I can usually tell how new armor will look from seeing other players with it on, but having an armor and also a dye preview would be great, especially when future expansions come out.

Dark Splitter · Jul 05, 2005, 05:13 PM // 17:13

lol ?????

Alzbeta · Jul 05, 2005, 05:27 PM // 17:27

Great idea, honestly -- and well-presented. I've made my current choices based on screens and guides I've found on the 'net, so luckily I haven't lost a great deal of gold... but I've also had to rely on caps of someone else's toon. It really would be nice to see it on my own char before shelling out so much money!

Thomasuwoo · Jul 06, 2005, 04:04 PM // 16:04

What he is asking dark is what if a noob did do that? He has a picture of what he would look like further down the track. How is this relevant to the issue at hand?
I'm sad to see that this post has dissapered to the bottem of the forum again and beacuse of all the heated arguments that seem to generate in each post.
Could we get a bit more feedback on people's feelings on this matter?

IndyCC · Jul 06, 2005, 04:10 PM // 16:10

Only thing I would add would be to the dye preview in the armor to have maybe a dye mixing preview. I really wish I could test out dye mixed to the fourth level without buying all the dye first. I dont know however if that would make things too complicated.

LifeInfusion · Jul 06, 2005, 10:48 PM // 22:48

This is definitely a good suggestion.

Devts-Waver · Jul 06, 2005, 10:52 PM // 22:52

/signed

I had this idea a while back, and posted it on another forum. I'm glad others share my opinions!

DrSLUGFly · Jul 07, 2005, 03:38 AM // 03:38

I agree totally, except that we should be able to rotate our character model around since the armors look totally different in the back than the front...

noblepaladin · Jul 08, 2005, 05:54 PM // 17:54

Part of the glamour of having the expensive 15k set is that most people haven't seen it before. If everybody tries it on in the changing room, it would take that excitement away. I was thinking maybe more of having to do something in order to be able to preview, such as a difficult quest, or maybe you can only preview if you have enough to buy.

nechronius · Jul 08, 2005, 07:41 PM // 19:41

Make the armor appear only in a separate little window like the inventory window. If you open your inventory you can see your toon and even rotate him around with different weapons and shields while he's in town.

Make the fitting room the same. Just a separate window that pops up that lets you "test" different items in this manner. No additional need to "program" a separate fitting room and no significant addition of network traffic.

I suppose that someone with enough photoshop sense could cut out the "fitting room" picture and superimpose it into the game so they could post a screenshot of what they allegedly look like, but it probably wouldn't look right unless they were pretty damn good with photo tools and frankly so what. Pretending that you have 15k armor will probably get a you a few "congrats" from several people you'd probably never run into online anyway.

Arctic Strike · Jul 09, 2005, 02:33 AM // 02:33

/signed

Armor viewing would be great. Also, I don't think it wouldn't take away the uniqueness of someone's armor because there are so many dyes combinations the can be used to create cool-looking armor.

Magus · Jul 09, 2005, 02:43 AM // 02:43

/signed

I personally like to mix and match armor pieces (for certain professions), and I've had to get rid of 4 15K pieces in the past because they just didn't match the look I was going for. It really would be great to be able to know beforehand what you're paying for (since the whole point of the 15K armor is appearance); not being able to know is like not having the stats written for conventional armor and weapons. Plus they've done it already with guild capes, so I'm quite certain they can do it with armor.