Appearances... Please, pretty please?

[Root]

I don't know how far away the new crafting system is, and whether or not it will address this, but...

It'd be really, really nice if being able to have your character look appropriate wasn't limited to being lucky enough to win RPoTM.

Character appearance means a lot and goes towards the concept in a lot of ways. There are working systems available. Look at the Sigil: City of Doors server. I know no outside help is drafted in, but even something the slighest bit usable would help.

I'm lead to believe that it's sort of possible if you know the crafters or how to do it yourself, but that puts a thing that impacts roleplay only in the hands of those who can craft, or would freely interact with them, and gets to the point of ridicule when an Orc or Drow needs to find and make friends with the nearest armour crafting elf until he will craft up some ragged, battle-worn and Gruumsh/Lolth-symbolled war armour so he can go around killing things in it.

I just don't feel that something that pretty much entirely contributes to RP in the form of disguises, uniforms, and general looks should be so greatly restricted.

How long until we can expect to have freely available clothing modification, if at all?

[Fezzik]

The reason I think it was shifted to the crafters is so that the skill would be used, instead of just changing your appearance without any real work behind it (correct me if I'm wrong Mr/Mrs developers ). There was a system that allowed you to change your armour appearance, but it caused terrible lag, and it was very buggy.

[MadSeer]

I'm thinking the XP craft system currently implemented for armor crafting should be available to everyone. But crafters should keep an advantage. What if everyday bob could get his appearance modified via XP crafting, but with a cost depending on the item being modified ?

I'm suggesting XP craft because it really allows you to modify your items (and let's face it if you want a l33t looking armor right now you need to be in the Black Hand or win RPotM). But the Appearance Changer hak is used on pretty much every other server and works well enough, most of the time. More restrictive, but gets the job done.

[roguethree]

I dunno, my armor looks pretty sweet. It was made with iron, dyes, and time.

[Anrilor]

I dunno, my armor looks pretty sweet. It was made with iron, dyes, and time.

and my Alchemical gold Chainshirt will be more awesome than your mom when i finally get the Ingots.

all because you have to work for it.

but back to the topic

I'd personally rather not see that apperence changer hak ever again, mainly because you can buy crap armor and make it look like the gods themselves gave it to you. I've always hated it, and i think Sundren already has a good variation of armor for sale in the shops. you just gotta find the shops that sell it

yes it sucks when you play a character that most people hate ((ICly that is)) and it will be harder to find that smith to make your armor, but as I am finding out, the more you work with people to get what you want, the more friends and the easier it is to get it done again after you made those connections.

but your character does have to work with people, and some of those people might not be someone that your character would normally like :P

[MadSeer]

I dunno, my armor looks pretty sweet. It was made with iron, dyes, and time.

That's pretty much the point. You absolutely need another player with the proper skills if you want an armor. If your character's known to be evil, or just overall unlikeable, well you're pretty much out of luck unless you happen to be a miner and a smith.

[Dragor]

Do not like the Idea of the appearance changer being implemented. Takes all the pride out of it.

[Kajae]

If you character is known to be evil, or just overall unlikeable, how would they acquire said awesome-looking armor in the first place?

You find a smith willing to turn a blind eye to those traits in exchange for A.) coin or B.) keeping their intestines from becoming outtestines.

[Dragor]

That's pretty much the point. You absolutely need another player with the proper skills if you want an armor. If your character's known to be evil, or just overall unlikeable, well you're pretty much out of luck unless you happen to be a miner and a smith.

If you are overall unlikable it SHOULD be hard for you to get anything done. It only makes sense from the RP perspective of things, argueing for an OOC way to do things that have IC method already in place doesnt make any sense to me. If you don't like HARD play a different Char

[Saulus]

Do not like the Idea of the appearance changer being implemented. Takes all the pride out of it.

And it really won't be because of the fact that we'd have to go over piece by piece to restrict what can't be used so people don't make things that look like holy relics with crap stats.

We really do have quite a large inventory for a lot of our stores, especially factions... and it's only getting bigger.

[Root]

If you character is known to be evil, or just overall unlikeable, how would they acquire said awesome-looking armor in the first place?

You find a smith willing to turn a blind eye to those traits in exchange for A.) coin or B.) keeping their intestines from becoming outtestines.

That's pretty much the thought in asking for such.

The crafters should have an advantage, but I don't think simply looking good should be something that is restricted only to crafters and their friends.

As for holy relics with crap stats, isn't that feasible in the setting anyway? Items enchanted to look incredible but being purely for show? And, for that matter, wouldn't that be possible with the current system in the first place?

There are a lot of clothing options in the stores, yes, but if you want anything practical, it's either going to come from the crafters, or be the set appearance. There's a lot of designs for basic fullplate, but unless you have spells to make this basic fullplate more powerful than the ones in the shops, you're going to want to buy a set of +1 or +2 sooner or later, the only +2 sets I know of being the Sword Coast Guards armour (Elf Only) and the Helmite Fullplate (Lawful/Neutral only)

I mean I've lost track of the people I've seen wearing the Gnoll Cheiftains spike-shouldered red fullplate.

[Intrepid42]

In your situation I would consider approaching the Thayans, if there are any crafters active among them. I suspect they would consider dealing with anyone, though the price in gold or deeds might be considerable.

[nezzerscape]

I would like the idea of one with skill changing the color / looks of armor after it is made WITHOUT having to add an enchantment. If Elandra turns evil and whats her armor died black, she should be able to have it done! But this should be only crafters, not every Joe. Yes you can add a coat of paint to armor but it will not last, the metal is died during its forging and thus lasts.

Evey item I had made I am very proud off. If everyone started walking around with the same looking armor for free I would be pissed. It does take a lot of time and resources to have something nice made, but it is worthwhile and make you appreciate it more.

If resources are short roll a miner, wood cutter, etc. If your toon wants an armor bad enough then puts point in it or better yet RP! If I want a want something bad enough and can not get anyone to do it for me... I learn how to do it myself.

[Root]

But this should be only crafters, not every Joe. Yes you can add a coat of paint to armor but it will not last, the metal is died during its forging and thus lasts.

What if I want my armour to look like a battle-worn wreck, not a shiny nice suit? It makes no sense that I should have to go to a crafter to have a gnolls skull roughly stuck to my shoulder, or to have my snazzy shiny knights armour crafted into a more appropriate armour for a barbarian.

And befriending any crafter simply because I want my armour to look battle-dented and wild is more OOC than anything. If appearance crafting was available, I doubt everyone would start crafting armour that looks just like yours, they're more likely to craft unique appearances for their characters rather than having the same store-bought looks we've seen before.

Give the crafters the ability to make useful weapons and items, of course. They deserve it for the investment. But why restrict the simple privelage of having your character look how you want them to to those people?

If it's not changing, then I expect as soon as I finally manage to afford my +2 Fullplate, we'll have Hel walking around looking like a Paladin. Which is a facepalm-worthy mental image.

[Saulus]

What if I want my armour to look like a battle-worn wreck, not a shiny nice suit? It makes no sense that I should have to go to a crafter to have a gnolls skull roughly stuck to my shoulder, or to have my snazzy shiny knights armour crafted into a more appropriate armour for a barbarian.

And befriending any crafter simply because I want my armour to look battle-dented and wild is more OOC than anything. If appearance crafting was available, I doubt everyone would start crafting armour that looks just like yours, they're more likely to craft unique appearances for their characters rather than having the same store-bought looks we've seen before.

Give the crafters the ability to make useful weapons and items, of course. They deserve it for the investment. But why restrict the simple privelage of having your character look how you want them to to those people?

If it's not changing, then I expect as soon as I finally manage to afford my +2 Fullplate, we'll have Hel walking around looking like a Paladin. Which is a facepalm-worthy mental image.

Just to sum all this up: The XP_CRAFT plugin is a horrible hack that causes module memory inflation and some instability. It works but by default it allows anyone to select any appearance, including model pieces that aren't even supposed to be possible (like replacing your cloak with a quiver by appearance).

This would require manual flagging for every single model piece. Part of this system was integrated into our crafting as well. The default setup for this plugin allows any colour as well.

The other systems some people use are premade armors which are just different tags to define which pieces appear different. This is so inefficient and time consuming it's not even worth considering.

So basically there's nothing that satisfies our needs right now because we don't want players with 100% customization ability with 0 restrictions. Maybe on a social server, but not on a RP server.

It's unlikely this will ever change until we make a new plugin to replace xp_craft's functionality. It's more of a technical limitation than anything and while it's easy to say "HEY THIS SERVER DOES IT ITS A NO BRAINER!" it's not always true. They are sacrificing something, or they don't have a requirement that we do.