And waste hundreds of developer hours and potentially millions of dollars making separate art assets for every race/gender combination. It's not going to happen.
Also not interested in a toggle, at least not from the start. Should something happen later that can be retroactively added with minimal headache to provide said toggle, then sure. Though I'd prefer the styles being different, not necessarily sexy/prudish.
That being said, a Thief/rogue would have different armor desires than a Ranger or Shaman(all used Chain in EQ) and I would hope we have reached a point where that is possible. I would also think the halfling's armor would look different than a human's, due to racial preferences.
An easier solution to this may just be some sort of cosmetic skinning system down the road that will allow you to skin your armor to look a certain way with cosmetics of the appropriate armor type for a given class. Either way we're talking about something that would have to be factored into an already crammed schedule for a relatively small team, so likely post-launch if at all.
I always thought armor realism was such a weird argument in a fantasy world. I mean, we have wizards and mermaid people and magic and walking skeletons etc., but armor is the line in the sand? I don't want pantheon to turn into some sort of korean porno barbie MMO of course, but it seems like you should have a little wiggle room for artistic liberty in a high fantasy world. /shrug
I don't support a toggle, but I hope there is a wide variety of visually interesting armor, some of which might show a bit of skin (especially if it makes sense based on armor type/racial and cultural differences, etc.) so people can customize their characters to their liking.
Questaar said:How do people feel about invisible helmets so your face can show? That's kind of an armor question.
Probably not for this thread, but when devs can implement a way to automatically take off your helm when in non combat situations(think Jango Fett in the arena before the Jedi reveal themselves) or show your hair underneath(even if it's just a few strands) then I'm all for a hide helmet option.
Agree with Liav re: helmets except that Liav should be required to wear a helmet just because. (=
Seriously, though, I thought we tired ourselves out with this appearance toggling debate in https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2126/appearance-gear-and-weapons
Pretty sure the devs said that appearance gear / appearance-gear toggling is TBD later down the road.
I also think it's a waste of time and resources to add all this stuff to the game at this point. But it they do choose to add in appearance armor, dyes, reskinning, this toggle thing that was brought up all I ask is that thye give me a toggle to turn off all of the stuff players have come up with. I don't want to see your "outfits". I want to see the gear as it looks when its crafted or dropped. I don't want to see any of the customization done by players except for crafted gear that can be cusomized when made like Vanguard did. There were different styles that could be made once you learned how. Not crafted upgrades to existing gear though. If you can just give me the ability to toggle that off I have no problems with adding in any of this other junk.
I've always been a fan of being able to hide helmets. The reason being, when you're creating your character, you're probably spending 90% of your time customizing the look of the head area. If developers provide all the customizations for the head area to allow players to create as custom of a look as they wish, then whats the points of hiding it with a helmet?
I think it is perfectly possible for the artists working on PRF to design character armor that is both attractive *and* functional. Meaning that we don't need chainmail bikinis for women to have "sexy" armor - I'm not an artist at all, but if I were, I think I would probably relish the challenge to make something that actually looks like it would get worn on a battlefield, without making it look like a tin can :)
I'm pretty sure EQ2 implemented something like this around TFD. New models were introduced (SOGA Models IIRC) and players had the option to toggle between them. I personally preferred the original versions and while I don't really see an issue with something like this being implemented it would probably be best if it happened way down the road.
I always appreciate games where weapons look like weapons and armor looks like armor. Many games these days looks like you're swinging the Eiffel Tower around on a popsickle stick. That said, I do appreciate numerous different armor sets that allow a character to seek out their preferred look. ESO's racial specific styles or FFXI's subligar (lol), or even WoW's many low level sets that provide unique looks. Obviously, this is a lot of work for the art department, but in the end it will provide much needed flavor and customization. The very rare plate-kini here and there would be one of those items people seek out for its appearance which will boost RP and the economy alike. I do agree, however, that having everyone rolling around like some half-assed anime is a bad idea, and it should be avoided. Very unique appearing items should be rare for the abover reasons.
I agree with both Liav and Kelenin. And quite a few other comments above for that matter.
Even in high fantasy bikini armor makes no sense. if you are going to fight enemies with sharp pointy weapons (or teeth) you will want a bit more protection - at least for those that wear leather or chain or plate. Cloth gives no protection at all unless magically enhanced and magic might as well enhance naked skin as far as "logic" goes. But if half naked plate armor wearing tanks brings in revenue ((shrugs)).
For what it is worth LOTRO just introduced new character models for some races with an option to toggle.
I remember the "Wow" factor when EQ1 brought in the new models.
In today's MMO, one can easily guess the rationale behind having more models.
The very first beta models (you can still see them on the 1st release box) were changed upon release just because the older version looked so crappy. And similarly, the second time around, technology was/became available to change it again but also to be competative with other games.
It was annoying that the models (npcs) in the rest of the game didn't get an update at the same time. New zones yes and only if an old zone was revamped (ala Freeport) but cities like kelethin never got an upgrade...
I think this is a horrible waste of developer time.
If you want to see girls in underwear, there's a lot of websites on the internet available for that. There are also plenty of MMO's with female character fighting in bikinis. Why would Pantheon drift from it's vision to cater to something so... not Pantheon?
If they do "casual clothing" like EQ2 did where male and female characters can wear non-armour type outfits (with no stats), for RP purposes...that might be ok, but no bikini battling in this game, hopefully.
