1.2 New armor models!

[Neopopulas]

I think one of the key problem is that devs have the Sith and the Jedi robes backwards. Jedi normally wore their hoods down while the Sith wore their hoods up. A simple fix to this would be to add some of the sith models to the republic and vice versa.

 

As for the end game gear BW needs to look at more source material. Head over to Lucasfilms and dig through the concept art of the series. Buy up some comics like SW: Legacy and Tales of the Jedi. Check out some of the games from LucasArts and see what other have done. Then start looking at our own culture. Egypt, Roman, Crusaders, Westerns, 1950 Sci-Fi.

 

Really we have the Iconic look in the game already for the most part but the current end game models to have a sense of silly to them, case in point the GIANT shoulders on JK robes

 

Actually, what they need (More work! More work!) is a button you press on you character pane that puts the hood up and down (and a button to hide/unhide the helmet too, i know you can do it but it takes at least three menus to get in and out and it breaks the flow). This way when you go into town or something, the hood goes down, then it goes back up when you're in the field, or maybe it just looks bad and you don't like it. My Dark Jedi is more evil than my imperial agent, and it shows. He needs that hod to hide his face.

 

Of course, if i remember, i don't think twi'leks get hoods because it messes up the lekku, i'm wearing the same robe as a twi'lek jedi and her hood is down, but mine is up.

[BlackMink]

On the subject of 'dirty' looking armors: I don't think anyone wants to put on high level armor and end up looking like they've been sleeping in a dumpster.

 

Armor needs to look shiny and new, that's all there is to it.

 

On the subject of these new 1.2 armors, I do think they look better across the board. Not perfect, but much more epic and cooler looking than the rakata stuff we have now. I am personally a Shadow in full rakata, and I feel like I have shoes on my hands, and boots strapped to my arms on that character.

 

Satele Shan uses a double bladed lightsaber like I do, but she is wearing a nice trim outfit. Not even a skirt like the rest of us are forced to wear. That's what I want. When will we get simpler but nice looking oufits like Satele is wearing? I don't really want to wear these big bulky robes and skirts, which is all bioware seems to want consulars to have.

 

As a female consular especially, I want armors that look similar to what Satele is wearing, or what Ayla Secura wears.

 

I can understand that Knights wear heavier armor, especially guardians. They should appear armored. But as a Consular type we are supposed to be wearing light weight cloth armor, so why am I always wearing all the biggest heaviest robes I can find?

 

That's all I am asking for, is a 'lighter' cloth look in general for consulars. And I am not talking about the next teir of super-end-game-armor someday in the future. I mean across the board, from the low levels to the high levels. And no, skimpy little slave girl outfits are not what I am talking about. That's too extreme. Somewhere in the middle please.

 

This is like Knights and their hoods. Some people like them, some people don't. Knights need to be able to choose to have a hood or not. The same concept applies to consulars. Some people like heavy robes, some people want lighter, more trim cloth outfits and we need this option.

Edited March 31, 2012 by BlackMink

[Shadowflame]

Everyone has there own desires from a game, so I would never presume to say how something "should" be. But I would like to cast my vote into the general pool.

 

The Aesthetics of my gear are all important. I (personally) highly dislike looking showy with my Sith. The concept that my gear should visually represent my Level / Achievments is for me a negative. Palpatines look belied his power in RotJ, and that is the "style" I would like to emulate if I could.

 

The SWToR Orange gear concept suits me perfectly. Let me choose my look, I don't care if other players think I'm a noob!

 

(I don't really PvP often, but I can understand PvPers wanting to be able to judge there opponents abilities with a look. so I can see the difficulty for BW there.)

[Nwalmaer]

Ok BioWare, Take a look at Darth Chratis's armor on the cover of THE NOVEL YOUR GAME IS BASED ON!!! Chratis, hmmm, prefers using the force but not bad with a light saber? Sounds like he is more Inq assasin. You should base the assasin armor on that cover!!!! Take a look?

 

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/e/e3/Darth_Chratis_Sebaddon.jpg

Edited March 31, 2012 by Nwalmaer

[Neopopulas]

Everyone has there own desires from a game, so I would never presume to say how something "should" be. But I would like to cast my vote into the general pool.

 

The Aesthetics of my gear are all important. I (personally) highly dislike looking showy with my Sith. The concept that my gear should visually represent my Level / Achievments is for me a negative. Palpatines look belied his power in RotJ, and that is the "style" I would like to emulate if I could.

 

The SWToR Orange gear concept suits me perfectly. Let me choose my look, I don't care if other players think I'm a noob!

 

(I don't really PvP often, but I can understand PvPers wanting to be able to judge there opponents abilities with a look. so I can see the difficulty for BW there.)

 

No difficulty at all. (at least, not in the long run). Again i'm going to reference LOTRO here. LOTRO introduced the 'Cosmetic options' a long time ago. It gives you a whole different paper doll to apply your cosmetic armour to, then you click a button and you look like you're wearing that armour. Like i mentioned above, it lets you pick armour you LIKE, which is sometimes lower level armour, and still get to use the stats you NEED.

 

Now, do you know what happens when you go into their PVP area? All your cosmetic armour disappears and suddenly you're shown in the gear you're actually wearing, because cosmetic armour doesn't work in PVP areas.

 

This is why cosmetic gear is SO amazing, is it more work? yes. But it does solve the problem.

 

Also, i don't PVP a lot (see, pretty much at all) so maybe its different for others, but even if i had the time to really look at what people were wearing, and not trying to.. not die.. but i wouldn't be able to look at someones gear, and then immediately gauge their stats or abilities enough that i would know enough to get some sort of mechanical advantage. Even if it was just them in heavy armour (you can always restrict the cosmetic choices to the same type of gear, light, medium, heavy, etc) it probably wouldn't help ME much.

[Star-ranger]

Which is more important Aesthetics or Functionality?

 

Both are important. All armor should be functional and aesthetically pleasing.

 

The problem being what is aesthetically pleasing to one group of folks may not be aesthetically pleasing to another.

 

For example: all heavy armor right now has a rim around the bottom of the leg pieces that go on the thighs, it resembles a piece of plastic plumbing pipe with a flange for sticking another piece of plastic pipe into. Functionally it's silly because those parts would be constantly rubbing and catching on each other as you move. That makes it aesthetically displeasing to me... as in immersion breaking.

 

Now just because I don't like the look of it, and think it looks silly from a functional stand point doesn't mean I won't use it in the game... it just means I'll wish that somebody on the art team had said --Gee, that doesn't really work, let's make it smooth there.

 

In general principle armor and weapons should look functional and that in turn looks cool.

 

On the other hand there are lots of people out there who go--Cool dude!--for the silliest possible get up you can design.

 

Where I draw the line is WOW type armor. Your armor should not look like it's 10 sizes too big eating your head, or like it would catch on what ever you're passing, or kill anybody who would sit down beside you. That's just not Star Wars, it's WOW.

 

I would guess that people on the RP servers are going to want something more believable for Star Wars. And people on the non-RP PvP servers are going to want something more fantasy.

 

I want to see:

 

1. Sleek armor --like the Jedi and bounty hunter on the cover screen.

2. Better looking hats and helmets especially for light and medium. Really good looking headgear for consulars and smugglers is few and far between.

3. More color options--the ability to dye or choose the color of our gear...perhaps giving crafters the option to choose color at creation.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Star-ranger

[Missandei]

I want this outfit for my miraluka consular...

[veevito]

No difficulty at all. (at least, not in the long run). Again i'm going to reference LOTRO here. LOTRO introduced the 'Cosmetic options' a long time ago. It gives you a whole different paper doll to apply your cosmetic armour to, then you click a button and you look like you're wearing that armour. Like i mentioned above, it lets you pick armour you LIKE, which is sometimes lower level armour, and still get to use the stats you NEED.

 

Now, do you know what happens when you go into their PVP area? All your cosmetic armour disappears and suddenly you're shown in the gear you're actually wearing, because cosmetic armour doesn't work in PVP areas.

 

This is why cosmetic gear is SO amazing, is it more work? yes. But it does solve the problem.

 

Also, i don't PVP a lot (see, pretty much at all) so maybe its different for others, but even if i had the time to really look at what people were wearing, and not trying to.. not die.. but i wouldn't be able to look at someones gear, and then immediately gauge their stats or abilities enough that i would know enough to get some sort of mechanical advantage. Even if it was just them in heavy armour (you can always restrict the cosmetic choices to the same type of gear, light, medium, heavy, etc) it probably wouldn't help ME much.

 

That's the one part of the cosmetic system I didn't like. I want to look how I choose regardless of whether i'm pvp-ing or pve-ing.

 

I personally think that the need to see the actual gear of the player in pvp is overblown. I understand the arguments though.

 

Also, the mod system bascially throws that out the window doesn't it? I mean, orange gear by default means that you have no idea what mods are installed at a glance, so the devs can't really use that as an argument against a cosmetic paper doll, as it ignores the fact that swtor's orange gear already eliminates the possibility to gauge power from looks.

[veevito]

i'm also a big fan of dying systems in mmo's to further customize the gear designs we are given.

[Nwalmaer]

Take a look!

 

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/e/e3/Darth_Chratis_Sebaddon.jpg

[Onager]

I just want my consular to wear equipment that looks like it was designed for males.

 

Jedis don't wear robe bottoms, they wear leggings.

 

Males don't routinely wear an off-the-shoulder toga.

 

I'm of course referring to the Consular PVE set, although this applies to all consular gear. It's all designed to look appropriate on females. Only the PVP sets look like they were designed for males.

 

 

Take a look!

 

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/e/e3/Darth_Chratis_Sebaddon.jpg

 

Really? You're going to link to this pic twice in the same page of the same thread, a half hour apart? Come on.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Onager

[Zorrion]

So the main take away I get from reading this thread:

 

Give us boxes with mods vs. new gear to use in crafted gear.

Give the crafters the ability to craft cool new looks for the mods to go in to.

Give the artists more direction on what Star Wars gear should look like. The entire fan base is opposed to Power Rangers gear, WoW gear, Robotech gear etc. This is Star Wars!

[Zorrion]

Every single one of these looks amazing. The force users would also like to be able to have masks on with hood up or down as we choose.

 

 

All advanced classes should have their own individual look with armor sets. Not just different colors.

 

All armor sets should be designed around the species. (i.e. Tauren, Forsaken, Worgen, etc. like blizzad does in WoW)

 

some pictures:

 

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs19/f/2007/244/9/4/Sith_Empress_by_namesjames.jpg

 

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100615163921/starwars/images/5/5d/Sith_Legacy.jpg

 

http://monsterscifishow.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/starwars_sith.jpg

 

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/b/be/SithStalkerArmor-TFUUSE.jpg

 

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081202053633/starwars/images/e/e3/Sith_trooper_concept_art.jpg

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XdP6Lp2ceqY/SwTSznfyTyI/AAAAAAAADgs/eeScgGc-qt4/s1600/altair.jpg

 

http://reignguild.net/gallery/plog-content/images/star-wars-the-old-republic/concept-art/timeline08_malak_revan.jpg

[SmokeDopeStuff]

Oh no, please dont say that they are going to implement these armors ! If you show them to someone that didnt play SWTOR but knows Star Wars, he would never guess that they shall be Star Wars related. They look like copies from suits that the Power Rangers wear, even with all the color variants .. Why?

 

[Force Persuade BioWare - Team] You are not going to put these armors into the game, you are going to rework them one by one and bring us players some "less exaggerated super hero/villain and more obviously looking like Star Wars" - armors !

[Neopopulas]

That's the one part of the cosmetic system I didn't like. I want to look how I choose regardless of whether i'm pvp-ing or pve-ing.

 

I personally think that the need to see the actual gear of the player in pvp is overblown. I understand the arguments though.

 

Also, the mod system bascially throws that out the window doesn't it? I mean, orange gear by default means that you have no idea what mods are installed at a glance, so the devs can't really use that as an argument against a cosmetic paper doll, as it ignores the fact that swtor's orange gear already eliminates the possibility to gauge power from looks.

 

I totally agree, as i said, i don't honestly think you can gain much of an idea about a person in PVP just from what they are wearing, especially in the small chance you get. Why can't we just look the way we want? I think it would make everyone happy. That way if people wanted to wear the ridiculously huge armour that makes it look like you're slowly being eaten alive by some sort of crab (come on SW lore librarians, get the reference..) and those that don't, can wear some sort of cosmetic over the top. I'd LOVE to keep my Sniper in my imperial uniform, or at least have it around for when i'm on dromand kass or running around town.

 

It seems to me that the VAST majority of Star wars images are of people, sith, troppers, jedi, bounty hunters in somewhat minimalist outfits, robes and light armour and cloaks and hoods and so on. Occasionally you'll get someone in a ton of armour or some weird creation of sith sorcerery, but most of it is light and flowing with carefully placed or hidden armour. Even the guys in the intro videos are mostly in light or some sort of mix of plated armour.

 

Some of the images i've seen of end-game armour just makes me think i'm playing WoW, or one of those games, which is fine for the more cartoony, over the top fantasy games but thats not what star wars is about.

 

I don't remember seeing much so crazy as that in the KOTOR games either..

 

Edit: Some of the examples aren't terrible, its about SCALE. Instead of two foot spikes coming out of my helmet, how about six inches? how about four? Instead of huge shoulder-pads sticking out three feet in either direction, how about just a few inches?

 

I get it, i really do, you won't be able to see the shoulder-pads, or the head-spikes at a distance if they are so small, or if you have a small monitor i guess (but it would have to be pretty small). But the point is, you SHOULDN'T.. I don't need everything scaled way up so i can see it at a distance, i'll see it if i get in close, because as it stands, at a long distance, you can see the modules a bit better, but up close it looks terrible, i'd rather it be the other way around.

 

I'm so glad the weapons are (more or less) reasonable, some are a little big, and the lightsaber hilts are a little bit too, but i get that if they weren't you wouldn't see them, but the weapons are well done, now we just need to get the armour scaled down to match.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Neopopulas

[skippymchaggis]

thank you for looking for our feedback.

 

i'm going to say, i agree with most of the comments presented already. a design philosophy of K.I.S.S and remembering functionality before adding superfluous ornamentation would be greatly appreciated.

 

i think a lot has been said about various Jedi and Sith looks, but I'd like to add another vote for looking at things like the Clone Wars for trooper armor ideas. we don't need tons of weird bits, but new and interesting color combinations. we need helmets that don't look like buckets of fried chicken with pig snouts (see Rakata/Columi/Tionese helmets) or frog faces (1.2 PvP helms). take the armor designs from the level 30-49 range, and figure out how to add just a bit to make them look more advanced or "beefed up." things like the scout trooper helmet, and variations of the traditional storm trooper helmet are just fine.

 

in general, character classes are already pretty clearly distinguished by the weapons they use in combat. Troopers have rifles; commandos have cannons; BH's either have one pistol, or 2 (and you know what that implies about their spec); sentinels have 2 sabers; sages have 1; guardians have 1 sabre and are animated quite differently than sages; shadow's have the double bladed saber; the same applies to Sith classes. so i don't feel like there is a big need to distinguish class type even more by extreme costuming. while that is used in other games, i'm not sure it's needed in TOR. variety in terms of color, texture, and layering should give designers lots and lots of room to work from the "iconic" outfits that appear in the movies and other SW cartoons and imagery.

 

adding the ability to reflect light/dark status by choosing darker or lighter color combinations would be greatly appreciated.

 

i'd also like to echo some previously mentioned things:

 

-armors like the armors seen in the CGI intro movies would be appreciated.

 

-your marketing team and executive leadership has spent millions of dollars in advertising (which worked. people liked it, saw that it looked star wars-y and bought the product). we've seen sets on TV and in still and print ads, and it would be great to be able to look like those characters in game. please add them.

 

(edit to add: you have tons and tons of trooper-style avatars on the forums. where are these armor sets in game? they all look great, and many are quite different than standard stormtrooper/mandolorian armor designs, but look great and feel star wars-y to me. let's see them in game!)

Edited March 31, 2012 by skippymchaggis

[Rouncer]

Here's an open question in regards to that.

 

We always have to balance two things with armor. On the one hand, there's the gameplay requirement of "Make high level, very exclusive armor look like it's unique and powerful so other players can see that at a glance".

 

On the other, there's the aesthetics requirement - to make clothing echo the simple, almost plain looking clothing that's seen on some characters in the Star Wars saga. That led, in part, to orange gear in the game, which allows you to have an iconic appearance that doesn't suggest your gear's statistics.

 

The question is, how do you balance that? Arguably Obi-Wan's robes in Episode IV are very 'low level' in appearance. Would you want to see that as an armor set for a high level character? Would you not be concerned that players would see you as low-level? Or do aesthetics trump gameplay for you?

 

Aesthetics can be subtle. A $1000 sport's coat is going to look better then a $100 one even though they will both follow the same basic pattern.

 

Compare the Black Talon Marauder's Tunic to the Primeval Paragon's Body Armor and you have a wonderful example of the quality of an item increasing while still following the same basic pattern. That's what many of us want for our characters. One of my favorite chest pieces for my female marauder is the Sith Dueling Leathers. It's a nice, simple design that doesn't show too much skin while still having enough going on to draw the eye. Problem is that when you look at it closely it looks it's ilevel, with the "leather" looking "cheap" and the combination of it with the pants for that set is just all sorts of ugly on a female model. Increase the "quality" of that piece and add something like the back and front "skirts" of the Champion set and it would definitely be something I would want to wear.

 

Also if you could fix things like where the champion/battlemaster weaponmaster vest's two back skirts clip with each other, that would be great. I don't have a problem when two different items clip each other, it's one of the challenges of finding pieces that go well together, but an item should never clip with itself. That's just poor QA on the part of your art department. I mean there are only 8 body shapes to test items on to make sure that doesn't happen. How long could it really take to notice that the design clips itself on 3 out of the 4 female forms even when they are just standing perfectly still?

[drosalion]

No difficulty at all. (at least, not in the long run). Again i'm going to reference LOTRO here. LOTRO introduced the 'Cosmetic options' a long time ago. It gives you a whole different paper doll to apply your cosmetic armour to, then you click a button and you look like you're wearing that armour. Like i mentioned above, it lets you pick armour you LIKE, which is sometimes lower level armour, and still get to use the stats you NEED.

 

Now, do you know what happens when you go into their PVP area? All your cosmetic armour disappears and suddenly you're shown in the gear you're actually wearing, because cosmetic armour doesn't work in PVP areas.

 

This is why cosmetic gear is SO amazing, is it more work? yes. But it does solve the problem.

 

Also, i don't PVP a lot (see, pretty much at all) so maybe its different for others, but even if i had the time to really look at what people were wearing, and not trying to.. not die.. but i wouldn't be able to look at someones gear, and then immediately gauge their stats or abilities enough that i would know enough to get some sort of mechanical advantage. Even if it was just them in heavy armour (you can always restrict the cosmetic choices to the same type of gear, light, medium, heavy, etc) it probably wouldn't help ME much.

 

The thing is though, in theory, SWTOR has a system thats superior to an appearance tab - the mod system. The reason its superior is because it atleast has some kind of explanation as to how your gear appears that way with those stats as opposed to just magic or because the game says so. On top of that it actually makes u work for your appearance aswell as your stats, and giving players more to do and more things to work towards in an mmo is rarely a bad thing. The icing on the cake is that it acts as a great money sink, which even if you dont personally like losing money they're a necessary requirement for the game and mmo's in general.

 

The problem with it is that there a numerous armor sets available in the game (dozens, probably hundreds) that cant be obtained by the player to be modded. These include numerous low level whites/greens/blues, the majority of faction-specific armour sets some of which are fantastic but we cant use, sets of different armor ratings (light/medium/heavy), aswell as tons of some of the best different armor sets and colour combinations of armours in the game that for some reason only NPC's can wear. It should be possible to get an orange, fully moddable (and then crit-crafted piece with augment slot), set of EVERY single piece of armour that exists in the game. The only restrictions to this should maybe be the light/medium/heavy requirements which i can sort of understand.

 

As for how this works for PVP, the system, in my opinion, in LOTRO where it changes what you where in PVP is a bad one. I want to look the way I want to look all the time, not just when doing specific content. The solution balance-wise for this is quite simple in SWTOR PVP. When you're targetting a player you can see their hp. This generally is a good indicator of gear, but with the change moving heavily towards dependance on expertise it makes it even easier. Have it when you target the player (or perhaps even when ur not like the new class symbols above players all the time) it show their amount of expertise. Its a simple 3 digit number (or 2 if you have very few pieces, or perhaps as much as 4 if u can get that much? not sure) that will quickly and clearly tell you exactly how good their gear is. This also helps for the 9 slots that cant generally be seen/identified easily (2 relics, 2 implants, 1 earpiece, 1 wrist, 1 belt, mainhand, offhand) an additional 10th slot (head) that is often hidden. This is the vast majority of their gear.

 

This one simple number of expertise would be a far more readily identifiable assessment of their gear than trying to determine in the middle of combat something like "oh that looks like a rakata chest, although the colour looks a bit different so im not sure.. and those are definitely battlemaster pants.. cant really tell what his relic/wrist/implant/earpieces are.. oh and damn his headpiece is hidden.. hmm i guess he could be reasonably geared not sure". Its also far easier to tell and remember between classes, as you dont need to remember the looks and colour combinations (as tionese/columi/rakata and centurion/champion/battlemaster are all identical armours just in different colours) for everyone, and as the game gets older and more and more sets are added it will only get harder to recognise. Instead you can tell in an instant "he's a 856 expertise marauder" and know almost exactly the level of gear he has. Like the class icons this could also be toggleable if it annoys people.

Edited March 31, 2012 by drosalion

[IeyasuTanaka]

Would you not be concerned that players would see you as low-level? Or do aesthetics trump gameplay for you?

 

As a Sith Inquisitor, specifically an Assassin, my chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... my two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency...

 

Anyway. I feel my gear should reflect that simple, subtle lifestyle of quietly sneaking up on people and stabbing them in the face.

 

Darth Maul's black padawan-esque outfit with the cloak? Perfect. Palpatine's robes for my sorceror alt? That would be epic. Obi-wan's robes for my level 50 Guardian? Heck yeah!

 

As far as the "low level" look - Take your lead from some of the KOTOR character designs. Kreia? Obviously high level, simple look, epic. Revan? Slightly more involved, but still simple & easily recognizable. Iconic. Awesome.

 

Keep it functional. How am I supposed to swing a lightsaber around with huge shoulderpads or protrusions on my head? That looks more fantasy than Star Wars.

[unixbomber]

With all due respect, that's not entirely constructive criticism, but I see your point.

 

Obviously, anything visual is going to be highly subjective, but we're not trying to be avant garde for the sake of it. Like I said, the team is listening and we want to hear which specific elements you may have an issue with, too.

 

You can have simplistic clothing with a focus on improving textures. Nothing is worse than mushrooms on your shoulders outside of maybe the new sentinel helm. It would be nice to also allow empire and republic orange gear to not change in appearance when sold between factions as republic cosmetics largely look horrible. Let people mix things and create a style that fits them.

Edited March 31, 2012 by unixbomber

[Darcor]

As a Sith Inquisitor, specifically an Assassin, my chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... my two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency...

 

Anyway. I feel my gear should reflect that simple, subtle lifestyle of quietly sneaking up on people and stabbing them in the face.

 

Darth Maul's black padawan-esque outfit with the cloak? Perfect. Palpatine's robes for my sorceror alt? That would be epic. Obi-wan's robes for my level 50 Guardian? Heck yeah!

 

As far as the "low level" look - Take your lead from some of the KOTOR character designs. Kreia? Obviously high level, simple look, epic. Revan? Slightly more involved, but still simple & easily recognizable. Iconic. Awesome.

 

Keep it functional. How am I supposed to swing a lightsaber around with huge shoulderpads or protrusions on my head? That looks more fantasy than Star Wars.

 

I agree with the above post. It's the details that really matter (imo). In addition, it's worth noting that some Sith wish a more ragged look as well, but it doesn't have to mean they don't look epic.

 

At any rate, I'd personally try to check the interwebs and see how people view their characters when they draw fanart etc. as well as toward other SW games like KOTOR (mentioned in the above post) or the Force Unleashed (

)

 

Personally, I find this picture ( https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/3f1cc1b2-31e1-4488-b6d9-ccb346ec5fb3/d11ze47-7ee7200b-b8e2-48f6-9d3b-27eade101346.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzNmMWNjMWIyLTMxZTEtNDQ4OC1iNmQ5LWNjYjM0NmVjNWZiM1wvZDExemU0Ny03ZWU3MjAwYi1iOGUyLTQ4ZjYtOWQzYi0yN2VhZGUxMDEzNDYuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.bnu-eurrrzozKBr4g-QSqWevkTG39pGNVtzpzIgD8yo ) a good example of a subtle, cool, look without making it feel 'low-level' or over the top.

[Paydroid]

Here's an open question in regards to that.

 

We always have to balance two things with armor. On the one hand, there's the gameplay requirement of "Make high level, very exclusive armor look like it's unique and powerful so other players can see that at a glance".

 

On the other, there's the aesthetics requirement - to make clothing echo the simple, almost plain looking clothing that's seen on some characters in the Star Wars saga. That led, in part, to orange gear in the game, which allows you to have an iconic appearance that doesn't suggest your gear's statistics.

 

The question is, how do you balance that? Arguably Obi-Wan's robes in Episode IV are very 'low level' in appearance. Would you want to see that as an armor set for a high level character? Would you not be concerned that players would see you as low-level? Or do aesthetics trump gameplay for you?

 

I think it's vital to an MMO for better armor be distinguishable from lower-tier gear. It gives players something to aspire to, and the more advanced players a way to show off. Offering full customization, as they seem to be headed towards, means that people who want to look different from that "standard" are free to do so.

 

That said, these attempts are simply poor. Over the course of thirty years there have been thousands of interpretations of Star Wars clothing in games, movies, comics, and fan art, and frankly nearly all of them look better than even the best of these 1.2 models. Generally speaking the consensus is clear: simpler is better, this gear does not mesh well with the Star Wars aesthetic, and equally importantly, with what NPCs in this game wear.

 

As a simple suggestion, how about BEFORE all the work goes into actually modeling and producing these pieces (at which point obviously the developers are committed to the outcome), the concept art is made public for discussion/critique, or is perhaps even made available for a vote of some kind (even if purely advisory)? That would have nipped many of these designs in the bud, especially the most universally reviled (i.e., the Jedi Knight helmets).

Edited March 31, 2012 by Paydroid

[Alterin]

We'd prefer to see links to inspirational sources, rather than "Make it look exactly like this". That gives the artists ideas.

 

With that said, we've heard the requests for some sort of community interaction on future armor sets, and we're looking into that.

 

I want Jedi Knight armor that looks like Ven Zallow's and the Jedi Knights in the character creator. Consider me mind blown that it doesn't exist. (Jedi Battlelord set is close. It's very close. Less outside the robes armor would make it perfect) I want more like that. I want the armor that has been up on the site for years about what a Jedi Knight will look like. Simple robes with metal plates underneath.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Alterin

[MasterFeign]

I believe the robes from the star forge (in KOTOR) were the most uber in the game? Needless to say, not only was this gear Star Warsy for me, but they were also great looking end of the game armour. I'd consider its design somewhat simplistic, however I realise what also helps the design is the iconic mask as well.

 

Also to maintain some semblance of individuality, even now, I do at least enjoy the "hide head slot" option.

[Deewe]

With all due respect, no amount of high res textures or seeing something in-game is going to change the fact that those armors just look ridiculous. It's not the resolution, it's the metal blades sticking out everywhere, the feathers, the horns. I assume the blades and horns don't just magically disappear when viewed in a higher resolution.

 

I'm glad you are listening to us though because the current armor designs are just terrible.

With all due respect, that's not entirely constructive criticism, but I see your point.

 

Obviously, anything visual is going to be highly subjective, but we're not trying to be avant garde for the sake of it. Like I said, the team is listening and we want to hear which specific elements you may have an issue with, too.

If I may, now your art team, (if they didn't already), are aware some (many?) people don't like the over usage of blades horns and featers in a SW game.

 

Could have posted what he likes but at least that's a good start.

 

I'd say more this and less this this or this

 

Seriously I would be surprised people would like this that much

 

And personally I would not be disappointed would you add stuff like this or that

Edited March 31, 2012 by Deewe