The Unofficial Appearance Customization Thread

[JeramieCrowe]

On this topic you keep criticizing others that don't bend to your liking but never provide suggestions to make things different or better. So why are you wasting your time because obviously you have nothing to add to the discussion?

 

I'm not criticizing anyone. I'm just pointing out that the design direction is not a-tab, nor should it be for this game and its overall feature sets. Refer back to Damion Schubert's post.

[Deewe]

Setting aside appearance tabs for now since they don't appear to be in the offing no matter their reported popularity or validity, what area of appearance customization is most in need of further development?

• Armor Dyes?
  
• Post creation avatar changes?
  
• More Avatar Options?
  
• More Races?
  
• Specific pieces of armor?
  
• Companion issues?
  
• Others?
  

 

1) Armor dyes

• 2 or better 3 separate zones per item that can be dyed
  

 

2) In game Image Designer (==Enhanced barber shop)

• Full body change: you access to the character creation too with locked specie only. I.E.: you can also change your character sex
  

 

3) Avatar options

• Add a separated makeup color palette
  
• Add tattoo color palette choice
  
• Allow players to choose where to put the tattoos or add tattoos to new locations like chest, shoulders, arms.
  
• Separate eyes, eye brow, makeup, cosmetic choices in their own category
  
• New haircuts, types of makeup, piercing, tattoos, jewelry, cyborg (face, hands,...)
  
• The new very much requested 5th body option.
  

 

4) Companions

• Hide head slot
  
• Customize your character body
  

 

5) Other

• Separate shoulder pads from chest
  
• Separate cloaks from chest
  
• Toggle check boxes, hide/show any piece of gear as we can do with the character head slot.
  
• Wardrobe and set. So you can one click change your whole look
  

 

Now here's something that would make TOR stands apart (in a good way) from others MMO.

 

Allow players to have different pieces of gear for left and right parts (for the look only).

The slots impacted are for gloves, bracers, shoulder pads and boots.

 

For example you can have this oversized shoulder pad displayed on your left shoulder, none on the right, a bracer_1 on your right arm and a bracer_44 on your left.

 

This way you can truly make your character unique.

[Rekkx]

Lots of great ideas here...

 

I can't help but think that the vast majority of these options, although very good and things I also want to see, will not be on the radar for years.

 

I'm sure it will happen one day though but not this year unfortunately. It's disappointing.

[JeramieCrowe]

1) Armor dyes

• 2 or better 3 separate zones per item that can be dyed
  

 

2) In game Image Designer (==Enhanced barber shop)

• Full body change: you access to the character creation too with locked specie only. I.E.: you can also change your character sex
  

 

3) Avatar options

• Add a separated makeup color palette
  
• Add tattoo color palette choice
  
• Allow players to choose where to put the tattoos or add tattoos to new locations like chest, shoulders, arms.
  
• Separate eyes, eye brow, makeup, cosmetic choices in their own category
  
• New haircuts, types of makeup, piercing, tattoos, jewelry, cyborg (face, hands,...)
  
• The new very much requested 5th body option.
  

 

4) Companions

• Hide head slot
  
• Customize your character body
  

 

5) Other

• Separate shoulder pads from chest
  
• Separate cloaks from chest
  
• Toggle check boxes, hide/show any piece of gear as we can do with the character head slot.
  
• Wardrobe and set. So you can one click change your whole look
  

 

Now here's something that would make TOR stands apart (in a good way) from others MMO.

 

Allow players to have different pieces of gear for left and right parts (for the look only).

The slots impacted are for gloves, bracers, shoulder pads and boots.

 

For example you can have this oversized shoulder pad displayed on your left shoulder, none on the right, a bracer_1 on your right arm and a bracer_44 on your left.

 

This way you can truly make your character unique.

 

I agree with most of this, except number 2. I don't agree with sex changes at all.

 

As for plastic surgery, Daniel Erickson said "Never", but BW did kinda shoot themselves in the foot on that one simply with the mission "The Face Merchants". There is plastic surgery in the lore now.

[Kharnis]

I agree with most of this, except number 2. I don't agree with sex changes at all.

 

As for plastic surgery, Daniel Erickson said "Never", but BW did kinda shoot themselves in the foot on that one simply with the mission "The Face Merchants". There is plastic surgery in the lore now.

 

Did he say "Never?" I thought he said that it wouldn't be added for quite some time (as in, "Not soon," to paraphrase a familiar statement...), and that a barber shop-type feature would only include those things that would be logical to change with Star Wars technology. So, if he did say "never," then he immediately contradicted himself with the "logical in Star Wars" statement.

[Rekkx]

I think he said "never" regarding sex-changes or species change from the conference iirc.

[illgot]

I think he said "never" regarding sex-changes or species change from the conference iirc.

 

Then he is speaking too soon. Once they open up their cash shop to change names and server transfers, you can bet that complete make overs will follow soon after.

Edited March 30, 2012 by illgot

[Rekkx]

Then he is speaking too soon. Once they open up their cash shop to change names and server transfers, you can bet that complete make overs will follow soon after.

 

Oh yes, I fully agree. Was only saying what I remember from the conference. Once a cash shop is implimented, demand will outweigh moral guidance or IP concerns every time.

[Deewe]

Oh yes, I fully agree. Was only saying what I remember from the conference. Once a cash shop is implimented, demand will outweigh moral guidance or IP concerns every time.

That and sex change is already available in our sub-developed civilization so why not in a SW based game?

[JeramieCrowe]

Did he say "Never?" I thought he said that it wouldn't be added for quite some time (as in, "Not soon," to paraphrase a familiar statement...), and that a barber shop-type feature would only include those things that would be logical to change with Star Wars technology. So, if he did say "never," then he immediately contradicted himself with the "logical in Star Wars" statement.

 

He said "Never". He mentioned that the "Barber shop" was coming, but wouldn't be for some time, but that "plastic surgery" would not be an option.

 

I'll see of some fansite somewhere still has the quote...

[Kharnis]

He said "Never". He mentioned that the "Barber shop" was coming, but wouldn't be for some time, but that "plastic surgery" would not be an option.

 

I'll see of some fansite somewhere still has the quote...

 

Okay. Well, then you're right. He did get contradicted by the game itself before he even made that statement. Rather strange.

[JeramieCrowe]

Okay. Well, then you're right. He did get contradicted by the game itself before he even made that statement. Rather strange.

 

Well, tried to find that quote, but it's long gone...

 

Although, in his defense, he never said it wouldn't happen for lore reasons.

Edited March 31, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[Kharnis]

Well, tried to find that quote, but it's long gone...

 

Although, in his defense, he never said it wouldn't happen for lore reasons.

 

Hehe! They always leave themselves a loophole...

[Innocences]

So what orange robes will be modifiable? I was lucky enough to find three robe bottoms and one chest L47 orange so I can have a chance to crit them for the augment slot. I'll be pissed if I can't modify them and I wonder how terrible the chance to crit will be? Does anyone have a suggestion on how many I should find? lol

 

I wonder how many it's going to take to get one to crit, because it's been frustrating as hell when I had to reverse 14 blue L49 enhancements to get a purple recipe. On top of that it's been frustrating spending thousands of credits sending my companions out to find Level 6 gems, I need to make the purple??? I've not got a drop of what I need yet sending all of them out 5 times. ***??? I literally can't get what I need to make the purples now.

 

BW you need to find a balance for income. It's no fun when you have to worry all the time about credits and if you will have enough to even cover repair costs. I had to repeat 50 ship missions to make 200k credits and how fun do you think that was? It sucks playing solo late night without a cross server group finder.

 

Sorry for the rant, but this game starting to piss me off. It's impossible when traffic is so low on the server. I hope they are going to start combining the servers soon.

[Vyrion]

Nobody has yet mentioned the elephant in the room which is how the current system conflicts with gear optimization. Come 1.2 the best gear will be orange with augment slots, which effectively means only crafted oranges, and of those only the more common pattern ones will be anything but obscenely expensive. This means that most people will only be able to afford some ugly mishmash of random crap depending on what you manage to find/afford or get lucky with crafting yourself. Sure they are adding the ability to add slots to existing oranges "eventually" but nobody really knows when that will be.

 

Honestly this is just stupid. Killing bosses/doing pvp for gear is one thing, but grinding an RNG or waiting for someone to list something on GTN is not fun. At all. Sure boss loot tables are RNG but at least the actual process of killing the boss requires gameplay, the process of crafting just requires pushing a button and listening to your pet's annoying canned completion response.

[Innocences]

Oh man, your right, this is going to suck. It will kill customization. It's been expensive and super difficult to find a few of one items I can stand. When I read that green items will now be able to be made into orange I have to laugh. Have you seen the green items? lol Talk about ugly for the consular.

 

The personal look and customization of your character have to be one of the most important aspects to mmos players. This is my first mmo, I love the story, companion idea, but the pure lack of the most basic customization is killing it for me. Finding desirable clothing for your character just doesn't help excite me to pursue game progression beyound the story line. lol It then comes down to chasing pure gear stats. That's what it will turn into now with 1.2 and orange augment gear. This may be the clone wars patch. lol

 

I think I'll give up on the idea of crit gear that looks good. lol After hundreds of hours of searching I've only found one other chest piece and three leggings. If it takes more than three to get a crit, forget it. It's bad enough everything cost so much time and credits to do anything. I guess MMOs are not for me. lol It's not every relaxing on a casual basis.

 

Nobody has yet mentioned the elephant in the room which is how the current system conflicts with gear optimization. Come 1.2 the best gear will be orange with augment slots, which effectively means only crafted oranges, and of those only the more common pattern ones will be anything but obscenely expensive. This means that most people will only be able to afford some ugly mishmash of random crap depending on what you manage to find/afford or get lucky with crafting yourself. Sure they are adding the ability to add slots to existing oranges "eventually" but nobody really knows when that will be.

 

Honestly this is just stupid. Killing bosses/doing pvp for gear is one thing, but grinding an RNG or waiting for someone to list something on GTN is not fun. At all. Sure boss loot tables are RNG but at least the actual process of killing the boss requires gameplay, the process of crafting just requires pushing a button and listening to your pet's annoying canned completion response.

Edited March 31, 2012 by Innocences

[Fayrelle]

I support the idea of facial customization post character creation! Yes please! I couldn't possibly read all 72 pages of this thread so idk what other peoples opinions are but I have had the game since it came out and still don't have a level 50 because I get sick of how my toon looks so quickly, I've gone through maybe 40 toons and the highest I've gotten was level 33 (BH) before I couldn't stand her face anymore, even covered with a helmet, I still knew it wasn't what I wanted underneath so I had to delete and start over! <3 pet peeves! lol *sigh* a salon would be AWESOME! Just think, a lil hair dye, some fresh makeup, maybe a bit of a snip and voila! I can tolerate my toon again for 10 more levels! Edited March 31, 2012 by Fayrelle

[JeramieCrowe]

Nobody has yet mentioned the elephant in the room which is how the current system conflicts with gear optimization. Come 1.2 the best gear will be orange with augment slots, which effectively means only crafted oranges, and of those only the more common pattern ones will be anything but obscenely expensive. This means that most people will only be able to afford some ugly mishmash of random crap depending on what you manage to find/afford or get lucky with crafting yourself. Sure they are adding the ability to add slots to existing oranges "eventually" but nobody really knows when that will be.

 

Honestly this is just stupid. Killing bosses/doing pvp for gear is one thing, but grinding an RNG or waiting for someone to list something on GTN is not fun. At all. Sure boss loot tables are RNG but at least the actual process of killing the boss requires gameplay, the process of crafting just requires pushing a button and listening to your pet's annoying canned completion response.

 

Nah, that won't happen.

[Matte_Black]

Some good new dev commentary applicable to this discussion:

Community Q&A: Friday March 30th 2012: Game Update 1.2 Special

 

Magnalorian: I have been acquiring champion gear pieces for the sole purpose of pulling those nice level 56 mods and enhancements out of them to put in my sexy Jedi Battlelord set, which currently makes it roughly equal to Columni I have kept the hollowed out remains of the champion gear I have pulled these mods from, leaving only the armoring which currently can't be removed. Will they turn blue right away in 1.2, remain purple as they currently are (cannot uneqip the armor slot), or will they remain purple and allow me to pull the armoring from them as well?

 

David Hunt: As a general rule for gear updates: Any mods that you’ve changed will remain changed. Any mods you haven’t changed will update if the gear changed.

 

In this case, it means your currently empty Champion gear will be purple and show a filled/extractable armoring and empty mod and enhancement slots. Those mods and enhancements will still be present in your Jedi Battlelord set.

 

 

 

Exaro - Will crit crafted orange gear with the tier 4 mods in it and an additional augment be required to get the best possible stats or will the stand alone purple tier 4 be just as good?

 

David Hunt: Augments are required for the highest possible stats, but augmented gear is not required for any existing content. A fully augmented set of endgame gear will put you above the stat curve.

 

 

 

ZudetGambeous - Is it possible to use Reverse Engineering on PvP gear and Operations gear in 1.2 to get the appearance shell for those items? If so, has the ability to trade bound items for Reverse Engineering been added, or can you only use Reverse Engineer on those items if you have them yourself... I.E will my alts have to start rolling need on my main’s Operations gear so I can use Reverse Engineering?

 

David Hunt: You can use Reverse Engineering on Operations gear but not PvP gear. You can purchase PvP appearance schematics for credits, but the appearance schematics may have additional equip requirements. For example, Battlemaster appearances require Valor even though normal Battlemaster items do not. This is because the recipes to produce Battlemaster appearances do not require PvP activity, while purchasing Battlemaster gear requires PvP commendations.

 

It is not currently possible to trade Bind on Pickup items for Reverse Engineering.

 

 

 

Arnathis: Can we please get an in-depth explanation of how gearing is going to work in Game Update 1.2? I understand that you can reverse engineer the gear and possibly learn the schematic but is that for everyone or just the people with the appropriate Crew Skills? Will this apply to the tier sets as well?

 

Georg Zoeller (Lead Combat Designer): This is a very broad question, but I’ll try to answer as comprehensively as possible, as the system is rather complex.

 

First off, in an ‘under the hood’ change to the game, end game items have more stat variety, allowing for significantly improved item customization for players that like to fine tune their stats.

 

The most important change for gear in Game Update 1.2 is that all previously modifiable purple gear has all their mods exposed, including the so called ‘base mod’ (Armoring, hilt, barrel). These can be freely moved into any empty (orange) appearance shell, giving you a lot more choices in your character’s appearance.

 

New end game gear (e.g. “Campaign Gear”) introduced with the Game Update has the added benefit that it keeps information about its set bonus on the armoring – but comes with the limitation that the extracted armoring can only be moved into an item of the same slot type (chest to chest, boot to boot, etc.). The reason for this ‘Bind to Slot’ behavior on armoring is that we do not want players to farm the initial boss of an Operation as the easiest way to obtain a full set of end game mods.

 

This means you can now take any custom (orange) appearance and imbue it with all the benefits of your end game set. As an added progression option, you can also acquire a critical crafted orange item with additional augment slots for even better stats.

 

Reverse Engineering has also received considerable improvements with Game Update 1.2.

 

For one, when attempting to reverse engineer an item (for which you indeed need the appropriate profession) you will now be able to see in the item tooltip what your chance to successfully reverse engineer a new schematic is (or if such a chance exists at all).

 

Many of the new end game items (and end game items going forward) can be reverse engineered to learn schematics based on the original item:

 

Reverse engineering an item with mods leads to empty orange equivalents of the end game items. This can be done after the mods are extracted and used in a different item!

The item you learn to create is commonly Bind on Equip, as we want to encourage a more lively market on the Galactic Trade Network.

Many different mods can now be reverse engineered which will grant you a schematic to craft that mod. (This is not possible on armoring that carry a set bonus.)

Reverse engineering non-modded items usually leads to a schematic for an equivalent item.

Reverse engineering an end game item also provides materials needed to craft these items. Operations materials are also Bind on Equip now, creating a more diverse market.

A crafting critical on these schematics will usually lead to an augment slot. For item mods, it results in an extra item.

 

Effectively, this means you can sell nearly full end game items (including augment slots on a critical success) one component at a time. However, doing so requires a significant upfront investment, it’s certainly not easy. This also means every profession now benefits from Reverse Engineering and can trade items.

 

Armormech produces certain Augments, Augmented Tech Armor

Armstech produces certain Augments, Augmented Weapons

Artifice produces Color Crystals, Enhancements, Augmented Shields and Relics

Biochem produces Augmented Implants

Cybertech produces Mods and Augmented Earpieces

Synthweaving produces certain Augments, Augmented Force Armor

 

Augment schematics (green) are found via Slicing missions and blue and purple variants of these augments can be researched via reverse engineering by the appropriate crafters. It is not possible to reverse engineer legacy augments obtained from slicing before the game update arrives, however. These are technically different items.

 

Because we do not want players to gamble with reverse engineering custom appearances (orange items) which are often unique quest rewards, the schematics for these items are obtained via mission discoveries for various gathering skills and are set to Bind on Equip to encourage active trading.

 

Finally, a word on augment slots: with Game Update 1.2, crafters are the only source of augment slots in the game, significantly elevating their ability to contribute highly desirable items into the more open trade economy while enabling players to engage in end game using an appearance of their choice.

 

We have also heard at the Guild Summit and through community feedback on the Forums that many players have built up a significant stack of custom appearances for future use in their cargo holds and would really like to upgrade these with an augment slot to make them fully competitive as end game gear. We absolutely support this and will be introducing the ability to do so in a future Game Update.

[JeramieCrowe]

Some good new dev commentary applicable to this discussion:

Community Q&A: Friday March 30th 2012: Game Update 1.2 Special

 

Thanks! Sounds absolutely awesome!

 

And this concern that people here had:

 

We have also heard at the Guild Summit and through community feedback on the Forums that many players have built up a significant stack of custom appearances for future use in their cargo holds and would really like to upgrade these with an augment slot to make them fully competitive as end game gear. We absolutely support this and will be introducing the ability to do so in a future Game Update.

 

Has been noted, and you WILL be able to add augment slots to your pre-1.2 gear in the future!

Edited March 31, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[bostonfnord]

Thanks! Sounds absolutely awesome!

 

And this concern that people here had:

 

 

 

Has been noted, and you WILL be able to add augment slots to your pre-1.2 gear in the future!

 

A couple more adjustments like this and lo and behold we'll have an appearance tab in all but in name. One neither innovative nor worth the extra development effort.

[JeramieCrowe]

A couple more adjustments like this and lo and behold we'll have an appearance tab in all but in name. One neither innovative nor worth the extra development effort.

 

Actually, it'll be more than an a-tab. Not only will it have its flexibility, but in all my MMOing over the last decade, nowhere have I been able to tailor my own stats to my usually unique builds in my good-looking outfit using an a-tab....

[bostonfnord]

Actually, it'll be more than an a-tab.

 

Yeah... more annoying, unfortunately.

 

my good-looking outfit

 

Sadly, good-looking outfits do not exist in this game, so you'll have to settle for looking like the height of mediocrity as we'll all have to settle for this lame system.

 

to my usually unique builds

 

I'm certain the gods of MMOs will be as in awe of your uniqueness as the rest of us

[JeramieCrowe]

Yeah... more annoying, unfortunately.

 

 

 

Sadly, good-looking outfits do not exist in this game, so you'll have to settle for looking like the height of mediocrity as we'll all have to settle for this lame system.

 

 

 

I'm certain the gods of MMOs will be as in awe of your uniqueness as the rest of us

 

*sniffs the bait and sees the hook...walks away*

Edited March 31, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[Deewe]

Actually, it'll be more than an a-tab. Not only will it have its flexibility, but in all my MMOing over the last decade, nowhere have I been able to tailor my own stats to my usually unique builds in my good-looking outfit using an a-tab....

Tsk, we both know it'll have less flexibility.

 

Let me take LotRo as reference in which we can:

• Instantly switch an equipped gear piece with another for the look of it in one single click and still keep the stats. In TOR you have to switch he mods manually.
  
• Instantly switch between multiple complete sets with one click (Think you can unlock up to 6 ). You can't in TOR
  
• Have a wardrobe and can have multiple version of the same item with different dyes. No wardrobe in TOR
  
• Hide slots like shoulder pads, cloaks/backpacks, hands, feet. Not even shoulder pads nor back slots in TOR
  
• Don't even need to have the item sets in the inventory to equip them for the look. Inventory management is more messy in TOR and mods swapping and maintaining UI is tedious.
  

 

==> Appearance tabs wins.