Clothing - Comfort System

ArchivedUser

@AndyW85 writes:

I would love to see a system implemented that makes different types of clothing/armour useful for different things. For example, you wouldn't cook your meals, go fishing, or go to the tavern for a drink in full plate armour. On the flip side, you wouldn't go into battle in an evening dress. I would like to see a powerful incentive for wearing clothing and armour suitable for the setting/task at hand. This would cause towns and cities to be far more immersive, and prevent situations you get in other games where a tuxedo wearing player can have higher armour rating than a player in full plate.

ArchivedUser

A nice suggestion. This can be solved by adding a separate "social" tab for town/city attire. Some games have this feature already. I fear that otherwise it can turn to become quite a grind fest as every class and every profession will need to have multiple sets of clothing for different purposes. It will turn gearing into a nightmare.

ArchivedUser

Agreed this would be a good way to implement it. I wouldn't however want players to be FORCED to wear a certain kind of clothing, but at the same time if you don't have any incentive other than fashion most people will still wear their shiny new plate. So I think a very significant situational inventive to wear clothing appropriate to the situation is important rather than just personal preference like in current games.

ArchivedUser

I replied before your finished editing, apologies. I see what you mean, hopefully though they'll do "gearing" differently. I can't stand the "my gear is higher level therefore I automatically win" method. Gear levels and character levels aren't actually needed at all in these games. Shadiversity did an interesting YouTube video on why levels aren't needed.

ArchivedUser

The only game I know of that does this realistically (or will do so rather) is Star Citizen.  
But if they give us a tab to quickly change from "adventuring gear" to "lounge wear," I will be happy. 

ArchivedUser

@Rumbleforge Guild Wars 2 has some kind of system that does a similar thing, if I'm not mistaken.

ArchivedUser

Lilem said:

@Rumbleforge Guild Wars 2 has some kind of system that does a similar thing, if I'm not mistaken.

I believe you are correct.  I know they had a nice easy weapon swap system in place. 

ArchivedUser

As a male, I want to wear plate mail all the time, including during meals.  It's fashionable, functional, as well as conferring "knight in shinning armor" status to all the females in any given situation.  (Dress the part, right?)

If I was playing a female character, of course I'd want her to walk around nake... uhh... "free spirited" when not actively fighting.   

ArchivedUser

Caelron said:

As a male, I want to wear plate mail all the time, including during meals.  It's fashionable, functional, as well as conferring "knight in shinning armor" status to all the females in any given situation.  (Dress the part, right?)

If I was playing a female character, of course I'd want her to walk around nake... uhh... "free spirited" when not actively fighting.   

Man, it's either "all or nothing" with you, isn't it?

ArchivedUser

Wren:"well, I tend to adventure around in this.  It keeps the cold out, which is the real danger up north, and I shouldn't be taking bear claws on the chin anyway.  @Caelron on the other hand...he can take bear claws on the chin, and pick the plants like I can, and drink himself to a stupor unlike me...but can he go to the loo?"

ArchivedUser

@Caelron , tbh I wouldn't want a character of any gender to walk nake... I mean, free-spirited. It's impractical, it's cold, it's all kinds of undesirable.

You can do it the old-fashioned way and simply unequip all your clothing when you feel like it. Say, you have a guest coming to visit your Freehold, and you crack open a cask of fine wine...

ArchivedUser

I don't think we need stats for people to use it. A knight does walk in plate in a city, thats natural for him. We are adventurers, not superheroes that have to hide their identity. I like systems where you have special social gear, but I don't think we need that to have stats.

ArchivedUser

That's fair enough, I guess it depends what art style they choose. I'm probably just paranoid that the picturesque photorealistic medieval villages will be lit up like a Christmas tree by everyone's shiny oversized armour with glowing lights all over it. It would really ruin the atmosphere. My paranoia is well justified though thanks to the likes of WOW, Guild Wars 2 and Swtor. "Hey everyone look at me in my bright pink and neon green armour and Christmas tree pauldrons riding a rainbow space ardvark that shoots glitter out of its backside.....".

ArchivedUser

@AndyW85 , I know what you're talking about. This really could ruin the immersion. However, I believes AoC will be an entirely different game. Just look at some of the gameplay footage and you'll see what I mean.

ArchivedUser

I have high hopes because I believe one of the key leaders of the project worked on Star Wars Galaxies which was one of the best mmo's I've ever played. I can see his influence in the emphasis on player driven interaction, story and content. That game didn't have any Christmas tree armour. My bounty Hunter looked a badass.

ArchivedUser

AndyW85 said:

I replied before your finished editing, apologies. I see what you mean, hopefully though they'll do "gearing" differently. I can't stand the "my gear is higher level therefore I automatically win" method. Gear levels and character levels aren't actually needed at all in these games. Shadiversity did an interesting YouTube video on why levels aren't needed.

hahaha
That video is crap.
Shadiversity has no understanding of RPGs - especially not in a high fantasy setting. Nor does he have an understanding of the Hero's Journey.
A different type of game -like Second Life, maybe- doesn't need levels.

He seems to conflate levels with grinding...there is no grinding in tabletop RPGs - nor in single-player RPGs.
MMORPGs have an outrageous number of character levels - and high level characters have an outrageous number of hit points.

The better argument is that it's feasible to have shallow vertical progression and wide horizontal progression. Which is a concept Ashes is borrowing from EQNext - among many other concepts.
But, Shadiversity really wants to be playing some form of Medieval Life simulator rather than an RPG.

ArchivedUser

AndyW85 said:

I guess it depends what art style they choose. I'm probably just paranoid that the picturesque photorealistic medieval villages will be lit up like a Christmas tree by everyone's shiny oversized armour with glowing lights all over it. It would really ruin the atmosphere. My paranoia is well justified though thanks to the likes of WOW, Guild Wars 2 and Swtor. "Hey everyone look at me in my bright pink and neon green armour and Christmas tree pauldrons riding a rainbow space ardvark that shoots glitter out of its backside.....".

The color palette for Ashes seems to be less cartoony than WoW.
But, we will have to see how players choose to dye their outfits for one thing.
We will especially have to see how garish the KS dyes are.

There may be a way to tie gear into the Religion and Social progression such that the gear that helps us with diplomacy and gaining ranks in Religion and Social progression is different both in appearance and in stats than Adventuring gear. Same for Artisan gear.

Many of the artists are from Daybreak - so, I'm not sure that the art aesthetics will be dramatically different from Landmark or H1Z1. But, I like what I've seen so far.

ArchivedUser

I believe, while character levels and gear score will have some sort of value, I question having content revolve around it.  It feels like things were more accepting before character level became the visible requirement of progression, or at the very least, it did not curb the behavior it was supposed to curb: players not giving others the time of day based on whether or not they had a certain item.

ArchivedUser

Could be an option because options are good but it's too carebear, role-playish for my taste. I'd rather just wear what I am going to wear in this virtual world. 

ArchivedUser

Yeah!! Nobody wants to roleplay in a roleplaying game!!  ◔_◔

ArchivedUser

People want Sims, people so want Sims, Make it Sims.

ArchivedUser

I don't know what the hell are you guys cooking, but my meals need to be prepared in full plate. For safety reasons. 

ArchivedUser

Lol, agreeing with the vast majority of what people are saying. I don't agree that Shad's video has no relevance here, I think you could absolutely do an mmorpg with no levels, BUT I also agree that having a leveling system and gear system isn't necessarily bad as long as it isn't made the be all and end all. A nice balance would be good. But that's exactly what I was saying, the leveling system should not dictate who wins. In regards to the clothing, I am willing to concede that almost forcing people to wear certain types of clothing is wrong as it goes against the idea of role play. If someone wants to play a nutter who cooks dinner in armour they should be able to. But I think there should definitely be a good reason not to also.