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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Transmog System Idea
MyReality
Member, Alpha Two
After watching some of the Q&A I know that the dev's are a bit reserved about transmoging, but if it was implemented I've had an idea for awhile I thought might be good.
I like it when a system can put something back into the economy. The idea I had revolves around the concept of being able to reverse engineer a piece of gear that has good stats, turning it into a blueprint, where you can then choose the cosmetic look of your choice with the same stats as the original item. The original item gets destroyed, but through collecting resources and also mats left over from the original item you create a whole new item with the look you want. It would also be limited to the same type of item. So you couldn't take a really good Sword and transmog it to an Axe. The item you make would have to be the same. Same would go for Armor. Cloth to Cloth, Plate to Plate. Transferring stat's to different armor type's would be way to broken. This is purely for looks.
As far as having a list of transmog's I can see two different ways it could be implemented. The simple way is to have a list of transmog's like World of Warcraft where when you get an item it saves the cosmetic to a library. You wouldn't be able to transmog gear like WoW does because I think that is kinda cheap and takes away from it actually being the piece of gear you are wearing. It would simply be a list of gear you can choose from for when you decide to make a blueprint. If the AoC dev's thought this was still a bit to convenient then the other option would be to do it on a gear by gear basis, but this option would mean you would be cluttering up your bag's/bank with gear that you might "potentially" transmog at a later time. That's why I thought that the first idea made a bit more sense because it saves the cosmetic for the gear you find but you don't actually get to transmog it until you take the time to reverse engineer an item, get the resources for the now made blueprint, then have someone make the item for you if you can't do it yourself.
I also think the blueprints shouldn't be permanent. At worst they should be a onetime use item, but maybe no more than 2-3 runs per blueprint. The reasoning behind having a multi-run blueprint would be for gold making. You make an item for yourself and if you take the extra time to get more materials then you can sell them on the Auction House. Since most items are BoE anyway in AoC at some point people will have the option of buying better gear down the line. The big problem though is by having multi run blueprints like this it could possibly flood the market with a lot of really good items devaluing them in the long term and undermining key game systems like dungeons/raids. Some people might start to think why run a Hard dungeon/raid when you can just wait for people to start making the gear and doing all the hard work for you. So I am unsure on the ramifications of having a multi-run blueprint. Since the idea is mainly for transmog's then having a single use blueprint also seems fine to me.
So in summary I would like to leave with a few points. Everyone in any MMO like's looking good as they do content. This system would be another "Sink" for resources/gold for those willing to put in the effort. Outside of all the content AoC dev's have put in place for building an economy this would be one more big way to also fuel that economy. It would also give yet another reason for people to go out and do all kinds of content to try and acquire gear for unique looks not just character progression.
If you have anything to add to this idea or poke holes in it please feel free to leave a comment.
Thank you for your time,
-MyReality
I like it when a system can put something back into the economy. The idea I had revolves around the concept of being able to reverse engineer a piece of gear that has good stats, turning it into a blueprint, where you can then choose the cosmetic look of your choice with the same stats as the original item. The original item gets destroyed, but through collecting resources and also mats left over from the original item you create a whole new item with the look you want. It would also be limited to the same type of item. So you couldn't take a really good Sword and transmog it to an Axe. The item you make would have to be the same. Same would go for Armor. Cloth to Cloth, Plate to Plate. Transferring stat's to different armor type's would be way to broken. This is purely for looks.
As far as having a list of transmog's I can see two different ways it could be implemented. The simple way is to have a list of transmog's like World of Warcraft where when you get an item it saves the cosmetic to a library. You wouldn't be able to transmog gear like WoW does because I think that is kinda cheap and takes away from it actually being the piece of gear you are wearing. It would simply be a list of gear you can choose from for when you decide to make a blueprint. If the AoC dev's thought this was still a bit to convenient then the other option would be to do it on a gear by gear basis, but this option would mean you would be cluttering up your bag's/bank with gear that you might "potentially" transmog at a later time. That's why I thought that the first idea made a bit more sense because it saves the cosmetic for the gear you find but you don't actually get to transmog it until you take the time to reverse engineer an item, get the resources for the now made blueprint, then have someone make the item for you if you can't do it yourself.
I also think the blueprints shouldn't be permanent. At worst they should be a onetime use item, but maybe no more than 2-3 runs per blueprint. The reasoning behind having a multi-run blueprint would be for gold making. You make an item for yourself and if you take the extra time to get more materials then you can sell them on the Auction House. Since most items are BoE anyway in AoC at some point people will have the option of buying better gear down the line. The big problem though is by having multi run blueprints like this it could possibly flood the market with a lot of really good items devaluing them in the long term and undermining key game systems like dungeons/raids. Some people might start to think why run a Hard dungeon/raid when you can just wait for people to start making the gear and doing all the hard work for you. So I am unsure on the ramifications of having a multi-run blueprint. Since the idea is mainly for transmog's then having a single use blueprint also seems fine to me.
So in summary I would like to leave with a few points. Everyone in any MMO like's looking good as they do content. This system would be another "Sink" for resources/gold for those willing to put in the effort. Outside of all the content AoC dev's have put in place for building an economy this would be one more big way to also fuel that economy. It would also give yet another reason for people to go out and do all kinds of content to try and acquire gear for unique looks not just character progression.
If you have anything to add to this idea or poke holes in it please feel free to leave a comment.
Thank you for your time,
-MyReality
2
Comments
I like it, you should post that request here on the forums in the monthly Q&A dev stream thread and see if Toast can pose it to Steven.
Second part:
You ask if transmogs are possible and yes there is transmog in AoC, it's very much supported. It's a modular system so you can pick to show your boots only as a different skin, or to change only your gloves or you can wear a costume skin that changes your entire appearance.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Gear_appearance
I’ll be honest, I don’t really see the purpose of that. Why not just use the normal transmog systems if the end goal is purely aesthetic based?
Steven in one of his Q&A videos said that yes there will costumes and such but also said he didn't fully like transmogs because it wasn't the actual item you were using just an overlay on top of it. So to better explain my idea is say you got a Sword drop from a boss that will become your main weapon. It has great stats but you don't like the look of it or it doesn't fit your theme. Then you can deconstruct it, pick the Sword cosmetic you want, and it then creates a blueprint of the original items stats with the new look of the Sword.
Like I stated, its a way for transmoging to be a literal part of the economy and people can even become fashion crafters.
That will probably not happen because that severely limits the use of transmogs bought in the store, but I'd find that ideal.
If AoC just wants a traditional trasmogging system then so be it. At the same time my suggestion could add something new to the economy and make transmogging more fun.
Yah from what Steven said is when you click on a player they will have some kind of icon that tells you how good their gear is so you can decide if you want to PvP them. Being able to tell just by the gear is easier but you are correct with transmogs that goes out the window.
So, deconing items for a two single use blueprints, one for stats and one for appearance.
It sounds a bit too unruly to make use of, and I can only imagine the inventory bloat when you have a few dozen of those blueprints.
When someone crafts, they’ll be able to pick an appearance anyway (presumably). I just don’t think you should be able to retain stats from an item you deconstruct.
Yah I didn't see anything about being able to pick a specific look of an item when you craft. If that was the case then it would be basically what I was asking for anyway. Deconstructing an item to give it a new look wouldn't really clutter up bags since you would only need to do it when you decide to transmog something. Retaining the stats to me would be no different than having a blueprint you just naturally found off a boss. You would initially have the item, reforge it with a new look, and the blueprint could be only used once so there is no abuse of mass production.
I fully understand that they already have a transmog system in the game I was just trying to make it interesting by incorporating a way to make it a part of the economy instead of just a personal transmog system someone can use at will with no real cost.
My biggest problem with transmogging in wow was always a lvl 1 looking like a max lvl char, but if it's just one character, that's probably a good point.