Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
This... this right here... grand words for a videogames' armors... Let female players wear whatever they want. Femininity doesnt need this poor excuse of defence in videogame forums. I said that last year.
Women around the world have real issues.
Efficacy? In every mmo armors and weapons are ridiculous from a practicality point of view. Have you seen any historical weapons? Even the ones for lords were plain as.
It's a videogame. Players want visual progression. What efficacy are you talking about, in an mmorp? And that's why the designs posted by the girls look better than your link. Yours is restricted to reality. Theirs are made to be appealing, to them and to dudes that like to look at them.
No weapon or armor in mmos past the starting gear is practical. But they look cool. Give it a rest. It's not like people want bikini armors or the other stuff from ff14 and what not.
Can they please just do it like Final Fantasy did. I mean SOME Male AND Female Armor sets are revealing and others are just Protective. theres a cool cosmetic Set for every taste.
So in this case there is no ''Male gets more coverage than Female Character Armor''
And tbh would you really care if there is 1 ''Heel'' set or something like this if you can wear your Thick Protective Armor that is Gender Neutral and What the fuck ever.
I just hate the ''realism'' answers its a Fantasy Game.
That's a great idea....
Gatekeeping what armor or outfits you find it acceptable for us to look feminine in? Wow dude, it's like it's the 19th century again with men telling us what they find it ok for us to wear. Here's the bottom line. I want to enjoy how I look in every weight of armor in the game - light, medium, or heavy. I want to be able to make choices for my character based on the efficacy of the stats on the armor, based on benefits that I get from light/medium/heavy, and make build choices based on that. I don't want to look at the armor and feel obligated to go Light armor Cleric because I can't stand to look at anything else. That's what it boils down to, is the choice for me to build my character in the way I find works best for me because there will be enough armor of every type that looks good enough that I will enjoy wearing anything.
I find it hilarious that some compare this discussion to the struggles females have endured in real life. This is a matter of preference in video game design. One can be against too revealing armor in video games and at the same time be a feminist/progressive. Do not bring real-life politics into this.
How do you know if Nerror is a dude btw? If they are a male then they are gatekeeping but if they are a female then they are correct in their argument?
I personally don't like overly sexualized heavy armor, maybe cloth or leather types would be more acceptable. As people have mentioned earlier in this thread, cosmetics are actually for NPCs so it makes sense why they look the way they look. Maybe you will find a cosmetic more to your liking after release or IS finished all NPCs
Oh god no, I would never do that. I am stating that I want heavy armor to look heavy and functional like RL heavy armor does, regardless of gender. My stance on preferred armor design has nothing to do with gender in fact, nor femininity or masculinity. So please stop trying to turn this into something it isn't. If you think this is about some guy trying to oppress women's rights to dress freely, then holy shit are you barking up the wrong tree.
But why can't we have both? Why can't some heavy armor look heavy and functional and some look like screenshots I included in previous post?
I'm not sure about this idea. I think I'd prefer it be each players own choice as to how their character is portrayed to others.
Because someone going out into battle in that armor would be idiotic and suicidal. All armor should y’know, actually do something to protect you from greivous injury and not leave vulnerable spots completely open to lethal damage.
Aren't we all sinners?
For performance of the game i doubt this is a feasible idea. If im trying to run the game on a potato, i need to be able to turn your fancy clothes into various pixels. They are already making a "default" appearance for seige battles and the like to help the game run smoothly.
Yes, I know what the intentions for player models during sieges are.
It is at least feasible as it is a proven concept. There's a huge difference between optimizing the models for 500 - 1000 players during a siege and optimizing a few dozen or so models for the players that might be near you at any one time while traversing the world.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be automated client side systems to help mitigate performance issues in high density areas. I'm just saying that I'd prefer there not be a tick box that someone can click to indefinitely disable cosmetics.
I don't understand what points you're attempting to make with a majority of these statements, sorry.
I see, video games aren't necessarily designed to be entirely immersive. AoC is a business and a large amount of their potential income will come from cosmetics. It may not be in IS's best interest to allow people to indefinitely disable these cosmetics.
@Otr
Do you seriously believe that studios will harm their products (cosmetic skins)?
Do you think that if cosmetic buyers knew that their purchase (a vain purchase) will only be visible to themselves, that they wont get the attention they seek, (since the vast majority will have /cosmeticOff) would spend money in them?
Get real... it's 2022 and videogames cost to make.
I dont like peoples cosmetics, colour palette, mounts and pets but there is no logical way to make them go away.
There is no way studios will implement an option to hide other players cosmetics.
IS is not trying to please everybody. Perhaps you havent understood much about the game.
I also wont speak anymore to you since you still dont understand the importance of cosmetics for videogames, from dotas and lol, to assassins creed to shooters to mmos etc etc, regarding sales.
You went offtopic and now you wanna talk about sexy outfits? Go play the non existant game with realistic gear, I wasted enough time with you.
but define what realism is when you send a frostbolt as a tulnar with scale everywhere ?
You don't see how an armor with cleavage (the most standart "sexyness") could be coherent to protect ?
But, we are in world in high fantasy. So i have a simple answer, which is the most common on MMORPG, but also on some private RP servers or nwn1/NwN2 RP servers. "illusion" what you see is not what it is.
I changed "realism" to "coherent" because i thin it is really out of place to speak about realism in a game with nothing realist. . .
And coherence can be bind with sexyness.
I am totally a fond of bulky "male" armor for female. Fitting for a lady loving bodybuilding... But i would have nothing against sexy armor with cleavage... for feminine knightess. And also, if some of those armor more revealing are avaible for male, why not ?
Warhammer, this universe where men are rarelly "sexy", we get sigvald, with plate armor... but some specific part missing. it was never a problem.
Just, heavy armor have to stay heave, we can have no doubt seeing armor what kind it is.
And for sure, i am not advocating for "slutty" outfit, the bikini miqote on FFXIV... nope.
and what i says goes for mail, leather or cloth armors.
but for cloth i also love to have my female toons with classy dress, those dress are mostly totally uncomfortable for battle, even as mage (they have to run, and those dress are not "running-friendly". but again, not a real problem, because realism is not the real aim, imo, in a high fantasy world
and if there is the "immsersion" argument... just no. Immersion is always really subjectiv.
Immersion is for me a really important thing for a mmorpg, second after gameplay probably. . . third after the "high level life" at worst...
And because of how important immersion feels for me, i want people to be able to dress their toon with much more liberty that what we already saw and have
Here's the bottom line really - I'd prefer to have my character wearing armor, whether skins transmogged or the armor she's wearing. Ideally it looks good enough that I want to wear it. But costumes already exist, many of us have purchased them.
So at the end of the day if every piece of armor is hideous, I'm still going to run around looking like a Queen in a ballgown so how are those "realistic armor" arguments sounding right now folks? Would you rather see me in this? Cause that's the other option.
What class are you thinking with that outfit?
I dont like them either but they are important for quality videogames. Otherwise we go back to Playstation2 quality of graphics and mechanics.
If you refuse to wear armor unless it shows skin to the collarbone and beyond, then yes I would much rather your only options be to use clothing cosmetics. Townwear can have the freedom to be “titillating” over “sensible”, but it’s absolutely bizarre that you’d refuse to wear protective armor because it’s not “sexy enough” when it doesn’t expose vital areas to damage.
I would love to see you rage for something so normal to exist.
You keep talking about realistic situations but you have no answer to what I posted days ago about the unrealistic weapon and armor designs that can only exist in videogames and would be useless in reality.
this dress is wonderfull and is exactly an example of outfit that is far more unrealistic for battle than many "sexy" armor but get less debate than those armor ^^'
While disliking the "i don't want to see how people sees their own character" idea you suggested...
For Roleplay side, this idea is totally stupid...
The way people dress themselves is part of roleplay it reveals what they want to show to others (be it honest, or false to deceive people), and not seeing the "real" outfit of the other character will avoid all this part... ...
100%.
These are immersion breaking, but a last resort as Leiloni said.
I mean there will be enough - Neutral - Protective sets. lets be real.
so why cry if we get some ''more revealing'' or more ''cosmetic but unrealistic looking'' Sets. I mean there should be something for everyones Fantasy and Immersion. right?
Free to you to judge taste of the others. But it will remains your opinion, shared with some people. other people will find your own taste for a fantasy world stupid also... where do we go if we just classify each other based on their taste ?
But this is the problem... we won't do some RolePlay like with your table of 1 GM + 4-5 players with lot of similar taste, same mind about what is roleplay, what is immersion, etc etc etc.
but on MMORPG... you will see many people with different taste. And you have to just admit that some people have other taste than yours. And nobody can say what taste is stupid and what taste is ok... really no one.
And lets be honest, i am happy of this because if i had to speak, no gnome/hobbit, no paladins and similar things in any game anymore. And speaking for the most commons things that i really dislike and am happy to not see them in a game. . . But because this is my taste i simply admit that some people love to play those things i hate. and i smile when they see people simple having fun with a character as close as possible of what they want it to be.
Not seeing how other people are dressed ? lets consider that a character wear an "technical" armor grey, with really low details, purely functionnal armor, with nothing spent to make it beautiful. You will interact with this character considering he has so a simple but functionnal armor. suddenly, you swich the "hide other cosmetic" off and see its true armor, it is a full plate, that shows no part of skin, but far more shiny, and lot of engraving, clearly, the character, in roleplay seems to want to shine amongst the other with such armor... Your own character mostly will interract with this character in different way if it sees his real skins or not.
For this i said it would be stupid for roleplay to have this "filter" on... because other character are not dressed how YOU want them to be dressed.
Oh, and you see a female with an armor coming from tera (honestly i hope it won't get to this point for plate and mail armor XD ) ? Your character can totally disdain this female, consider she is a slut, a whore, etc. this is part of roleplay in the end also no ? The immersion comes from coherence of interaction, and your character is totally free to consider this female character in "slutty" outfit to not be a good ally in fight due to how bad protected she looks.