Also, I get the feeling from reading comments from some people that they expect RPers to be in character 100% of the time, which maybe a portion of them do, but I dont. I only RP with a handful of people at a time in story campaigns of our own making. I very rarely do walk up open world spontaneous RP, can be fun, and many people like that, but its my character, my story, I do what I want.
When I pvp, I pvp
When I pve grind, I pve grind
When I want to RP, I RP
And in each case, I want to look like however I want to look like, and quite honestly that doesnt have to be the concern of anyone else if they dont want it to be.
I've used mods for my own look and even spell animations in games for years, and the only people I am concerned with seeing me how I see myself, are the people I play with. The same will hold true with cosmetics in ashes, which I will use until a stable moding community grows here. (To be fair, the spell effects I've seen from Intrepid in these monthly showcases are pretty badass, I doubt I will want to mod them)
However I picture my character in whatever he is doing, is how I will make him look.
I could care less how someone else sees me if they dont want to see what I see.
It looks fair.
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
In this case, a video game being a virtual world, it's all illusion and appearance, and nothing is relevant. But rather than imagining ourselves evolving in nothingness, we can take AOC's parallel reality into consideration and present our point of view.
Only thing relevant is that on Verra illusions are common. People can use them almost immediately after stepping through the Portal. And lots f people will be using them.
You could also present the point of view that gods don’t exist, but…
On Verra, gods are objectively real.
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
Here I don't get you, because your RP char is already the orignal one without cosmetics. Cosmetics is kind of RP in the RP. No ?
Nope.
RP in the RP would be pointing to a chair where there is clearly no dress nearby and claiming that a dress exists on the chair which everyone can actually see.
And then when people say it must be invisible, the claim is that it is very clearly viable on the chair. Then someone claims to have donned that dress, even though other players cannot actually see a dress.
Cosmetics can be seen by other players.
Effectively they are visible, supernatural illusions that mask natural appearances.
That’s not RP in the RP.
That’s pretty mush the baseline functionality of that High Magic Fantasy setting.
Here I don't get you, because your RP char is already the orignal one without cosmetics. Cosmetics is kind of RP in the RP. No ?
Nope.
RP in the RP would be pointing to a chair where there is clearly no dress nearby and claiming that a dress exists on the chair which everyone can actually see.
And then when people say it must be invisible, the claim is that it is very clearly viable on the chair. Then someone claims to have donned that dress, even though other players cannot actually see a dress.
Cosmetics can be seen by other players.
Effectively they are visible, supernatural illusions that mask natural appearances.
That’s not RP in the RP.
That’s pretty mush the baseline functionality of that High Magic Fantasy setting.
A simple cosmetic that slightly modifies the appearance of your gear can be approached in a classic RP manner. We agree on that. I assume that a Cosmetic/Skin has no influence on the role you play in the game's virtual reality.
But regarding transmog, either there's absolutely nothing RP about it, or with a bit of imagination it can be way to RP within RP insofar as you go beyond the virtual reality imposed by the game's frameworks via illusions.
Is there any in-game reason to want this change, other than 'making it easier for me to kill people/choose who to kill'?
Not « easier », simply « fair ».
How is it fairer? Everyone can use cosmetics, since there will be in-game ones too. Everyone's in the same boat.
The use of transmog is a matter of choice and serves aesthetic purposes. Transmog is not a skill for optimizing your character in PvP, like camouflage or illusion.
So it's not fair if the transmog user has a PvP advantage over the non-user, as the transmorg is diverted from its main purpose.
So a small button to deactivate the transmorg would be ideal.
Is there any in-game reason to want this change, other than 'making it easier for me to kill people/choose who to kill'?
Not « easier », simply « fair ».
How is it fairer? Everyone can use cosmetics, since there will be in-game ones too. Everyone's in the same boat.
The use of transmog is a matter of choice and serves aesthetic purposes. Transmog is not a skill for optimizing your character in PvP, like camouflage or illusion.
So it's not fair if the transmog user has a PvP advantage over the non-user, as the transmorg is diverted from its main purpose.
So a small button to deactivate the transmorg would be ideal.
Makes sense. But I doubt Steven will do that. He will rather increase the font size to help players read relevant info about the opponent.
Is there any in-game reason to want this change, other than 'making it easier for me to kill people/choose who to kill'?
Not « easier », simply « fair ».
How is it fairer? Everyone can use cosmetics, since there will be in-game ones too. Everyone's in the same boat.
The use of transmog is a matter of choice and serves aesthetic purposes. Transmog is not a skill for optimizing your character in PvP, like camouflage or illusion.
So it's not fair if the transmog user has a PvP advantage over the non-user, as the transmorg is diverted from its main purpose.
So a small button to deactivate the transmorg would be ideal.
Makes sense. But I doubt Steven will do that. He will rather increase the font size to help players read relevant info about the opponent.
I have hope that changes will be made depending on the magnitude of influence cosmetics will have on PvP during Alpha 2. For that, I might suggest a couple of tests:
organize a few dedicated PvP events and collect data on individals performance while cosmetics are disabled.
Select a few individuals who have participated and shown a fairly stable performance. It does not matter whether or not the performance is good or bad as long as it is consistent.
Initiate a second round of PvP where the selected player are not allowed to use cosmetics & skins and collect their performance data again.
In the third and final round everyone gets costmetics and once again the perfomance data is being collected.
By the end of the process Intrepid should be able to tell with some reasonable certainty how cosmetics influences the perfomance of someone in PvP.
This is obviously a tedious process but I don't see how else Intrepid should be able to assess the influence otherwise. And Alpha 2 is being held exactly for such purposes and from all I heard exactly that kind of process made Baldurs Gate 3 the epic game it is now, too.
So maybe the best we can do at this stage is voice our concerns and find ways for Intrepid to test the validity of these concerns.
People are more likely to wear a hard to get or grindy set they can get than wear a skin. Also in a open pvp game in my experience of mmo’s with skins bought there will be a decent size of the player base who targets people who wear bought skins because they hate bought skins. Some will even go out their way to try to ruin your day. In a game that prides itself on making things a grind and achievement to get the best things i do not believe most of the player base would want to skin those items. And the cool sets dont start late in the game. You wouldnt know anyways till you engage a player because without stalking someone and watching them play you wouldnt know what their personal damage type was or even unambiguous class in some scenarios. This might make you fight someone who is geared to resist your damage and or be able to do more damage to you without your knowing. Do you want to be able to inspect people before hand? Ive said it before griefers going to grief.
Is there any in-game reason to want this change, other than 'making it easier for me to kill people/choose who to kill'?
Not « easier », simply « fair ».
How is it fairer? Everyone can use cosmetics, since there will be in-game ones too. Everyone's in the same boat.
The use of transmog is a matter of choice and serves aesthetic purposes. Transmog is not a skill for optimizing your character in PvP, like camouflage or illusion.
So it's not fair if the transmog user has a PvP advantage over the non-user, as the transmorg is diverted from its main purpose.
So a small button to deactivate the transmorg would be ideal.
Makes sense. But I doubt Steven will do that. He will rather increase the font size to help players read relevant info about the opponent.
I have hope that changes will be made depending on the magnitude of influence cosmetics will have on PvP during Alpha 2. For that, I might suggest a couple of tests:
organize a few dedicated PvP events and collect data on individals performance while cosmetics are disabled.
Select a few individuals who have participated and shown a fairly stable performance. It does not matter whether or not the performance is good or bad as long as it is consistent.
Initiate a second round of PvP where the selected player are not allowed to use cosmetics & skins and collect their performance data again.
In the third and final round everyone gets costmetics and once again the perfomance data is being collected.
By the end of the process Intrepid should be able to tell with some reasonable certainty how cosmetics influences the perfomance of someone in PvP.
This is obviously a tedious process but I don't see how else Intrepid should be able to assess the influence otherwise. And Alpha 2 is being held exactly for such purposes and from all I heard exactly that kind of process made Baldurs Gate 3 the epic game it is now, too.
So maybe the best we can do at this stage is voice our concerns and find ways for Intrepid to test the validity of these concerns.
I agree on everything. The idea is not to fool people who have spent a fortune on cosmetics.
In truth, I don't give a damn about cosmetics, all I'm asking for is consistency. By consistency, I mean that each cosmetic item should be a variant of existing gear parts.
The real problem is transmog, not cosmetics, because I'm sure Intrepid isn't going to do just anything by skinning swords into daggers or armor into robes.
If transmog allows you to transform yourself into anything, then it needs to become a game skill with a precise framework and precise rules.
PS: About BG3, I really didn't get into the game. I bought the early access at the very beginning and when the game came out I already didn't want to play anymore.
The real problem is transmog, not cosmetics, because I'm sure Intrepid isn't going to do just anything by skinning swords into daggers or armor into dresses.
If transmog allows you to transform yourself into anything, then it needs to become a game skill with a precise framework and precise rules.
True, during a caravan defense, I can imagine players joining during the event and you will have to check who joined and how to deal with the new opponent.
If the fight in AoC does not need fast reaction, maybe the UI will show clearly who is your target.
Not sure how big the confusion can be if more/all opponents have the same transmog.
You will see 10 bandits in black dress, with hoods, and you will not know who is the healer, who is the dagger fighter...
Transmog is same item to same item. Cosmetics can be placed on any item. It will take a special kind of vigilance to identify the support classes amidst the fights.
I didn't read anything new on the matter but the Wiki had a entry on it that I wasn't aware of until Nikr linked it, which is about appearance slots, there it seems that one of the ideas I had pointed to on here has already been considered by Intrepid since 2020, which is to have gear be forcefully be set back to "default" - basically disabling all transmorgs and skin - under certain conditions. That entry however referred to sieges, so it might mean that we will in open world PvP skins and transmorg are still "on" while during sieges it is not.
And I kind of get the idea, checking for armor icons during a 500 VS 500 battle or 250VS 250 is asking a lot, but a very important Caravan could also see 100 players fighting and you won't click through them all to know where your next AOE will cause the most damage amongst your enemies.
Which leads me to my new "best argument against transmorg in objective based PvP": Players who play primarily by using AOE in larger scale battles will not click on every single enemy to know their armor type and then cast their AoE spell accordingly, they do not have the time for that, PvP is fast paced, enemies are constantly on the move and decision ought to be made quickly.
Therefore unless we want to see AoE spells be used randomly on the battlefield, transmorg probably needs to be disabled in all types of objective based PvP. This would mean that e.g. when you opt in as an attacker or defender on a caravan the moment you pick a side, the transmorg goes off.
Of course the alternative to this remains that light armor skins can only be put on light armor, axes can only transmorg into other axes and so on.
Ya know, if you want to start a fight with someone in 'real life', you really don't know if they have a black belt in martial arts, are a fat lazy accountant, used to box professionally, or have no idea how to fight. Right?
So, I think it is just fine in-game to not be able to see what kind of armor they are wearing if they have a fancy costume on their toon.
Risk and reward, be careful who you start a fight with, you just never know....
Ya know, if you want to start a fight with someone in 'real life', you really don't know if they have a black belt in martial arts, are a fat lazy accountant, used to box professionally, or have no idea how to fight. Right?
So, I think it is just fine in-game to not be able to see what kind of armor they are wearing if they have a fancy costume on their toon.
Risk and reward, be careful who you start a fight with, you just never know....
If you don't mind, let's go through a few things with quick Yes/No answers. Should there be (in your opinion):
Level display of other characters independent of there current flagging
No information of the level as soon as someone is flagged as part of an enemy faction
No information on the primary equipped armor type someone is wearing (Intrepid suggests this as a buff icon to my knowledge)
Passive talent tree option to reveal the level of other characters
Passive talent tree option to reveal the primarily equipped armor type of other characters
Passive talent tree option to reveal the highest resistance of a mob
Passive talent tree option to reveal the lowest resistance of a mob or character
If you don't mind, let's go through a few things with quick Yes/No answers. Should there be (in your opinion):
- Level display of other characters independent of there current flagging - IS FINE
I'm happy with Level being shown, as that's a progression achievement, sort of like a status symbol.
- No information of the level as soon as someone is flagged as part of an enemy faction - I'D BE OK WITH THIS
- No information on the primary equipped armor type someone is wearing (Intrepid suggests this as a buff icon to my knowledge) - NO INFO PLEASE
- Passive talent tree option to reveal the level of other characters - NO THANKS
- Passive talent tree option to reveal the primarily equipped armor type of other characters - NO THANKS
These two I'd rather get from an in-game source like a Science-Node Library or something, that gives info on the creatures in its and the surrounding nodes:
- Passive talent tree option to reveal the highest resistance of a mob - NO THANKS
- Passive talent tree option to reveal the lowest resistance of a mob or character - NO THANKS
Hmmmh. I could get behind cosmetic restrictions based on armor type, but I really don't think Intrepid should disable appearance cosmetics more than absolutely necessary... It is just really boring to work towards cool looking cosmetics only to revert back to whatever horror show the regular gear is as soon as one enters a PvP scenario. It feels really odd to argue that "the cosmetic is for you and should only be visible for you" because that is not at all the case necessarily... if I buy cosmetics, then I want my friends to be able to see it as well. And stuff like matching guild gear becomes impossible if you do not allow transmogs/outfits/cosmetic appearances to be visible for all players.
Identifying classes (and appropriate targets) is really easy if one learns to recognize animations, spell effect sounds and visual spell effects (like most people learn, honestly). Identifying armor types (if there are restrictions regarding that) is not very difficult either if you're experienced enough, and doing so in the mass of bigger PvP battles should be the target callers job to figure out. I have had TC (target callers) doing that without an issue in 100v100+ ... No problem.
If you don't mind, let's go through a few things with quick Yes/No answers. Should there be (in your opinion):
Level display of other characters independent of there current flagging
No information of the level as soon as someone is flagged as part of an enemy faction
No information on the primary equipped armor type someone is wearing (Intrepid suggests this as a buff icon to my knowledge)
Passive talent tree option to reveal the level of other characters
Passive talent tree option to reveal the primarily equipped armor type of other characters
Passive talent tree option to reveal the highest resistance of a mob
Passive talent tree option to reveal the lowest resistance of a mob or character
If you don't mind, I'll go ahead and answer too:
"Level display of other characters independent of there current flagging"
- I do not think flagging should disable cosmetic appearances, no.
"No information of the level as soon as someone is flagged as part of an enemy faction"
- Neutral. I do not mind levels being hidden or visible in general.
"No information on the primary equipped armor type someone is wearing (Intrepid suggests this as a buff icon to my knowledge)"
- Neutral. I'd be fine with it being revealed as a buff icon. But I'd also be fine with it being plain hidden.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the level of other characters"
- No thanks.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the primarily equipped armor type of other characters"
- Neutral/maybe.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the highest resistance of a mob"
- For PvE mobs, yes. For players, no.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the lowest resistance of a mob or character"
- For mobs, yes. For players, no.
Hmmmh. I could get behind cosmetic restrictions based on armor type, but I really don't think Intrepid should disable appearance cosmetics more than absolutely necessary... It is just really boring to work towards cool looking cosmetics only to revert back to whatever horror show the regular gear is as soon as one enters a PvP scenario. It feels really odd to argue that "the cosmetic is for you and should only be visible for you" because that is not at all the case necessarily... if I buy cosmetics, then I want my friends to be able to see it as well. And stuff like matching guild gear becomes impossible if you do not allow transmogs/outfits/cosmetic appearances to be visible for all players.
Identifying classes (and appropriate targets) is really easy if one learns to recognize animations, spell effect sounds and visual spell effects (like most people learn, honestly). Identifying armor types (if there are restrictions regarding that) is not very difficult either if you're experienced enough, and doing so in the mass of bigger PvP battles should be the target callers job to figure out. I have had TC (target callers) doing that without an issue in 100v100+ ... No problem.
If you don't mind, let's go through a few things with quick Yes/No answers. Should there be (in your opinion):
Level display of other characters independent of there current flagging
No information of the level as soon as someone is flagged as part of an enemy faction
No information on the primary equipped armor type someone is wearing (Intrepid suggests this as a buff icon to my knowledge)
Passive talent tree option to reveal the level of other characters
Passive talent tree option to reveal the primarily equipped armor type of other characters
Passive talent tree option to reveal the highest resistance of a mob
Passive talent tree option to reveal the lowest resistance of a mob or character
If you don't mind, I'll go ahead and answer too:
"Level display of other characters independent of there current flagging"
- I do not think flagging should disable cosmetic appearances, no.
"No information of the level as soon as someone is flagged as part of an enemy faction"
- Neutral. I do not mind levels being hidden or visible in general.
"No information on the primary equipped armor type someone is wearing (Intrepid suggests this as a buff icon to my knowledge)"
- Neutral. I'd be fine with it being revealed as a buff icon. But I'd also be fine with it being plain hidden.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the level of other characters"
- No thanks.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the primarily equipped armor type of other characters"
- Neutral/maybe.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the highest resistance of a mob"
- For PvE mobs, yes. For players, no.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the lowest resistance of a mob or character"
- For mobs, yes. For players, no.
Thanks for the answer and you brought up another interesting point, which is "to revert back to whatever horror show the regular gear is".
Artisans will have the ability to influence the gear stats of items. With that being the case, maybe we need to look into how thrown together gear will actually look during the Alpha. Players might just craft fitting armor pieces with suitable stats all the time so that it will not look as random as it did in e.g. World of Warcraft!
I'm reviving this topic because I saw a new post about transmog.
I was wondering if there was any new information on INTREPID's policy on skins, cosmetics, transmog?
No new info. The stance remains the same.
Personally I think it's great. The less info the better, I'm fine with a buff icon. Also that changing how costumes work now will 100% open Pandora's box after years of selling them and we'll have even more ill sentiment and calls for refunds than we had with the freehold skins debacle.
Hmmmh. I could get behind cosmetic restrictions based on armor type, but I really don't think Intrepid should disable appearance cosmetics more than absolutely necessary...
Agree but the "absolute necessary" is subjective.
In my opinion, there should be armor cosmetics: Heavy, medium, light.
Same for weapons with cosmetic variations: One-handed swords, two-handed swords, axes, daggers, hammers, staffs etc...
The idea is not to see a warrior in heavy armor and axe who wearing robe and a staff.
Identifying classes (and appropriate targets) is really easy if one learns to recognize animations, spell effect sounds and visual spell effects (like most people learn, honestly). Identifying armor types (if there are restrictions regarding that) is not very difficult either if you're experienced enough, and doing so in the mass of bigger PvP battles should be the target callers job to figure out. I have had TC (target callers) doing that without an issue in 100v100+ ... No problem.
Damn, I do not see nothing easy here... Wait for spell animations to know who is who and potentially focus the wrong guy because you didn't have time to check the icons of 100 opponents to know their armor types.
With such system, fights will be so messy and confusing. The risk is that a victory in a fight will be determined by numbers before skill and make focus strategies less interesting.
Seems like it’s late in the game for change on this. If just playing the numbers ans guessing then it will be transmogs for everything everywhere UNLESS there are too many players in one area during which they will be toggled off by the game not the players. But this could help for PvP concerns since lots of PvP where it would matter to judge opponents quickly across the screen ans make decisions would be in a bigger battle. In small skirmishes you could likely use the txt display of gear or stats method to pick your next opponent or who to engage first. (Aka target the clothies first)
Comments
It looks fair.
You could also present the point of view that gods don’t exist, but…
On Verra, gods are objectively real.
RP in the RP would be pointing to a chair where there is clearly no dress nearby and claiming that a dress exists on the chair which everyone can actually see.
And then when people say it must be invisible, the claim is that it is very clearly viable on the chair. Then someone claims to have donned that dress, even though other players cannot actually see a dress.
Cosmetics can be seen by other players.
Effectively they are visible, supernatural illusions that mask natural appearances.
That’s not RP in the RP.
That’s pretty mush the baseline functionality of that High Magic Fantasy setting.
A simple cosmetic that slightly modifies the appearance of your gear can be approached in a classic RP manner. We agree on that. I assume that a Cosmetic/Skin has no influence on the role you play in the game's virtual reality.
But regarding transmog, either there's absolutely nothing RP about it, or with a bit of imagination it can be way to RP within RP insofar as you go beyond the virtual reality imposed by the game's frameworks via illusions.
Not « easier », simply « fair ».
How is it fairer? Everyone can use cosmetics, since there will be in-game ones too. Everyone's in the same boat.
The use of transmog is a matter of choice and serves aesthetic purposes. Transmog is not a skill for optimizing your character in PvP, like camouflage or illusion.
So it's not fair if the transmog user has a PvP advantage over the non-user, as the transmorg is diverted from its main purpose.
So a small button to deactivate the transmorg would be ideal.
Makes sense. But I doubt Steven will do that. He will rather increase the font size to help players read relevant info about the opponent.
I have hope that changes will be made depending on the magnitude of influence cosmetics will have on PvP during Alpha 2. For that, I might suggest a couple of tests:
By the end of the process Intrepid should be able to tell with some reasonable certainty how cosmetics influences the perfomance of someone in PvP.
This is obviously a tedious process but I don't see how else Intrepid should be able to assess the influence otherwise. And Alpha 2 is being held exactly for such purposes and from all I heard exactly that kind of process made Baldurs Gate 3 the epic game it is now, too.
So maybe the best we can do at this stage is voice our concerns and find ways for Intrepid to test the validity of these concerns.
I agree on everything. The idea is not to fool people who have spent a fortune on cosmetics.
In truth, I don't give a damn about cosmetics, all I'm asking for is consistency. By consistency, I mean that each cosmetic item should be a variant of existing gear parts.
The real problem is transmog, not cosmetics, because I'm sure Intrepid isn't going to do just anything by skinning swords into daggers or armor into robes.
If transmog allows you to transform yourself into anything, then it needs to become a game skill with a precise framework and precise rules.
PS: About BG3, I really didn't get into the game. I bought the early access at the very beginning and when the game came out I already didn't want to play anymore.
True, during a caravan defense, I can imagine players joining during the event and you will have to check who joined and how to deal with the new opponent.
If the fight in AoC does not need fast reaction, maybe the UI will show clearly who is your target.
Not sure how big the confusion can be if more/all opponents have the same transmog.
You will see 10 bandits in black dress, with hoods, and you will not know who is the healer, who is the dagger fighter...
I was wondering if there was any new information on INTREPID's policy on skins, cosmetics, transmog?
And I kind of get the idea, checking for armor icons during a 500 VS 500 battle or 250VS 250 is asking a lot, but a very important Caravan could also see 100 players fighting and you won't click through them all to know where your next AOE will cause the most damage amongst your enemies.
Which leads me to my new "best argument against transmorg in objective based PvP": Players who play primarily by using AOE in larger scale battles will not click on every single enemy to know their armor type and then cast their AoE spell accordingly, they do not have the time for that, PvP is fast paced, enemies are constantly on the move and decision ought to be made quickly.
Therefore unless we want to see AoE spells be used randomly on the battlefield, transmorg probably needs to be disabled in all types of objective based PvP. This would mean that e.g. when you opt in as an attacker or defender on a caravan the moment you pick a side, the transmorg goes off.
Of course the alternative to this remains that light armor skins can only be put on light armor, axes can only transmorg into other axes and so on.
So, I think it is just fine in-game to not be able to see what kind of armor they are wearing if they have a fancy costume on their toon.
Risk and reward, be careful who you start a fight with, you just never know....
If you don't mind, let's go through a few things with quick Yes/No answers. Should there be (in your opinion):
- Level display of other characters independent of there current flagging - IS FINE
I'm happy with Level being shown, as that's a progression achievement, sort of like a status symbol.
- No information of the level as soon as someone is flagged as part of an enemy faction - I'D BE OK WITH THIS
- No information on the primary equipped armor type someone is wearing (Intrepid suggests this as a buff icon to my knowledge) - NO INFO PLEASE
- Passive talent tree option to reveal the level of other characters - NO THANKS
- Passive talent tree option to reveal the primarily equipped armor type of other characters - NO THANKS
These two I'd rather get from an in-game source like a Science-Node Library or something, that gives info on the creatures in its and the surrounding nodes:
- Passive talent tree option to reveal the highest resistance of a mob - NO THANKS
- Passive talent tree option to reveal the lowest resistance of a mob or character - NO THANKS
Identifying classes (and appropriate targets) is really easy if one learns to recognize animations, spell effect sounds and visual spell effects (like most people learn, honestly). Identifying armor types (if there are restrictions regarding that) is not very difficult either if you're experienced enough, and doing so in the mass of bigger PvP battles should be the target callers job to figure out. I have had TC (target callers) doing that without an issue in 100v100+ ... No problem.
If you don't mind, I'll go ahead and answer too:
"Level display of other characters independent of there current flagging"
- I do not think flagging should disable cosmetic appearances, no.
"No information of the level as soon as someone is flagged as part of an enemy faction"
- Neutral. I do not mind levels being hidden or visible in general.
"No information on the primary equipped armor type someone is wearing (Intrepid suggests this as a buff icon to my knowledge)"
- Neutral. I'd be fine with it being revealed as a buff icon. But I'd also be fine with it being plain hidden.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the level of other characters"
- No thanks.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the primarily equipped armor type of other characters"
- Neutral/maybe.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the highest resistance of a mob"
- For PvE mobs, yes. For players, no.
"Passive talent tree option to reveal the lowest resistance of a mob or character"
- For mobs, yes. For players, no.
Thanks for the answer and you brought up another interesting point, which is "to revert back to whatever horror show the regular gear is".
Artisans will have the ability to influence the gear stats of items. With that being the case, maybe we need to look into how thrown together gear will actually look during the Alpha. Players might just craft fitting armor pieces with suitable stats all the time so that it will not look as random as it did in e.g. World of Warcraft!
No new info. The stance remains the same.
Personally I think it's great. The less info the better, I'm fine with a buff icon. Also that changing how costumes work now will 100% open Pandora's box after years of selling them and we'll have even more ill sentiment and calls for refunds than we had with the freehold skins debacle.
Agree but the "absolute necessary" is subjective.
In my opinion, there should be armor cosmetics: Heavy, medium, light.
Same for weapons with cosmetic variations: One-handed swords, two-handed swords, axes, daggers, hammers, staffs etc...
The idea is not to see a warrior in heavy armor and axe who wearing robe and a staff.
Damn, I do not see nothing easy here... Wait for spell animations to know who is who and potentially focus the wrong guy because you didn't have time to check the icons of 100 opponents to know their armor types.
With such system, fights will be so messy and confusing. The risk is that a victory in a fight will be determined by numbers before skill and make focus strategies less interesting.