Has there been any mention of overhauling the Glamour system?

Hopefully they'll consider this. Lots of MMO's are making the switch over to this kind of system, and I say the sooner, the better!

While they're at it, they should remove all the grades of prisms and stick to just one for each crafting class. They all use the exact same class-specific mats, the different grades of blank prisms all cost the same price, and there's no real difference in what they do. Why did they even bother segregating them by level range?

Something else, in regards to the item data problems. One place they could start reducing bloat is by removing the crafter's name from item data. I'm not sure what the max length is off the top of my head, but just based on my last name you'd be able to save 20 bytes at a minimum on every single item slot. Hell, probably 40 since I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest(and frankly, expect) that they store name data as 16 bit chunks per letter.

Also completely in support of overhauling the glamour system. Also can't (don't want to?) believe that all the item management has already become such a huge server-side issue - if it really did, there are much bigger problems in the background that we would like to think.

Having to hold on to literally every piece of item one might like to use for glamour has been incredibly awkward for quite a few patches now, and especially with the expansion, there's gonna be even more items added, not to mention three new class again. Things are insane, and if they aren't even thinking about changing it, it's just getting to be a harder fall with every passing day. (I'd wager a bet that this also has something to do with BLM/SMN gear being the same and the appearance of caster/healer outfits only differring in colour.) If hardware really is such an issue, they really need to upgrade it - yet another thing that 'server upgrades won't solve'? I think not. If it's manpower that's needed because everyone's so busy with "more important" things, they really need to start hiring more people - yet another thing 'adding more people to the dev team won't solve'? I think not. It's just mind-boggling how narrow their field of view seems to be, and it's especially more unbelievable when compared with buy-to-play or, gods forbid, free-to-play games, that got these features much better.

That said, with the overhauling, they do need to get rid of restrictions as well (doesn't that add even more data to everything, anyway?). On one hand, they're way too limiting, which comes off as stupid in a multiclass-at-core game - don't tell me I can't wear a full armour when I'm at level cap with both tank jobs, regardless of what weapon I'm wielding (weapon makes me forget everything else? because if that'd be the excuse, cross-class skills are illogical too); nevermind only projecting its appearance to my actual equipped robe or whatever. On the other hand, it's way too half-assed: some items are class-/job-locked from level 1, while some have been available for all classes and they only started restricting them past lv50. Not to even mention gender-locking and the debates that sparks, being just as half-assed (or intentional, but that only makes it worse imo).

While I don't necessarily agree with glamour prisms as they are either (no difference in base prices or ingredients for the grades - should we again, guess, it has to do with item data management?), I would much rather keep those, and keep those intact (even with their unreasonable overpricing), than some other aspects of the whole system. I understand they wanted to keep crafters/gatherers relevant, especially with how stupidly overcomplicated (and overpriced) upgrading them has become. But the gating of common, statsless clothes (or their ingredients) behind multiple RNG walls - that was not the good way. Although, once again, making glamour pieces so hard to obtain, either by skill or by purchase, I suppose, can also help managing item data, right? The less people have less of them.....

All in all, yes, everybody uses the glamour system, out of necessity. Because this is what we have. But the usage does not mean it's good, and inventory/data management is clearly just one bad part of it - perhaps even more so for SE than for us, which is why it's downright scary if they aren't even thinking about changing it.



AND ONCE AGAIN, I'M ASKING FOR THE REMOVAL OF THE CHARACTER LIMIT, BECAUSE THIS TYPE OF USELESS PUNISHMENT AND ANNOYANCE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

I just want to be able to glamour robes with cowls like the Darklight robes and the Austere Cowl etc etc

They need to make it so that glamour prisms can be purchasable from vendors

Both my retainers are full of clothes. +cries

I'm considering buying a third just so I have somewhere to put crafting mats.

It really does need an overhaul.

It should never have been called Glamour and it shouldn't have been item based. From the beginning it should have been handled through Moogle NPCs and called transmogrification. The fact that it's not is a completely missed opportunity.

It's great that FFXIV has so much good looking equipment, but that makes saving for future glamours a pain in the pompom. I recently cleaned out my/my retainers' inventory, and was really strict on what was kept. Now I have a whole 10 inventory slots open. With my retainers and armoury still being completely full. The armoire helps a little, but the restrictions on it and the fact it takes 5 months for stuff to be storable reduces its usefulness a lot.

While I'm here, I may as well rant on. Not being able to separate glamours per job sucks too. The reason for glamouring is to look unique and stylish. It especially sucks when glamours on jobs that share gear clash - you end up with one looking fine, and the other a mess. It means you have choose between both jobs looking the same, or one looking good. Or what if you just have two healer glamours you can't choose between? With two healer jobs you could have both... or not, since they most likely share gear. It's only going to get worse as more jobs are added - when the only difference in looks between your DRK and your PLD is the weapon, something is wrong.

Also job restrictions are dumb, especially when you can have people tanking in swimwear because "it's a glamour spell not an actual bikini", but glamouring a heavy breastplate on a robe is too much? A large chunk of glamours use "all jobs" gear anyway, like the lv1 crafted glamour gear. Same for gender restrictions. We already have robes and skirts for guys, girls are allowed to wear "men's" suits, and non gender restricted gear already looks different on each gender (hello NIN AF.) All these restrictions just seem pointless, they don't save immersion or make sense.

I agree with changing things about it. I love glamours, 90% of why I play is for them. Leveling a new job because they get cool looking gear, or running dungeons for that gear, or crafting and making money - it's all for glamours in the end. But there's a few things that really make it hard to enjoy. Pretty much the only thing they got right was the prisms - annoying, I agree, but it really has helped crafters. I wouldn't mind if they condensed them into one per craft instead of per craft and per grade, especially as ilevels increase (at the moment all prisms cover 20ish levels... except grade 5, which is i81 to i135!)

tl;dr: Loving glamours is so hard.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by myahele

They need to make it so that glamour prisms can be purchasable from vendors

---

As someone who makes money off them, I hope they don't :P
They're inexpensive to produce, and making them purchasable from vendors would effectively remove a big incentive for getting a max level crafter for some people.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BreathlessTao

Also completely in support of overhauling the glamour system. Also can't (don't want to?) believe that all the item management has already become such a huge server-side issue - if it really did, there are much bigger problems in the background that we would like to think.

---

It has not become a huge server-side issue yet, because they keep it restricted.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by myahele

They need to make it so that glamour prisms can be purchasable from vendors

---

Only if the NPCs sell them highly overpriced (10k gil upwards for one), so players only buy them if there is none in the MB.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Felis

It has not become a huge server-side issue yet, because they keep it restricted.

---

Right, but the fact itself that they have to keep it so restricted should be a giant, loud af alarm that something's not good there...

Yeah, I think Glamour Prisms are a very important part of the game's economy, so no need to remove them. Really, it's cleaning up your actual Armory Chest and Inventory spaces from the equipment itself. Most MMO's are already moving to that kind of style for appearance-customization, and I think it's better for FFXIV to transition to it sooner than later.

As said, practically EVERY piece of armor in this game looks good. People are more inclined to make use of those assets, if we have a "collection" that is readily available.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Felis

Only if the NPCs sell them highly overpriced (10k gil upwards for one), so players only buy them if there is none in the MB.

---

I can agree with this, since some glamour prism are being sold for more than 10K gil, anyways. But also because there are times when there aren't any glamour prism of the grade I need available and I'm in a very populated server, so I can't imagine what lower pop. servers are like.

I think that armoir storage should be greatly expanded, personally. Instead of just a fraction of seasonal items, I'd like to store any non-customizable piece of gear. That kind of item storage is just 1s and 0s in the database, and since the armoir can only be accessed in the inns, it doesn't need to be as closely tied to the character as Armory or personal inventory or retainers - it could be stored in a separate database entirely.

Ultimately, I think the benefits far out-weight the costs. With both WildStar and SWTOR both having announced similar features -- within a few weeks of each other, no less -- I think FFXIV should jump on board, too!

I just wanna be able to glamour cowls onto chestpieces man