ELI5: Please explain to me how Glamour works, I can't find anything conclusive onlin

[Nihility]

you could just go to an inn room in any of the cities.
Don't think using the glamour dresser has any requirements and it doesn't need prisms

and it stores the old clothes for you so it helps your inventory space

[Iscah]

Welcome Hercub!

Some of the information about glamour might be out of date because it has had a few adjustments over the past year or so. Previously you only unlocked dyes at Lv15, and had to wait until Lv50 for glamours - Swyrgeim only gave the dye quest, and the others were from Wiscard in Mor Dhona. (You actually can still do that version of the quest, if you deliberately wait for it, but completing Swyrgeim's version of the quest means the other one is marked complete as well.)

The prisms themselves have also been greatly simplified - previously there were different types for items by each crafting class, and different grades depending on the item's level! So you'll still find a few places with a long "trade-in" list of different types of prisms, in case people still have them in their inventories, but they can't be made or bought any more - you can only get the one all-purpose type now.


So, some of this you'll already know, but for the sake of completeness:


Getting access to glamours

Swyrgeim in Vesper Bay has three quests:

1. "Colour Your World" (unlocks dyes) - requires purchased/crafted Orange Juice which can be bought from the 'Merchant & Mender' in Vesper Bay near the north gate.

2. "If I Had a Glamour" (unlocks use of glamours) - requires key item Blood Orange Juice, from Folclind at the tavern (the building closest to the ferry dock).

3. "Absolutely Glamourous" (unlocks access to Prism Crafting books and special items) - again requires a key item from Folclind.
You need to have a crafting class at Lv15 to undertake this quest, and it's well worth it - not so much for the craftable prisms, which I think are easier to buy, but because it also lets you purchase the "Emperor's New Gear" items (ie. invisible gear and jewellery) which are very cheap from the vendor, but resold on the marketboard for a lot more.
* The vendor also sells an invisible pugilist/monk weapon that will let you look like you're fighting bare-fisted.
* There is one (to my knowledge) other invisible item, which is NOT available from the glamour vendor - the "Divine Beast Shield" purchased at the Gold Saucer, or a Lv60 version from PvP, which will let you hide your gladiator/paladin's shield. (It can't be used for mages though, and there isn't an equivalent for them.)



What can be glamoured?

Any piece of gear can be used as a glamour, but there are a few rules:

1. The 'glamour item' cannot be a higher level than the gear you are applying it to.
You can't make your Lv50 shirt look like a Lv70 coat, but you can make it look like a Lv40 coat.

2. The glamour will only appear if you can currently equip the glamour item as real gear.
If you apply your monk relic armour to a generic Gear of Striking, you'll see it when you equip the gear as a monk, but if you equip it as a samurai you'll see the original gear.

3. You can't use a glamoured item to cast a glamour. Only relevant when using prisms on items in your inventory.
If Gear A is currently glamoured as B, you can't apply A's appearance to Gear C. You'll need to use a dispeller prism on A first.


While any gear can be used as glamour, you'll see people refer to some items specifically as "glamour gear" - these are the level 1 items equippable by all classes that only really exist to look nice.

There are a variety of ways to get 'glamour gear':
- Marketboard (some quite cheap)
- Crafting
- Gold Saucer prize exchange vendors (costs MGP)
- Gold Saucer 'Fashion Report' vendor: more items unlocked as you complete the event weekly. Only one outfit at this point.
- Wolves' Den gear vendors (Stormblood gear only - costs PVP prize currency 'wolf marks')
- Seasonal event prizes
- Story quests, particularly major sidequests (eg. Hildibrand, Scholasticate, Beast Tribes, Doman Reconstruction)
- Treasure chests in Eureka
- real money purchase from the Mog Station website - worth a look as there are some cheaper items that are quite useful.

(Some of the Mog Station gear can also be tried on in-game by going to the Calamity Salvager and looking in the "gender-specific gear" menus, which are for trading gendered versions of old event gear.)


Also, in case you didn't know - you can "examine" any player (from the menu brought up by targeting them and right-clicking or pressing Square on PS4) and try on the gear they are wearing. You can also try on things like shop gear, dungeon drops, quest rewards on the 'accept quest' screen and anything listed in your text log.

You can also preview dyes, and try on multiple pieces at once by pressing the "Save Outfit" button at the bottom of the gear preview screen - then it will save the last piece of gear you tried on in each slot, and display them all together.



Applying glamours

There are three main ways of applying glamours:
1. directly with prisms
2. at the Glamour Dresser
3. using Glamour Plates


Using prisms directly is the original system for applying glamours. The base gear and the 'glamour item' must both be in your inventory (or currently equipped). Select the gear piece, choose "cast glamour" and pick the glamour-appearance item from the list. This uses one glamour prism each time you cast a glamour, and can be done anywhere.

You can also use "glamour dispeller" prisms through the same menu to return gear to its original appearance - just pick "Remove" from the Cast Glamour menu.


The Glamour Dresser is a furniture item found at inn rooms. If you have gear that you will only use for glamour, and not for its stats, you can put it in the dresser. (There's a storage limit of 200 items, hopefully to be expanded in future.) Placing an item in the dresser costs one prism, but then that item's appearance can be applied to gear as many times as you like, with no further cost.

Once it's in the dresser, there are two ways of applying it. One is to apply it directly while using the dresser, and the other (main) way is to use glamour plates.


Glamour plates let you build a complete costume which can then be applied all at once to the gear you are currently wearing. (Note that it's a permanent change, the same as if you used prisms on each item - some people got caught out by this because they thought the plates worked as temporary overlays.)

There is no direct cost for using plates, other than the prisms used to put gear in the dresser.

They are set up through the dresser, but can be applied anywhere in "large cities" (Limsa, Gridania, Ul'dah, Ishgard, Idyllshire, Rhalgr's Reach and Kugane), residential districts and at the Gold Saucer. They're accessed by a small button on the Character menu next to the "recommended gear" button.

Each plate looks like your "gear equip" menu, and you can pick items from the glamour dresser and the Armoire (another furniture item at the inn that lets you store particular gear pieces like relic gear and event items - it existed before the dresser was introduced).

You can apply dyes to either the base item in the dresser, or the 'copies' on the plates. (It's better to use expensive dyes on the base items. It won't change the colour of anything previously added to a plate.)

Leaving blank slots on plates will mean there is no change to the gear in that slot. If you want gear items to turn invisible when you apply the plate, you'll need to fill those slots with Emperor's New Gear items.

If you want a plate to include a gear piece you're still using as actual gear, and it's unique or you don't want to buy another one: put the gear in, add it to the plate, then remove the gear from the main dresser again. The version on the plate will not be deleted.

Glamour dispellers can be applied to multiple items at once through a screen in the plate menu - but it does require you to spend the dispeller prisms each time.

Plates can also be linked to gearsets so they are automatically applied when you equip the set - however this still only works in areas where plates can be applied.


* There are pros and cons to placing items in the Armoire instead of the Dresser. Armoire space is unlimited and the item won't count towards your 200 storage slots in the dresser, but the Armoire doesn't store dye information so if you want to apply an expensive dye to that gear, you might choose to put it in the dresser instead.


Overall the plates are a really efficient way of applying glamours, especially if you are leveling up a class and constantly upgrading your gear - previously you'd need to manually re-apply glamours and spend prisms, or might 'make do' with gear that looked okay but not what you really wanted, but now you can set up a plate and reapply everything instantly as soon as you equip the new gear - although possibly requiring a trip back to the closest major city. (It's especially great for jewellery, which didn't seem worth manually glamouring every time, but it's still much nicer to be able to have chosen pieces or turn them invisible so easily.)

No I found out the reason, I'd forgotten you need the Master Recipe I book to learn the Glamour Prism, I only have that on my GSM and ARM. :-P

Glamour prism crafting books are actually separate to the Master Recipe books - they're unlocked by the third quest I mentioned above. I assume they originally had the multiple grades of prisms for each class. At the point I bought them last year (after the grades had been removed but there were still different types), they gave you one recipe each - eg. the Weaver book would give you the recipe for Clothcraft Prisms. Now there are still the different recipes for each class, but they produce the same end item.

[Krokov]

Glamour prism crafting books are actually separate to the Master Recipe books - they're unlocked by the third quest I mentioned above. I assume they originally had the multiple grades of prisms for each class. At the point I bought them last year (after the grades had been removed but there were still different types), they gave you one recipe each - eg. the Weaver book would give you the recipe for Clothcraft Prisms. Now there are still the different recipes for each class, but they produce the same end item.

I think that's what I was meaning to refer to aye. :-P

[Hercub]

Thank you to everyone who responded.

I finally glamoured my monk. I've glamoured him with Cowboy gear. I'm grateful for that, right now I have the Shire gear which I do not like.

The next I'm going to glamour is my Black mage.

What I noticed is:

1) There needs to be more men's fashion.

2) Women's fashion is really expensive.

Suggestions

Fashion designer could be a new trade with a separate window in the market board where people can try and buy Players fashion. The best designers can charge more, while the lesser designer charge less. This is based on market conditions.

[SannaR]

Welcome to the real end game and playing as a male. As you have noticed good to great glamour for male characters is lacking specially if you're going for certain looks. I also feel that it depends on race as some tops mostly can look really great on one race but then doesn't work as well on another. And now we're having another race added so it'll be interesting to see what looks good on them or doesn't work as well because of their body shape.

[Iscah]

There are a few elements to the imbalance of glamour.

One is that female characters do get more sets because "gendered sets" are often a female-only 'female' outfit and a unisex 'male' outfit... which I think comes down to actual fashion. Women can and do wear "men's" clothing a lot more (and far more socially acceptably) than the other way around. Because they would have to put the extra work into modelling those clothes on the other gender's body models, they seem to have decided it's not worthwhile making the female version for male characters for the small number that will use them.

Another is that I feel like there's an odd lopsided approach with more fantasy-setting-appropriate male gear and modern-fashion female gear, so it depends what sort of look you're after. (Although I feel like you'd likely be equally limited trying to make a "cowboy" outfit for either gender, as the game isn't generally designed towards that aesthetic.)

On top of that, fantasy-setting-appropriate male gear is potentially not-very-masculine-looking from a modern perspective.

It comes down partly to taste, of course. I have a male Elezen alt and I don't have much problem finding outfits for him - but then I like him in coats and robes and tunics, so there's plenty of that. Though there are still a few outfits that should have been redesigned for male characters, but only get a feminine style. (Altered Sky Pirate mage coats would have been wonderful!) And meanwhile I despair at how many 'gender-varied' items I'd prefer the male version of for my female main character....

Fashion designer could be a new trade with a separate window in the market board where people can try and buy Players fashion. The best designers can charge more, while the lesser designer charge less. This is based on market conditions.

What are you actually picturing? People designing gear? Or just assembling sets of pre-existing gear? The second version is kinda sorta available but through housing Mannequins, not shopping at the marketboard.

If you want ideas, have a look on this site: https://ffxiv.eorzeacollection.com/glamours

[Hercub]

What are you actually picturing? People designing gear? Or just assembling sets of pre-existing gear? The second version is kinda sorta available but through housing Mannequins, not shopping at the marketboard.

If you want ideas, have a look on this site: https://ffxiv.eorzeacollection.com/glamours

This is painful I'm wasting a lot of money on the market board but what I am not doing is going to my FC's Housing and trying the Mannequins. I'm a new player. I also just found out that the Inn Dresser may avoid the problem of the Prisms and it will store my clothes saving space. So, much to know. This game is a form literature and art. It is a classic and I hope one day it is acknowledged as that.

What I'm imagining is player created designs based on some sort of template. Like other Crafts or Trades certain cloth and design will be available to make unlimited combinations of designs. This would be sold in a separate but related Market Board. Here is another idea I wrote and the idea is similar but in that case it is about tattoos.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ist-as-a-Trade

Thanks to everyone who replied Let's keep making suggestions and maybe the developers will hear us.

[Astarotha]

if you want ideas on how different outfits have been put together this is a good way to pass the time
https://ffxiv.eorzeacollection.com/

[Hercub]

if you want ideas on how different outfits have been put together this is a good way to pass the time
https://ffxiv.eorzeacollection.com/

Genius site, so well designed. I bookmarked it. Thank you for that! Happy Holidays!

[Iscah]

This is painful I'm wasting a lot of money on the market board but what I am not doing is going to my FC's Housing and trying the Mannequins.

Wasting money how?

Are you trying things on before you buy them? Any items listed in shops/marketboard (or in your inventory, text log or worn by other players) can be tried on.

Just either right-click or press Square (on PS4) and you'll get the options menu that includes Try On.

In the preview panel you can also turn on the "save outfit" button and it will save the last item you tried on in each gear slot, letting you build up an entire costume without having to purchase anything.

I also just found out that the Inn Dresser may avoid the problem of the Prisms and it will store my clothes saving space.

Indeed. The dresser is very useful, and the plates are great for building costumes you'll be using and reapplying regularly. (I wrote more in my previous post - don't know if you've read through it all yet.)

What I'm imagining is player created designs based on some sort of template. Like other Crafts or Trades certain cloth and design will be available to make unlimited combinations of designs. This would be sold in a separate but related Market Board.

Here is another idea I wrote and the idea is similar but in that case it is about tattoos.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ist-as-a-Trade

Thanks to everyone who replied Let's keep making suggestions and maybe the developers will hear us.

Unfortunately it's not just a matter of "being heard" - it's also a matter of whether they can actually do it or not.

Having placeable tattoos (or any kind of new customisation) would be more data to be stored about how your character looks.

That data has to be transmitted to every other player in the area so they can see your character, and you need to receive all of their data.

Even a single additional piece of data gets multiplied by the amount of characters needing to be loaded, and that information has to pass through the server to and from all of those people. And for all the people playing in every other zone of the game.


And even if they were able to handle that increase in traffic, and add one or two more options to character customisation.... there's a long list of requests to get through.


At a guess, I'd expect tattoo choice and placement to be a fairly data-heavy piece of customisation. Say there are 30 designs (under the system you're suggesting with one for each class and some for quest progression) and 4 placements. Transmitting the choice 0-30 in binary code requires a 5-digit number, and another 2 digits for placement.

With the same amount of data - if I'm understanding it right - they could implement flipped hairstyles (yes/no = 1 digit), the much-requested free choice on Au Ra horn shape (4 choices = 2 digits) and four new options to the 'facial features' menu that has scars/beards/makeup/etc. - including potentially some fixed tattoos.

Alternately if they decided they could handle one or two exta bits of data per character, the tattoo customisation option would be "too big" and unable to be implemented like some of the "smaller" options.


Additionally, there may be a different factor at play, which is how gear models work in the first place. If you look at the individual 3D models for piece of gear, they don't just have the clothes - they have any exposed skin parts modelled into the item.

Granted, the Legacy tattoo does get applied to all these models, but it's possible that it's specifically programmed in.



The "custom combination gear" concept has the same problems with requiring extra data - you'd need to send information about which type of cloth, leather and metal texture you've chosen to apply to each piece of gear you've equipped.

Also the gear system (and it seems the game at large) just isn't designed to handle that kind of customisation - they can't even hold two dye colours for different parts of the design, which I think would be higher priority to implement. They seem to be locked into a lot of things by unwieldy old code that they can't easily rebuild and just have to work around.

The closest we have for "multiple variations" is gearsets recycling the same model with the undyeable parts in different colours - more common in ARR gear.