Idea: Merge PLD Sword and Shield into a Single Item

[Rongway]

So... you want to be able to glam an item that doesn't exist? How does this help with item management if you still need the fake-shield item to glam with?

I dont see how it matters much since the off-hand tab in the armory chest has tons of space for shields

It would reduce the number of PLD hands by between 50% and 66% (because many PLD weapon pairs are currently THREE(!) items) This would also free up some offhand armoury chest slots which could be reallocated to another equipment slot.

one negative outcome would be that players can no longer mix and match their sword and shield glamour.

It would not, if implemented as OP suggests (and as I have outlined when I suggested this exact thing a couple years ago).

• Sword+shield equipped to main hand, no glamour => appears as matching sword and shield
• Sword+shield equipped to main hand, glamoured => appears as matching glamoured sword and shield
• Sword+shield equipped to main hand, offhand glamoured to a different sword+shield => Base (unglamoured) sword + glamoured shield
• Sword+shield equipped to main hand, both slots glamoured => sword and shield glamoured to mismatched equipment

As OP suggests, this also opens up possibilities for other jobs. RDM with a mismatched Medium. MNK with mismatched fists. NIN with mismatched daggers. VPR with mismatched swords. DNC with mismatched chakrams. Some of us like this kind of asymmetry.

it just doesn't work because the most basic building block of glamour is "use the item in the slot to carry the information about the glamour". If there is nothing in your headgear slot because you're wearing a hooded cowl, the game has nowhere to record your hat glamour.

Not the problem you think it is. Glamour info should be stored with gearsets, and the player's active gearset (that is, the system gearset that is what you are currently, now, wearing, not the gearset from the list of gearsets that you use to change the items in the system gearset quickly) should display whatever the last loaded gearset's glamour data was even when you equip new gear, as long as it doesn't trigger a job change (no more losing glams mid dungeon because you wanted to equip the new thing that dropped for you).



"But that's not how it works."
It can work however they decide to program it, and they really should program it so that gearsets store both actual gear and glamours.

"But you can't glamour an empty slot"
It can work however they decide to program it, and it won't matter that the gearset slot is empty if what gets displayed is the gearset's glamour data.

"But spaghetti code"
Honestly this stopped being an excuse a long time ago; let's not keep pretending they couldn't make this work if they wanted to.

[Rithy255]

I would actually like this for mentioned space reasons, but doubt it will happen and I think it's going to require too much effort.

[Dhalya]

I really want mismatched weapons for NIN and MNK, it sucks that only PLD has this possibility.
Don't really care how it's implemented UI wise and items wise, but NEEED!

[Raikai]

If the 'tech' would allow us to mix and match Ninja, Monk, Dancer, Viper and Red Mage weapons+off hands, I'm all for it! o/

[Ayer2015]

As someone who always glamours with the Emperor's New Shield... This would be a negative change.

[Raikai]

As someone who always glamours with the Emperor's New Shield... This would be a negative change.

How so? The merge the OP suggests allows individual offhand glamours.

[Sjol]

There's a bunch of ways to do this, including just giving weapons two glamour slots. The difficult part isn't getting the two glamours onto the item, at least I've not been given any reason to believe that it is. The hard part would be what to do with all those off-hands and weird one-handers that exist in the game already and are already equipped to characters.

There are several things in ARR that have never been replicated and I think that's because the dev team now things they're a mistake.

1) items that can be crafted from equipable gear (e.g., the crab bow)
2) armor that takes up two slots
3) weapons and off-hands that can be used by multiple classes
4) jobs with off-hands
5) DoW / DoM gear (this may just be that it doesn't appear beyond low levels)
6) Star-ingredients being used in the next expansion's low-level recipes
7) Star-recipes existing outside Masterwork Manuals
8) definitely more stuff, but quickly getting beside the point...

I think that if you get rid of the last off-hand for combat jobs, they could probably also remove some wonky, exception code and make a more robust system that adds features and, hopefully, removes some limitations in other areas.

[Scruit_Bigtime]

if they merged them into a single item, it would be a main hand item, and then would not be able to be applied as an off hand glamour. (i don't think the system as it stands is able to handle an item being equipable in more than one place. *note some chest pieces can also cover the head and prevent a head item being equipped, but this item despite taking two slots can still only be equipped on the chest)

also, if merged the off hand slot would be empty and not be able to receive a glamour, (notice how if you don't have a headgear item equipped and apply a glamour you don't get the empty head slot glamoured)

[dwodmots]

OP, please never have an idea again.

[Yuella]

Some people like to glam "one handed sword with no shield" by glamming the emperor's new shield