Entire Costume slots. What are your thoughts?

[Nephera]

A costume slot system would be to (within reason) let people wear the armor that they want to, while applying the statistics of another set of armor(also equipped). Edit: or alternatively put on a one piece everything costume, for like events and stuff.

Having seen two other games apply this system i've found that it works rather nicely and lets people have a unique look or even guild uniforms without dampening their effectiveness in combat.
And when it comes down to it do you want the guy tanking to be wearing that eyepatch for real or only as a costume piece with a real helmet backing it. Or rather have them wear something completely ridiculous because it has the best stats. There's always check when you want to see what someone really is wearing.

some possible concerns (bring up more and i'll add them because i forgot the ones i came up with sorry.):

But thats not final fantasy
That depends wholly on which game you look at, many characters use a class and just wear whatever they seem to feel like wearing

this doesnt exactly scream class conformity http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy...7/7a/Ramza.jpg

BRING ME MORE BELTS AAARRGGH http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy.../2/25/Lulu.jpg


I cant tell at a glance exactly how effective a player would be.
You cant necessarily do that now though, perhaps in the future when they add class specific sets this might be a bit more important.

But he's wearing a class specific set outside of his class
Costume slots dont have to allow for this.

But he's wearing armor much higher than his level
Dont have to allow this either.

But what about weapons
This system probably shouldnt apply to weapons no, that is definately one thing that CAN mask your effectiveness if you trade models.

I think i'd really need to be able to see everyone's gear in a serious area
Well you could toggle it off during instances when they start instancing off the world. Lotro does this (though so many of the dungeons are so dark it barely matters.)

SE has more important things to focus on
of course they do, this would be something they'd implement way down the line after everything is fixed. Yoshida is no dummy.

Arent we basically doing this right now?
Well yeah this is operating under the assumption that they're going to make gear more effective and slightly more restricted. If they arent then there's really little point and people can just go on wearing whatever, which is good i guess?

---
Or how about maybe just a face slot if you absolutely hate this idea?
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Gear-Slot-Face

[gifthorse]

I don't know about this.

I think most of the gear in FFXIV is quite harmonic, so players can wear a combination-ensemble and still look okay in it. Pugilists are the only ones who have it rough: the uglier they dress, the stronger they are.

My point is: is this really necessary?

I think it wouldn't make sense to be able to wear chain-mail and then mask it with a bikini or something. So one restriction I would suggest is that you can only mask a piece of gear with a relevant alternative. For example, if implemented, one set of robes could only be masked by another set of robes; one type of chain mail could only be masked by another type of chain mail, etc., etc.

It maintains a sense of realism while still giving people more options to dress fashionably.

[Rockne]

Personally, I like running around looking like a clown. It fits me nicely.

[Nephera]

I don't know about this.

I think most of the gear in FFXIV is quite harmonic, so players can wear a combination-ensemble and still look okay in it. Pugilists are the only ones who have it rough: the uglier they dress, the stronger they are.

My point is: is this really necessary?

I think it wouldn't make sense to be able to wear chain-mail and then mask it with a bikini or something. So one restriction I would suggest is that you can only mask a piece of gear with a relevant alternative. For example, if implemented, one set of robes could only be masked by another set of robes; one type of chain mail could only be masked by another type of chain mail, etc., etc.

It maintains a sense of realism while still giving people more options to dress fashionably.

thats true, I'm kind of posting under the assumption that they'll make things more specialized.

funnily the relevant alternative thing works out in lotro just fine because you can only put things into a costume slot that you'd normally be able to wear. which i guess would be a little wonky because right now we can wear anything.

[gifthorse]

thats true, I'm kind of posting under the assumption that they'll make things more specialized.

funnily the relevant alternative thing works out in lotro just fine because you can only put things into a costume slot that you'd normally be able to wear. which i guess would be a little wonky because right now we can wear anything.

As long as they place restrictions such that people can't wear just whatever, I don't mind a system like this.

After all, it was hard enough for me to swallow the head gear toggle feature.

[Randis]

actually, in most FF titles you wear some a costume while having something else equipped... and the costume never changes....

Personally i am not crazy about this idea... in fact i would much rather have pretty awesome looking gear so wearing a costume would be unnecessary

[Nephera]

actually, in most FF titles you wear some a costume while having something else equipped... and the costume never changes....

Well I mean presumably the character was wearing what fit his tastes (except for poor poor cait sith.)

Personally i am not crazy about this idea... in fact i would much rather have pretty awesome looking gear so wearing a costume would be unnecessary

edit: the costume would be putting existing gear into a cosmetic slot

for example:

Costume slot: Eyepatch

head slot: Iron Celata

Stats given to character: Iron Celata

Model that appears on character: Eyepatch.

alternatively you could reverse the two and have an iron celata shown on the model and the eyepatch give you its stats.


Unless you mean that you would rather just all gear look awesome but that kind of leads to two things.
Everybody ends up looking the same

what looks awesome is purely a matter of personal opinion, when sets come out they might release a new one that you think looks terrible but everyone expects you to wear it.

[Again this is all dependant on a gear rebalance.]

[kukurumei]

It's been done in many MMOs like outspark's fiesta. It works as an easy money maker, but not so great after a while in terms of over all fun factor.

Though it's an entertaining idea if FF14 turns FtP or DLC.

[Nephera]

It's been done in many MMOs like outspark's fiesta. It works as an easy money maker, but not so great after a while in terms of over all fun factor.

Though it's an entertaining idea if FF14 turns FtP or DLC.

haha oh god the cash shop costume slots, I guess they could do that too with crysta if they really needed the extra revenue. Eq2 and lotro had these systems before they went free to play though..

on the other hand they DID both go free to play, thats not the greatest sign.

[TessaJalloh]

i'd support it, if you want your character to look a certain way, why shouldn't you be able to?

a shit ton of games have a costume system over the top of the armor system now, so it's not like it would be unthinkable. And to those that claim it would make it hard for them to tell what i'm wearing, there is a check function ya know...