Anyone else *REALLY* want an Account-wide "Wardrobe"?

[Terin]

I've yet to really dive into the Glamour system in FFXIV, but I *LOVED* transmogging items in World of Warcraft, and FFXIV's items absolutely put WoW to shame!

However, like WoW, you're forced to actually keep an item on-hand in order to use it for Glamour, which can be problematic when it comes to holding onto tons of items "just in case" you might want to use its appearance, or even worse, when it comes to unique-looking items.

As well, with the Relic/Artifact gear, sometimes you might want one particular version, rather than the most powerful form of that item.

I don't know if anyone has ever played Guild Wars 2, but I *LOVED* their Wardrobe-system. Basically, once an item is soulbound to you, you "unlock" its appearance for your entire account. Even for items that share appearance, you only have to unlock one of them, and you'll be able to rock its appearance any time you want, no need to hold onto the specific item.

Maybe that's just me, though?

[Amarathval]

I would like account wide unlocks for achievement/events, this would be for things like Mounts/minions(the gold magitek armor/tank mounts) Hairstyles(lighting strikes) and allow you to pick up things like the achievement gathering/crafting tools GC/class items, they aren't anywhere near best in slot and would be great boost for an alternate character.

[Renik]

I think one should work to get their vanity for every character, and of course there are expensive and some hard to make crafted items which are just for vanity, the economy could suffer because of this, but that's the only inconvenient i see, SE would have to think carefully about the consequences before implementing this.

[Terin]

My fear is simply that, when it comes to one-of-a-kind items, I like having a little more room to breath. Take the Lightning Returns costumes, for example; a lot of players are probably like me, in that they're only really focused on a single character. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if you got the full Male clothing set, you could also get the full Female clothing set for an alternate-character, that you might not otherwise have played? I'm not even asking for the items themselves; just the ability to use their appearance for Glamour.

Or as another example, take rare/hard-to-get items like the Armor of Light or Moogle Weapons; they're items that might not "fit" your current main-character, but could be cool to use on a character who might never set foot in a Raid.

You make a good point about tradeskills, though, and I could definitely see some items -- like the Relic/Artifact gear -- remaining Character-specific. For rare-drops and retired-items, though, I'd just like a little more room to breathe, you know?

[The_Last_Dragoon]

I think one should work to get their vanity for every character, and of course there are expensive and some hard to make crafted items which are just for vanity, the economy could suffer because of this

High-end Vanity gear prices would either skyrocket or drop like stones as well as a serious decline in demand. It's for this reason that I wouldn't agree with anything vanity related to being "account-wide." The only reason why people even make items like Taffeta Shawl/Loincloth is because it sells at extremely high prices in short amounts of time. If they didn't, then it wouldn't be worth the gil or the effort to do so, and the entire market would begin to suffer as a result. Not to mention that Square Enix is extremely worried about the state of the in-game economy and probably wouldn't do something that could very easily break it.

Take the Lightning Returns costumes, for example; a lot of players are probably like me, in that they're only really focused on a single character. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if you got the full Male clothing set, you could also get the full Female clothing set for an alternate-character, that you might not otherwise have played?

There's a vendor in-game that will trade out your female set with a male set and vice versa. The whole point though is that the character you either "make in the future" or "didn't do the event with" won't get that gear, which is why it is limited. This gives value and bragging rights to players who were active during the event. To be honest, the gear is literally just there for Glamour, even if it's probably the best set for that level, so they might as well give you the item if they're gonna let you glamour it. If you make an alt, there's value to be had by playing it and attaining those vanity items for that character, and I feel account-wide vaults could easily steal that away.

[Terin]

I guess that's just it, though; I view stuff like that more as a "player accomplishment", moreso than the character itself. Like I said, when it comes to Story-related stuff, like the Relic/Artifact gear, I'm all for that being restricted to that individual character. For stuff that's being permanently retired from the game, though, or made completely inaccessible after a certain point, I'd prefer they relax those restrictions by way of making them account-wide.

Plus, consider that they might one day add completely new Playable Races; unless Lightning plans on returning on a fairly regular basis, they're obviously not going to be obtaining that gear, yet it could very well wind up looking good on them.

I mean, the safest bet would obviously be to level up another character to lvl 45 and get the set on them, but I think that's kind of playing with fire.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

Plus, consider that they might one day add completely new Playable Races; unless Lightning plans on returning on a fairly regular basis, they're obviously not going to be obtaining that gear, yet it could very well wind up looking good on them.

That's why the Fantasia item exists as an optional service. Personally, I feel like you just can't have your cake and eat it too. If they made exclusive gear available on a regular basis, then it would no longer be exclusive, and if they made all vanity gear account-wide, then people wouldn't participate nearly as much to get it on all of their alts (The lightning event is maybe the one exception since if they didn't nerf it like the other Fates, then it's a great way to Fate grind for seals and experience). This isn't to say that they won't ever do account-wide items, but I'm pretty sure that wait will probably be about 4-5 years as a way to bring back older players.

Though I don't think SE likes alts for the simple reason that there's a very large number of benefits for playing on a single character and there's even a pay service that caters to that play style. To be honest, the only reason why a player would ever play an alt is to have a different race/build.

@ Dark-Savior: If you've ever played Scarlet Blade/Queen's Blade, then you'll know the face of true evil. The way they allow you to "buy" exclusive vanity items is through a service similar to a Pachinko machine. There are horror stories where people literally pumped hundreds of dollars into it without getting a thing.

[Terin]

I normally prefer having multiple characters, but right now, I feel like FFXIV kind of hates me for being that way. For example, I would *LOVE* to have a Highlander Warrior, a Midlander Paladin, and female Miqo'te Bard. That will likely never be a legitimate option, though, since this game is heavily built upon playing one character; and that's fine. But let me at least have fun with the Glamour system, and fix my characters up the way I want, without having to worry about "Oh man, I only have a couple of weeks until a new Event, time to stop 'having fun' and focused on rushing this character to lvl 50 in this specific job, otherwise I'll never be able to customize the character how I want".

To me, it's helps each Class/Job feel like a totally new experience, instead of being "the same character, but with different clothes". Plus, take this character for example; I chose his appearance *specifically* to compliment his Monk clothing, right down to his eyes matching the shade of yellow as the clothes and his hair matching the "metal" on his shoulders and gloves. I love how he looks, but would it translate to any of the other Classes? I'm not so sure. With an account-wide wardrobe, even if I'm still playing this character most of the time, I could at least enjoy *other* characters, too.

[DishSoap]

Account-wide mounts and minions would be godly, event items even more so. I don't see a need to make vanity gear account-wide though since they are much easier to get. Like right now I'm spending all my time leveling an alternative character to 45 so I can participate in the Lightning Strikes event.

[Rosekitten]

Doesn't SE do something each patch to break the markets anyway? Whats the difference if they release something that allows you to soul-bind a item and forever have the pattern. Personally I have a few of the high end vanity crafted items. Though I'm cheap and went out to grind the materials for them. Also I only have one of them. Far cheaper to buy dyes over and over.. also if you use glamouring anyway then you can dye the items various colors without effecting the real item. Not sure what use there would be to have multiples so in turn I'm not sure why it would effect the market at all.

I'd just love a better glamour system in general. They can keep the prisms and still have some sort of wardrobe system in place that you can scroll through instead of having a retainer with the sole purpose of holding onto gear (or brilliant idea.. make that chest in the inn rooms more useful and the ability to try on from it).