Visual Gear Damage

[KiriA500]

I don't understand why people think it would be OMG SO MUCH EXTRA WORK!!! If you watched the developer videos that were exclusive to the Collector's Edition (or YouTube for you cheaters!), you'd see that they made certain models, with parts that are interchangeable. That means, they really only have to make one piece of armor, and can remove parts for different sets (like the Steel set is just the Cobalt set minus a few shiny parts).

They'd still need to set up a texture map for a "almost broken" and a "completely broken" gear set, but it would be applied to every piece of gear. It's not nearly as much work as people think it is.

EDIT:
I should point out that if they're following a filing system similar to Final Fantasy XI (which I believe they are), they have an individual .dat file for each piece of gear, which is why it takes so long for stuff to load sometimes.

They mention the Color ID (I think that's the name...correct me if I'm wrong) system they're working on for Version 2, which would allow any piece of gear to be colored how you want. This would be the perfect time to implement something like a damaged gear feature. The new system framework sounds like it will be able to read a model file, and stick a texture on it, without having to make it an entirely new model, which is what it feels like we have now.

[Crica]

nifty idea - i have already seen a korean MMO do this, albeit in a more "adult" manner.. hehehe.. but it was pretty neat to see everyones armor "wear" after taking a bit of dmg.

i vote for this idea, but SE is all about looking "good" (IE:Style happy) so i wont hold my breath.

[SnickleWhiskers]

I would be all for this if this game didn't involve my character to stand still while i change a piece of gear. The inconvenience of armor showing a visual decay would definitely be a terrible idea since you know your character would visually blink away for a second.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

yeah they would have to do away with the blinking. Maybe they are in 2.0? *shrugs*

[Jinko]

that would be way to much for the little gain it would give visualy....

there would have to be three versions of every piece of visable gear, for every race. now unless the way things are displayed is simplified alot in 2.0, it would be to much demand on systems.

Thats not true you can do gear damage by textures and shaders.

[Felis]

PS3 Limitations


/thread

More like HDD limitation

[Kailea_Nagisa]

Thats not true you can do gear damage by textures and shaders.

in other games yes..... but FFXI and FFXIV use a DAT file for each armor piece for every race/gender so in relation to FFXIV right now, it could not happen, maby when 2.0 and their new engine

[viion]

in other games yes..... but FFXI and FFXIV use a DAT file for each armor piece for every race/gender so in relation to FFXIV right now, it could not happen, maby when 2.0 and their new engine

No it doesnt lol Textures are completely separate to the models, which are seperate to the skeletons, even shaders and bump mapping is seperated within the dat file (if you dont know, Dat file is just a container, its just several files that have been melded together as 1)

Infact there is kind of this already, the illusion of it anyway. Look at the gear from when you start, say the Pugilist set, it is worn, it is torn, its dirty, then look at velveteen pugilist gear, its same model, just a better texture.

There are a lot of textures that are currently not being used that could give this affect, and it would not be hard to do really if you're just switching between textures.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

No it doesnt lol Textures are completely separate to the models, which are seperate to the skeletons, even shaders and bump mapping is seperated within the dat file (if you dont know, Dat file is just a container, its just several files that have been melded together as 1)

Infact there is kind of this already, the illusion of it anyway. Look at the gear from when you start, say the Pugilist set, it is worn, it is torn, its dirty, then look at velveteen pugilist gear, its same model, just a better texture.

There are a lot of textures that are currently not being used that could give this affect, and it would not be hard to do really if you're just switching between textures.

yes I know what a DAT file is, I used to mess around alot with FFXI DAT modding. and again, it is not that simple, the archaic way SE has done DATs in FFXI and in FFXIV would not allow this to be done easily. Again could not happen now, but maybe in 2.0+ would be an interesting thing to see too, but again, not something I would want them focusing on.

[Jinko]

yes I know what a DAT file is, I used to mess around alot with FFXI DAT modding. and again, it is not that simple, the archaic way SE has done DATs in FFXI and in FFXIV would not allow this to be done easily. Again could not happen now, but maybe in 2.0+ would be an interesting thing to see too, but again, not something I would want them focusing on.

They are fixing that though because of the dying system.

The only problem is that when you change gear in this game the character blinks so im not sure how they could change the look of gear without that happening.

Edit:- Now that I think about it when you ready an ifrit weapon it changes appearance so its not the case.