Suggestion: Improved Glamour System

[KhevanFarstryder]

I was thinking about the glamour system in FFXIV and lamenting the lack of storage in the glamour dresser and all the overflow glamour items sitting on my retainers. I started thinking about my favourite glamour systems and immediately the system in Guild Wars 2 came to mind.

For those that haven't played Guild Wars 2, when you get a new armor item, you can unlock the skin of that item to be used for glamouring other armor items. The skins that you have unlocked are just kept in a browsable list/database and you can apply them to other armor (of similar type - ex fending, casting, healing, etc) as many times as you want.

And thinking about FFXIV's glamour system, I think it can be tweaked to be a similar system. I was bored so I mocked up a prototype of what GW2's glamour system might look like in FFXIV.

Unlocking Glamours

Here goes! Once you get an item with a glamour you haven't unlocked yet, you could just right click on the item and in the context menu there could be an new "unlock glamour" option. They could add a line to the mouseover tooltip for each item to show whether or not you have unlocked it already. This would make it easier when rolling on loot in dungeons/raids to quickly see if you have that glamour skin unlocked already.

If it was an item that is tradable (ex. crafted gear), when you unlock the glamour it binds the item to you so that it is no longer tradable. This is so that people couldn't just craft one item and pass it around to all their friends to unlock it as well. When you click the "unlock glamour" it could give you a warning that the item will become untradable so that you have a chance to cancel it if you want. For untradable items (ex. raid or dungeon gear), you wouldn't need any kind of warning.

Browsing Glamour Collection

There would need to be a way to check which glamours you have and haven't unlocked, so there could be a glamour collection panel similar to the achievement panel or the challenge log panel. I know they're going to be changing the look of the achievement panel in Endwalker, but I couldn't find any high-resolution versions that were populated with achievements so I just went with the look of the current achievement panel.

This is what I came up with so that you could hopefully explore your glamours. There could be a count of the total number of glamours you've collected, buttons to filter complete and incomplete sets, categories down the left side, and maybe even a search button to make it easier to browse your collection. It could look and function very similar to the achievement panel.

[KhevanFarstryder]

Continued...

Applying Glamours

To apply your glamours to your armor, it could function very similar to the way it currently works.

You go to an inn room, click on the glamour dresser, but instead of bringing up your glamour storage chest, it would just go straight to your glamour plates in one panel and your glamour collection in the other. Similar to how it works now, you would select a plate to save the glamour to, then when you click on one of the armor slots, it would filter your collection to just show items that can go in that slot. Also similar to now, you would filter your collection by selecting the job for which you are trying to build the glamour plate so that only items that the job could wear will appear in the collection.

I included a button in the Gear Selection panel to hide or show glamours that you haven't unlocked yet. This way, you could preview glamours on the glamour plate that you haven't unlocked yet (but of course you wouldn't be able to save the glamour plate with unobtained glamours on it). This would help you decide if it is a glamour you want to collect and would give you an general idea where to find it if you did (dungeons, trial, raids, etc). There would no longer be a need for the "Open Armoire" button since all the items stored in it are already unlocked in your glamour collection.

Pros:
- you only have to unlock each skin once, then you can apply it as many times as you want to the armor you are wearing
- your unlocked skins are account wide so you can use them on any of your characters once they are unlocked
- best of all, once unlocked you can discard the original item that you used to unlock the skin so that it is not cluttering up your retainer space!

Cons:
- you would no longer be able to pre-dye items prior to placing them in the glamour dresser. You would have to dye them on the glamour plate itself. I think this could be alleviated by make it a little easier to obtain high-end dyes. Maybe a vendor that sells them for a ton of crafter scrips, similar to the newest dyes in the Firmament.

Anyroad, that was my thinking on how the glamour system could be updated and improved! I think it would add another collection to the game for those that like to collect stuff and they could even add in achievements for total number of items collected, collecting certain tough sets (like raid or alliance raid gear), etc. Most of all, it would free up tons of inventory space and improve everyone's glamour game since you could access literally any glamour you have unlocked instead of just being restricted to the items you have happened to keep.

[DrWho2010]

yoshi-p has already said no to a glamor log. not possible with the way the game is currently programmed.

[Lihtleita]

yoshi-p has already said no to a glamor log. not possible with the way the game is currently programmed.

not gonna lie i would gladly give up my house for extra data if everyone got a glam log.

[KhevanFarstryder]

yoshi-p has already said no to a glamor log. not possible with the way the game is currently programmed.

Darn, I didn't know it had already been ruled out by Yoshida-san. Thanks for the source quote. Ah well, back to organizing my retainers... T.T

[Shurrikhan]

yoshi-p has already said no to a glamor log. not possible with the way the game is currently programmed.

He also said that about cross-server or PvP glamors, or being able to transmog a 1H wand/sceptor onto a two-hander staff/cane...

[KhevanFarstryder]

He also said that about cross-server or PvP glamors, or being able to transmog a 1H wand/sceptor onto a two-hander staff/cane...

To quote Lloyd, "So you're saying there's a chance...."

That's kinda what I thought as well. There are many things Yoshida-san says can't be done and then his team goes and does it behind his back and makes it work. If it's a server issue, maybe they can be upgraded? Could they make a dedicated glamour server that only holds the glamour data for each data center, then make it so it can't be accessed anywhere outside the inn? Then it wouldn't affect any other game systems. I'm not an IT systems analyst so I have no idea. Make it so that the glamour plates are the only part of the glamour system that could be accessed outside the inn, and even then just in the major cities like it is now?

Could they change the way the game is currently programmed? With the increased income from all the new players, could they hire someone to work on improving the game engine? I'm not a programmer so just spit-balling here.

Where there's a will, there's a way, no?

[DrWho2010]

He also said that about cross-server or PvP glamors, or being able to transmog a 1H wand/sceptor onto a two-hander staff/cane...

don't... don't give people false hope. just accept what he said is what he said and then if it happens to change later on the future, eh then you can be pleasantly surprised. this is why he has to watch so carefully what he says and only talks in absolutes with the information has has at the time.

[Sylvain]

Then how does World of Warcraft does it?
As far as I'm concerned the library is consequent. It is mitigated by the fact that you can only see what your character can wear but in any case they currently can access a catalogue, anywhere, which contains way over 400 items.

There are things that could be ignored like ignoring HQ/NQ or which dye is applied (none basically). Many accessories have the exact same skin so some pieces could be saved there too, not that it's the biggest issue but still.

But yeah going back to WoW, how do they do it? How do their server handle the data stress?

[KhevanFarstryder]

Exactly! Older games can do it so why not FFXIV?

I look at this thread and other threads about housing scarcity or other systems that are not working as well as they could and all the naysayers always says that it is the fault of "the old system". Can't do this or that because of how "the system" works. I'm so tired of this excuse!

Then I say: FIX THE SYSTEM!

They are making more money than they ever have in the history of Final Fantasy. They get $15 to $30 per month for most people that are playing. They make money hand over fist from the MogStation. They get a huge cash infusion every couple years from expansions. They have the money to fix "the system".

I assume that their programmers and game designers are intelligent enough to figure out a way to fix "the system". If not, hire new programmers/designers that ARE smart enough to fix it! I understand that there is a worldwide hardware shortage at the moment, but start working on the fixes now to be implemented when the hardware is ready.

Sorry, just had to vent there. I'm just so tired and frustrated at hearing the same old "system" excuse.

/rant over