The Current State of Glamour Gear

[Tsiron]

I presume level 1 gear that aren't supposed to be equipped as is, but used as glamours. Think Virtu and Makai sets. Might be mistaken though.

Plus anything with "Replica" in the name (we haven't gotten any in a while). I'm going to ignore the Virtu sets because it's just AF gear, but I would definitely consider Makai "Glamour", even though there's two versions, one of which has a higher level requirement and stats... that no one uses it for, but it's the version that supports dyeing, so what choice do people really have?

[ForteNightshade]

You say spaghetti, I say apples and oranges because one game lets you be whatever you want on one character, where the other doesn't.

It's not glam, it's armor first. Along with the weapons, they've always served as a means for job identity. I don't see them trying to tackle a 10 year log of items just so someone can make a tiny difference in their appearance.

This is a silly argument when we have Gathering sets reused as Dungeon gear. And that's only one example of them not giving a damn about job identity. The simple conclusion is it's a hassle for them to go back and make gear not role restricted. So they won't do it.

[Naoki34]

Well, I'll just say that there really isn't a great skin since Shadowbringer and maybe even Stormblood for me, I have to make do with old gear or Mogstation's outfits.

For the actual skins, you have to really like the Elden Ring design and I don't...

The outfit announced for 6.3 with Tataru in Kugane and Heavensturn's reward saves the day a bit.

[Vrankyl]

I won't mince words, I really, really wish the devs would go over existing Glamour gear (and gear intended to be such, but that for some reason still requires a higher level e.g. Replica Allagan gear, Makai sets etc.) and drop it all down to level 1 and remove Job/Role restrictions altogether.

What reason could there be for those restrictions to be in place anymore considering we've already got everything from plain clothes to essentially WoW armour (the various unobtainable PVP sets, but also this year's Heavensturn reward) under the "level 1, All Classes" umbrella? And, unlike unrestricted Glamour in general, there's no "technical difficulties" to point at either, as the aforementioned gear has no other gameplay purpose!

Wouldn't do much to change the fact we've been getting fairly uninspired Glamour gear lately (or satisfy my, and others' desire, for unrestricted Glamour), but it would alleviate it to an extent as more combinations became available to those of us who want an (or multiple!) All Classes get-up(s) for our characters.

now if only the devs saw any of this.....

So for the Makai gear and the ARR - HW PvP gear the reason why those are not lvl 1 or glamour gear is because they were introduced and designed with stats. Additionally, for the Makai gear any change they make to it MUST be approved by the IP License holder which is not SE. So that is why there has not been, and will not be, any real changes to them. It is also why the classes added since the original event don't have new models.

[Vahlnir]

That should be it, but it sounds like people treat all gear as glamour since that system exists (only since patch 2.2).

Glamour is the true endgame, so yeah. That, mounts and minions are some of the only things with lasting appeal and value. Player power is temporary and always increasing (well, mostly). Vanity items are forever, or at least until the servers permanently shut down.

[AaronSound]

another one, it's what they wanted it. In one of the interviews, they said they want to keep it like this so that we have that "mmo feel" or something like that, i don't remember

That seems like an anagram for lazy and inconsistent, how is an Warrior in an Maid outfit preserving the MMO feel, or the class identity? (i don't blame you, citing what they said)
The moment they allow you to have ANY clothing is where this breaks, i can dress up my dark knight in beach attire, there's gotta be some logistical problems for them, im very very doubtful they are blind to this inconsistency.

[Vahlnir]

That seems like an anagram for lazy and inconsistent, how is an Warrior in an Maid outfit preserving the MMO feel, or the class identity? (i don't blame you, citing what they said)
The moment they allow you to have ANY clothing is where this breaks, i can dress up my dark knight in beach attire, there's gotta be some logistical problems for them, im very very doubtful they are blind to this inconsistency.

Glamour prisms only apply an illusion of sorts to your gear so that it looks like something else. There's at least a lore reason behind that part. As for the maid outfits and bikinis existing...well, I don't think the devs really cared about the immersion or lore in that regard. Some things simply...are, and it's best to just roll with it. Final Fantasy has always been a melting pot of sorts.

[Deveryn]

That seems like an anagram for lazy and inconsistent, how is an Warrior in an Maid outfit preserving the MMO feel, or the class identity? (i don't blame you, citing what they said)
The moment they allow you to have ANY clothing is where this breaks, i can dress up my dark knight in beach attire, there's gotta be some logistical problems for them, im very very doubtful they are blind to this inconsistency.

There's nothing lazy or inconsistent about it. People are just mad that these other outfits even exist because you have it in your heads that the "Fantasy" in FF stands for medieval fantasy, when the whole series has had a wide range of styles. XIV is no exception, drawing from other games and featuring various styles. They have a primary theme of functional gear for combat. Anything else that shows up, tends to come from side content of little consequence.

You're also getting too hung up on the appearance of the gear and forgetting that the tank can still actually tank under that illusion of skimpy / flimsy clothing. It's unfortunate that there's no crossover allowed between the roles, but they made up their minds on the combat gear and it's way too much work to make a change at this point. Every item has to go through a bunch of different people and phases before it's finally done. Unless something comes up broken, there's no going back and changing it.

I'll say it again because people miss it. I'm not against the idea of making a change to the system, but it's just not feasible.

[Ranaku]

There's nothing lazy or inconsistent about it. People are just mad that these other outfits even exist because you have it in your heads that the "Fantasy" in FF stands for medieval fantasy, when the whole series has had a wide range of styles. XIV is no exception, drawing from other games and featuring various styles. They have a primary theme of functional gear for combat. Anything else that shows up, tends to come from side content of little consequence.

You're also getting too hung up on the appearance of the gear and forgetting that the tank can still actually tank under that illusion of skimpy / flimsy clothing. It's unfortunate that there's no crossover allowed between the roles, but they made up their minds on the combat gear and it's way too much work to make a change at this point. Every item has to go through a bunch of different people and phases before it's finally done. Unless something comes up broken, there's no going back and changing it.

I'll say it again because people miss it. I'm not against the idea of making a change to the system, but it's just not feasible.

People are not mad that these outfits exist, well not the majority. People are mad that "immersion" is used by the devs as an excuse for their flawed glam system while you have someone swinging a greatsword in a bikini while getting attacked by monsters without wearing any protection. Stuff isn't immersive anymore so there should be no reason why they still cling to this old outdated glam system, so much so that even the much dogpiled on WoW has by now a better glam system (not better glam) than XIV.

It can't be that hard to just make a really light weight glam log where if you get one item it gets basically checked as "owned" and you can glam it whenever you want against a fee or well prisms even which are basically that said fee just in form of another over complicated system. And that would probably also use way less server space then people trashing their retainers with HW dungeon gear and begging constantly for more glam dresser space.

I just wish they would finally work on a solution to the problem instead of always just trying to fix everything by fighting the symptoms. Especially with the view into the future with much more items and glam it is insane to cling to this old system where every glam piece has to be a "physical" item instead of just coding a list system. But yeah guess the spaghetti code doesn't allow for this.

[SnowVix]

+1 - Gold saucer does this too. Some items are level one, some are arbitrarily level 50. I'd prefer consistency!

the level 50 stuff at the Saucer has actual stats and is from when you had to be level 50 to unlock glamour anyway, and going back and stripping those to make it level 1 is probably more effort than feels worthwhile.