Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

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zhazz
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Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by zhazz »

Concept
A token carried in the character's inventory, which can apply a complete appearance, henceforth referred to as outfit, to that character, with a single click.


Functionality
Creating an outfit
Creating a new outfit is done by activating the existing Appearance Changer item, selecting Save Outfit (new menu option), and then clicking on an Outfit Token in inventory. This saves all appearance settings for all currently worn apparel to the token, with a prompt to supply a name for the outfit.

When saving appearance settings to the token the following are saved for each item worn, including weapon(s) and shield.
  • Category (Cloth, Heavy, BG by BG, etc.)
  • Model number
  • Colours (hue, brightness, and saturation for all three colour options)
  • Accessories (shoulders, greaves, hip items, etc.)
  • Colours for accessories
If an item slot is empty, then no data is saved for that slot.

Applying an outfit
Applying an outfit is done by activating an Outfit Token in inventory. Doing so will apply all the saved appearance settings to each currently worn item, for which there is a recorded matching item slot. E.g. no changing the appearance of the helmet slot, if no helmet slot settings are saved on the Outfit Token.

Outfit Tokens
These are low-weight items (2 lbs?) carried in the character's inventory. There is no limit to how many tokens can be carried, except inventory space, and weight. Each Outfit Token can hold exactly one outfit, and an existing one may be overridden by a choosing it as the token to use when saving an outfit.

Outfit Tokens can be bought at Aelo, or similar merchants, for an appropriate gold cost. But can be used anywhere, as long as the character is out of combat.

What this adds to the server
Primarily this will be a quality of life improvement for players using lots of different outfits as part of the role play for their character.

Currently the only options are to carry several items on the character, which is not only impractical due to inventory space and weight, but may also be exceedingly costly due to the cost/rarity of certain items.
Or to spend minutes slogging through the Appearance Changer menus, adding and removing details, hoping to get everything equal to last time, and only doing so in a select few areas.

Similarly this will greatly aid RP focused around tailors / outfitters, who design and create custom outfits on-demand for other characters. Rather than supplying all the necessary values to their client OOCly, they can simply hand over the outfit. It is then a (much smaller) OOC action to save the new outfit to an Outfit Token. Changes and additions are also easier to manage for the same reasons.

For those part of a faction, and wishing to have a faction identity (e.g. uniforms) this will make it much easier to encourage members to actually wear said uniform. As described above, there are currently only two ways to change outfits, and both are time-consuming and prone to errors. Here the faction can simply provide the uniform items, and an Outfit Token to which the member saves the uniform, before handing the uniform items back over.

Anyone using the Disguise feature will more easily and consistently be able to maintain the appearance of a character, by naming an outfit after the name chosen when using the Disguise feature.

In short: It removes a lot of the frustration/faffing involved in switching between outfits.

Downsides
A small break from reality, as character's will be able to carry multiple outfits, where either weight or bulk would previously have made this impossible. This isn't much of an issue, however, seeing that this is already possible by using the Appearance Changer. The difference here being that the Outfit Token is useable everywhere, outside of combat, and does impose both a weight and gold cost.

Considerations
In the interest of keeping the feature fair for everyone, an Outfit Token shouldn't have a particularly large weight. Possibly it can wary sleightly based on the type of body armour worn (cloth, light, medium, heavy). But overall it should not be too restricted by encumbrance / allowable weight. Strength-focused characters already have a massive advantage when carrying loot from dungeons back to town; there is no need to extend that advantage (further) to RP as well.
Adrian Baker - An innocent virtuoso (bio | journal)
Relyth Ravan'Thala - Bear of an Elf
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artemitavik
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by artemitavik »

this is kinda cool, actually. Then you don't have to break from your actual gear for the aesthetics.

that said... you're not breaking from your actual gear for aesthetics, hence suddenly everyone in those tuxes and ball gowns at court are +4 plate...

hm. that's a rough call, really.
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zhazz
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by zhazz »

artemitavik wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:46 pm this is kinda cool, actually. Then you don't have to break from your actual gear for the aesthetics.

that said... you're not breaking from your actual gear for aesthetics, hence suddenly everyone in those tuxes and ball gowns at court are +4 plate...

hm. that's a rough call, really.
Everyone can already do that though. Just use the Appearance Changer on that +4 plate, and make it look like a fancy tuxedo. In that regard what this suggestion aim to do is reduce the hassle of changing back and forth.

A small break from reality, with everyone fully armored all the time, but if such is the cost of improved quality of life in all other things appearance, then I'll take it. Maybe I'm unique or just weird in that regard :D
Adrian Baker - An innocent virtuoso (bio | journal)
Relyth Ravan'Thala - Bear of an Elf
Timothy Daleson - Paladin Wand Maker
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DM Winter
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by DM Winter »

Personally, I love this.

I don't see the "Tuxedo +4" as a huge issue because, like it was said, it already can happen, it's just slightly inconvenient to do. Adding something like these Outfit Tokens would make it easier to do, but overall I think the positive of customization and accessibility and just not flooding the inventory is very much worth it. Use and abuse of Common senseTM when choosing your outfits, ppl!

As for the weight, I'd very much argue for if you choose a heavier outfit the weight increases, though that comes into my only real concern regarding this: Can it be actually made? How easy it is to create and implement a tool like this? And for the weight, I don't think there's a distinction between weights of models. Still, even if overall the weight would remain at 2-5lbs, I'm all for this.
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artemitavik
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by artemitavik »

Hey, you know me, I'm almost always for mechanical convenience for the purpose of RP.
Derik "Crimson Bulwark" Ranloss: Thugging for GREAT JUSTICE!!! (yes, I know he doesn't wear red)
Headmaster:Bladestone Foundation.
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zhazz
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by zhazz »

DM Winter wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 2:20 pm As for the weight, I'd very much argue for if you choose a heavier outfit the weight increases, though that comes into my only real concern regarding this: Can it be actually made? How easy it is to create and implement a tool like this? And for the weight, I don't think there's a distinction between weights of models. Still, even if overall the weight would remain at 2-5lbs, I'm all for this.
It definitely can be made.

Years ago Sigil used an Appearance Changer involving two mannequins. Put an armour onto a "source" mannequin, and an armour onto a "destination" mannequin. Activate an item, and all the appearance settings was copied from the "source" to the "destination" mannequin. They later changed to another system because client-server delay allowed for duping or some-such, when the items were outside the character inventory.

This, however, will keep all items in the character's inventory. And like with the Appearance Changer, I'm sure there are ways to lock items in place to prevent abuse, while the new appearance is being applied to them.

So definitely doable. Might require a bit of testing and tweaking to safeguard against abuse, but doable.


As for the weight, such can be solved by reading the weight/type of the body armour piece (chest item) upon copying appearance settings to the token. Based on either the weight or the type of body armour add an increased weight mod to the Outfit Token. I'd personally be happy with 2-10 lbs for cloth through plate. Though the easier solution may just be to have a fixed weight regardless of armour type.
Adrian Baker - An innocent virtuoso (bio | journal)
Relyth Ravan'Thala - Bear of an Elf
Timothy Daleson - Paladin Wand Maker
Duncan Matsirani - A wanderer
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Rhifox
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by Rhifox »

Yes please.
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YourMoveHolyMan
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by YourMoveHolyMan »

awesome possum, this would be neat, a past server did something somewhat similiar, with having outfit 'blanks' that you could apply to other outfits that you looted. The trade off was they made the appearance kits required to use them very weighty. Not sure if that jives with this concept at all, as it sounds more like saving the entries to prevent clutter which would be nice.
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Aspect of Sorrow
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by Aspect of Sorrow »

Entire aesthetic properties can be saved as parsable values on the Appearance Changer item itself to be easily reapplied from to serve this purpose.
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wangxiuming
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by wangxiuming »

I really like this idea as well!
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Ghost
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by Ghost »

There is a disclaimer in the appearance changer kit to be reasonable in appearance choices. This means if you are wearing an armour, you should be picking an appearance that looks like an armour. I think adding ability to change between appearances just further departs from this request to choose reasonable appearances for the item type.
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Blame The Rogue
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by Blame The Rogue »

couldnt a saved template be tagged as heavy, medium, or light, by what chest piece apperance is chosen, and only apply to a corresponding armor type?
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Rhifox
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by Rhifox »

Blame The Rogue wrote: Wed Apr 13, 2022 11:33 pm couldnt a saved template be tagged as heavy, medium, or light, by what chest piece apperance is chosen, and only apply to a corresponding armor type?
Not easily, because hundreds of our custom appearances are not categorized. Someone would have to go through each individual appearance and manually determine what category it should fall under.
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Blame The Rogue
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by Blame The Rogue »

so it's possible, just time consuming

chest piece appearances are the only things that need to be tagged, all the other "slots" wouldnt have to be categorized

assign a tag to an outfit upon completion, by what chest appearance is used, and make it check to make sure the character is wearing the appropriate armor type, or it simply wont apply the appearance
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zhazz
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Re: Suggestion: Apperance Changer Outfits

Unread post by zhazz »

If we're gonna go down the route of "visual aesthetic realism", such as not having a full plate armor appear as a thin shirt, or the other way around, then we should also correct some other glaring issues. Such as outfit styles not appropriate for the setting. Remove all steampunk, gothica, and futuristic outfits. Gothica might be "permissable", but neither steampunk nor futuristic have a place in the medieval setting that is Faerûn.

I'm all for doing that, actually. Including the change to link a visual style to a base armour type. Though such a linking is going to be highly subjective. Even more so when considering special materials such as Mthral, which change the category, but not the general design.

Whichever road is taken, I don't see the Outfit saving suggestion adding anything troublesome to the server. The vast majority of players aren't going to "violate" the style to type link request DM Ghost mentioned. Notice that I use the term "violate" losely here, because we're already doing a lot of mental hoops and gymnastics to explain long-distance travel in seconds; bulk carrying 15 heavy armours on a 30 strength toon without access to magical bags; and a host of other similar "deviations" from realism.

The proposed system adds a lot of value to the game, by reducing or removing a lot of purely OOC (appearance changer is OOC) effort required to make stylistic changes. Maybe a few players will "violate" or even "abuse" such a system even more than they already do, but in those cases the focus should be on correcting their behavior — not denying honest players a system making stylistic choices more convenient to manage.
Adrian Baker - An innocent virtuoso (bio | journal)
Relyth Ravan'Thala - Bear of an Elf
Timothy Daleson - Paladin Wand Maker
Duncan Matsirani - A wanderer
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