Appearance Kit Enhancement

[scriver]

I've been playing around with this lately and here's what I think the kit really needs: A copy settings function. I just had a pretty cool (and I do mean that it was perty awesome) shawl that I liked, but then I bought a new cloak. And I can't for the life of me get the old look back.

So. It would be nice if one could copy the colour and/or appearance settings from say, Cloak#1 to Cloak#2. That is a functionality I would really appreciate.

Oh, and also: Please change the Colour screen text from "Lightness" to "Brightness", thanks. I get what you mean. But it bugs me

[Avanos]

Shawls are under the MP (or was it MD) option.
Make sure to "reset to original" after choosing the option.

[Lyons]

Totally not trying to sidetrack the thread but what do you guys think about people that are wearing a breastplate but decide to change it's appearance to for example hide or leather?
I think you should rp what you have on your character, but sometimes you just want to not look like a tin can.

Please change the Colour screen text from "Lightness" to "Brightness", thanks. I get what you mean. But it bugs me

The color system is called hls tough, it stands for hue, satoration, lightness

[Avanos]

Illusion magic? =)
You could also be wearing a "robe" over your armor.

[scriver]

Shawls are under the MP (or was it MD) option.
Make sure to "reset to original" after choosing the option.

MP. Yes, thanks to discord I found that out eventually. This is post-Shawl mystery though. It's not ajout where the shawls arr found. It's about making my second cloak/shawl look like my first cloak/shawl, which had a nice coloration to it. And in the future, being able to copy any appearance from one item to another of the same item type without having to manually make all the changes in all the entries. That's a function that would be very nice to have.

[V'rass]

People should be allowed to make their armor/character look how they wish. Not to mention the fact that there is an item property in pnp called (Glammered?) which basically makes items like armor appear to be of a different sort then they actually are. So can have a breastplate and apply that property to it and make it look like leather. Just rp that your armor has this enchantment on it if it bothers you.

[Incarnate]

Totally not trying to sidetrack the thread but what do you guys think about people that are wearing a breastplate but decide to change it's appearance to for example hide or leather?

I think you should rp what you have on your character, but sometimes you just want to not look like a tin can.

I agree, especially because it affects how you perceive them.

Like for instance, with PvP being a thing, one might have considered otherwise if he'd known he was wearing a full plate armor rather than just a simple set of clothing. Of course, there is illusion magic, but magic is costly and with the appearance changer, that change is FREE.
The very least make it so its confined to the type it is, so if it was a full plate, then it could only be changed into other armors that was full plate, or maybe one step down or up if it was a lighter type of armor.

I'd rather you actually used magic to change it rather than a non-immersive rp tool, and since it was magic your could actually through various means find out if it was magically changed to look different.

[Blame The Rogue]

i would use this function

i've always liked the appearance of the scale armor fighters are born with

[Rhifox]

Totally not trying to sidetrack the thread but what do you guys think about people that are wearing a breastplate but decide to change it's appearance to for example hide or leather?

I think you should rp what you have on your character, but sometimes you just want to not look like a tin can.

I agree, especially because it affects how you perceive them.

Like for instance, with PvP being a thing, one might have considered otherwise if he'd known he was wearing a full plate armor rather than just a simple set of clothing. Of course, there is illusion magic, but magic is costly and with the appearance changer, that change is FREE.
The very least make it so its confined to the type it is, so if it was a full plate, then it could only be changed into other armors that was full plate, or maybe one step down or up if it was a lighter type of armor.

I'd rather you actually used magic to change it rather than a non-immersive rp tool, and since it was magic your could actually through various means find out if it was magically changed to look different.

What if someone is ICly wearing something over the armor (like Frodo)? Or perhaps it's a coat-of-plates style breastplate (the plate(s) is sewn between cloth, instead of on top)? When I was playing I changed the style of my armor to a different type a lot, because my character preferred to hide her armor (reasoning that mithral armor is expensive, and showing it off is like wearing jewelry: It's a target for bandits).

Now, full plate is not something that can be so easily hidden, but other armors could be.

Just something to consider.

[Incarnate]

Totally not trying to sidetrack the thread but what do you guys think about people that are wearing a breastplate but decide to change it's appearance to for example hide or leather?

I think you should rp what you have on your character, but sometimes you just want to not look like a tin can.

I agree, especially because it affects how you perceive them.

Like for instance, with PvP being a thing, one might have considered otherwise if he'd known he was wearing a full plate armor rather than just a simple set of clothing. Of course, there is illusion magic, but magic is costly and with the appearance changer, that change is FREE.
The very least make it so its confined to the type it is, so if it was a full plate, then it could only be changed into other armors that was full plate, or maybe one step down or up if it was a lighter type of armor.

I'd rather you actually used magic to change it rather than a non-immersive rp tool, and since it was magic your could actually through various means find out if it was magically changed to look different.

What if someone is ICly wearing something over the armor (like Frodo)? Or perhaps it's a coat-of-plates style breastplate (the plate(s) is sewn between cloth, instead of on top)? When I was playing I changed the style of my armor to a different type a lot, because my character preferred to hide her armor (reasoning that mithral armor is expensive, and showing it off is like wearing jewelry: It's a target for bandits).

Now, full plate is not something that can be so easily hidden, but other armors could be.

Just something to consider.

Well, there you go - had these bandits been PC's then you would've been under the radar so to speak, because you were able to use this tool to make this change, without this costing you anything, not to mention that it would also completely change the stastics of the armor if it was suddenly a mix of hide and mithral. However I do follow what you're saying that one might want to have something over the armor for various reasons. The game as far as I know doesn't support having two layers of armor pieces, so it wouldn't be possible that way.

One thing to consider, would be to have vendors that can make changes to clothing and armor, depending what their skill is - so say if you had a metal armor and you wanted to be a lighter armor, just wanted it to be more like a different type - you could take this armor for instance to a leatherworker who're proficient in making leather armors, could attempt merge two types of armor together, making a new armor with new statistics, which of course would one an amount of gold. However complications arises once someone would want to merge to pieces of armor where magic is involved, where certainly it could be attempted but with further risk of breaking the armor pieces or the very destroying the magic that it was imbued with.

[Rhifox]

Well, there you go - had these bandits been PC's then you would've been under the radar so to speak, because you were able to use this tool to make this change, without this costing you anything, not to mention that it would also completely change the stastics of the armor if it was suddenly a mix of hide and mithral.

I meant hide as in, the verb. Wearing a cloth tunic over the mail to cover it. So there, realistically, shouldn't be a cost to that (save for the 1gp of buying another article of clothing), nor a change of statistics.

[Cenerae]

Now, full plate is not something that can be so easily hidden, but other armors could be.

Just something to consider.

I don't think full plate is all that difficult to hide visually, any kind of heavy robe or cloak and so on can easily cover it up. Or the armor itself could simply be a battle-robe with heavy armor plates worked into the cloth, etc.

You wouldn't be able to do a lot about the heavier footsteps or the possible clanking of the armor, of course. Much like concealing chainmail wouldn't stop the chain links from clinking as you move around.

[Reckeo]

In a world of magic etc its not difficult to imagine a lighter set of armor having the characteristics of a heavier set (thus retaining it's look).

Maybe an alternative would be allowing armor only to move within one or two tiers of possibility. IE; Leather armor can be made to look like cloth (one tier lower) or up to (two tiers heavier) chainmail, while plate-mail would only be able to go down to half plate or scale (but never chain or leather or cloth). However this does limit the notion of wearing a robe over plate armor. In Ultima Online, (HIGH PVP server), players would commonly wear a robe over their armor in order to cover their armor and prevent other players from seeing what armor was being worn (if any). It was highly effective and made sense.

Then you also come across other problems as well. I have a set of full plate +2 that weighs in at 5.0 pounds. It's hard to imagine a set of armor that weighs what is equivalent to a normal set of clothing (on average or so) clunking around and having that heavier 'feel' to it. It also comes down to a matter of mechanical interpretation. Does it only feel like it weighs 5.0 lbs because it enhances the bearer in a way to alleviate the weight (hidden str bonus), or is it actually that light (and thus have a feeling of thin plastic football armor but retain its hardness)? The truth is that in game mechanics wise, yes it is a set of full plate armor that weighs 5.0 lbs, but this is not reflected through it's dex modifier (it would be much easier moving in a 5.0 set of armor, than a set weighing 50 lbs), but the stats are the same other than the weight difference (it is not mithral).

Also, dragon 'plate' armor, I typically switch to scale look. It makes more sense, and takes into account the weight modifier while still retaining it's AC value and stats.

It seems to me the problem lies with PvP implications and people misjudging opponents AC, NOT with appearance itself. And I agree that people should be able to make their imaginary world characters look however they want.

[Reckeo]

It seems to me the problem lies with PvP implications and people misjudging opponents AC, NOT with appearance itself. And I agree that people should be able to make their imaginary world characters look however they want.

Heavy armor doesn't always translates to the highest AC, we're all over the place.
As far as the appearance kit, we have no plans to restrict its features, it's just a lot of time spent for not a lot of gain.
And as far as the copy function it'll have to wait until a developer feels like tackling the matter.

Very true, I do acknowledge this correction. In other games I've played this may have been the case, but in D&D and NWN2, it certainly is not.

[Fury_US]

To get back to the OP and the actual question asked, the best solution I have found for this particular dilemma is to use the notes tab in the journal. My list is getting ever larger, I fear, and it's extra work, but if a "copy" function isn't exactly possible, this IS a way to make sure you get at least in the ballpark of your preferred colors. My entries often look like this:

(Item description)
Color 1: (hue value), (light value), (saturation value)
Color 2: (hue value), (light value), (saturation value)
Color 3: (hue value), (light value), (saturation value)

I always make sure to open up the journal first, when I'm going to spend some time with the appearance changer.

Mind, with Wren it's easy, as she's the monochromatic queen. But having those numbers available when I make stuff for other people makes it worth the extra work.