Soldier Cosmetics

[sir-rinthian]

Anyone else think that the cosmetic appearances of Soldiers is severely lacking? I suggest that we add in a a way to cosmetically equip gear to our soldiers the same way we can on ourselves. I want to give my herbalist that Lorien robe, or my Warrior some Malledhrim armour.

If thats too much, at least let us dye the stuff they already have.

[TsarithArcher]

That would be an interesting way to handle what would otherwise be our outdated and soon to be vendored gear. Why not be able to give our Soldiers our old gear? (And the moment we can do that, I'm going to name my Soldier "Minime")

I like the idea.

Although even if we could just dye their Traited Gear, I'd be content enough.

And weapons, let's not forget being able to change their weapons!

And while we are on the subject of Soldier Cosmetics, could I just ask for Ponytails and Braids for Cosmetic Hairstyles? My Shield-Maiden Soldier really needs her Golden hair put into a Braid and to be able to use a Spear instead of a short-sword to finish off that Valkyrie/Nibelungenlied look I was going for.

[huntermaniac]

/signed

Oh, and while we're on soldier cosmetics, the "Fancy Blue Outfit" for a hobbit lass is pink :-/

[Petruccio]

And while we are on the subject of Soldier Cosmetics, could I just ask for Ponytails and Braids for Cosmetic Hairstyles? My Shield-Maiden Soldier really needs her Golden hair put into a Braid and to be able to use a Spear instead of a short-sword to finish off that Valkyrie/Nibelungenlied look I was going for.

+1 Cooky for the Wagner reference

[Meijha]

Would love to see more soldier options. My Protector needs long black hair or a shaved head option please!

[scottandjodie]

Not a Dev, but I am pretty sure the problem with doing this has to do with server storage space/performance. Have read other threads saying that cosmetics creates a HUGE server drag just on our toons, let alone adding all the soldiers. Think that is why the Captain heralds have so few options for changing their look.

[jwbarry]

Floon could speak to this better than I, but here's what I know...

Player Avatar models are incredibly complex, with a lot of bones, an intricate mesh, and very detailed textures. This lets us create the great looking characters we have.

NPC models are far less complex, have a lot fewer bones, a simpler mesh, and less detailed textures. You don't play as an NPC, it's not as important for them to be as detailed or perfect in every single move.

The gear, armor and equipment players use is designed based off of the mesh and hooked to the rig and the specific bone count and bones. Since player avatars and soldiers have different rigs, the player armor will not work on them.

Could we effectively make soldiers use the player avatars. Yes. But, they are far more client and server intensive on a 1 to 1 basis, and thus having 12 of them out would do bad things to your client perf and to our server perf.

[TsarithArcher]

Fair enough of an explanation jwberry. Thank you.

I can understand that the Skirmish System is but newly implemented, and the Devs do have plans for improving it over time. I'm sure more Cosmetic options and variety are but one of the things they'll expand upon as time permits...but knowing what is reasonable to expect in the future and what is not reasonable due to constraints in the Game Engine + Modeling + Texturing is good to know.

[Locklear93]

My only current complaint with soldier cosmetics is that the elf-maid red hair color requires a campaign token that doesn't seem to be available to me at 60, at my point in the epic line progression. >_< I forget which is required, but it's only available from three skirmishes to which I currently do not have access. This I don't mind so much, or wouldn't, if I could trade in the other campaign tokens to get the one I currently cannot. It's possible to convert campaign tokens into marks, but not into other campaign tokens though... so I seem to be SOL until I move along the epic line further.

I'd have loved to be able to trade in tokens from the skirmishes I do have, to get the tokens I can't, even at a 3:1 ratio or worse.

[Jadzi]

Sorta semi-related, but...

I remember somewhere or other there was discussion as to why we don't/can't have armor racks in our houses. You know, something to both store a suit of armor and show it off. The reason was that it would require itemizing the armor into a wholly other system, creating new objects that would have to be as modular as player avatars, accounting for all the thousands of combinations of dye, texture, and mesh across five to seven different equip points (depending how many things you wanted to show). The amount of coding and building and server resources just to create what would ultimately be one or two background decorations in any given house did not make for a very balanced cost vs. value equation.

The same would probably hold true here: while it seems simple on the surface to just rig a second avvie with its own cosmetic panel, it would likely actually take so much work to create, debug, and maintain that it just wouldn't be worth it, when those same resources could be put to something else. Not to mention the extra drag on server performance as the server player-avatar population instantly doubles without actually doubling the amount of people playing.

It's sorta like why we have very simple, static hairstyles instead of everyone with a waving mane that bobs with the slightest motion: it's nice for fluff, but if the choice is between that and better server performance or new environmental elements or game systems, the latter will probably win out.

[floon]

Floon could speak to this better than I, but here's what I know...

Yeah, that's pretty much it. NPCs are cheaper than avatars, and the bits are not interchangeable.

[Ozthorn]

Are the bits dyeable?

[Naso24]

Since we can't preview the clothing and other cosmetics for skirmish soldiers, could we get a Dev to post some screenshots? Or give someone in the community enough marks and bobbles so we can cover this?

[floon]

Are the bits dyeable?

Nope. Sorry.

[sir-rinthian]

Since we can't preview the clothing and other cosmetics for skirmish soldiers, could we get a Dev to post some screenshots? Or give someone in the community enough marks and bobbles so we can cover this?

I second this, in light of the fact that my idea is null and void. No one would buy a an outfit for themselves without knowing what it looks like, why do we need to do it for our soldiers?

[Schildawg73]

This lets us create the great looking characters we have.

I'm guessing there haven't been enough threads lately discussing how the player character models are subpar compared to the rest of the graphics in game, and compared to other games...

[gildhur]

This I don't mind so much, or wouldn't, if I could trade in the other campaign tokens to get the one I currently cannot. It's possible to convert campaign tokens into marks, but not into other campaign tokens though... so I seem to be SOL until I move along the epic line further.

Given that the entire Book 9 line is soloable, is that really such a horrible restriction? Literally the only thing that is required of you is to reach level 65 to open those skirmishes. The campaign marks are the only type of marks that cannot be upgraded, downgraded, or exchanged for others of the same type. And since these campaign marks are only used for cosmetic items, you are losing zero playability by not having a specific one. Just get to 65 and do a dozen solo quests and you can have them all!

[Agarwaen26]

FYI:

I tried on the fancy blue dress for my Hobbit-Lass and it looks like a pink dress with a green sash. In fact, there is no blue in it at all. I assume that this cosmetic is not working so it just defaulted back to the basic dress.

[gildhur]

FYI:

I tried on the fancy blue dress for my Hobbit-Lass and it looks like a pink dress with a green sash. In fact, there is no blue in it at all. I assume that this cosmetic is not working so it just defaulted back to the basic dress.

Yes, I bugged it a couple weeks ago.

[Sonsy]

Could we effectively make soldiers use the player avatars. Yes. But, they are far more client and server intensive on a 1 to 1 basis, and thus having 12 of them out would do bad things to your client perf and to our server perf.

I definitely appreciate this! I was very happy to find out that my laptop could handle the 12-man skirmishes after worrying that 12 players + 12 soldiers + LM pets + heralds + NPCs + a gazillion mobs would kill it dead, dead, dead.

I like to think of my soldier as a kind volunteer aiding me in a time of need. It's not my job to dress him...that's up to his wife! Perhaps his sense of fashion isn't in line with mine, but as long as he's doing his job, who really cares what he looks like? The cosmetic options just give me a chance to make him look a little different than all the others so I might have a chance of picking him out of the crowd once in a while.

[mysticaljasmine]

I'm not so much worried about what already exists with the soldier's cosmetic system as I am with the ability to preview what is already there. Sifting through tool tip descriptions like 'Long hair, part on side' or 'Blue Dress' isn't really very helpful. (Though its better than nothing, don't get me wrong!)

Though, I'm not really sure I could suggest any way to preview it on the soldier itself. This sounds like the sort of thing where someone with a bit too much time on their hands and a lot of skirmish marks is going to have to go through each cosmetic style, and each outfit, and take a screen shot, compile it where people can sort through it and decide what look or outfit they want... *Looks around for volunteers*

It's much like the issue with the housing furniture at vendors, with not being able to see what it looks like before purchasing it. I believe these two scenarios would tie into the same issue -- the inability to see what an item (or outfit) looks like, when the item you want to preview is not something your character would wear, thus being unable to preview it in the dressing room.

Again, a bit more cosmetic freedom is always nice, but I think first and foremost, the ability to more efficiently use the current system, (not having to buy, find out its not what you want, buy something else, etc) would be great!

[MistressMagpye]

It's much like the issue with the housing furniture at vendors, with not being able to see what it looks like before purchasing it.

Not sure if there's an english site the equivalent of this, but this is the site I use when I want to preview home furnishings - http://ja.lotro.wikia.com/wiki/%E8%A...A3%BE%E5%93%81

The arrangement of some of the objects is a bit odd (like elven snow globe being somewhere far down the list from the others) but they're got pictures of darn near everything that can be put in a house or yard, and enough english on it that you can generally figure out where things come from.

Edited to say - bah, the link breaks on the redirect, still takes you to the right site but not to the furniture list - if you use the left-hand menu and take the second line down, bottom of the fly-out, you get the furniture.

[djrackley]

I still want my dwarf Warrior to dual wield AXES and not swords. That's just not right even in the least little bit.

[gildhur]

I still want my dwarf Warrior to dual wield AXES and not swords. That's just not right even in the least little bit.

http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/o/orcrist.html

[djrackley]

Still. It's most unnatural.