Warhammer Online designer Sean Bosshardt has penned a new in-house developer diary on the official site. The diary focuses on the ways developers are working to let players choose their own custom look in ways that are unobtrusive to those who like the status quo. Check it out!

This new system introduces Appearance Slots, a brand new concept to Warhammer Online.  Appearance Slots allow you to apply a specific look of armor to anything that you are currently wearing without needing to swap the item out and alter your stats.  This means that if you prefer the stats of Tyrant and the art of Sovereign, you can apply the art of your Sovereign piece to your Tyrant piece.  The system saves the art to the worn piece of armor, which means (in this example) you do not need to hold onto the Sovereign piece once applied.  You can discard it, or you can keep it in your bank to reapply the appearance again later.  Additionally, un-equipping the Tyrant piece will not cause the appearance to reset.  It will remain applied until you overwrite it with another appearance or manually reset the appearance.  In light of the fact that we do not want players to use this system solely to confuse the opposing realm in RvR, the appearance you apply to your equipment can only be seen by players of your own realm.  Players of the opposing realm will see the equipment as if no alternate appearance has been applied to it.

Read the full Item Appearance Dev Blog.

Sweet system! I think this should be the new norm for every MMO coming out hence forth from this day! All hail superficial gear!

And this is cool how? All War gear per class looks almost identical.

Sounds cool, I hate clownsuits in games

The opposing team still laughs at your clownsuits. :D

Any news on this game going F2P with a cash shop?..I think that model would be good for this game.

 So in essence there using the costume system of LOTRO? Sweet!

Originally posted by Techleo

 So in essence there using the costume system of LOTRO? Sweet!

 

Pretty much.

I never liked this system in EQ2 and in there the appearance of some other guy didn't even give information I would care to use. Something like this, in a PvP game, actually allows dangerous opponents to disguise themselves as weak... why would you waste your precisous silence cooldown on that Bright Wizard who's gear was taken directly from the starting area, eh?

I know it isn't easy to design items that actually look good and don't make a character that is supposed to be baddass look like a clown, but this is clearly the lazy way out.

Originally posted by setilight

I never liked this system in EQ2 and in there the appearance of some other guy didn't even give information I would care to use. Something like this, in a PvP game, actually allows dangerous opponents to disguise themselves as weak... why would you waste your precisous silence cooldown on that Bright Wizard who's gear was taken directly from the starting area, eh?

I know it isn't easy to design items that actually look good and don't make a character that is supposed to be baddass look like a clown, but this is clearly the lazy way out.

 So... you're able to just walk around your city and look at people and make an honest assessment based on "Oh that guy is wearing certain clothes, he must not be able to kick my ass"?  I think it's a good addition, and actually improves PvP because in real war an enemy will often use the tactic of disguising themselves to appear to be something else, or to appear weaker in order to surprise the enemy or make it deeper into the enemy line sbefore anyone realizes just how big of a threat they are.

Sorry but not everyone needs to be told upfront wether or not the enemy is stronge rthen them without ever actually testing their abilities. Try maybe, i dont know, actually fighting someone to gauge their strength rather than "OMG HES WEARING LEET ARMOR HES GONNA PWN US ALL RUUUUUUN!" to make a decision. IF you end up losing, oh well, its a part of PvP and a failure on your part to be able to react properly to escape the situation. If that fails... well they do have big red names over their heads letting you know "Hey that guy (insert name) just kicked my ass a couple minutes ago, maybe i should steer clear of him"

 "In light of the fact that we do not want players to use this system solely to confuse the opposing realm in RvR, the appearance you apply to your equipment can only be seen by players of your own realm.  Players of the opposing realm will see the equipment as if no alternate appearance has been applied to it."

Originally posted by levsix

 "In light of the fact that we do not want players to use this system solely to confuse the opposing realm in RvR, the appearance you apply to your equipment can only be seen by players of your own realm.  Players of the opposing realm will see the equipment as if no alternate appearance has been applied to it."

 Well... there goes my thoughts on it. Pretty lame that you cant even use it to confuse your enemy. I thought this was supposed to be a war, not a carebear orgy fest where "Oh no we better not actually give them tactics they can use to surprise and confuse the enemy". Honsetly, i wouldnt be surprised if the truth is, they didnt want to put the time/work/money into actually implementing it into the game so they took the easier route of limiting it to only 1 realm being able to see it, and thats their loophol/eexcuse for it.

Originally posted by levsix

 "In light of the fact that we do not want players to use this system solely to confuse the opposing realm in RvR, the appearance you apply to your equipment can only be seen by players of your own realm.  Players of the opposing realm will see the equipment as if no alternate appearance has been applied to it."

I should have read the full post before trashing it... but I still think they're taking the lazy route ;)

Edit: spelling.

This system has been introduced in Lord of the Rings Online since 2008, yeepee!

I think the most annoying thing about this new apperance system is with all the glaring problems there are with this game, the devs are diverting resources to add this kind of pointless fluff garbage?

I really don't think this game is down to four servers and near death because most of us hate the fact we can't wear different jammies.

Originally posted by farginwar

I really don't think this game is down to four servers and near death because most of us hate the fact we can't wear different jammies.

 

Very well put.

I do think it a cool thing to add to a game, but fgs work on things like this when the game is going good and people are happy not when its near death and perhaps more time should be spent on, you know, making the game good

Sounds like items that would go perfectly into a cash shop.... watch this sapce.

This whole thing is my idea.  I wish devs would listen to me before their games were in the dumps.

This is pretty bad.... they've gone from working on the game to making it so folks will spend their time playing Barbie dress up rather than fighting?  What about the whole idea of strategy, by looking at your opponent and adjusting tactics to the equipment they have on?  Meh, poor WAR, they coulda done so much with this IP and it seems they shouldve passed entirely and continued work on Imperium.

oh scratch that bit about strategy then lol.  roflmao, read sev read rofl