Interesting Dev Post about gear. Traditional RPG heavy, medium and light as you would expect. You will be able to put on gear from another class, but the stats will be terrible. So you will gemp you character to try to look different. So classes will have the more iconic look with class specific armor.

So does that mean all end game classes will look the same? Will the Raid, PvP, and Crafted end game gear look different enough to add spice? Could there be end game gear for all 16 Advanced classes or just the base 8 classes? The Jedi Warrior armor progession video seems to say that there will be 16 different sets with each AC having a different role.

They have talked about a large number of gear sets in the game. There is a screenshot of a part of a 40 foot wall filled with pictures of gear. They want an "amount of freedom in letting people choose a visual look for themseleves". But at the same time they "want to be sure that the easy path, the path of lest resistance, ends up with people looking like Star Wars."

I am ok with the iconic look for my class. Even if others look similar or the same in the end.  But others want more freedom to look how ever they want to look without gemping their character. Is this dev post good or bad?

Originally Posted by ElanJo lame http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6227/lolojedi.png

Okay, for starters, fake screenshot is fake.

Moving on: it's very important to some on the team that the look and feel of characters tend to gravitate to match their classes - this concept of gravity is the important thing. While we do want to allow a certain amount of freedom in letting people choose a visual look for themselves, we also want to be sure that the easy path, the path of least resistance, ends up with people looking like Star Wars. This was, and remains, an important goal for those of us doing itemization.

Along the way, we've tried a few things. Incidentally, 'tried a few things' is one of the reasons we tend not to tell you guys about features until we've tried them out a bit - many ideas that sound good on paper fail in practice, and we prefer to weed those out before, say, people get attached to said failed idea and get angry because we took them out.

One of the things that we tried was gear that morphed when you put it on, so if a Trooper puts on armor statted for a Jedi, the armor would suddenly look like Trooper armor. This ended up being disconcerting to a lot of people playing the game: icons didn't match, for example, and gear that looked lame on you would look awesome on your companion character, which felt pretty sucky when you put it back on you. ('Felt sucky', incidentally, is code for, 'bad designer, no cookie').

Our gear now is settling in a pretty good state, in my opinion. We've taken the coolest and most emblematic armor, first off, and made it class only.

For the rest of the armor, we are following a reasonably standard RPG model of heavy, medium and light. Knights and Troopers both chase heavy, for example, but care about different stats. Armor with Knight-favored stats looks a closer to the Jedi ideal, whereas armor with Trooper stats looks more like the Troopers we know and love.

Yes, you can put on some vaguely 'Trooper-esque' armor as a Knight, but your stats will be terrible, thus the gravity of, you know, being good at your class is going to mean that it's rare.

And let's not forget that there is social value in seeing a Knight in vaguely 'Trooper-esque' armor - you know he's probably terrible at his class, and you probably shouldn't let him tank.

I've been playing our test server a lot lately, and I can tell you right now, people who are concerned about this are worrying too much. Our Knights look like Knights, our Troopers look like Troopers, and our players by and large are ending up with appearances that are appropriate for the class.

Little something from a while ago. Take it for what you will

Quote: We have more class specific gear than most MMOs have loot total (3.18) - GirlGamer

Good point, and makes me believe that they will have class sets for all 16 Advanced Classes. And that should include crafted, PvP, class quest and Raid sets.

So overall, everyone should look different, even in the same class. Not as much in the same class, but still 4 options.

Originally posted by rockrock

Originally posted by artemisentr4

Good point, and makes me believe that they will have class sets for all 16 Advanced Classes. And that should include crafted, PvP, class quest and Raid sets.

 

So overall, everyone should look different, even in the same class. Not as much in the same class, but still 4 options.

I think it is obvious - and inevitable - that different professions will look different but, within the same profession, everyone will look the same.

Yeah a bounty hunter will look like a bounty hunter but within a class there will be plenty of diversity I think.

If there will be varied gear catering for advanced classes, and when there will be crafted, pvp, class quest and raid gear for all of those, there will be a lot of options. If what artemisentr4 predicts is true and I think it is very likely, you'll have 8 endgame sets catering for each specific class, 4 for each advanced class.

Probably people will mix and match between those too, on the way to completion or stat optimization.

Next to that there will be at least a color match option so I am not worrying too much myself.

/thumbsup to the colormatch button

I must say i would like it if it would be in Lineage 2 there u could wear what u want its ur decision ofc u dont gonna profit from heavy armour or bows as healer but u could wear them.

Did I read that right, that you can put armor that you had on you on your companion character? That leaves a lot of options for customization if that is the case.

Originally posted by Nazgol

Did I read that right, that you can put armor that you had on you on your companion character? That leaves a lot of options for customization if that is the case.

 That is true. I believe they have 8 slots to fill. And as each companion can have multiple roles based on the kits you give them. I believe the armor and weapons will help define how your companions plays. As well as make them look different from other companions.

Originally posted by artemisentr4

Originally posted by Nazgol

Did I read that right, that you can put armor that you had on you on your companion character? That leaves a lot of options for customization if that is the case.

 That is true. I believe they have 8 slots to fill. And as each companion can have multiple roles based on the kits you give them. I believe the armor and weapons will help define how your companions plays. As well as make them look different from other companions.

    Oh, nice quote.  Thanks, that really made my day.  To be honest though, after seeing different pictures of the "Walls of Armor" I lost all my fear for look a like characters.  I'm still hoping we get to choose our our color patterns on the armor though, that would be awesome!

Gear wise until TOR implements a social clothing tab they can have whatever cool gear they want we wont' look how we like it especially since:

Rich Vogel: With the way that MMOs work, gaining and upgrading loot over levels, you're not going to end the game with the same lightsaber you started with. That might mean a succession of different lightsabers ...

James Ohlen: Yeah, our game is about loot. There are things in our game that as you progress you definitely can tell a new player from a high-level player.

Originally posted by whilan

Little something from a while ago. Take it for what you will

Quote: We have more class specific gear than most MMOs have loot total (3.18) - GirlGamer

If this will be true, then it sounds pretty impressive.

Not that a Jedi or a Tropper would ever COLLECT armour pieces let alone WEAR them!

A Jedi wears the robe given to him by the Order. End of story. Or if dire need of armour pieces (see Obi Wan in Clone Wars) would overrule it, again the Order would GIVE him some. But Obi Wan Kenobi would NOT loot or do armour raids, EVER. That's NOT what I ever imagine a Jedi doing.

As to a Tropper: A tropper is a soldier of an army. He gets standard gear from the government. End of story, again.

And why not? CoX and CO are entirely independent of gear drop making a visual change. You could add gear with mere stats like in the case of CO if you really need an grind to keep people playing, and open up the customization look in the char generation.

How was it in SWG? There were no loot drops, of anything that could remotely be used as gear? And Jedi in SWG didn't make any money from things looted from mobs but had a different, more appropriate income means?

Originally posted by Deewe

James Ohlen: Yeah, our game is about loot. There are things in our game that as you progress you definitely can tell a new player from a high-level player.

I hope their game is about other things beside loot,if the game ends being another gear grind like most mmos and they make end game all about raids and loot,i would not buy the game even if is bioware and star wars.What is the point of a great story if the end game is all about raiding for loot ?

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick

How was it in SWG? There were no loot drops, of anything that could remotely be used as gear? And Jedi in SWG didn't make any money from things looted from mobs but had a different, more appropriate income means?

In the REAL SWG there were no Jedi. ;)

Later, the Elder Jedi had Elder Jedi robes, and the NGE Jedi had Jedi robes of their own. You COULD wear everything you wanted, but it didn't make sense, stats-wise, similar as in the SWTOR concept. My Jedi often was dressed in casual wear with a robe tho. But SWG was tinkered over so many times, as much as I loved it, I wouldn't use it a good example in the loot and gear department.

Originally posted by eldaris

Originally posted by Deewe

James Ohlen: Yeah, our game is about loot. There are things in our game that as you progress you definitely can tell a new player from a high-level player.

I hope their game is about other things beside loot,if the game ends being another gear grind like most mmos and they make end game all about raids and loot,i would not buy the game even if is bioware and star wars.What is the point of a great story if the end game is all about raiding for loot ?

*shrugs*

People need a carrot on a stick, a reward for completing something while hopefully having a lot of fun in the process. It's not the end to a game itself, but more of something which you can't do without in general game design.

Next to that, rpgs specifically are about character progression and a big part of that progression comes from rewards you get for completing challenging content. Whether it are drops, token rewards, quest rewards, storyline rewards or something else. You can't get around the need for and the appeal of phat lootz.

If you don't care about raiding, grinding or doing whatever daunting task to upgrade your gear, don't participate in that part of a game. I was never so keen on raiding myself either in for instance WOW, and I disliked Arena's as well, but it didn't stop me from having fun in other ways.

Originally posted by Elikal

And why not? CoX and CO are entirely independent of gear drop making a visual change. You could add gear with mere stats like in the case of CO if you really need an grind to keep people playing, and open up the customization look in the char generation.

Probably because they want this game to be successful.

Originally posted by Arentas

Originally posted by Elikal

And why not? CoX and CO are entirely independent of gear drop making a visual change. You could add gear with mere stats like in the case of CO if you really need an grind to keep people playing, and open up the customization look in the char generation.

Probably because they want this game to be successful.

     Uhm . . . CoX is successful, though CO might be debatable with it going FTP and all.  For Elikal though, CoX does have gear drops to make visual changes to costumes.  They are called Costume Recipes and even require you to gather "ingredients" from drops in order to craft them.  Thanksfully in that game though, once you craft them, you can use them for ever!

Originally posted by DarkPony

If you don't care about raiding, grinding or doing whatever daunting task to upgrade your gear, don't participate in that part of a game. I was never so keen on raiding myself either in for instance WOW, and I disliked Arena's as well, but it didn't stop me from having fun in other ways.

If  the developers have other things planed for end game beside raiding,like more quests,areas to explore,crafting,pvp,housing then i have nothing against raiding which is a problem only if is the only end game activity that lets you advance your character.There are other things to get beside epics,like spells,stats,pets,diferent ships,companions etc so if bioware wants to get away from the classic instance grind for end game they have enough choices.Repeating same content 10-100 times to get some piece of armor maybe is the "classic" mmo way but in a game which wants to be about story this kind of end game will be a disappointment for lot of players.

Originally posted by eldaris

Originally posted by DarkPony

If you don't care about raiding, grinding or doing whatever daunting task to upgrade your gear, don't participate in that part of a game. I was never so keen on raiding myself either in for instance WOW, and I disliked Arena's as well, but it didn't stop me from having fun in other ways.

If  the developers have other things planed for end game beside raiding,like more quests,areas to explore,crafting,pvp,housing then i have nothing against raiding which is a problem only if is the only end game activity that lets you advance your character.

I'm not worrying so much considering what we know.

All in all it looks like they are going for the full package of mmorpg content and then some;

The worlds will be huge (some are 7-8 wow zones), detailed and immersive and probably a wet dream for explorers.

What we know about crafting and gathering so far is not much regarding professions itself but we know that companions will be heavily involved with that, having their own specialisms, etc. Video on crew skills here. ( A tad outdated graphics compared to newer stuff in this one)

Regarding quests: next to the class storyline (which can bring you to max level all on its own) there will be world arcs, world quests, bonus quests, heroic quests, etc.

"On the Origin worlds it's about 60% Class Quests, dropping to about 40% on the Capital worlds and then even lower for the rest of the game."

Then there are probably many flashpoints: not so much raiding but instanced, small group content.

Battlegrounds + world pvp if that's your cup of tea will be in too.

Everyone gets to have a ship which you can use for crafting and kind of functions as a player home.

More info on endgame here.