Bal’a dash! I cannot help but share this sentiment with others across multiple communities: The guild tabard system is SEVERELY outdated. As are the tabards in general.
The guild tabard customization window is a whopping 690 pixels wide in 2023, nearly 2024.
The space to see your character modeling the tabard with default UI is 250 pixels wide, again this is 2023 and nearly 2024.
The character models are up-to-date on 1024 x 1024 textures for both the character textures AND armor textures, versus this antiquated mess.
The icons are grainy, the colors are unappetizing and the borders lack the oomph that other in-game tabards do in Modern World of Warcraft.
The UI is terrible. It has never been an expanded window to actually see what you are doing, and upon ‘seeing what you are doing,’ you notice how tacky and dated these ‘icons’ are.
Give guilds the same high-res options that reputation/renown factions get. We need new collars for variety.
The ENTIRE system needs a revamp badly. Guild tabards used to be a way to express which guild you are in, and host tabard competitions for in-guild. I have hosted many myself in Classic, but could not imagine doing this in retail.
The textures are grainy and indicative of the old 512x512 pixel parameters. They are aged and dated. The UI is dated where you have to click through each option with 0 indication as to ‘where’ a certain icon would be instead of a dropdown or search function.
With tabards now in 2023, we should have different cuts for tabards, much like we saw with reputation tabards in modern expansions, and more options - and better options. Update the icons to be vectors so they scale properly. Give people a reason to use this system to rep out their guild.
I am happy to assist in any way possible should this be something the team takes on. Fashion is my passion, as is customization for many in the community. This would be a value-add for customization overall as almost every character is guilded and would have even more motivation to match their teammates in cool, fresh threads.
You know it is bad when even Classic remarks on, given Classic textures are 512x512 pixels by default much like these tabards and we still do not like the choices within Classic:
The only Alliance high elf tabard in game (WOTLK - Silver Covenant Tabard) has major clipping issues with lots of gear. It is not applicable to all gear, but as you can see from Dragonflight gear, it certainly clashes with newer sets out.
It is not the only tabard to do this, nor does a shirt or anything else fix it. Some belts do not seem to work with older tabards and always expose the midriff.
This was going to be one of my first few posts as a new Council member. Bringing tabards and guild logos into the 21st century would be amazing. Updated graphics, improved and additional logos, and then a system like the barber shop for customizing tabards would be great. You could customize: the color, icons, length, frills, wear and tear, etc.
Glad to meet you, Lenarius!! There is so much that can be done with guild tabards to amp them up to 2024.
As you stated, new logos, color options (vectors so a guild’s hex code # for branding can be used on the vector?), length of the tabard, frills and such would be amazing and make individuals want to rock out their customized tabard.
The game has shown favor to customization, per what we have seen done with new mounts in DF. I believe this would be an excellent expansion onto advocating for customization and impact not just one player, but that whole guild’s identity (and many players, subsequently).
Updated the images in my post as I saw they had disappeared. Many old tabards clip with new gear and deserve to be brought up to 2024 standards as well.
The future looks sunnier with the addition of personal tabards. I hope the system will include 1024x1024 textured tabards versus the antiquated versions we have now.
I also hope that there will be upscaled versions of old tabards for reputations (Silver Covenant, hello! Among every other one) available on the Trading Post or in some form, especially if a lore-worthy quest to obtain it. Out with the 512 textures and in with 1024 at least!
Every tabard should be textured to fit on different meshes depending on the collar type for the tabard per my initial post. Customization is always a win, and having flexible mesh for the collars would be an easy win!
