I was thinking about this earlier when I was playing SWTOR with friends while the WoW servers were still down. Something they do VERY well is their cosmetic gearing system.
You have a ton of preset slots, similar to the dropdown we have now, but swapping through them is far more visual
All “cosmetic gear” is also hollow spec and stat gear, so if you decide you want to wear it rather than mog it, you can simply plug in the crafted items for stats.
Changing gear is FREE. There is no expense other than buying the slot of that outfit. I can change clothes 50 times, and doesn’t cost me a single credit.
And the BIG ONE…
You can buy Color Dyes to change the appearance of ANY outfit since they all come with a Dye slot. You can mix n match colors, change tones based on each item, etc. Perfectly color coded and customized to make your gear fit YOUR style.
So, here is my thought: What if scribes could grind down herbs into dyes to make dye kits of all colors, and the transmog section added dye slots next to the items? What if we could recolor entire outfits. ALSO, what if mogging was reduced (at level cap) to 5g per slot instead of 600-800g every time I want to change clothes. Some of us live on RP realms, and are not mythic raiders and likely change more clothes in one day then they do in 6 months.
OR… they could put color packs in the store… like ultra rare color combos based on race and sell them at $5 per pack.
Which is why I used SWtOR as the sample It may not be a popular game anymore, but Strongholds and Gear customization were two very strong moments in their history.
I caught it, I just did not follow the rabbit hole of Blizz being a huge cash grab I’m hoping to stay closer to the topic and further from the reality lol
I’ve been lead to assume that the engine doesn’t support dying armor. Or at least they haven’t figured it out or made an effort to or what have you. I see no reason to doubt that, as that would essentially be turning away free money.
That said, another thing SWTOR does that is absolutely god tier, is the Armor sets are all Legacy bound. So once you’ve gear out one force and/ or one non force character, you’ve geared them all.
Somewhat curious as to why Blizz doesn’t implement it. I have my thoughts, but I’m indifferent anyway; what they’ve done here is okay.
Yet code exists to recolor every armor and weapon item we own? Pull up your weapons and find 5 items that are identical, minus their coloring. They would still have to code the color, but leave an open ended modifier to say “If X is used, then Y is assigned”. Would take some work, but if Boiware can pull it off 10 years after WoW was established, surely Blizz can do it 13 years after Bioware did it.
Yeah, and with your “Legacy” talents loaded, mounting was INSTANT. No more 3 second casting, and you could summon a speeder while running. No more standing still.
It may not be a popular game anymore, but Strongholds and Gear customization were two very strong moments in their history.
. Who knows?