Armor in MMOs.

[Rydian]

The problem with armor in many MMO games is that within a certain level/group, everybody looks the damned same. There's multiple ways to negate this and allow customization without sacrificing stats.

Three examples I can think of right now...

• Terraria.
  It now has a set of "vanity slot"s, these are slots you can put armor and items in, and they provide no bonuses, but visually override your current equipment. You can even put other armor in there (but it will give no stat bonuses), so you can wear one set of armor for it's bonuses and another for the look at the same time. This seems like an approach almost any game could take as it wouldn't be nearly as large of a modification, and could be added in with a patch.
  
• Phantasy Star Online/Universe.
  In this series clothing is separate from armor to begin with, armor is invisible. This only really works out because this series takes place in the future so armor is in the form of force fields and such anyways, but this seems like a mid-point. My complaint is that for a setup that seems to focus on customization and the ability to wear whatever clothing you want, there's way too limited choices. Yes going online and updates add some, but there's still far too few in most cases.
  
• Diablo 2
  Each item stats are not the same so people don't end up wearing the same base armor at all. The base item/look doesn't even matter in some cases as the bonuses and enchantments often matter more and are mostly indifferent to the physical look. This avoids the problem to begin with, but doesn't allow people to customize look and stats separately (as it's still linked in one item) and

Does anybody else have any idea, comments, or examples? For a new MMO to rally catch the public's eye, it has to have customization without upsetting game balance, so a proper way of segregating the two is needed, but it can't just be a gimmick, it's gotta' have lots of variety.

 

[Hells Malice]

Spiral Knights does it best.
You can either equip a piece of armor as a piece of armor, or as decorative armor.
Then of course there's still costume-stuff that can only be worn as decorative.

Personally I don't care too much about people looking similar. I'm used to Ragnarok online where only headgears show up (granted, there's a gigantic quantity of headgears for upper/mid/lower to make yourself look interesting in a crowd).

I think an even bigger problem in MMOs, is ones where character builds come from stat-stacking via armor. IE: WoW.

 

[Rydian]

So it's like how Terraria's doing it, with separate slots for look and defense?

 

[Sterling]

I wish MMOs would implement a design system like BLOPS. Select colour schemes, preset emblems that can be layered and stacked. Add a new report rule that defines offensive emblems, and you have yourself User Oriented armor.

 

[Rydian]

Customizable color schemes do add more customization, but generally work better with lower-requirement games (where diffuse colors are changed instead of texture modification), and kill off the possibility of creating rare colors.

 

[Hells Malice]

So it's like how Terraria's doing it, with separate slots for look and defense?

Probably then, assuming you can equip actual armor in the vanity slots and not just costumes (I haven't played Terraria since the update with sticky bombs).

Tons of MMOs have costume slots these days.
Pretty sure something even as old as Dark Ages has costume slots.

 

[Rydian]

Yeah.

I guess that is the easy way to do it without it affecting game balance at all...

 

[Deleted-236924]

Terraria.
It now has a set of "vanity slot"s, these are slots you can put armor and items in, and they provide no bonuses, but visually override your current equipment. You can even put other armor in there (but it will give no stat bonuses), so you can wear one set of armor for it's bonuses and another for the look at the same time. This seems like an approach almost any game could take as it wouldn't be nearly as large of a modification, and could be added in with a patch.

Is there PvP in that game?

 

[Rydian]

Is there PvP in that game?

Yeah, but I've never used it so I can't say much on it. The battle system's pretty simple, so don't expect anything engrossing.

 

[Hells Malice]

PvP is actually pretty fun in Terraria when people have a variety of weapons.