Guild Wars 2

Can someone with some knowledge of the subject explain/describe why we only have a maximum of 4 dye channels available?

It would be so much nicer, in terms of self-expression/artistic freedom to be able to have many more, so we can dye the details as we see fit, add/create highlights, increase visual depth, mimic color gradients, etc. and so forth.

Is it, perhaps, an intentional limitation to avoid players running around looking like clowns or rainbow ponies? Cuz, you know there’d be plenty. I’d just love to be able to tint the metallic details gold or silver, my buttons white, or whatever, my cuffs a shade darker than the sleeves, create a nice color gradient from blue to green on my coat, etc.

Or it’s a means to limit the color mapping on the texture to 2 bits per pixel while the rest of the texture identifies material type for light scattering and general tinting for detail.

Considering we can’t zoom in onto a piece while dyeing, having more than 4 would become A) tedious depending on the number of dyeing zones and clutter up the UI. And since the color info is sent to all players around you for them to see as well, it’s not like they would/could provide a free form coloration of your character (ie draw a unique pattern on it).