Guild Wars 2

To follow are a series of pics that show a bunch of my (potentially) favorite shoulder skins both as they are, and as they would look if put in symmetry.

FIRST OFF I AM NOT ASKING THE EXISTING ONES BE CHANGED, only that symmetric options be added.

Second, they do not need to be exact redo’s of the existing ones, but the skins I’ve selected happen to be my…peeves.

And lastly, since the characters I play most are Norn female, the shoulder armor issue has been a thorn in my side since launch. Norn female shoulder armor mimics the comical ape-like form of the Norn males, 9/10 times resulting in bad sizing (sized 2-3x larger than they should be), and/or bad placement (floating well off the character’s actual shoulder).

Sadly, the asymmetric ones don’t appear to suffer this so badly, but I have yet to be thrilled by an asymmetric armor design yet made for GW2.

For the record: Removing 1 shoulder from a symmetrical armor is exactly not NOT to make asymmetry. If you want to do asymmetry, it must still be balanced across the entire armor design. Asymmetry is a complex balance. A balance, but not a congruency, and again that balance absolutely has to conform to the entire set, and from all angles given the 3D perspective. So PLEASE keep this in mind from now on when creating asymmetry.

Again, I am not asking for the removal of anything, only the addition of these options, or even brand new pieces with similar designs, nobody needs to lose what they have/like to make this happen.

This would require them to re-do every single male and female shoulder armor for all races in the game so I highly doubt this will ever be available.

I also would love it to happen. Asymmetrical armor bugs the kitten out of me.

Tryhard Pants.9745:

This would require them to re-do every single male and female shoulder armor for all races in the game so I highly doubt this will ever be available.

But they already have half of the work done. They would just need to copy/paste and flip 180deg it to the other side.

I just turn the shoulders off on most of my characters. Many of them are ridiculously bulky anyways.

I’m all for more customization options.

Pockets.3201:

I just turn the shoulders off on most of my characters. Many of them are ridiculously bulky anyways.

I do the same for around 99% of shoulder and headgear.

Pockets.3201:

I just turn the shoulders off on most of my characters. Many of them are ridiculously bulky anyways.

You aren’t the only one Pockets =p

This doesn’t bother me like most of you. These designs were in theme with the rest of the armor it comes with, some assymetrical ones wouldn’t look good symmetrically (Whispers for example). I’m quite fond of most of what you aren’t (Aether, Carapace) but I only use one assymetrical item on 1 of 8 toons (Whispers shoulder) purely because of the whole armor combo I made for each toon, but I like both symmetry and not.

There’s plenty of Symmetrical items in game already. Couldn’t hurt to have more or the option as you suggested to have a left/right copy check box.

I wish they’d do most of those in the images above. There are a lot of armor skins is never touch simply because they look awful when not mirrored that could easily be favorites if they were just normal…

ronpierce.2760:

I wish they’d do most of those in the images above. There are a lot of armor skins is never touch simply because they look awful when not mirrored that could easily be favorites if they were just normal…

Exactly this.

um… I don’t see any issue with the shoulders, I actually like the ones that are only on one shoulder. Symmetry doesn’t make everything, almost nothing I wear in my normal irl wardrobe is symmetrical at all.

Haleydawn.3764:

This doesn’t bother me like most of you. These designs were in theme with the rest of the armor it comes with, some assymetrical ones wouldn’t look good symmetrically (Whispers for example). I’m quite fond of most of what you aren’t (Aether, Carapace) but I only use one assymetrical item on 1 of 8 toons (Whispers shoulder) purely because of the whole armor combo I made for each toon, but I like both symmetry and not.

There’s plenty of Symmetrical items in game already. Couldn’t hurt to have more or the option as you suggested to have a left/right copy check box.

Xbon.9086:

um… I don’t see any issue with the shoulders, I actually like the ones that are only on one shoulder. Symmetry doesn’t make everything, almost nothing I wear in my normal irl wardrobe is symmetrical at all.

This is why I’m not asking the existing ones be removed, or even that they keep these exact skins if they do choose to make symmetrical versions. As pointed out, it’s all about options, and something like these, to include options for asymmetric shoulders/gloves to appear on the opposite side of their existing versions, could even be made into a gem store skin bundle if time/money are large issues with this.

As for my personal thing with asymmetry, it isn’t that it’s outright bad, for GW2 it’s that the places it constantly crops up is when they build a symmetric armor and then just take 1 shoulder off. Asymmetry as art, functional or not, still requires a balance to be pleasing… they can’t just overdo it on 1 side. Not for me at least, but I do have a pic of a mix armor attempt that almost came out well for an asymmetric look…it’s just the available pieces for it clashed too hard and there are no boots available for Norn females that balance the gigantic gloves/shoulders without just clashing even harder.

But the shapes are almost right.
EDIT: For the record, for me to really like it, I would swap the shoulders/gloves or turn the chest piece around for that set so the hip and large shoulder/glove were on opposite sides. Then I would make the boots a little thicker. That first set on the Norn really met it’s end in the dye channels though

Also a pic of an attempt I made for a human in heavy, the ‘bulk’ of the armors for Norns just refuses to line up right for it, and dye channels are an eternal bane for things like this…but again, the shapes are really close.

So it’s not a problem with the concept of asymmetry, it’s a problem with how it’s most often implemented.

I’m not really sure they even need new models. A setting within the wardrobe for “Symmetrical Shoulder Armor” could be pretty-easily implemented just to duplicate them. It might be a little weird for some of them like the Carapace/Luminescent ones which have two elements but are asymmetrical (potential clipping issues), but looking at the above screens, I can definitely see the merit in doing something like this.

DeceiverX.8361:

I’m not really sure they even need new models. A setting within the wardrobe for “Symmetrical Shoulder Armor” could be pretty-easily implemented just to duplicate them. It might be a little weird for some of them like the Carapace/Luminescent ones which have two elements but are asymmetrical (potential clipping issues), but looking at the above screens, I can definitely see the merit in doing something like this.

Well this would certainly save me a purchase or two if they did it lol. I know they would have to go in and create the models for the other options no matter what they did (99% sure it’s not as simple as copy/paste in mspaint), but be it separate skins or a selection switch, I’m all for more options.

The Carapace/Luminescent set and others like them would dictate that it would have be a 4 way switch, left/right side, both and none.

I think some of the reason they don’t have the toggle system for 1 side, both sides, or hide on things like gloves or shoulders is to keep the information that the server has to handle more simple… basically to generate less lag. I’m no tech expert so take that with a grain of salt. But if it does happen, one way or another, I’ll be so busy dancing and frolicking with glee that first day I might not get any of my dream reskins done. xD

Tryhard Pants.9745:

This would require them to re-do every single male and female shoulder armor for all races in the game so I highly doubt this will ever be available.

It’s just an x-axis flip and copy. Would take about 5 minutes to code. Coding the UI to give you the option to enable it and pick which side to copy would take more time.

For the record I just turn all shoulder armor off, so I don’t care if this idea gets picked up. But in terms of work it wouldn’t be very hard. Less time than it would take for an artist to come up with a single new shoulder item.

Inimicus.7162:

I think some of the reason they don’t have the toggle system for 1 side, both sides, or hide on things like gloves or shoulders is to keep the information that the server has to handle more simple… basically to generate less lag. I’m no tech expert so take that with a grain of salt.

The server doesn’t care what the armor you’re wearing looks like. Each armor type is just (single) number in a database. Allowing this option would triple the number of armor types in the database, but assuming they’re using 32-bit ints the database can hold 4 billion armor types without problem. Even short ints would give them 65,000.

The actual drawing of the armor is all done client-side, based on the database number the server sends the client.

DeceiverX.8361:

I’m not really sure they even need new models. A setting within the wardrobe for “Symmetrical Shoulder Armor” could be pretty-easily implemented just to duplicate them. It might be a little weird for some of them like the Carapace/Luminescent ones which have two elements but are asymmetrical (potential clipping issues), but looking at the above screens, I can definitely see the merit in doing something like this.

I’d imagine it would be left symmetry and right symmetry options (since it varies from skin to skin). Although the easiest solution (i.e. no new code or UI changes) would be simply to make more skins (hopefully it would primarily just be copy paste) and add them to the game. Possibly as separate skins or bundled with the originals.

I really like asymmetrical shoulderpads myself, but I guess more options is always a god thing.

coso.9173:

I really like asymmetrical shoulderpads myself, but I guess more options is always a god thing.

yes, more option is cool.

Sometimes it is not asymmetrical issue. I found many shoulder skin that only great looking on left/right half. It will be god send if we could just hide the ugly side.